NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is preparing for "worst-case
scenarios" that would see a continued increase in unaccompanied children
at the border, with data projections showing that record-setting numbers
of children could arrive at the border through September,
Stef W. Kight reports for Axios
. Meanwhile,
Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti at The Washington Post
 report
that the Department of Homeland Security anticipates 500,000 to 800,000
migrants to arrive as part of family groups this fiscal year.  

As Ali alluded to last night
, the
administration will need to continue to expand capacity in order to
process children and families in an orderly way - and ensure
they're treated  humanely. At the same time, it's clear that
harsh, enforcement-only approaches have failed, as Adam Serwer deftly
addresses in The Atlantic
. Solutions
closer to migrants' home countries are necessary too, such as the
ability to process asylum seekers in their home country or
region, taking steps to root out corruption, and creating
pathways other than asylum for Central American migrants to come
legally. 

FYI, we have national security experts, voices from faith and law
enforcement communities at the border, and more available to speak to
media about the current situation at the border. Interested media can
contact Dan Gordon  for more
information.  

I'm Joanna Taylor, Forum communications manager
and your NN host today and tomorrow. If you have a story to share
from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.    

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**THE WHY** - Why do migrant families undertake the journey to
the U.S. In the first place? Arelis R Hernández of
 The Washington Post
 speaks
to three dozen migrants to better understand the "complicated and
varied set of personal and practical reasons that intersect where
survival meets opportunity." Who is president of the U.S. and what
message comes from their administration are not top motivators,
migrants say - higher on the list are "[v]iolence, impunity,
hunger, climate change, persecution, the economic fallout of the
pandemic and reuniting with family." People fleeing these situations
"still believe the United States is where they will be safe and can
prosper if given the chance. And for many, they see no other option." 

**SPEAKING OF CLIMATE CHANGE** - As we noted last week
,
one driver of the current migration increase is desperation in the
aftermath of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in Central America. The U.S. and
other countries should expect more migration related to extreme weather
and climate change in the future, Bryan Walsh of Axios
 reports. These
global issues "will disproportionately affect the people living in the
poorer, hot countries that are already a major source of migrants to the
U.S.," Walsh notes, pointing out that there is no existing legal
framework for climate refugees. As part of his executive order
regarding refugee resettlement
 last
month, President Biden called for a report on climate change and
migration. 

**Q&A** - In an interview with Zack Stanton for Politico Magazine
, Andrew
Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute
, talks about the many conditions
contributing to the humanitarian crisis at the border, particularly the
U.S. approach to enforcement in the absence of an adequate legal
immigration system. "Enforcement works if it pushes people into real
legal [immigration] channels. But if there are no legal channels, then
people will just keep finding their way around enforcement,"
Selee notes. Ultimately, "[w]e need legal pathways for workers, and
an asylum system that works, because we know some people are
legitimately fleeing from violence. Those two things alone would make an
enormous difference."  

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**ENGLISH LEARNERS AT RISK** - Fredy Solís, a teen immigrant from
Guatemala, came to the U.S. with his father to try to help his family.
Once here, he became a star math student. But the pandemic has put the
nation's 1.2 million English-language learners, including Fredy and
his classmates, at particular risk, Bianca Vázquez Toness and Jenna
Russell report in the Boston Globe
. The
reasons include economic pressures, technological challenges, limited
support and depression - all of which have affected members
of Fredy's 11-person Spanish class. "Students who are new to this
country, and to English, have left school at higher rates than most
others. And they are the students with the most to lose," Toness and
Russell note.  

**'IMMIGRATION IMPASSE' **- "Congress has repeatedly failed to
acknowledge one simple thing: Immigration happens," writes
Suzanne Gamboa of NBC News
,
meaning "America's immigration impasse - an endless loop across
different administrations - is largely self-inflicted." In the
meantime, we're left with "multiple generations of young immigrants to
have come of age here and moved into adult lives of limbo, stagnating
their economic mobility, along with their communities'." While
the American Dream and Promise Act
 and the Farm
Workforce Modernization Act
 (both
of which passed the House earlier this month) are a major
step, Gamboa writes that these laws need to be perceived and treated
as part of a dynamic and ongoing process where immigration laws "are
continually adjusted, reformed and revised." 

Thanks for reading, 

Joanna  

 

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