NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In the six years since she immigrated to the U.S. from Honduras, Glenda
Valdez hadn't once seen her oldest daughter, Emely. Then, while
watching news on the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, she saw a
photo of Emely. Now the two are reunited, at least temporarily. 

Valdez's mother took custody of Emely when Valdez migrated, but
Emely's father took her back, Acacia Coronado of the Associated
Press
 reports.
Eventually he sent her north in the care of another adult. Border
Patrol agents encountered her May 13 - and then Valdez, unaware
that Emely was on her way, saw her picture on a Univision
newscast.  

"I was like in shock, honestly, because imagine you are watching the TV
and you suddenly see your daughter," Valdez said. She called U.S.
authorities right away, waiting weeks for updates before the pair were
reunited on Saturday. 

Now, while they wait for Emely's immigration court date, Valdez said
the plan is "[t]o ask God that we may never be separated again. To
give her all of the love that I haven't been able to give her." 

Welcome to Wednesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. I'm Dan
Gordon, the Forum's strategic communications VP, and I'm 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]
.     

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**ROOT CAUSES** - Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to Guatemala
and Mexico has concluded. Amid a "blunt response" regarding
migration, the administration continued to focus on addressing its
root causes, Zolan Kanno-Youngs reports in The New York Times
. On
Tuesday, Harris and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López
Obrador signed an agreement aiming to deter migration by
addressing the "poverty, persecution and corruption" Central
Americans face. "The issue of root causes is not going to be solved in
two days. It is not a new issue for the United States to feel the root
causes on our shores," Harris said. Addressing
root causes is also the focus of a letter
 evangelical
leaders sent last week to Harris, President Biden and members of
Congress, reports Jeff Brumley of Baptist News Global
. "This
response should be holistic in addressing both the driving factors of
this migration and the U.S. immigration policies that govern an
immigrant's arrival," the leaders write. 

**FEAR** - Omid, a former interpreter for the U.S. military,
seldom goes outside after dark for fear the Taliban will find him,
reports Austin Landis of Spectrum News
. As
the U.S. withdraws troops from Afghanistan, pressure continues
to build for President Biden to evacuate Afghan allies such as Omid
who helped the U.S. in the war - and continue to be
threatened.  "If the Americans withdraw from Afghanistan even for a
minute, I cannot guarantee I can be alive," Omid said. No One Left
Behind
 estimates that
a minimum of 300 interpreters or family members have been killed to
date. "We have a moral obligation to get them out," said Rep. Michael
Waltz (R-Florida), who served in Afghanistan with the U.S. Special
Forces. "It also sends a message around the world to our other local
allies - in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere - about whether
the United States is going to stand with you."  

**RESPONSE** - In the Baptist Standard
,
Waco, Texas, Pastor Amos Humphries responds to Gov. Greg
Abbott's order
 to
pull licenses from facilities that house migrant children. "As diverse
as Texas Christians can be, I am confident there is not a follower of
Christ in our great state who wants children left vulnerable and uncared
for," writes Humphries, pastor of Park Lake Drive Baptist Church. "Let
us not departmentalize our faith to Sunday morning worship and turn a
blind eye to the needs of the vulnerable children crossing our
border." 

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**BLESSING** - Blessing Ovie fled Nigeria as an unaccompanied
refugee when she was 9, facing unspeakable challenges, reports Brendan
Quealy of Michigan's Traverse City Record-Eagle
.
Nearly a decade later, with the help of the United Nations and Bethany
Christian Services, she says her prayers for a better life are being
answered. She now lives in Traverse City with her foster parents and
has a 2-year-old daughter - and just celebrated her high school
graduation. "Everything is a miracle," Ovie says. At Religion News
Service
,
Emily McFarlan Miller explains how faith-based refugee agencies such
as Bethany need to rebuild their refugee programs after four years
of Trump-era cuts. "In a lot of ways, it looks like starting from
scratch," said Kristi Gleason, Bethany's vice president of refugee and
immigrant family services. 

**BORDER** - Alvaro Enciso plants three or four crosses each week in
Arizona's desert borderlands to honor migrants who died making
the dangerous trek across the U.S.-Mexico border. The art project,
"Where Dreams Die," is representative of a spiritual thread that ties
together much of the activism around protecting migrants along the
border, reports Anita Snow of the Associated Press
. "Protecting
migrants and honoring the humanity of those who died on the perilous
trail is a kind of religion in southern Arizona where spiritual leaders
four decades ago founded the Sanctuary Movement to shelter Central
Americans fleeing civil war, and scores of volunteers carry on their
legacy today."  

**CÉSAR** - For Immigrant Heritage Month, NPR
 is
featuring stories from immigrant communities of color across generations
as part of their "Where We Come From
" series.
This week's episode spotlights César Magaña Linares, an
immigration activist and Temporary Protected Status
 recipient
from El Salvador. In 2018, when he heard the news that President
Trump planned to end TPS for Salvadorans, "it was a bit of a
fight-flight-freeze response. I didn't even know what to think," he
says of learning he had less than two years to figure out what to do
before facing deportation. "What I have found to help me cope [with
uncertainty over immigration issues] is reminding myself that I come
from a country that ... is super rich and something greater than just
immigration papers," he said.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

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