NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

At least one thing has bipartisan support in Congress and
beyond: protecting Afghan nationals who have helped the U.S. military,
government and aid efforts during our 20-year presence in
Afghanistan. See, as just one example, last week's letter from
bipartisan lawmakers
 to
the president.  

Today at noon Eastern, together with our partners at Upwardly
Global, we're hosting a press call on the urgent need for the Biden
administration to implement a plan to do so. National security expert
Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, who is also an Afghanistan veteran, will
join resettled Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients Seeta
and Abdul. Jennie Murray, vice president of programs at Upwardly
Global, also will join.  

Media who are interested can email me at [email protected]
 for details. 

Welcome to Thursday'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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**MAY BORDER NUMBERS** - According to U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) data published yesterday,
authorities apprehended 180,034 migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border
in May, reports Nick Miroff of The Washington Post
. 38%
of those encounters involved repeat crossers - more
than five times the average recidivism rate reported in 2019.
Apprehensions of single adults are up while apprehensions of families
and unaccompanied children are down, Miroff reports. Our colleague
Danilo Zak notes that more families are being allowed to stay
and enter asylum proceedings, and that new guidelines are resulting in
a more orderly process - an increasing number of asylum seekers are
presenting themselves at ports of entry rather than between
ports. Here's the data straight from CBP
.  

**'BOLD POLICY VISIONS'** - Vice President Kamala Harris'
recent trip to Guatemala and Mexico "underscores the Biden
administration's recognition that addressing unsanctioned migration is
more complicated than building a wall and denying migrants the right to
seek asylum, which was the core of the Trump administration's
approach," writes the Los Angeles Times
 editorial
board. International aid to the Northern Triangle can help with
poverty, but only if we know the "practical realities of how that aid
is directed
 and
spent," they note. Money alone won't solve the root causes of
migration, they add: The U.S. needs "patience, bold policy visions, and
the support of an American public that sees the human tragedies at
hand."  

**POLICE CALLS **- A warning that this story contains disturbing
content. An investigation by Aura Bogado and Laura C. Morel at Reveal
 finds
that in the past six years, government shelters have turned over to
local law enforcement at least 84 children ages 11 to 17 "to manage
the sort of behavior that could be expected of children, in particular
isolated refugee children." A majority of the cases involve two shelter
operators, Southwest Key Programs and BCFS, and most incidents took
place in Bexar and Cameron counties in Texas. Rep. Joaquin Castro
(D-Texas) said of a 16-year-old whose rough treatment by police was
captured on body camera video: "Here you have a young man who's
experienced incredible trauma. We've talked a lot in this country
about over-policing in different situations, and this is clearly an
example of over-policing with respect to asylum-seeking youth." 

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**REPRESENTATION **- Having legal representation makes a difference
in immigration court. The New York Immigrant Family Unity Project -
the first program of its kind - gives every detained immigrant in
the state access to a publicly funded lawyer, Nicole Narea writes
for Vox
. Public
funding of $16.6 million supports more than 100 staff, including
attorneys, paralegals, social workers and administrators. "Funding
brings fairness and dignity to the system. I think we have an urgency
here to do it right," said Jojo Annobil, executive director of
Immigrant Justice Corps. The program could serve as a national
model: President Biden signed a memorandum in May to expand access to
legal representation, including among immigrants.  

**RE-DETENTION** - On Wednesday, House Democrats led by Washington
Rep. Pramila Jayapal called on the Department of Homeland Security not
to re-detain people in U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) detention who were released amid the COVID-19
pandemic, Melanie Zanona reports in Politico's Huddle
. The
lawmakers also noted that ICE's re-detention policy has been
inconsistent across regions, fueling uncertainty. "Re-detaining
individuals solely as a result of our nation's recovery from the
pandemic is unacceptable," they wrote in a June 9 letter
 to DHS Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas and acting ICE Director Tae Johnson. "We respectfully
request that DHS and ICE take prompt action to ensure that there is a
clear policy regarding individuals who have been released from detention
due to COVID-19." As of May, ICE data indicates that 16,000
immigrants in detention have contracted COVID-19 and nine had died. 

**BEHIND THE DATA **- In honor of Immigrant Heritage
Month, our latest Only in America episode
 features
the stories of immigrants in their own words, and what they - along
with recent research - say about the American Identity and American
attitudes on immigration. Tune in to hear from Jessica Astudillo,
Farah Larrieux, and Edilsa Lopez, plus Emily Ekins of the Cato
Institute.  

Thanks for reading, 

Dan

 

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