NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

A House bill
 introduced yesterday would speed
up the processing of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for Afghan
nationals who aided the U.S. military and continue to be threatened by
the Taliban, reports Jonathan Landay of Reuters
. Led
by Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado) and sponsored by a bipartisan group
of 24 additional lawmakers, the bill would also raise the number of
SIVs available for qualifying Afghans from 11,000 to 19,000.  

While this is good news, the Biden administration needs an immediate
plan to safely evacuate Afghan nationals eligible for SIVs, as well as
their families, writes Rick "Ozzie" Nelson, veteran of the conflict in
Afghanistan and one of the leaders on the Council on National Security
and Immigration  (CNSI), in an op-ed for The
Hill
.  

Florent Groberg, who received a Medal of Honor during combat operations
in Afghanistan, writes in TIME
: "I am blessed to be
a first-generation American and U.S. Army veteran who served with
patriots, some of whom made the ultimate sacrifice. Our Afghan
interpreters are patriots, too. Now is the time to open our arms and
stand by them, their wives, and their children."  

Welcome to Friday's edition of Noorani's Notes.
Happy Juneteenth
,
Father's Day and World Refugee Day
 this weekend. If
you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to
me at [email protected]
.   

[link removed]

**JOBS** - Much is being written these days about employers unable
to find workers as the nation crawls out of the pandemic. Reporting
for Axios
,
Dan Primack and Hope King write that "America's labor shortage crisis
has been exacerbated by immigration restrictions that have reduced the
number of both skilled and unskilled workers." In fact, immigrant and
non-immigrant visas issued during fiscal year 2020 were down 54% -
nearly five million - from 2019. Our take: We have Room to Grow
, and
should increase annual net immigration by 37% to prevent demographic
deficit and socioeconomic decline.  

**DEPORTED VETERANS** - Mexican-born José Velasco came to the U.S.
as a child and was a green card holder when
he was drafted during the Vietnam War era. But three years ago, he
was deported to Tijuana after being charged with assault with a
deadly weapon, reports Steve Walsh of North Carolina Public Radio
. Velasco "is
one of hundreds - or perhaps thousands - of former U.S. service
members who are trying to get back to the country where they served and
lived most of their lives." Though military service can be a fast track
to citizenship, Walsh notes that some veterans don't finish the
process, lose track of it while moving from base to base, or even
pass away before getting the opportunity to have their case heard.
"Create a pathway so that they can return home," said Jennie Pasquarella
with the ACLU of Southern California. "That's where I think the
administration could adopt a policy or a process that would allow for a
revisiting of those cases, reopening their immigration cases." 

**TEXAS** - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is choosing "eviction over
empathy" on the southern border, writes Marv Knox, coordinator of
Fellowship Southwest, in an op-ed for the San Antonio Express-News
. If Gov.
Abbott decides to officially evict children who are
vulnerable and separated from their families, he will essentially be
pulling licenses from both domestic foster care programs and "foster
care providers like Catholic Charities - that allow them to offer
transitional foster care for unaccompanied migrant children," Knox
writes. "I'm ashamed of federal and state officials - especially
those who profess to be Christians - who seem to think they can hang
children's bodies on the border wall as a warning to desperate
families facing rape, persecution, famine and murder." In other Texas
news, Gov. Abbott has "ordered the state Department of Criminal Justice
to move inmates from a south Texas state prison to make room for
immigrants who have crossed the border unlawfully," which was first
announced in March, Florian Martin and Paul Debenedetto report
for Houston Public Media
. 

[link removed]

**VACCINE ACCESS** - "Vaccinating immigrants will be critical to
achieving President Joe Biden's goal of having 70 percent of U.S.
adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4," reports Caroline Simon
of Roll Call
. But
gaps in the system remain, including language barriers, access issues,
fear over legal status and limited time off work. "What's really
needed is an information campaign, to say that you can get the vaccine,
regardless of your ability to pay or your immigration
status," said Ninez Ponce, a professor at the UCLA Fielding School of
Public Health.  

**COLUMBUS** - In 2017, Hodan Mohammed's non-profit, Our Helpers
, began hosting the annual Somali
Cultural Festival in Columbus, Ohio, to celebrate Somail heritage
and introduce it to the broader Columbus community, reports
Chris Gaitten of Columbus Monthly
. Groups
like Our Helpers and Ethiopian Tewahedo Social Services
 have helped Columbus become a more welcoming
place by "[assisting] thousands of new Americans from all over the
world, first by addressing fundamental needs like language services and
job placement, but also by supporting their integration into the city as
they negotiate unfamiliar issues of identity and race," Gaitten
writes.  

**REFUGEE PORTRAITS** - In honor of Refugee Week
, Nigerian-born London-based
photographer Misan Harriman  
photographed prominent supporters of refugees from diverse
backgrounds under the theme "We Cannot Walk Alone" for a feature
in The Guardian
. "I'm
supporting Refugee Week because I believe in our global community and
the collectivism we need to employ to bring about a more equal world
for all of its inhabitants," said Yasmin Khan, a bestselling author and
broadcaster, featured in the series. "A world where the place in which
you are born does not determine the opportunities which you are
given."  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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