NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Immigrants helped make Northwest Arkansas a hub
for diversity, expansion and economic growth. But "the flow of
legal immigrants, whom Northwest Arkansas companies also heavily rely
on, has fallen precipitously
 since
the Trump administration clamped down on all kinds of immigration with
the belief that it was displacing American workers," reports Miriam
Jordan of The New York Times
 with
photographs by Terra Fondriest. 

Joseph Chamie, a demographer who formerly headed the United Nations
division on population, told Jordan that without a steady flow of
immigration, places like Northwest Arkansas can "forget about"
continued growth. 

Said Neil Bradley, chief policy officer for the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce: "For a whole host of communities all across the United
States, immigration will determine whether the local economy will
continue to grow for those moving there and the residents who have
called that place home for decades." 

In our Room to Grow
 report, we projected
that the U.S. needs to increase net immigration by 37% just
to maintain our current ratio of retirees to working-age adults. 

Welcome to Tuesday'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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'

**HOPELESS'** - On Monday, attorneys representing detained migrant
children and teens asked U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee to "release
them from emergency shelters where they say they feel imprisoned,
desperate, and hopeless," Adolfo Flores reports for BuzzFeed News
. "[Fort
Bliss and Pecos] are unsafe, unsanitary, and damaging to children's
physical and mental wellbeing. We hope our motion results in immediate
improvements to alleviate children's suffering at these sites," said
attorney Leecia Welch, senior director of legal advocacy and child
welfare at the National Center for Youth Law. As of July 21, 4,578
children were detained at the emergency intake sites, Flores notes. 

**REFUGEE ADMISSIONS** - President Biden set the refugee ceiling for
this fiscal year at 62,500 - well above President Trump's historic
low of 15,000. But newly released figures
 show
the State Department has resettled just 6,246 refugees this fiscal
year, which ends Sept. 30, reports Jeff Brumley of Baptist News
Global
. And
according to a 2021 State Department report
 to
Congress, a growing backlog of more than 1.1 million
refugees await entry to the U.S. While the numbers indicate that
arrivals this year "will fall well short of Biden's target," the
trend is still upward, Brumley notes. "To start a new office and
reestablish, it takes time," said Ali Al Sudani, senior vice
president for programs and chief of staff at Interfaith Ministries for
Greater Houston.  

**DOJ HOTSEAT** - Pressure is growing on the Department of Justice
to reverse many of the immigration policies put in place by the Trump
administration, Politico's
 Anita
Kumar reports, with "[t]housands of lawsuits on every aspect of
immigration policy ... pending from the Trump years." Karla Vargas, a
senior attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, said her organization
is defending landowners in seven cases related to the construction
of Trump's border wall
.
While Biden halted construction, the lawsuits around the seizure of
border land remain. "What we see happening is that there has not been a
consensus from DOJ as to how to approach these," said
Vargas. Meanwhile, Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
 reports
that the Biden administration "is ramping up deportations and
prosecutions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally amid a
21-year high in migrant arrests." 

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BIPARTISAN PRIORITIES

** **- The latest border numbers
 give renewed urgency to bipartisan
immigration reform for both the Biden administration and Congress,
writes Paul Rosenzweig, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy
at the DHS under President George W. Bush and member of the Council
on National Security and Immigration , in an op-ed
for The Washington Times
. Rosenzweig
points to securing the border, prioritizing farmworkers and Dreamers,
and ensuring a competitive workforce and economy as three solutions
that can spark productive discussions among lawmakers. "Acting on
these priorities in a bipartisan way will strengthen the U.S. economy,
improve our national security posture, and restore our country's
reputation as a global humanitarian leader." 

RECONCILIATION - Senate Democrats are moving forward with plans to
include immigration in a budget reconciliation
resolution, reports NPR's
 Claudia
Grisales. More specifically, the Senate Judiciary Committee received
 an instruction
of $107 billion in a budget agreement framework that would include
"lawful permanent status for qualified immigrants" and "investments in
smart and effective border security measures." Frank Sharry, executive
director of America's Voice, told Grisales, "We think that this year
is our best chance [for immigration reform] in decades."  

OHIO ANTHOLOGY - The Ohio Immigration Alliance
 is publishing its first anthology
of stories, poems and artwork by Ohio immigrants this month,
reports Jennifer Conn of Spectrum News
. "Far
From Their Eyes: Ohio Migration Anthology" features work
from contributors ranging from age 12 to over 60. "America is an
incredibly wealthy country," said Skye, 12, who wrote an essay
at age nine about her veteran Vietnamese grandfather, a
former army doctor. "And we should share our resources with immigrants
and refugees in need. And America needs these people because they
bring new ideas and perspectives into America." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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