NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will employ body cameras for
thousands of Border Patrol agents starting this summer - "a major
operational change that could increase oversight of agents and also help
capture criminal activity" at the southern border, reports Ted Hesson
of Reuters
. 

Cameras are expected to roll out first in parts of Texas
and New Mexico, and then in coming months for Arizona, California
and the Rio Grande Valley, as well as Vermont along the Canadian
border. Our take:
 As
the administration continues to strike a balance between a secure
border and treating immigrants with compassion, this is a positive
step.  

Meanwhile, this week on Only In America
,
I spoke with Bill Kristol, director of Defending Democracy Together,
to break down how reconciliation works and what it could mean
for immigration reform.  

Welcome to Thursday's edition of Noorani's Notes. We're
pausing the Notes on Fridays this month, so we'll be back
Monday. If you have a story to share from your own community, please
send it to me at [email protected]
.     

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TEXAS - Dianne Solis and Alfredo Corchado of The Dallas Morning
News
 dive
deep into the decision by U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen
Cardone to grant a temporary halt to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's
(R) executive order restricting the transportation of migrants by
private individuals and organizations. "Cardone said the U.S.
government was likely to prevail in its claim that the Texas executive
order violates the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution because it
conflicts with or poses an obstacle to federal immigration law and it
directly regulates federal government operations," they write - while
also noting that the order already is posing challenges for Catholic-run
nonprofits from McAllen to El Paso. 

REUNIFICATION STRUGGLES

** **- While the Biden administration has reunited
some separated families via its Family Reunification Task Force
,
many are struggling to keep afloat, report Adolfo Flores and
Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News
. "It's
another trauma because I'm with them and I can't get them the things
they need," said "Lisy," an El Salvadorian mother who recently
reunited with her sons. According to government
documents, some families from the first group of reunifications have
reported homelessness shortly after entering the country.
To help, "the task force wants the Department of Health and Human
Services to offer resettlement services for families, including English
classes, money, and medical assistance," but it's unclear if (or
how) this would be funded, Flores and Aleaziz note.  

DEBUNKING MINSINFORMATION - Border issues and misinformation are
converging in multiple ways, and "comprehensive immigration reform,
a vigilant effort to counter disinformation, and better use of
Spanish-language media" are a necessary counter, Laura Collins and
William McKenzie of the George W. Bush Institute write in an op-ed
for the Chicago Tribune
. The
convergence involves "smugglers spreading false information about
border security, those same smugglers spreading disinformation about the
safety of trips to the border, and a Russian campaign to spread
misleading narratives," they write. "... If we modernize our system
with regularized, legal and realistic pathways for immigrants to enter
our country, we could help curb inaccurate information."  

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GREEN CARD BACKLOG - About 100,000 employment-based green cards are
at risk of going unused this year due to application backlogs
exacerbated by COVID-19, reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street
Journal
. The
administration began this fiscal year with some 260,000 green
cards available. Any that remain at the fiscal year's Sept. 30
conclusion would expire. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services is taking an average of 10.5 months to process green-card
applications, according to government data. On Monday, a group of
green-card applicants filed a lawsuit requesting that a federal district
court in Maryland preserve their place in line beyond the end of the
fiscal year. 

'REALLY HEARTWARMING' - A group of four
lawmakers, including Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Florida), got a glimpse of
the Fort Lee, Virginia, Army post where the first
groups of Afghan allies eligible for Special Immigrant Visas have
been temporarily relocated, reports Steve Beynon of Military.com
. "To
see these little girls wear their best dresses, all of them with
little American flags, so excited, asking about American schools ... it
was really heartwarming," Waltz said. Meanwhile, in an open letter
published in The Guardian
,
20 UK media organizations are calling on the British government to
provide visas for Afghans who assisted with their reporting. "If left
behind, those Afghan journalists and media employees who have played
such a vital role informing the British public by working for British
media will be left at the risk of persecution, of physical harm,
incarceration, torture or death," the letter reads.  

PERSONAL EXPERIENCES

** **- An interactive mural illuminating the stories of 15 Dreamers
brought to the U.S. as children was unveiled Saturday at the Tijuana-San
Diego border, reports Alexandra Mendoza of The San Diego Union-Tribune
. The
Playas de Tijuana Mural Project
 was
produced by University of California Davis student Lizbeth de la Cruz
Santana as part of her doctoral dissertation. Some individuals
featured are currently protected by the Deferred Action for Childhood
Arrivals, while others have been deported to Mexico. Each portrait is
accompanied by a QR code that provides full access to
their unique stories. Said deported immigrant Roberto Vivar, who
arrived at the U.S. at age 6, "We all make mistakes, the same way we
can all rebuild our lives."   

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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