Hope you had a meaningful Memorial Day. There was lots of news over the long weekend.

A 46-page draft blueprint indicates how the Biden administration is considering rebuilding and expanding legal immigration, report Michael D. Shear and Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times. Dated May 3 and titled "D.H.S. Plan to Restore Trust in Our Legal Immigration System," the plans would not only roll back many of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies and legacy, but also address "backlogs and delays that plagued prior presidents."

More specifically, "the document offers detailed policy proposals that would help more foreigners move to the United States, including high-skilled workers, trafficking victims, the families of Americans living abroad, American Indians born in Canada, refugees, asylum-seekers and farm workers."

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes, and welcome to Immigrant Heritage Month. I’m Dan Gordon, strategic communications VP and fill-in for Ali today. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].

FASTER TRACKS — On Friday, the Biden administration announced it will speed up court cases for some migrant families arrested while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, reports Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News. "Families arriving at the border who are placed in immigration proceedings should have their cases decided in an orderly, efficient, and fair manner," said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement to BuzzFeed News. These changes will also allow immigration officials to monitor families through alternatives to detention, Aleaziz notes. Elsewhere, Axios’ Stef W. Kight reports on a separate and very different kind of fast track: The White House is considering expedited removals for some migrant families — "a more deterrence-based approach" that that the Trump administration championed and that would raise due-process concerns.

ASYLUM SOLUTIONS — Republican Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly introduced the Border Response Resilience Act on Friday. Among other things, it would establish a $1 billion "Irregular Migration Border Response Fund" for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for future increases in unaccompanied children, asylum-seekers and migrants at the border, Kaylee Greenlee reports for the Free Press. "DHS and other federal agencies must be able to respond immediately to the need for shelter for migrants as well as additional personnel to handle surging numbers of unlawful migrants at our border," Sen. Portman said. Some related reading: In Vox, Nicole Narea takes a look at how we might better respond to asylum-seekers, and here at the Forum, we’ve recently published updated suggestions regarding increased migration at the southern border.

DHS BUDGET — A Friday budget request from the Biden administration "reflects [a] shift in U.S. immigration policy and border enforcement," Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti report for The Washington Post. The budget "would eliminate border-wall funding, boost spending on care for unaccompanied migrant children to $3.3 billion and overhaul the way asylum seekers are handled at the Mexican border by dramatically increasing staffing to process their claims," including increased oversight of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. In a statement, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that this budget "will invest in our broad mission set, including preventing terrorism; keeping our borders secure; repairing our broken immigration system; improving cybersecurity; safeguarding critical infrastructure; and strengthening national preparedness and resilience."

SUPPORTING FAMILY — "In 2020, remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean increased 6.5% from the previous year" — a surprise amid the pandemic, reports Eun-Young Jeong of The Wall Street Journal. Oscar Andara Guerra, a 43-year-old vegetable vendor in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, said the $300 a month he receives from his mother in the U.S. is essential. (We’d add that such help might help relieve pressures for these family members themselves to migrate.) Even if immigrants have limited means, they still support their families, which can offer breathing room in countries still grappling with severe outbreaks of the COVID-19 pandemic.

VACCINES — For California farmworkers, especially low-income Mexican and Mexican American families, distrust and alienation "has become fuel for anti-vaccine conspiracy theories," Jose A. Del Real writes in a feature for The Washington Post with photos by Melina Mara. Del Real tells the story of volunteer Mayra Arreguin’s challenges while conducting vaccine outreach in farmworker communities. After disinformation began spreading via Spanish-language YouTube and Facebook videos, "the false claims filtered by word of mouth through Sonoma’s agricultural fields, wineries and restaurant kitchens, where Spanish-language fact checks could not counter them," explains Del Real. Meanwhile, about half a million foster children in the U.S. and unaccompanied migrant teens at the southern border are being shut out of COVID-19 vaccine access "because of federal and state consent laws that require a parent or guardian’s approval," reports Sarah Owermohle of Politico.

CHURCH RESPONSE — Today and tomorrow in Chicago, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will host an emergency meeting on migration with leaders from North and Central America as well as Vatican representatives, reports Rhina Guidos of Catholic News Service. The goal: "to set forth a path for the U.S. church’s response to immigration" as COVID-19, climate change and political strife have hit parts of Latin America hard. "This is the church saying, ‘We have to meet this moment. How do we get the church to work across borders for greater collaboration? How can this be an opportunity for the church to come together to face the urgency of what’s happening?’" said Dylan Corbett, executive director the Hope Border Institute in El Paso. "It’s an opportunity for the church welcoming Christ in the stranger." [El Paso, Texas, Bishop Mark Seitz, who is participating in the meeting, is a National Immigration Forum board member.]

Thanks for reading,

Dan