NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Let's rewind to last week in Texas: According to the Texas
Tribune's
 Uriel García, Texas
Gov. Greg Abbott "ordered state troopers on Wednesday to begin pulling
over vehicles whose drivers are transporting migrants who pose a risk of
carrying COVID-19." 

Then, on Thursday, Abbott issued an order
 that "prohibited
local governments and state agencies from mandating vaccines, saying
that protection against the virus should be a matter of personal
responsibility, not forced by a government edict." 

Her mission being people, not politics, Sister Norma Pimentel,
executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio
Grande Valley, wrote on Thursday in the Rio Grande Guardian
International News Service,
 "My
hope is that we do the right thing to keep our communities safe by
supporting efforts that are in place to keep COVID positive families in
isolation with the care they need. ... I urge state and local leaders to
reconsider their actions and work with us and other community partners
to help ensure that all individuals ... are treated with dignity." 

By the end of the week, according to Sarah Ruiz-Grossman of
the Huffington Post,
 the
Justice Department had sued Texas over Abbott's executive order
restricting the transportation of migrants. Meanwhile, Rep. Henry
Cuellar (D-Texas) and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) called on
President Biden to appoint a "border czar," reported Rebecca Morin
of USA Today
.  

Something about the border numbers that is getting lost: The Biden
administration is not only apprehending but also removing high
numbers of migrants applying for asylum, as I told the C-SPAN
Washington Journal
 audience
on Friday. A clip here
.  

Welcome to Monday'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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**NEW USCIS LEADER** - On Friday, the Senate confirmed Ur Jaddou,
the first woman and first person of Arab and Mexican descent to
direct U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, reports
Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News
. Our
take: Jaddou will bring much-needed expertise and compassion
 to
the organization that is the face of the United States for
so many. "Ur has two decades of experience in immigration law,
policy, and administration," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro
Mayorkas said in a statement. "I look forward to working closely with
her to rebuild and restore trust in our immigration system." 

**PASTORS AND POLICE CHIEFS** - Iowa police chiefs and sheriffs are
among members of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force
 urging solutions from Congress for Dreamers,
Kassidy Arena reports for Iowa Public Radio
. Marshalltown
Police Chief Michael Tupper puts a finer point on it in a Des Moines
Register
 op-ed:
"To keep our communities safe, we need meaningful immigration reform,
starting with the opportunity for Dreamers to earn citizenship." To
the southwest, Eric Costanzo, lead pastor at South Tulsa Baptist
Church, also urges Congress to support Dreamers in an op-ed for The
Oklahoman
. "Our
faith compels us to protect all our Oklahoma children, and history will
judge us if we do not. ... Sens. Lankford and Inhofe, you have my
support and that of many other Christians as you lead the way for 'our
kids,'" he writes. 

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**SEASONAL SCRAMBLE** - By limiting the availability of temporary
foreign workers, the pandemic has exacerbated a pre-existing labor
shortage for seasonal businesses, Patricia Cohen and Sydney Ember write
in The New York Times
.
Landscaping businesses, amusement parks, restaurants and camps are among
"thousands of ... businesses around the country that depend on seasonal
workers from abroad to work lower-wage nonfarm jobs," they write. Travel
restrictions, backlogs and delays at foreign consulates to process work
visas are part of the problem. "We just don't have enough local workers
to be able to support the economy as it needs to be in the summertime,"
said Jen Hayes, a visa program liaison in Old Orchard Beach, Maine.

**NICARAGUA** - Alan Reyes Picado, 20, is among thousands of
Nicaraguans fleeing to the U.S. as political turmoil and government
threats ramp up at home, report Gisela Salomon and Claudia Torrens of
the Associated Press
.
"I lived in fear and decided to seek help in this country," said Picado,
who left his partner and 8-month-old baby back home after government
officials harassed and jailed him. U.S. authorities stopped Nicaraguans
7,425 times at the southern border in June compared to 534 times in
January, and more than 19,300 times so far this fiscal year, compared to
13,000 times in all of fiscal year 2019.

**OLYMPIC GOALS** - Congratulations to Army Spc. Benard Keter, a
native of Kenya living in Texas, for reaching the 3,000-meter
steeplechase final at the Olympics, as Seth Robson of Stars and Stripes

reported. (The Washington Post

nicely captures Keter's sportsmanship at the end of his qualifying
heat.) Keter, who finished 11th in today's final, is part of the
Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest

(MAVNI) program. Hoping to represent both Team USA and the U.S.
military, earlier this summer he told Audrey Conklin of Fox News
: "My
goal [at the Olympics] is ... don't let them down. I'll be doing this
for the United States, doing it for the Army, doing it for myself, doing
it for my family."

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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