NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

As the Biden administration continues to wind down Trump's Migrant
Protection Protocols (MPP) a.k.a. "Remain in Mexico" policy, it
announced that it will begin admitting asylum-seekers into the
U.S. who were ordered to be deported for not attending their court
hearings under the Trump-era policy, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez
of CBS News
. Under
MPP, more than 70,000 non-Mexican were forced to wait outside the U.S.
for their court hearings, where they often faced squalid conditions,
high crime rates and threats of kidnapping.  

Starting today, asylum-seekers whose cases were terminated under
MPP will be eligible for admission as part of a second phase of
admissions, Montoya-Galvez notes. The first phase admitted more than
11,000 asylum-seekers whose cases were pending.  

"With these changes, thousands of people will finally be able to seek
protection within the United States and leave the nightmare of the past
several years behind them," said Taylor Levy, an independent immigration
attorney who assists asylum petitioners stranded in Mexico.  

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]
.      

P.S. We're helping to facilitate some conversations today in North
Carolina
 on
Dreamers, and Iowa 
on
the Christian response to immigration (there's also a conversation on
faith and immigration happening in South Dakota
 tomorrow).
These events are open to media - please let us know if you have
questions or are interested in attending. 

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**WOMEN OF WELCOME** - "I don't have to deconstruct my orthodox
views to love immigrants," Bri Stensrud, director of Women of Welcome
, told Jeff Brumley at Baptist News Global
. As
a conservative evangelical, Stensrud sees immigration as a pro-life
issue - which is why she and Women of Welcome are "trying to
create on-ramps into the issue from a biblical perspective for
conservative to moderate women who are in an orthodox theological
space." Those "on-ramps" include a recent campaign,
"While In Our Care
," which
documents Christian women reading testimonies of incarcerated migrant
children and discussing their approach to immigration through a
Biblical lens. As conservative Christians advocate for pro-life
policies at home, Stensrud asks, "what about the heartbeat of the
migrant child at the border?"  

**CONDITIONS** - A Monday court filing spells out concerns over
subpar conditions for migrant children still in temporary government
facilities, reports Priscilla Alvarez of CNN
. "For
example, children at the Fort Bliss [Emergency Intake Site] sleep in
rows of bunk cots in giant tents with hundreds of other children, enjoy
no privacy, receive almost no structured education, have little to do
during the day, and lack adequate mental health care to address
children's severe anxiety and distress surrounding their prolonged
detention," per the filing. Meanwhile in Louisiana, advocates and
attorneys are sounding the alarm over deteriorating conditions for
immigrant detainees in the Winn Correctional Center, per Carmen
Sesin at NBC News
. The Southeast
Immigrant Freedom Initiative of Louisiana, a project of the Southern
Poverty Law Center, has written two letters
 to
the Department of Homeland Security citing reports of "abuses and
inhumane conditions at Winn," including "44 people having only one
urinal, two toilets and two showers."  

**BORDER TOURISM** - Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) recent statements
on immigration and the border are hurting both South Texas'
reputation and ecotourism in the region, reports Sandra Sanchez
of Border Report
.
"People will not be coming to spend their money in the Rio Grande Valley
because of the false narrative that the governor has taken up," said
Marianna Treviño-Wright, executive director of the National Butterfly
Center in Mission, Texas. According to estimates, ecotourism boosts the
economy in the Rio Grande Valley by as much as $2 billion and adds $6
billion to state coffers every year, notes Sanchez. "It is critical to
our economy that people come," Treviño-Wright said. "The economy of
the lower Rio Grande Valley is like a three-legged stool: Mexican
national shoppers; Winter Texans and environmental tourism." 

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**RECONCILIATION **- Passing immigration legislation as part
of reconciliation, a "partisan process ... [that] allows Democrats to
skirt a Republican filibuster and enact legislation with a simple
majority," is the talk of the town these days. Jennifer Haberkorn at
the Los Angeles Times
 reports
that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont)
confirmed Tuesday that the sweeping infrastructure bill Senate
Democrats are hoping to pass this year "would include a pathway to
citizenship, but said Democrats are still determining who would be
covered." Some of their Senate colleagues remain skeptical: "I think
they're dreaming when they think they can use reconciliation on
substantive legislation like this," said Sen. John Cornyn
(R-Texas). But as Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California) put it, "It's
not a done deal, it's the beginning of the process." 

**AFGHANISTAN** - An avoidable tragedy looms for Afghan
interpreters, translators and others who aided U.S. forces - and time
is running out for President Biden to avert it,
writes The Washington Post
's Editorial
Board. The backlog of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) means an
estimated 70,000 applicants and their family members are at risk of
retaliation from the Taliban - and an orderly evacuation is needed
to protect them. "In planning an evacuation now, the United States can
strive for an orderly departure, although the risks of chaos are always
present," they write. "The United States has a profound obligation to
take care of those who risked their lives to serve alongside its
troops," the editorial concludes. "It cannot leave their fate to chance
or ill-prepared afterthought." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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