NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In his first speech
 to a Joint
Session of Congress Wednesday
evening, President Biden spotlighted immigration. 

Two parts stood out to me. First, the need to "get at the root of the
problem of why people are fleeing to our southern border from Guatemala,
Honduras, El Salvador. The violence. The corruption. The gangs. The
political instability. Hunger. Hurricanes. Earthquakes." And
second, the need for Congress to pass solutions
 for
Dreamers, Temporary Protected Status recipients and farmworkers -
solutions that have already  received bipartisan support in the
House. 

Not in the speech, and something we're still listening closely for in
coming weeks: An update to the refugee resettlement
ceiling, as well as Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan
nationals.  

Today marks Biden's 100th day in office, and Olivier Knox at The
Washington Post
 included
my take on how Biden has handled the border so
far. We've also published a score card
 evaluating
the administration's progress on the immigration priorities we
set in November - bring your questions to the Facebook Live
 we're
hosting this Friday.  

Welcome to Thursday'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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**PASTOR ORTIZ** - On Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security,
with assistance from the FBI and State Department, launched an
enforcement initiative targeting smuggling operations at
the U.S.-Mexico border, Nick Niedzwiadek reports for Politico
. "We
intend to disrupt every facet of the logistical network that these
organizations use to succeed," DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said on
a call with reporters. The effort could not come soon enough for
Lorenzo Ortiz, a Baptist pastor in the Mexican border town of Nuevo
Laredo. For Vice
, Emily
Green writes how Ortiz reached an uneasy truce with the powerful Cartel
del Noreste: Ortiz agreed not to interfere with cartel kidnappings, and
in exchange the cartel would allow him to continue providing shelter and
transportation for asylum seekers. "Even today, they operate without
any fear of police or the federal government," Ortiz said. "Anybody can
see them and nobody does anything. They go into immigration buildings.
They are kidnapping everybody, whoever they can." 

**DOJ** - Attorney General Merrick Garland has rescinded a
Trump-era policy memo that blocked so-called "sanctuary
cities" from receiving funding from the Department of Justice, Sarah
Lynch reports for Reuters
. Per
the memo, prior grant recipients "will no longer be required to
cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as a condition
of their funding," and any pending applications with these
conditions will be taken down and reinitiated. In other words, local
law enforcement in "sanctuary cities" like New York and Washington,
D.C. will no longer be excluded from funding for not carrying
out the federal government's immigration enforcement
responsibilities. Your regular reminder there is no legal definition
of a "sanctuary city."
  

**NOOR** - Illuminating the plight of refugees around the
world, Priyali Sur and Rebecca Wright at CNN
 tell a heart-rending story
about 16-year-old Rohingya refugee Noor Kayas, who fled a refugee
camp in Bangladesh and hoped to reach a better life in Malaysia
via a small wooden boat back in February. But while Noor's mother
was still arranging the payment for the journey, "families of other
passengers on board received a call to say the boat's engine had
failed. ... They had been at sea for just five days. Now, more than
two months later, the boat is missing." Advocates and families of the
passengers say not enough is being done to save the lives of refugees
who make the dangerous, desperate journey: "There is no active search
underway for the vessel. And even if the passengers are found alive,
then comes the question of who will take them in." 

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**ALONG THE BORDER** - A couple weeks ago, South
Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem tweeted
 that
South Dakota would not assist in housing unaccompanied migrant
children, telling them to "call me when you're an American." Jason
Lief, who works with faith leaders across the state,  explains in
a Rapid City Journal
 op-ed
why she's wrong: "Not only do these children deserve to be welcomed
by South Dakota, but their lack of citizenship says nothing about
whether they belong in America." The op-ed comes a week after two of
South Dakota's larges religious groups, the South Dakota Synod
and the Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota, sent a joint letter

calling the Governor's comments "not congruent with Christ's
commandments or his public conduct in which Christians are called to
follow." Over at The Washington Post
,
columnist Fernanda Santos writes that the real "crisis" at the border
isn't the one governors like Noem are reacting to: "The crisis
I'm talking about is the one that is eroding the livelihoods of U.S.
citizens on the borderlands." 

**DRAFT DAY** - Kwity Paye was just a "kid in Rhode Island
trying to sign up for Junior Pee Wee football" when he realized he was
different, Hallie Grossman writes in ESPN
. After
his mother brought him and his brother to America to escape civil war
in Liberia, "Paye became an immigrant, then a citizen; a football
player, then a really good football player; a star on the defensive
line at the University of Michigan, then an NFL draft
 hopeful earmarked for first-round
glory." He hopes to travel to his home country someday soon: "Being
able to become someone of status and then go back to my community, and
go back to my village and uplift them? ... That's something I look
forward to."  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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