The Trump administration’s decision to lower the refugee ceiling has come as a painful blow to many in the evangelical community, reports Kate Shellnutt in Christianity Today. The reduction came despite staunch opposition from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which in the face of “global religious persecution, unrest, and displacement,” called for raising the ceiling to 95,000. In response, leaders like World Relief CEO Tim Breene have argued that the “proposed cut to the refugee resettlement program not only denies safety and freedom to people fleeing religious persecution, war, and genocide but also further dismantles our ability to demonstrate Christ-like hospitality toward the vulnerable,” Harvest Prude reports for World Magazine.
Likewise, the editorial board of the Washington Examiner noted that the new policy “belies Trump's stated support for religious freedom” at a time when more than 200 million Christians worldwide face some degree of persecution.
And for Fox News, I make the case that “The lower limit on refugee admissions, combined with the executive order, puts American workers and their families at risk in places where refugees are a workforce and economic boon.”
Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes and L’shanah tovah.
Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
100 FEET FROM FREEDOM – Separated from Texas by 100 feet of rough water that took the lives of a mother and toddler the week prior, Ana Galeano Valdez continually dissuades herself from risking crossing the Rio Grande. But she’s just one of many Central American migrants who — forced into dangerous border cities, hemmed in by U.S. regulations and deprived of basic necessities — are becoming increasingly desperate and willing to endure rushing rivers and stifling trucks to reach the U.S., writes Caitlin Dickerson in The New York Times. “I can’t take it anymore being here in Mexico … I already feel like I’m going crazy here,” said Galeano Valdez. Our immigration policy is a jobs program for the cartels.
PROSECUTION PRIORITIES – According to a recent study from the Justice Department’s Bureau of Justice Statistics, during the first year of the Trump administration there was an 87% increase in criminal arrests and a 66% rise in criminal prosecutions for immigration-related offenses, John Gramlich writes at Pew Research Center. This rise in criminal prosecutions — the highest in two decades — comes as border apprehensions remain far below 1990s levels, indicating that the “Trump administration is routing more immigration cases into the criminal courts.” Meanwhile, CBS News’ Stephen Gandel reports that federal prosecution of white collar crimes continues to plummet.
INJUNCTION DATABASE MALFUNCTION – On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Andre Birrote Jr. issued an injunction preventing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “from relying solely on flawed databases to target people for being in the country illegally,” reports the Associated Press. “I think the decision is a tremendous blow to ICE’s Secure Communities deportation program and to Trump’s effort to use police throughout the country to further his deportation programs,” said Jessica Bansal, senior staff attorney with the ACLU.
EXPEDITED DELAY – Elsewhere in the judicial branch, U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson blocked a Trump administration effort to drastically expand expedited removal — a policy that currently allows authorities to deport any immigrant who entered the U.S. unauthorized in the last two weeks — to apply to any immigrant who entered unauthorized in the previous two years, writes Michelle Hackman in The Wall Street Journal. “If a policy decision that an agency makes is of sufficient consequence that it qualifies as an agency rule, then arbitrariness in deciding the contours of that rule—e.g., decision making by Ouija board or dart board, rock/paper/scissors, or even the Magic 8 Ball—simply will not do,” wrote Judge Jackson.
VIVE LE TRIANGULATION – To improve his poll numbers, outflank his far-right rivals and reach the working class voter, French President Emmanuel Macron is diving headlong into a national debate on immigration — a decision he may come to regret, writes Cole Stangler in an opinion piece for The Guardian. Stangler notes that France’s immigration debate is based on “a phoney premise: France is not ‘hosting everyone’ seeking refuge and asylum. It’s not even coming close. … According to government figures, it granted asylum to just 33,000 people in 2018.” For evidence of how this strategy can go sideways, see “Politics, American.”
CHIEF PROSSER – There are many reasons to be a fan of Storm Lake, Iowa. Top of that list is the town’s longtime police chief, Mark Prosser, who was recently profiled by the Sioux City Journal’s Nick Hytrek.“Prosser's message: let federal authorities handle immigration enforcement. Storm Lake police officers will focus on keeping people safe, no matter where they come from.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
Was this email forwarded to you?
Sign up now to get Noorani's Notes in your inbox.
 |  |  |  |  |