Leaving Afghan allies behind to face the Taliban is a "moral and strategic mistake," writes the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.

On Sunday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul suspended visa operations due to the rise of COVID-19 cases in Afghanistan. Though it’s stopping visa interviews in Kabul, the State Department noted it would continue processing applications in Washington, D.C.

"These Afghans will have a bullseye on their backs from the moment we leave the country," said Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) of the House Foreign Affairs Committee in a statement. "If President Biden abandons them, he is signing their death warrants."

Welcome to Wednesday’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].

DELAYS — A group of Democratic senators sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services seeking answers for the processing delays for DACA applications, reports Daniella Diaz of CNN. "DACA processing delays have significant consequences, not just for individuals depending on the status for their livelihoods and security, but for their families and for the businesses and workplaces that employ them," the senators wrote. In related news, we joined five other groups from the advocacy and business community to write a letter to Texas Republican Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, along with the entire Texas congressional delegation, calling on Congress "to immediately act to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers through bipartisan legislation such as the Dream Act."

EXPANSION — The Biden administration on Tuesday announced the expansion of the Central American Minors program, which allows certain migrant children to reunite with family in the U.S., Tracy Wilkinson reports for the Los Angeles Times. The move "vastly increases the potential pool of children who will be allowed to seek entry," as well as the categories of adults who can petition for children to join them. "This is going to be a lifesaving measure for so many children in danger," said Daniella Burgi-Palomino of the Latin America Working Group. "This is not going to help absolutely everyone ... but so many more children will have access." The expansion could lead to at least 100,000 newly eligible petitioners, per an administration official. The announcement came on the same day that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met with high-level officials in Mexico "to address the level of irregular migration that has persisted for several months," Christopher Sherman writes at the Associated Press.

TEXAS WALL — Former government officials and border experts say Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s plan to complete the Texas portion of President Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall faces both "legal obstacles and logistical headaches," reports Anna Giaritelli of the Washington Examiner. The first challenge: Obtaining privately owned and protected federal land along the border, a process still entangled in Trump-era legal battles. The second challenge: Funding the project. Giaritelli notes that there is "no precedent for a state government to spend its own money to secure the international boundary physically," adding that recent border wall projects have averaged $20 million per mile. "Before the wall became politicized, career officials at U.S. Customs and Border Protection came up with a detailed plan for which sections of the border would be best secured by a wall," said Stewart Verdery, former assistant secretary for border and transportation security at the Department of Homeland Security during the George W. Bush administration. "If the state construction process is not based on that type of analysis, then building a hodgepodge of fences is only going to divert migrant traffic to other areas." Not one to be left out of efforts to take private land, President Trump will join Abbott for a visit to the wall later this month, per Raga Justin at the Dallas Morning News.

REFUGEES — A new poll from YouGov and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) found that a majority of Americans (56%) believe the U.S. should commit to resettling at least 95,000 refugees per year, Chantal Da Silva writes in Forbes. Refugees have long had positive impacts on their local communities: In Tucson, Arizona, KTOV’s Shelle Jackson highlights the Iskashitaa Refugee Network’s year-round fruit and vegetable harvest program, which helps refugees integrate while combating waste and addressing food insecurity in the broader Tucson community. FYI, World Refugee Day is this Sunday — and UNHCR announced that Afghan-Canadian artist Hangama Amiri is the first refugee to be commissioned by UNHCR and Twitter to create the emoji celebrating the occasion. The emoji is live on Twitter through June 23 when using the hashtags #WorldRefugeeDay, #WithRefugees and #RefugeeDay in any of 12 languages.

PATHWAYS — New polling from FWD.us speaks to the strong public support for pathways to citizenship for many undocumented immigrants. Most Americans support a pathway to citizenship for "essential workers, Dreamers who came to the U.S. as children, undocumented individuals living in the U.S. for many years, those with U.S. citizen family members, or those who currently have temporary protection from deportation" — categories that cover nearly all of the undocumented population. The polling also finds a strong level of support in the battleground states that could determine control of Congress next year and the Presidency in 2024, including Arizona, Georgia, Florida, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. "It’s well past time for Congress to provide the certainty that undocumented immigrants need as they work essential jobs, go to school, support their families, and help rebuild the American economy," per the polling report.

Thanks for reading,

Ali