"Afghan or American, the person’s nationality didn’t matter—you never leave a man behind," writes Elliot Ackerman, former Marine and intelligence officer who served five tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, in an op-ed for The Atlantic. He tells the story of his interpreter, Ali, who after three years, recently earned his Special Immigrant Visa and relocated to Texas with his wife and children.
But Ali’s younger brother, who is also an interpreter, as well as his other siblings and parents are still living in Afghanistan — and have received death threats from the Taliban. In April, when the Biden administration announced it would withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, Ali
wrote to Ackerman to plead for help to get his family evacuated to safety.
Time is running out to evacuate Aghan nationals who helped the U.S., report Dan De Luce and Courtney Kube of NBC news. Last week, Ozzie Nelson, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan and former NSC staffer under the Bush
administration, joined two SIV recipients and our friends at Upwardly Global to say, "As a veteran of the war in
Afghanistan, I know how critical Afghan nationals were and are as allies and partners. As a counterterrorism expert, I understand what’s at stake if we fail to live up to our promises."
Welcome to Monday’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].
IMMIGRATION JUDGES — There are approximately 500 immigration judges to handle a backlog of 1.3 million asylum cases, reports Gabe Gutierrez of NBC News. "There aren't enough of them, they need more support staff, and they've felt political pressure from their bosses at
the Justice Department." Judge Dana Leigh Marks told Guttierez, "In essence, we are holding death penalty cases in a traffic court setting." To help manage the situation, the Biden administration has called for hiring 100 new immigration judges as part of its budget,
Gutierrez notes.
BORDER WALL — The Biden administration is calling on Congress to officially cancel billions of dollars of funding for former President Trump’s border wall in order to repurpose the money for its original intention,
report Caitlin Emma and Connor O’Brien of Politico. Facing a federal watchdog probe, the Biden administration laid out its plan for funding on Friday: "More than $2 billion Trump diverted from military construction projects will be returned, funding 66 military projects in 11 states, three territories and 16 countries," they write. "Unless and until Congress [cancels border wall funding], the Administration will continue to use the funds responsibly for their appropriated purpose, as required by law, and DHS has developed a plan to do so," the agency said.
‘ABOUT OUR FRIENDS’ — Biloela, a small, conversative town in Australia has united around the case of a sick child and her family who have been sent to a remote detention center, reports of the New York Times. Struggling with an illness that has been exacerbated by lack of medical care from Christmas Island detention center, last week three-year-old Tharnicaa Murugappan was medically evacuated to Perth and is now fighting for her life. Due to Australia’s "draconian" immigration policy, her case is now renewing calls from advocates and protestors to release her Sri Lankan asylum-seeking parents from detention — permanently. "[W]hen the family was whisked away by immigration officials in 2018 after their
claims for asylum were rejected and their temporary visas expired, locals weren’t thinking about politics." Instead, said Simone Cameron, a Biloela local and friend of the family, the case "was about our friends."
MISINFORMATION — Pastor Gustavo Banda’s job is two-fold: He runs a shelter in a church in Tijuana, Mexico, for recently deported migrants from the U.S., while also combatting human smugglers advertising their services on Facebook, report Olivia Solon, Jacob Ward and Aarne Heikkila
of NBC News. "I’m telling everyone that this is a complete lie," Banda said. "If they
need help trying to cross, they should get a lawyer and do it the legal way and that I can help them." But as the Tech Transparency Project has noted, misinformation on social media platforms specific to human-smuggling content remains an issue. "The biggest concern with these Facebook groups is that you have people who are in very desperate, vulnerable situations commingling with people that are parts of organized criminal networks, including cartels and gangs," said Katie Paul, director of
the Tech Transparency Project. "It’s a problem Facebook has known about for many years."
MOVIE REVIEW — The long-awaited film release of Lin-Manuel Miranda and Quiara Alegría Hudes’s award-winning Broadway musical "In
the Heights" has evolved over the years — mirroring the history of immigration in the U.S., writes A. K. Sandoval-Strausz, director of the Latino and Latina studies program at Pennsylvania State University, in an op-ed for the Washington Post. The movie "transform[s] what was once a straightforward love story into a sweeping
tale about the meaning of an immigrant neighborhood in a nation where an aging citizenry, a shrinking workforce and a declining birthrate put us in desperate need of rejuvenation."
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