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].
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."
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.
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