NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On Tuesday, the House voted overwhelmingly in support of a bill that
would speed up the processing of Special Immigrant Visa
(SIV) applications for Afghans who aided U.S. forces, reports
Luke Broadwater of The New York Times
. "The
measure, passed 366 to 46, would waive a requirement for applicants to
undergo medical examinations in Afghanistan before qualifying, instead
allowing them to do so after entering the United States." 

"In combat and in a war zone, every hour matters. A month will save
many, many lives," said Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army
Ranger and lead sponsor of the bill, noting that there's only one
clinic in the country that provides examinations, requiring many
applicants to make dangerous journeys for expensive exams.  

As the U.S. prepares to evacuate potentially thousands of Afghan allies
amid the U.S. withdrawal from the country,  Spectrum News'
 Austin
Landis highlights the details of the evacuation that have yet to be
announced - who qualifies, where they'll be evacuated to, and the
projected timeline - and the government's potential plans moving
forward. 

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]
.  

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**DACA DATA** - Newly released government data
 reveal
at least 50,000 immigrant teens and young adults applied for
DACA in the three months after the program was reopened
to new applicants following Trump-era legal challenges, reports Camilo
Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
. However,
"[b]etween January and March, fewer than 800 immigrants - or 1.5% of
the applicants during that time span - had their first-time
applications for DACA approved." The urgency for a permanent solution
is real: A pending decision in a Texas court case means
DACA protections are once again at risk of termination, leaving
hundreds of thousands of young immigrants in limbo. 

**TRACKING** - A new request from Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) suggests the Biden administration is exploring ways
to provide non-detention tracking and services for up to 100,000
migrant families and young adults per year, reports Stef W. Kight
of Axios
. ICE
currently has a contract for similar services with a group owned by
the private prison company GEO Group, and officials "are looking for
non-governmental organizations not affiliated with for-profit prisons to
run the new program." Kight notes that ICE is also looking for ways
to provide more accessible legal representation to migrants, plus
other resources to help them adapt to life in the U.S. while awaiting
their court dates. 

**OFFICER POM** - It's been a while since we had a Storm Lake
story, and this one's a great one. Community Service Officer Pom
Kavan, originally from Laos, will be the first Asian American to
serve as Grand Marshal at Storm Lake, Iowa's Independence
Day parade, reports Mason Dockter of the Sioux City Journal
. Kavan,
who first joined Storm Lake's police department in 1994
and worked as an interpreter, came to the U.S. from Laos in 1981 via
refugee camps in Thailand and the Philippines. "My family came because
of the opportunities, a better life for us, a better education, better
opportunities, and freedom," she said. "I feel very honored that I'm
selected." 

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**GOOD NEIGHBORS **- At an Orange City, Iowa, event last
week, Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization for World
Relief and national coordinator for the Evangelical Immigration
Table, showed how Christians can love their
immigrant neighbors, reports Randy Paulson of the N'West
Iowa Review
. "If
you are a follower of Jesus, you're a follower of a
refugee," Soerens said, referencing the story of Mary and Joseph
fleeing Bethlehem and noting Biblical principles about God making all
people - including immigrants - in his image. "There's nothing
in the law that says you cannot have someone over for dinner, even if
you think that they are undocumented, or that your church can't have
an English class or that your church can't serve communion or baptize
someone or share the Gospel with someone or teach them Sunday School." 

**UYGHURS** - ICYMI: A few weeks ago the Southern Baptist Convention
(SBC) voted

to condemn the violence against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China, as
genocide. Knox Thames, who served as the State Department's special
advisor for religious minorities under Presidents Obama and Trump,
explains in a Christianity Today

op-ed why the move is significant: The resolution "was a human rights
document, grounded in Christian theology, denouncing atrocity crimes
against a non-Christian community because of their faith." Nury Turkel,
chair of the Uyghur Human Rights Project and vice chair of the U.S.
Commission on International Religious Freedom, believes the resolution
"represented the first time an American denomination specifically
labeled Uyghur persecution as a genocide." The SBC "has blazed a trail
for others to follow," said Turkel. "This is a historic resolution where
Baptists have come out to affirm solidarity in standing up against
atrocities, no matter the ethnic and religious identity of the victims."

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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