NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Lots of great local news today.  

A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research
 in March found that having more
immigrant peers in the classroom can improve academic performance for
U.S.-born students, reports Asher Lehrer-Small of The 74
. Students
who had 13% immigrant classmates achieved higher reading and math test
scores on average than those who had only 1% exposure, per the
study, and "Black and low-income students saw benefits that were twice
as large." 

While the working paper's dataset is specific to Florida, it paints a
clear picture: "Immigrants can basically create a rising tide that lifts
all boats," said David Figlio, the paper's co-author and
a professor of education and economics at Northwestern University.  

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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**DEFENSE FUND** - On Monday, the Indianapolis City-County Council
approved a fiscal ordinance allocating $150,000 to pilot an
immigrant legal defense fund, reports Natalia E. Contreras of
the Indianapolis Star
.
The funds will provide immigrants "seeking asylum, pursuing
citizenship, or those at risk of deportation with legal information,
consultations and representation." Said Lauren Rodriguez, director of
the city's Office of Public Health and Safety: "We want our
immigrant neighbors to know that the city, the mayor, the Office of
Public Health and Safety, we care." 

**MONTE VISTA** - After trekking through the Arizona
desert for five hours with their two young children, Ecuadorians
Veronica Asas and Adriana Hernan called for help from U.S. law
enforcement, Javier Arce reports for the Arizona Republic
. They
were soon located by Border Patrol agents, and after a few hours in
detention were referred to the Phoenix Welcome Center, where
they met volunteers working with Pastor Angel Campos of Monte Vista
Christ Church in Phoenix . Since March,
the church has assisted more than 300 migrants arriving in
Phoenix, almost entirely through volunteer support: "They donate
their time and they do it from the heart, because they like to help
these people who have suffered a lot to get here,"
said Pastor Campos. "We were scared, but once the pastor picked us up
and told us where he was taking us, we felt relief, joy," Asas said. 

**BABY ASHLEY** - Department of Homeland Security figures indicate
that more than 10,000 asylum-seekers have been admitted into the
U.S. as the Biden administration winds down
Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or "Remain in
Mexico" policy, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Sean Gallitz report
for CBS News
. Lazaro,
a political dissident from Cuba, was finally allowed to enter the U.S.
as an asylee in March after being separated at the southern border in
2019 from his then-pregnant wife, Dayana - and finally met his
daughter, Ashley, for the first time. "When I saw the baby and held her
- I still can't believe it," Lazaro said. "We hope to push forward in
this country. To work and raise the baby. May she grow up loving her
country, loving her homeland. She is one more American that we have
here." 

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**RESTITUTION** - On immigration reform, Ohio Sens. Rob
Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) "should model for the rest of the
nation that bipartisanship is still possible, because only bipartisan
solutions will earn the votes necessary in the U.S. Senate to be passed
into law," write Dave Workman, co-founder and president of Elemental
Churches; and Dominick Lijoi, a retired U.S. Army Corp of Engineers
employee, in an op-ed for The Columbus Dispatch
.
They point to principles put forward by the  Evangelical Immigration
Table  as
a starting point toward "a better solution that would both honor the
law and keep families together" (see the Evangelical call for
restitution-based immigration reform
). "As we reflect
on the immigration predicaments in our county, and particularly the
plight of approximately 11 million people in the country who reside here
unlawfully," they write, "we believe that mercy should be at the heart
of whatever we choose to do." 

**INDIGENOUS MIGRANTS** - Puente News Collaborative just launched
the first of its three-part series
on indigenous Latin
Americans who leave home to migrate north, with René Kladzyk and
Maria Ramos Pacheco of El Paso Matters
 collaborating with
Veronica Martinez of La Verdad  to
highlight the complex challenges these communities face. "We know that
there is some level of discrimination because they are undocumented in
the United States, but they face a double discrimination for being
labeled in different ways as Indigenous people," said Monica Lima
Aguilar, legal representative at the Attention Center for the Families
of Indigenous Migrants (CAFAMI  in Spanish).   

**IRANIAN MUSICIANS** - April Peavey of PRI's The World
 spoke to
Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, a human rights activist from New
York who helped to curate "Homanity
" 
- a new album helping to raise awareness of Iranian musicians who
"continually find themselves at risk of censorship, or even
jail." Keypour Greenblatt explained that persecution of
Iranian musicians "is not a new thing," and the songs are written
from artists still living in Iran who otherwise would not have had an
opportunity to express their artistry - and humanity. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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