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].

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.

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