NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

As the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan nears completion, the
Biden administration is planning to relocate a group of Afghan
Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants to Fort Lee, a Virginia army
post, a team at CNN
 reports.  

The relocation could happen as soon as this week. The initial group
will include about 700 SIV applicants and their immediate family
members for a total of 2,500 people, per a State Department
spokesperson. A military base in Qatar will be another staging
site, Gordon Lubold and Michael R. Gordon report in The Wall Street
Journal
. 

"While this announcement is a positive step towards getting some SIV
applicants to safety, the lack of a plan for the remaining SIV
applicants still waiting to complete the vetting process is deeply
concerning," Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the lead Republican on the
House Foreign Affairs Committee, said via a statement. 

"It's really important, I think, for us to follow up on that, follow
through on our promises, and do the right thing for these
people," said retired Gen. Joseph Votel, who spent extensive time in
Afghanistan, in an interview with Tory Rich for SandBoxx
.
"It's literally a life and death situation for many of them ... They
became comrades." 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of
Noorani's Notes. I'm Joanna Taylor, communications manager
at the Forum, filling in for Ali today. If you have a story to share
from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.  

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**FAITH RESPONSE** - Evangelical Christians are urging Congress to
act on immigration reform in the wake of U.S. District Judge Andrew
Hanen's ruling that DACA is unlawful, Tom Strode reports
in the Baptist Press
. "This
court decision confirms that a fair and just [legislative] solution for
our broken immigration system is needed immediately," said Daniel
Patterson, acting president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission
(ERLC). "... Christians must not waver in pleading the case for these
fellow image-bearers." Said the Rev. Gabriel Salguero, president of
the National Latino Evangelical Coalition, "As Hispanic Evangelicals who
know firsthand the contributions of [Dreamers] we lament this decision
impacting thousands of God's children and call for immediate
bipartisan action." Scott Arbeiter, president of the Christian
humanitarian organization World Relief, also is calling for immediate
action from Congress, as Michael Gryboski reports for The Christian
Post
. 

**BUSINESS RESPONSE **- "Our [Republican] North Carolina
Senators, Thom Tillis and Richard Burr, have a choice to make: whether
or not to stand up for the thousands of young people whose lives and
futures have been in limbo for far too long," North
Carolina business leaders Hugh McColl and Ric Elias write in an
op-ed for The Charlotte Observer
.  "We
need these young people for our state and national economies, and to
help us rebuild following a historic pandemic and ensure America remains
competitive around the globe." Business Roundtable Immigration Chair
and Apple CEO Tim Cook weighed in as well
:
"Dreamers are as American as anyone born in this country, and our laws
should reflect that. Once again, we urge Congress to pass bipartisan
legislation that creates a pathway to citizenship, and ends the
uncertainty and fear our laws have imposed on these young people for far
too long." 

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**IN OUR CARE** - In an op-ed for The Dallas Morning News
,
El Paso Bishop Mark J. Seitz and Brownsville Bishop Edward J.
Burns urge Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to reconsider his plan
to revoke childcare licenses from organizations housing migrant
children. Such a decision would lead to a domino effect
of harmful consequences, they warn: "Were Catholic Charities to lose
their state license, this would strip well over 100 Texas foster
children of loving foster families and necessary support, and if our
homes closed, it could mean the loss of hundreds of jobs and millions of
dollars in economic impact in Houston, San Antonio and Dallas." The
Texas foster children Catholic Charities serves would be bounced to new
places, creating further instability for a vulnerable population, they
write. Texas "should continue to follow the example it has set for
protecting religious freedom and life by supporting much-needed social
services providers like Catholic Charities in their commitment to serve
all vulnerable children," they conclude. 

**SERVICE GAPS** - A Center for Migration Studies report
 sheds light on how
religious organizations worked to address the unique
challenges immigrant communities faced during the pandemic - and
how the fear stoked by Trump's immigration policies made this even
more challenging, Melissa Cedillo writes for the National Catholic
Reporter
. Catholic
organizations nationwide began offering a host of new services to
assist immigrant communities impacted by the pandemic, Cedillo
writes, "but a looming fear of the Trump administration's immigration
enforcement policies prevented immigrants from accessing those
services." (The chilling effect of Trump's public charge rule
 likely
played a significant role here.) Across the country, local
organizations have been critical to filling the gaps in public health
gaps that immigrant communities faced throughout the pandemic: For The
Mendocino Voice
,
Dana C. Ullman highlights a local Promotores de Salud program, which
follows a community health model that is "quite common throughout
Latin America but has gained traction in the U.S. during the
pandemic." 

Thanks for reading, 

Joanna

 

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