NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

South Vietnamese veterans say the withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Vietnam in 1975 parallels the conflict in Afghanistan now: "a swift
pullout, an enemy defying peace deals, and an American-made military
suddenly left with little support," reports Dave Philipps of The New
York Times
. 

As Afghan interpreter Sherin Agha Jafari told CBS
'
Charlie D'Agata: "We are right now at the final stage. They're
going to slaughter us anyway." Jafari is among 18,000 Afghan allies
awaiting a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) and hoping for specifics on
an evacuation plan - they're top of the Taliban's list for
revenge attacks once the U.S. completes its military withdrawal. 

"I support the Biden administration's decision to finally bring our
longest war to an end," Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colorado), a former Army
Ranger, told The New York Times
'
Jennifer Steinhauer. "But we must do so in a way that keeps our promises
to our allies, protects the women and children of Afghanistan, and
ensures a safer and more secure world." 

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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**RECONCILIATION** - On Tuesday, Rep. Jesús "Chuy" García
(D-Illinois) said he will support a budget reconciliation package
"only if it includes provisions to grant a pathway to citizenship to a
broad spectrum of the country's undocumented population,"
reports Rafael Bernal of The Hill
. "A
robust and equitable budget reconciliation deal must include a pathway
to citizenship for immigrants - our country can't make a full
recovery without it, and I can't support any deal that leaves so many
people in my district behind," García said in a statement. While
other Democrats have voiced support for including immigration provisions
in the reconciliation bill, Bernal notes that García is the first
Democrat to publicly make an official statement about the package.  

**BIPARTISANSHIP** - "I believe Texas has a unique role to play in
showing the rest of the country how important it is to both uphold our
laws and welcome immigrants," writes Laura Collins, director of the
Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, in a Houston Chronicle
 op-ed. While
states can't dictate federal immigration policies, she writes, they
can still play a role in "shaping decisions, working with the federal
government so that policies reflect the daily reality of residents whose
lives exist on both sides of the border. And we can use our voices to
show the rest of the United States the benefits of immigration." Over
in Utah, American Business Immigration Coalition co-chair and former
Arizona state Sen. Bob Worsley joins Utah State University
President Noelle Cockett to call on
Utah's Republican senators, Mitt Romney and Mike Lee, to support
bipartisan immigration solutions. "Without public and aggressive
leadership from Romney and Lee[,] real immigration reform may elude us
yet again," they write in an op-ed for The Salt Lake Tribune
. 

**YEMEN** - The Biden administration has extended Temporary
Protected Status (TPS) for Yemenis through March 2023, citing
ongoing war, humanitarian conflict and the COVID-19
pandemic, Al Jazeera
 reports. The 18-month
extension will allow about 1,700 current Yemeni TPS
holders to retain their status and
allow an estimated 480 additional Yemenis to
apply, per a Department of Homeland Security statement
.
While the extension allows Yemeni TPS holders to continue living
and working in the U.S. without fear of deportation, it
does not grant them any permanent solutions like a path to
citizenship.  

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**COVID CASES** - COVID-19 cases are increasing at crowded U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers as their
populations "swell nearly to prepandemic levels," Maura
Turcotte reports for The New York Times
. Per
ICE data, the number of people in immigration detention has grown from
about 14,000 in April to more than 26,000 last week, and more than
7,500 new coronavirus cases have been reported over that same
period - accounting for more than 40% of all cases reported in ICE
facilities since the pandemic began. "You have people coming in and out
of the facility, into communities where incomplete vaccination allows
these variants to flourish, and then you bring them inside the
facilities, and that variant will spread," said Sharon Dolovich, a law
professor and director of UCLA's Covid Behind Bars Data Project
.  

**SHELTERS** - The Biden administration is calling a Pomona,
California, facility a model for other large-scale shelters for
unaccompanied migrant children, Amy Taxin and Julie Watson of
the Associated Press
 report. "It
is not easy to stand something up like this quickly, and do it right,
but I think you can see that this is a place where kids can be healthy
and safe," said Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier
Becerra, who gave elected officials and two AP journalists a tour
of the site on Friday. With access to family phone calls, twice-weekly
classes and green spaces, the site "is definitely not Fort Bliss,"
as Karina Ramos of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center in
California put it. Per HHS, the average stay at temporary shelters
was 37 days as of this week, with the number of children in the
agency's care dropping from a high of more than 22,000 earlier this
year to just over 14,400.  

**BORDER PATTERNS** - New data show that the paths of tens of
thousands of migrants from all over the world are diverging at the
U.S.-Mexico border - and the diverging routes "are part of a
migration pattern that U.S. officials say they have never seen to this
degree," Nick Miroff of The Washington Post
 reports. While
social media and word-of-mouth can influence where migrants
cross, Miroff notes, "smuggling organizations are taking advantage of
uneven enforcement policies to convert sections of the U.S. border into
designated entry lanes for specific nationalities and demographic
groups." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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