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ABBOTT AT THE BORDER — Ahead of Gov. Abbott’s Edinburg trip this week, his office "issued a statewide call for jailers to assist border sheriffs who could anticipate an increase in the arrests of undocumented immigrants," per Border Report’s Fernie Ortiz. Always ready to spend taxpayer dollars, Abbott also urged counties "to submit a two-year projected budget for possible reimbursements for expenses related to the migrant surge, money state lawmakers would be asked to approve." In response, the ACLU of Texas has advised local law enforcement not to participate in federal enforcement, noting that noncitizens "have the legal right to seek asylum and other protections, adding that arresting and detaining immigrants due to their immigration status is unconstitutional." EVACUATION — Time is of essence to evacuate Afghan allies and their families: Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor cites a U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting the Afghan government could fall within six months of the U.S. military withdrawal. "We risked our lives, but the U.S. government played with us, and played with our lives," Nazir Nazari, an Afghan interpreter still waiting for his Special Immigrant Visa (SIV), told Scott Peterson and Hidayatullah Noorzai of The Christian Science Monitor. "I will never forgive myself for endangering my family’s lives." JACKSONVILLE — With the Biden administration changing immigration policies and relaxing some travel restrictions, refugee resettlement agencies in Florida are preparing for an increase in new arrivals — including Afghan allies like Hedayatullah Akbari and his family, reports Katherine Lewin of the Florida Times-Union. After six years working for NATO, Akbari and most of his family were granted humanitarian parole through the SIV program. "I’m hopeful that more people from Afghanistan and more refugees from all other countries will be able to come to the United States and live a safe life here," he said. Because of Trump-era cuts to refugee resettlement, as of June 2, Catholic Charities Jacksonville had only settled 24 total refugees since October 2019 — and only nine this year, including Akbari’s family. The organization typically helps resettle several hundred people per year.
MILITARY FAMILIES — Juana Flores, a U.S. military mother and Mexican citizen, was finally able to reunite with her family in California after more than two years of forced exile, reports Maria Sacchetti of The Washington Post. A visit to her sick mother in Mexico in the 1990s made Flores ineligible for legal residency in the U.S. despite her husband’s U.S. citizenship. "Officials referred Juana Flores to deportation proceedings, and days before [her son’s] July 2018 wedding, immigration officials said she had to go." She was deported in 2019. President Biden has since committed to reversing deportations of veterans and families of service members, but officials have yet to announce how many cases are under review or how many veterans and their relatives have been returned to the U.S., Sacchetti notes. "I feel bad. There are a lot of people who are waiting," Flores said. "It’s so sad for the others. It’s been a long time." VACCINATION — Dallas-area churches, hospitals, and schools are collaborating to vaccinate hard-to-reach residents in working-class immigrant, Black and Latino communities, reports Dianne Solis of The Dallas Morning News. Language barriers, work schedules, or mistrust in the vaccine have made some of these populations hard to reach, Solis explains, and pop-up vaccination sites have been essential to combating some of these challenges. "We have seen people die in our community. So, it is not a strange story from a different planet," said Francis Basebang, a nurse practitioner who helped organize a pop-up clinic in St. Pius X Catholic Church. On one Saturday this month, nearly 200 people stopped at the clinic to get their free vaccination. Thanks for reading, Ali |
