NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

 The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has reallocated
more than $2 billion from existing health initiatives to cover the
cost of housing unaccompanied migrant children, Adam Cancryn reports
for Politico
. The
diversion "illustrates the extraordinary financial toll that sheltering
more than 20,000 unaccompanied children has taken on the department so
far this year." 

But here's the key point: HHS has "been in a situation of needing to
very rapidly expand capacity, and emergency capacity is much more
expensive," notes Mark Greenberg, a Migration Policy Institute
 senior fellow who led HHS'
Administration for Children and Families from 2013 to 2015. "You can't
just say there's going to be a waiting list or we're going to shut
off intake. There's literally not a choice. ... This program has
relied, year after year, on the transfer of funds."  

Welcome to Monday'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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**TEXAS SHELTERS** - Two large emergency intake sites in Dallas
and San Antonio, Texas, that are used to house  unaccompanied migrant
children are set to close by early June, reports Priscilla Alvarez
of CNN
. The two shelters are
among the first to close amid a decline in the number of children in
border facilities, with HHS saying it "doesn't anticipate extending
either leases and is working to unify minors with their sponsors, such
as family or guardians, in the U.S." Alvarez notes that
the closures "suggest some level of progress, though the
administration is still considering opening up new sites and expanding
existing ones." 

**FINDING FAMILIES** - More from CNN
's
Priscilla Alvarez: Although Title 42 - the pandemic-era policy that
allows border officials to immediately expel migrants at the
border - remains in place, the Biden administration plans
to identify vulnerable migrant families waiting in Mexico and allow
them entry to the U.S. "As the United States continues to enforce
the CDC Order under its Title 42 public health authority, we are working
to streamline a system for identifying and lawfully processing
particularly vulnerable individuals who warrant humanitarian exceptions
under the order," said Department of Homeland Security
spokesperson Sarah Peck.  

**WHILE IN MEXICO** - As U.S. officials refine a process at the
border, Mexico continues to struggle to care for migrant families
and unaccompanied children, Patrick J. McDonnell reports for the Los
Angeles Times
. The
Mexican government "has failed to develop a strategy to care for the
tens of thousands of migrant women and children expelled by U.S.
authorities or in transit or stuck somewhere in Mexico," McDonnell
writes, instead outsourcing the task "to an over-stretched patchwork of
private and religious charity outfits, medical aid organizations and
sundry good Samaritans." The government "is leaving these people
alone, without help, and is also leaving us alone with this
responsibility," said Fray Gabriel Romero, who runs a Catholic shelter
in southern Mexico that has aided more than 12,000 migrants so far
this year. Government officials say they plan to open 17 new camps in
the coming weeks and months to accommodate migrant families and
children.  

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**SHEEBA** - After her advocacy for women's rights led to threats
from extremists, then-24-year-old Afghan doctor Sheeba Shafaq had
no choice but to flee her home and seek asylum in the
U.S. Now a newly minted green card holder, Shafiq penned an op-ed
for Newsweek
 illuminating
the value and power of refugee admissions. "Saving lives has always
been a passion in my life ... I know that increased refugee admissions
are also life-saving," she writes. "This is why it is so important that
President Biden implement a refugee cap of 125,000 next year-double
the current ceiling-to save lives and change even more futures for the
better." 

**HISTORY** - Our nation has a long, complicated history with
immigration. In this morning's Washington Post
, George
Mason University history professor Zachary M. Schrag lays
out the "disturbing 19th-century parallel" to today's nativist
arguments against immigration - particularly with racist "replacement
theory" rhetoric. Back in the 1800s, Schrag writes, nativists warned
that new Americans "would blindly follow religious or political leaders,
rather than casting ballots as properly independent thinkers." (Sound
familiar
?)
It's a flawed argument: If one political party treats immigrants with
respect while another scapegoats them, Schrag concludes, "the former has
earned their vote. That's not cheating. It's democracy." (And
don't forget that without immigration, as Bryan Walsh of Axios
 reports,
the U.S. faces "serious economic, political and even cultural
challenges." Or so we've heard
.)

**IN COURT** - A group of almost 30 tech companies filed a legal
brief Friday in support of an Obama-era rule that gives work
authorization to the spouses of immigrants with "high-skilled" work
visas, Chris Mills Rodrigo reports in The Hill
. The
rule, H-4 EAD, "lets nearly 100,000 spouses of H1-B visa holders in
the U.S. work" - and is currently being challenged in court by a
group of American tech workers. "The pandemic has already
disproportionately impacted women and ending this program would only
make things worse, leading to disrupted careers and lost wages," wrote
Google's vice president of legal Catherine Lacavera in a blog post
Friday
.
"Furthermore, if the program is lost, the practical effect is that we
welcome a person to the U.S. to work but we make it harder for their
spouse to work. ... Ending this program would hurt families and
undercut the U.S. economy at a critical moment." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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