NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On Thursday, President Biden defended the complete withdrawal
of U.S. troops from Afghanistan - now set to be completed
by Aug. 31, report Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Dan Lamothe and John
Wagne of The Washington Post
.  

Biden also said the U.S. would conduct flights to evacuate Afghan
translators and other allies who assisted the U.S. But exact details
of the plan, including where evacuees will be moved while they await
approval to enter the U.S., remain unclear, The Wall Street Journal'
s Nancy
A. Youssef and Andrew Restuccia report. Officials said Qatar, the
United Arab Emirates, and Guam are potential contenders. 

"There is a home for you in the United States if you so choose. We will
stand with you, just like you stood with us," Biden said in his
Thursday speech
.  

This is wonderful news, but we need the details.  

Welcome to Friday'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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**VETERANS** - Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Illinois), an Army veteran
who lost her legs in the Iraq war, spoke to Luke Broadwater
of The New York Times
 about
her fight to save veterans from deportation. "I'm not excusing
veterans who get in trouble with the law," Duckworth said. "But if they
get in trouble with the law and they pay their dues at the end of it,
they should still be able, on the basis of their honorable service, to
gain citizenship." Days after the Biden administration announced a
new effort to bring home deported veterans, 30 Democratic lawmakers in
the Congressional Black Caucus urged Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas to expand the initiative to all unfairly deported
immigrants, Suzanne Monyak of Roll Call
 reports. With
Black and brown people "more likely to be targeted by the criminal
justice system, and in turn, more likely to face immigration
consequences," lawmakers stressed that this is an issue of racial
justice. "Now is the time to turn the resources and power of the U.S.
government toward repairing these harms in the name of racial justice
for Black and brown immigrants," they wrote in a Wednesday letter.  

**FOSTER CARE** - Licensed transitional foster homes - safe,
temporary housing where vulnerable unaccompanied children are hosted
by families - are widely considered the best option
for migrant kids in U.S. custody, reports Julie Watson of
the Associated Press
. However, government
data reveal that hundreds of transitional foster care beds at family
homes and small group facilities are go unused. Health and Human
Services Secretary Xavier Becerra cited quarantining for COVID-19,
among other reasons. While providers agree that foster placements are
complicated, they've also seen a "huge increase" in families looking
to foster migrant kids. "I truly believe if we invest and focus on
building out this network of prospective foster care parents, these
homes can and should be the medium to long-term solution so we don't
have to rely on influx facilities in the future," said LIRS
 director Krish O'Mara Vignarajah. 

**HOUSTON COURTS **- Texas immigration courts are reopening
as judges face a backlog of 1.3 million cases nationwide, Houston
Public Media
's Elizabeth Trovall
reports. According to data from Syracuse University's TRAC
, courts in
Houston are among the most backlogged in the country, with
some 80,000 cases pending and an average wait time of more than three
years. To mitigate the backlog,  the number of Houston-area judges
has more than doubled since early 2020, Trovall notes. "(I feel) a lot
of stress," said Claudia Méndez, whose case has been delayed several
times in the past decade. "We need to have legal status, more than
anything, to be sure we won't be separated from our daughter," said
Méndez, whose daughter has spina bifida and depends on a caretaker. 

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**THE SEDEÑOS** - In the past two months, pastors Frank
and Mirabel Sedeño have provided "1,500 Bibles, tons of shampoo,
tents, plastic tarps, and other critical supplies" to migrants living
in a crowded tent encampment in Reynosa, Mexico, reports Sandra
Sanchez for Border Report
. The Sedeños,
who visit the makeshift encampment three or four times a
week, say their main goal is to give hope and faith to the camp's
residents. "We overall want to share the love of God to help them to
know their value. That there is a God who helps them. And to extend a
hand by providing them essential things, like hygiene, the word of God
and snacks," said Frank. South Texas volunteers and nonprofit
groups like the Sedeños and others - Angry Tias and Abuelas,
Team Brownsville, Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, and the
Sidewalk School - have been crucial to supporting those in border
encampments, notes Sanchez.  

**DACA** - Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Thom Tillis (R-North
Carolina) wrote a letter to Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick
Durbin (D-Illinois) asking him to consider a bill that would give
permanent legal status to current DACA recipients, Nathan Hart
reports in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram
. Cornyn and
Tillis' proposed bill would apply to a much narrower population than
the American Dream and Promise Act
, which
Cornyn and Tillis say has "no clear and politically viable path
forward" in Congress. (Keep in mind that that American Dream and
Promise passed with bipartisan support in the House - and that
current DACA recipients aren't the only Dreamers making essential
contributions to our country.) That said, it's good that Cornyn and
Tillis are looking for solutions. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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