NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Yesterday, President Biden formally raised the refugee resettlement
 ceiling
for the current fiscal year to 62,500 from a historic low of
15,000. 

"President Biden has reaffirmed what so many Americans have long
known - refugees are welcome here and are a blessing to our
communities," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, as reported by CNN
's
Priscilla Alvarez and Maegan Vazquez. "The new admissions ceiling
reflects our core values as a welcoming nation, and finally aligns
public policy with the unprecedented global need of millions forced from
their home by violence, war, and persecution."  

"The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this
year. We are working quickly to undo the damage of the last four
years," President Biden said in a statement. "It will take some time,
but that work is already underway." 

Still, from a policy perspective and a moral perspective, this is the
right move
.  

More good news: Alejandra Juarez,
 the
mother of two and wife of a U.S. Marine veteran "whose traumatic
deportation scene at Orlando International Airport in 2018 made
headlines worldwide," was granted humanitarian parole by the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Monday after three years of being
separated from her family.  

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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**MORE THAN READY** - In response to the increased refugee
admissions cap, refugee agencies say they're "prepared to hire more
staff, draw on their volunteer networks and accept referrals from the
U.S. government" despite the downsizing that occurred under the Trump
administration, reports Austin Landis of Spectrum News
. Said
Chris Kelley, who spoke on behalf of Refugee Services of Texas
: "Do we have volunteer teams ready to settle
folks in new apartments? The answer is yes. Do we have liaisons in
schools and in police departments and in churches? Absolutely. We are
more than ready, willing and able to settle refugees."  

**PLAN B?** - Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New
York) "is quietly considering trying to use a fast-track budget
maneuver to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants should
bipartisan talks on providing a pathway to citizenship fall
apart," Luke Broadwater reports for New York Times
. In
recent weeks, Schumer reportedly told members of the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus that he "is 'actively exploring' whether it would
be possible to attach a broad revision of immigration laws to President
Biden's infrastructure plan and pass it through a process known as
budget reconciliation."
 Meanwhile,
Republican lawmakers remain skeptical of an immigration strategy that
doesn't address the situation at the southern border.  

**COBO AND **

**CHÁVEZ** - Two Ixil Maya indigenous activists
from Guatemala, Francisco Chávez Raymundo and Gaspar Cobo
Corio, "had been part of a tight circle of indigenous activists who in
the spring of 2013 helped bring a military dictator to trial over the
1982 genocide of the Ixil people," Jazmine Ulloa writes in the Boston
Globe
.
"But as they continued their work to preserve historical accounts and
records of the massacre, and to defend their ancestral lands from the
government and the transnational corporations with which it partnered,
an authoritarian backlash began to gain momentum" Fleeing death
threats, Chávez and Cobo spent 17 months in Ciudad Juárez,
Mexico, under the Trump administration's "Remain in Mexico"
policy after being released from U.S. immigration detention. Finally
able to petition for asylum in the U.S. under Biden, "they hope to
continue their defense of indigenous communities in Guatemala from the
U.S. - if the U.S. allows them to stay." 

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**GROWING BACKLOG** - Continued immigration court closures have
left cases outstanding for a variety of reasons, reports Michael
Herzenberg of Spectrum News
. According
to Syracuse University, 1.3 million immigration cases are pending
nationwide, including 146,000 cases in New York. In New
York City, immigration court has been closed for over a year now. And
while there are remote hearings for people who are in immigration jail,
the bulk of backlogged cases are for those non-detained,
notes Herzenberg. With the average number of days to resolve a case in
New York at 980, the backlog keeps growing: "Now it's just a
tidal wave of un-adjudicated cases and these cases are just stacked
up," said immigration attorney Edward Cuccia. Cuccia estimates that
half of his clients are frustrated by the delays, while others
like Ghassen Tabbel are happy for the delay: "I met my beautiful wife
thanks to immigration taking their time." 

**COMMUNITY SAFETY** - "[T]here's an easy way to support police
officers that shouldn't be controversial at all: immigration reform,"
writes Carmen Best, former chief of police in Seattle, in an op-ed
for Newsweek
. "Law
enforcement should be supported in treating all people with dignity and
compassion and in focusing on what we know will make our communities
safer," she explains. "Reforming our immigration system by offering a
path to legal residence will help local law enforcement build positive,
productive relationships with the communities they serve." To make our
communities safer, Best writes, "[w]e must unite around the crucial
task of bringing law-abiding, undocumented immigrants into the legal
immigration system." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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