NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On her first official international trip, Vice President Kamala
Harris is in Guatemala today and then will travel to Mexico. Among her
objectives are to address corruption and the root causes
of migration - and to offer a sense of hope, report Tamara Keith
and Carrie Kahn of NPR
.  

There's no mistaking the challenge: Although Guatemala has received
"more than $1.6 billion in American aid over the last decade, poverty
rates have risen
, malnutrition
has become a national crisis, corruption is unbridled and the country
is sending more unaccompanied children to the United States than
anywhere else in the world," Natalie Kitroeff and Michael D. Shear
write for The New York Times
. 

Keep in mind that solutions will take time. They will require the
cooperation of nations to our south and investments from
others. Deepening relationships and strategic partnerships, combating
corruption and smuggling, and listening to people on the ground are
all good starts.  

Welcome to Monday'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 this week. If you have a story to share from your
own community, please send it to me at [email protected]
.     

[link removed]

**AFGHAN ALLIES** - Ahead of the expected completion of the
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July, a bipartisan
group of lawmakers on Friday urged the Biden administration to
"immediately" evacuate Afghan citizens who helped U.S.
forces, reports Tal Axelrod of The Hill
. "We
appreciate the complexity of ending the War in Afghanistan, but we are
increasingly concerned that you have not yet directed the Department of
Defense be mobilized as part of a concrete and workable whole of
government plan to protect our Afghan partners," the
lawmakers wrote in a letter
 to President
Biden. "If we fail to protect our allies in Afghanistan, it will have a
lasting impact on our future partnerships and global reputation, which
will then be a great detriment to our troops and the future of our
national security."  

**NEW PROCESS** - The Biden administration "has quietly tasked six
humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed
into the United States to pursue asylum," report Elliot Spagat and
Julie Watson of the Associated Press
. While the
criteria they're using have not been made public, the plan is to
allow entry of up to 250 asylum-seekers a day - but only until July
31, by which the groups hope the
administration will have lifted pandemic-related Title 42
restrictions. Critics note that this new process does not
guarantee the most vulnerable migrants will be selected for asylum. Said
Jessica Bolter, a Migration Policy Institute
 analyst: "Setting out clear and
accurate information about how and who might get in might lead to fewer
migrants making the trip, so there's not this game of chance that kind
of seems to be in place right now." 

**APP **- Meanwhile, a new app from the Biden administration could
help with the backlog of tens of thousands of asylum seekers stuck at
the U.S.- Mexico border - but the technology has raised privacy
concerns, reports Molly O'Toole of the Los Angeles Times
.
The CBP One app relies on "facial recognition, geolocation and cloud
technology to collect, process and store sensitive information on asylum
seekers before they enter the United States," according to privacy
assessments. "There is just an incredible amount of pressure right now
on the border itself and the agencies that are responsible for the
border to try to deal with the situation as best as possible," said
Andrew Farrelly, a former Customs and Border Protection official. 

[link removed]

**BUSINESS CALL** - The  National Association of
Manufacturers  (NAM) is renewing calls
to Congress to permanently protect Dreamers and Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) recipients, reports Karl Evers-Hillstrom of The Hill
. On
Wednesday, NAM joined more than 30 manufacturing and local business
associations who sent a letter to senators
: "These
individuals have been pursuing the American Dream for years, but
conflicting administrative actions and unpredictable court decisions
continue to make their futures uncertain." Said Stephanie Hall, director
of innovation policy at NAM: "We view this area that just needs a push
to remind everyone that clear solutions exist and that it is possible to
find bipartisan agreement on this."  

**STARTUP** - The U.S. has long had a reputation for
entrepreneurship and opportunity for immigrants, but "is now known for
a convoluted, highly politicized immigration policy that puts roadblocks
in the way of foreign-born founders," writes Amy Feldman of Forbes
. Feldman
points to the absence of a startup visa specifically for founders,
despite immigrants' outsize representation as business owners -
and years of effort to establish such a visa. Said Steve Case, the
billionaire cofounder of AOL and investment firm Revolution: "I don't
dismiss the challenges around immigration, but we're not going to
remain the most innovative nation if we are continuing to have a
challenging, chaotic, inconsistent, lurchy approach to immigration,
particularly as it relates to entrepreneurs." 

**DOCTORS** - In The Guardian
, Ashish
Malhotra tells the story of Dr. Rishab Gupta, who flew from his
home in Boston to his native India earlier this year to care for his
dying mother amid the pandemic. Following the virus's surge in
India in April, President Biden imposed a ban on most travel
 to
and from the country - and now Gupta is stranded due
to limitations of his J-1 visa. "Foreign medical workers like Gupta
and their advocates say they wouldn't be in this situation if they had
more permanent and flexible visas," Malhotra explains - and
legislation like the Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act,
which has 13 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate
,
could help. Those opposed to reform "think we're snatching jobs.
Nobody is snatching jobs. We're providing a service," said Raghuveer
Kura, a nephrologist in Missouri. "If these international physicians
are not here, who's going to take care of those people? We're
trying to help." 

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

 

 

 

The

**Only in America** podcast brings you to the people behind our
nation's immigration debate.

 

Listen now on:

 

**iTunes**
,
**Stitcher**
,
**Spotify** ,
and **more.**

 

 

National Immigration Forum

50 F Street NW, Suite 300

Washington, DC 20001

www.immigrationforum.org

 

Unsubscribe from Noorani's Notes
or opt-out from all Forum emails.

 

                                               
           
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 50 F Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20001, United States