NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

The Biden administration has officially terminated the Migrant
Protection Protocols (MPP) launched by the Trump administration in
2019, reports Ted Hesson of Reuters
. The
policy, also known as "Remain in Mexico," forced tens of thousands of
Central American asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. court
cases.  

The termination
 comes
after Biden issued an executive order in February calling for a
review of the program. Soon after, the State Department announced it
"would begin the first phase of a program to restore safe and orderly
processing at the Southwest Border" for some migrants enrolled in
MPP. Per State Department data, between February 19 and May 25, 2021,
some 11,200 individuals were processed into the U.S. amid the first
phase of the program. 

Welcome to Wednesday'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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**DRUMBEAT** - Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met
with Central American officials in Costa Rica on Tuesday,
"[hoping] to enlist their cooperation on immigration and hear plans for
reforms at home," reports Tracy Wilkinson of the Los Angeles Times
.  Blinken "is
attending an annual meeting of foreign ministers from the eight-member
Central American Integration System, an economic and political
association of all Central American countries plus the Dominican
Republic." Rep. Norma Torres (D-California), who worked with then-Vice
President Biden to manage Central American aid under
Obama, told Mariana Alfaro at The Washington Post
 that
a successful partnership with the region will require an approach
similar to the one Biden took as VP, when he would meet with
Central American leaders "every six to eight weeks constantly" to check
in: "That constant drumbeat is necessary. Unless we get that kind of
commitment anything that we do would be a complete waste of money and
effort on our part." 

**MYNOR** - Laura Brache of WFAE Charlotte
 tells
the story of "Mynor," a Guatemalan father and grandfather living in
North Carolina who helped his children cross the U.S.-Mexico border
as unaccompanied minors. The journey began in the spring of 2014, when
Mynor decided to pay a coyote to get his children into the U.S. as a
last resort. "The kids' journey from Guatemala to Charlotte was
long, risky and expensive," Brache writes. "But both Mynor and his kids
say his decision to bring them to the U.S. probably saved their
lives." Between October 2017 and April 2021, more than 238,000
unaccompanied children
 were encountered by U.S.
Customs and Border Patrol agents at the Southwest border, per agency
data. Many of the parents of these children will have to figure out
how to keep them in the U.S. legally, Brache writes - a court
process Mynor's family is currently going through. 

**CAROLINAS** - North Carolina's 900,000 immigrants should
be treated as neighbors, Pastor Parker Richardson of Elevation
Church in Winston-Salem writes in an op-ed for the Winston-Salem
Journal
. But
what does that look like in practice? Richardson points to permanent
legal status for Dreamers, as well as a restitution-based pathway to
citizenship for other undocumented immigrants, as solutions North
Carolinians can support to "welcome the stranger." Just across the
border, a South Carolina pastor is expressing a similar sentiment of
welcome: In the Spartanburg Herald-Journal
,
Pastor Adam Fitzgerald of Sardis Baptist Church in
Swansea suggests that Gov. Henry McMaster should reconsider
his recent executive order refusing to house unaccompanied
minors apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border: "It's time to set
aside other political differences, abandon partisan entrenchments and
work with everyone involved to craft a bipartisan solution that holds
the good of these children as the first priority." 

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**TEXAS** - Texas business leaders are also urging Congress to pass
a permanent solution for Dreamers, David Crowder reports for El Paso
Matters
 as
part of Puente News Collaborative. In a recent virtual discussion on
the issue, Woody Hunt, senior chairman of El Paso-based Hunt
Companies; Cindy Ramos-Davidson, CEO of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of
Commerce; other members of the Texas Opportunity Coalition
; and Rep.
Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) presented new data "showing the significant
economic impact" of DACA recipients in Texas. "In the last 20 years,
50% of the increase of our workforce in the country has come from
immigration," said Hunt. But "you've got 11 million people here that
we have put constraints on as far as getting a driver's license,
schooling and work mobility. That's not a policy for
productivity."  

**HEALTH CARE **-  New American Economy
 research shows
immigration is "a net positive" for U.S. health care funding, Scott
Wooldridge writes for BenefitsPro
. Between
2008 and 2014, immigrants contributed an estimated $174.4 billion more
in health insurance premiums than was spent on them - in a
nutshell, "immigration is helping fund health care for U.S.-born
citizens," and slowing immigration to the U.S. would "result in higher
insurance premiums for most Americans." Related: In a new paper on
the home health care industry
,
the Forum's Dan Kosten points out that home health care work
is projected  to be
the country's third fastest-growing occupation. The paper also
offers recommendations on how to mitigate labor shortages and secure
the necessary home health care services for the aging U.S. population. 

**SOMETHING FUN** - Kim's Convenience has been one of the smartest
shows on television in the past few years. For The New York Times
, Priya
Krishna writes about how the show "stands apart for the way it has
normalized Korean cuisine and culture throughout its five-season run."
The fifth and final season hits Netflix today.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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