NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Lawmakers, veterans' groups and refugee organizations are
pressuring the Biden administration "to organize a large-scale
evacuation of endangered Afghan interpreters
 and
others who worked for the U.S. government before U.S. troops withdraw
from the country in September
," reports
Dan De Luce of NBC News
. Advocates
are calling on the administration to evacuate thousands of Afghans to
Guam or other safe locations outside of Afghanistan where officials
could vet them for U.S. resettlement.  

On Monday, 15 veterans' organizations from across the political
spectrum sent a letter
 to
President Biden urging evacuation. A bipartisan group of House members
is also advocating for protection: Led by Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado),
10 Democrats and six Republicans sent a similar letter
 to
the administration in April. "My concern is very simple. And that is if
we pull out and don't protect our Afghan partners, many of them will
be killed," said Rep. Crow, an Army veteran who served in Iraq and
Afghanistan.  

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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**RURAL REFUGEES** - "There are signs of growing support for
refugees in unlikely places: largely rural, conservative states where
the former president and his far-right immigration policies were
popular," Kirk Siegler writes for NPR
. "Idaho, Nebraska and
North Dakota often ranked at the top of the nation
 in
per capita refugee resettlement before President Donald Trump
dramatically reduced the annual caps," he points out,
adding that these states have some of the lowest employment rates in
the country and worsening labor shortages. "Without the refugees coming
in, it has created a shortage for my company and our ability to provide
great care to our clients," said Pete Amador, CEO of A Better Care
Home Health  in Idaho. 

**"HI PRESIDENT BIDEN, I'M LAURA"** - Speaking of refugees,
don't miss our latest two-part episode of Only in America
. For Part I
, I spoke with Edafe
Okporo,  a global gay rights
activist and refugee shelter director, about his experience with the
U.S. asylum system. I also talked to Jenny Yang, Senior Vice President
of Advocacy and Policy at World Relief ,
about the growing need for refugee resettlement. Part II
,
released yesterday, opens with a message to President Biden from a
woman named Laura - one of many women across the
country who participated in a campaign to leave voicemails for the
president urging an increased refugee ceiling. The campaign was
spearheaded by We Welcome Refugees
, and director Tess Clarke joined
me to discuss the campaign and the importance of refugee resettlement to
women of faith. 

**RELIEF GRANTS** - Undocumented and international college students
are now eligible for emergency pandemic relief grants
, reports
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of The Washington Post
. Education
Secretary Miguel Cardona lifted a controversial ban
  imposed
by his predecessor, Betsy DeVos, that excluded these students from
federal aid. The unclear guidance meant an estimated "7.5 million
undergraduate and graduate students did not apply for federal aid,
including many who would qualify if they did," notes Douglas-Gabriel.
"What this does is really simplify the definition of a student," Cardona
said. "It makes it easier for colleges to administer the program and get
the money in the hands of students sooner." 

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**TITLE 42** - Monica Campbell of PRI's The World
 shares the
story of Luis and his disabled nine-year-old daughter, who were turned
back to Reynosa, Mexico, via the pandemic-era Title 42 policy. 
Since last April, more than 700,000 people have been turned away at
the U.S.-Mexico border under the policy. Under the rule, U.S. border
officials aren't required to ask questions before turning migrants
away. But after being noticed by aid workers in Reynosa, Luis and his
daughter, who has spina bifida, were connected to legal aid
and granted humanitarian parole. "I think that it's awful that you
have to be lucky enough to run into two Americans," said Felicia
Rangel-Samponaro, lead organizer of The Sidewalk School
, referring
to herself and another humanitarian worker who helped Luis. "What are
the odds that you're going to get to run into one of us? It's a long
shot." 

**"EVERY DAY IS A NEW ONE" **- For Homeland Security
Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, "presiding over naturalization
ceremonies ... is personal." Time's
 Brian
Bennett and Alana Abramson profile Mayorkas' journey from Cuban
refugee to DHS Secretary, and how his personal and professional
experience inform his role helping the president "achieve his goal of
managing a broken immigration system through a mix of empathy and law
enforcement." Mayorkas says his mother's optimism, despite being a
refugee twice over and losing family in the Holocaust, informs his
approach to running DHS: "Every day is a new one, something beautiful
can happen, something tragic can happen, but every day is a new life,
and therefore we have an obligation to be better today than we were
yesterday and tomorrow than we are today." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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