NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

One of President Joe Biden's main pollsters in 2020, John Anzalone,
privately briefed immigrant rights groups on Monday about a new poll,
report Alex Thompson, Theodoric Meyer and
Laura Barrón-López in Politico's Transition Playbook
. "His
conclusion: Democrats shouldn't be scared of talking about
immigration. In fact, they may want to talk about it more."  

Anzalone told Transition Playbook that politicians mistakenly tend
to "think of immigration as a sensitive or a wedge issue," when in
reality "[s]ome of this stuff has such incredibly high support and
bipartisan support that, quite frankly, politicians kind of lag behind
it." 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.   

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**COMMUNICATION** - The Biden administration issued new
guidance Monday requiring U.S. immigration enforcement agencies
to replace the terms "illegal alien" and "assimilation" with
"undocumented noncitizen" and "integration," respectively, Joel Rose
reports for NPR
. "We
set a tone and example for our country and partners across the world,"
said Troy Miller, the top official at Customs and Border Protection,
in a memo announcing the change. "We enforce our nation's laws while
also maintaining the dignity of every individual with whom we interact.
The words we use matter and will serve to further confer that dignity to
those in our custody." In a similar memo to ICE staff, Acting
Director Tae Johnson said "[t]he way that we choose to communicate is
critical to enforcing the nation's laws while respecting the humanity
and dignity of those individuals with whom we interact." 

**IN MEXICO** - The Mexican government is "stepp[ing] up detentions
and deportations of migrants," reports Juan Montes of The Wall Street
Journal
. According
to data from Mexico's immigration agency, 15,800 Central American
migrants were detained in Mexico in March - a 32% increase
from February. Deportations also rose 61% over the same time period
to 9,400, and were up 65% from a year earlier. "We are reinforcing
our presence at the border [with Guatemala], in order to avoid children
and teenagers being used as passports to get to the U.S.," said
Francisco Garduño, the commissioner of Mexico's National Immigration
Institute. Said Tonatiuh Guillén, an immigration expert at Mexico's
National Autonomous University and former head of the country's
immigration agency: "What we are seeing is a continuity, an inertia of
Trump's strategy to use Mexico as a key tool to contain the influx of
migrants." 

**MORAL VOICE **- From the Holocaust to the Syrian civil war,
moments of violence across the world "continue to teach us how
critically important it is to protect those fleeing from oppression and
tyranny," writes Minerva Garza Carcaño, resident bishop of the San
Francisco Episcopal Area and chair of the United Methodist Church's
immigration task force, in an op-ed for The Los Angeles Times
. Calling
on President Biden to raise the historically low
 refugee
admissions cap he has left in place, Garza Carcaño writes that the
U.S. "was once recognized in the world for extending protection to
refugees, but our moral leadership on this front has been lost in
political warfare and the rise of white supremacy, white nationalism and
xenophobia, all emboldened by Trump. It is time to reclaim America's
moral voice."  

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**CLIMATE SOLUTIONS** - Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador is expected to propose a new migration agreement
during a Climate Summit the Biden administration is convening
Thursday, report Marlon Sorto and Caitlin Hu of CNN
. "His
proposal would ask Central American migrants as well as Mexicans
considering emigration to work planting trees and crops across Mexico
for three years in return for an eventual six-month U.S. work
visa." The proposal "[aims] to find in environmental reforestation a
solution to the migration crisis" and would extend an existing
government welfare program that "seeks to address rural poverty and
environmental degradation by connecting poor families to work on
reforestation projects." Climate change is a major factor in increased
migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, as Lutheran Immigration and Refugee
Services  President and CEO Krish O'Mara
Vignarajah told Hannah Miao at CNBC News.
"You may
see migrants who are initially internally displaced due to crop
failures. But then because of that initial displacement, they become
more vulnerable to gang violence and persecution, which then leads to
international migration because the situation becomes worse." 

**GUEST-WORKER VISAS** - Weeks after lifting the Trump-era ban
on guest-worker visas, the Biden administration now plans to
increase the number of available visas by 22,000 ahead of
summer, reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal.
"This
is on top of the current 66,000 visas now available annually to
seasonal employers, including landscapers, fisheries, resorts and county
fairs, which look to add staff for their busy seasons." A small portion
of the additional visas will be allocated for the  Northern Triangle
countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.  

**TEXAS EDUCATION** - Foreign students in Texas contribute some $2
billion to the state's economy, Benjamin Wermund writes in The
Houston Chronicle
. But
the COVID-19 pandemic "is threatening to cripple international
education in the United States for the second year in a row" as
embassies and consulates remain closed, preventing would-be students
from obtaining the necessary visas. Last year, colleges and
universities reported a 43% decline in new student enrollment that
drove a 16% drop in international enrollment, translating to "an
estimated $1.8 billion economic hit nationally, according to a November
analysis by a group that lobbies for international education." 

**MONDALE** - As we reflect upon the life and career of Vice
President Walter Mondale, his 1979 speech
 announcing a
new commitment by the U.S. to resettle Vietnamese refugees stands
out: "Let us honor the moral principles we inherit. Let us do something
meaningful - something profound - to stem this misery. We face a
world problem. Let us fashion a world solution. History will not forgive
us if we fail. History will not forget us if we succeed." As I wrote
 last
week, that speech rings truer than ever.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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