NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's order to pull licensing from shelters that
house migrant children could mean that children end up in larger,
unlicensed facilities, advocates warn. 

As Adriana Gomez Licon and Acacia Coronado report for the Associated
Press
,
the governor's order this week directs state agencies to deny or
discontinue such licenses within 90 days. As of May 19, 4,223 children
were staying in 52 state-licensed shelters in Texas. 

"Because Texas-based shelters comprise a significant portion of U.S.
capacity, this order could do real damage, and to the serious detriment
of children's well-being," said Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president
and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. 

Said Wendy Young, president of Kids in Need of Defense: "At a time when
the United States needs far more licensed placement settings for
unaccompanied migrant children, the order threatens to leave the nation
with far less." 

Welcome to Friday's edition of Noorani's Notes. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP, and I'll be filling
in while Ali is out through next week. If you have a story to share from
your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.    

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**$5 MILLION** - Latter-day Saint Charities is providing $5
million in grants to be distributed across all nine U.S. refugee
resettlement agencies, according to a press release
 from
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The funds are expected
to help more than 9,000 refugees and immigrants. Tad Walch of
the Deseret News
 notes
that the church has donated more than $19 million to resettlement
agencies since 2016 - and that agencies need to ramp up after
record-low refugee admissions in recent years under the Trump
administration. "Having a reserve to support those clients who have
lingering obstacles to gaining employment with their food needs or rent
needs or medical expenses will be life-altering for some clients," said
Alicia Wrenn, senior director of resettlement and integration with HIAS,
one of the resettlement agencies receiving funds.    

**THE COST** - For the Associated Press
, Sonia
Pérez D. tells the story of Alvina Jerónimo Pérez, who put her
home up as collateral to fund her journey from Guatemala to the
U.S. Alvina's family had recently renovated the house, but scarce
work opportunities left them struggling to keep up the payments on
top of other bills. To find work and opportunity, she paid a smuggler
$7,700 to help her and her daughter reach the U.S., with the deed to her
home returned once the fee was paid - but the plan backfired and
they were deported. "I thought of everything the trip had cost
me," Jerónimo said. "I asked myself 'What am I going to do?'
I've lost everything." But she says "pure necessity" would lead her
to risk more debt and try again. 

**THE VALLEY**- McAllen, Texas, is located such that it is "the
shortest route for Central American migrants making their way to the
U.S.," Rebecca Morin reports for USA Today
. For
that reason, McAllen and other towns in the Rio Grande Valley are
playing an outsized role in helping care for migrants arriving at the
border once they are out of U.S. custody, with the help of local
organizations such as Catholic Charities. Help from local
organizations and governments has come in the form of "food, clothing,
COVID-19 tests and an opportunity to reach their families," Morin
notes. "Though the White House acknowledges border communities are
important to handling an influx of arrivals at the border, community
leaders and officials want more communication from Washington as
localities shoulder the day-to-day processing of migrants." 

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**AFGHAN NATIONALS** - The Biden administration needs an evacuation
plan quickly for Afghan nationals awaiting Special Immigrant
Visas (SIVs), Forum Senior Fellow Linda Chavez writes in her latest
piece for The xxxxxx
. As
U.S. troops withdraw from Afghanistan, some 70,000 Afghans are in the
process of applying for visas for themselves and family members,
according to the Truman Center
.
"These are all people who may be arrested, tortured, even killed once
the last U.S. and allied forces leave Afghanistan," Chavez writes.
Congress should authorize additional visas as well, she says,
concluding: "We have a moral duty to remember those who risked their
lives in our cause, but doing so is also a prudent measure to ensure
we will have allies in our next fight." 

**LANDED** - A boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees - mainly
women and children - has landed in Indonesia after 113 days at sea,
reports Ruma Paul for Reuters
.
The boat's engine failed four days after it left Bangladesh on Feb.
11, bound for Malaysia. Later in February, India provided food and
essential supplies to survivors, but did not let the passengers set
foot in the country. Bangladesh also denied them re-entry. Paul notes
that more than 1 million Rohingya from Myanmar currently live in
Bangladeshi refugee camps, and are often lured by traffickers "to
travel on rickety vessels with the promise of work in Southeast Asian
countries like Malaysia." Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project
, a group
that monitors the Rohingya crisis, said the 81 refugees are OK after
landing in Indonesia, but they "are not 100% safe there yet. We hope
they will not be pushed back."  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

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