NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Former senior U.S. Border Patrol agent Jenn Budd is on a mission to
explain what is and what is not happening at the U.S.-Mexico
border. "You can actually have security on the border and also have
a humane asylum. What we have over and over again is that
we don't have a robust asylum system," Budd told KTSM9 El Paso
's
Erin Coulehan.  

Coulehan also points to a recent American Immigration Council report
 concluding
that border encounters in 2021 "are emblematic of the ongoing
humanitarian crisis, not a border security challenge." This analysis,
along with Budd's firsthand experience at the border, have pushed
her and other advocates to call for bipartisan immigration reform.
"We're treating asylum-seekers - which is a humanitarian issue and a
legal right - with law enforcement," Budd added. "So we're
handling a humanitarian issue with a law enforcement tool." 

"You cannot deter people who are running for their lives." 

Along these lines, former Homeland Security official Elizabeth
Neumann will join staff of The Association for a More Just Society
Honduras on a webinar at noon ET today to address questions around
immigration and security. Media are welcome; register for the webinar
here
.  

Welcome to Thursday'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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**MIGRANT CARE** - A whistleblower complaint
 filed
Wednesday with Congress and the Health and Human Services' inspector
general alleges that unaccompanied minors housed in migrant
shelters "were being watched over by contractors with no
Spanish-language skills or experience in child care who usually stood
idly at the edge of crowded tents," reports Julia Ainsley of NBC News
. The
contractor, Servpro, specializes in emergency cleanup after natural
disasters - and "shows no record of having handled a contract related
to child welfare before it took on the care of nearly 5,000 children who
were housed at the facility at Fort Bliss, Texas, in May." While
the whistleblower complaint does not allege illegal behavior, it
points to "gross mismanagement and a threat to public health and
safety," causing "physical, mental and emotional harm affecting dozens
of children." 

**IOWA** - Single parent Jaime Betancourth and his 9-year-old son
Owen made the trek to the U.S. from Honduras only to be turned away at
the border under Title 42 restrictions, Rylee Wilson reports
for The Cedar Rapids Gazette
. After
waiting in Mexico, Jaime and Owen were able to enter the U.S. in
May, and with the help of Iowa City Catholic Worker House
 were able to resettle
in Iowa City along with three other families. "The truth is we feel
like we're in our own home in the Catholic Worker House, and we
don't lack anything we need," Betancourth said. Farther west in
Iowa, at Second Reformed Church in Pella, Matthew Soerens of World
Relief  and the Evangelical Immigration
Table  led a conversation
on how Christians can serve both refugees and immigrants, Sarah
Stortz reports for The Oskaloosa Herald
. "Our
mission isn't just to resettle refugees, it's to empower the local
church to serve the most vulnerable," said Soerens. Meanwhile,
for The Daily Iowan
's
opinion section, Hannah Pinski writes that Iowa Gov. Kim
Reynolds' (R) immigration policy "is stemming from a lack of
empathy and understanding of the humanitarian crisis happening in
Central America and at the Southern Border." 

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**ALASKA** - Once a vacant parking lot, a space in Anchorage,
Alaska, is now a farm tended by more than 20 immigrant and refugee
farmers, Kavitha George reports for Alaska Public Media
. Nonprofits
like Grow North Farm, Anchorage Community Land Trust and Catholic
Social Services have collaborated to provide a farm training program
and business development support for refugees and immigrants, who then
tend their own plots for a small fee. The farm "is providing
economic opportunity, but it is also really, truly providing a space of
prosperity and belonging and community for participating farmers that is
just as integral as the opportunity to earn an income," said Anchorage
Community Land Trust spokesperson Emily
Cohn. Added Issa Spatrisano, the State of Alaska's refugee
coordinator and program director at Catholic Social Services Alaska:
"All of us figure out everyday what it means to be Alaskan. And
refugees are part of that story." 

**AIRMAN BOTCHWAY** - Airman 1st Class Takyi Botchway hopes to
become a U.S. citizen so he can sponsor his 7-year-old daughter, who
still lives in his home country of Ghana, reports Rachael Riley of The
Fayetteville Observer
. In
2014, Botchway won the Diversity Visa lottery, and later joined the
Air Force with hopes of becoming a pilot. An Air Force liaison put him
in contact with USCIS, and he is now "counting down the days" for a
response. "It would really be a big turning point," Botchway said of
having his citizenship application approved. "... I'll be so happy
when I can break the news [to my daughter] and tell her to come to live
here."   

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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