Thursday, August 12
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced in a
Wednesday policy update
 that
it will avoid arresting or deporting undocumented immigrants who are
victims of crime, reports Geneva Sands at CNN
. ICE
will now require agents and officers to help undocumented victims seek
justice and facilitate access to immigration benefits.  

"A victim-centered approach encourages victim cooperation with law
enforcement, engenders trust in ICE agents and officers, and bolsters
faith in the entire criminal justice and civil immigration systems," the
directive reads. 

Our communities are safer when victims and witnesses of crime can come
forward without fear of deportation.  

Meanwhile, in border-related news, U.S. officials are struggling
to locate the parents of 337 children separated under
Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, Bill Bostock reports
for Business Insider
.  

The border is also the focus of our newest episode
 of Only in America, in
which VICE news correspondent David Noriega and Forum policy expert
Danilo Zak join me to look at the symbolism and substance
of borderlands, what those lines mean for the people living on either
side, and what borders represent in an increasingly globalized
world.  

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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PUSHED OUT - Hundreds of Central American migrants expelled to
southern Mexico last week under pandemic-related Title
42 restrictions were "immediately forced by Mexican authorities into
a remote part of Guatemala," reports Kevin Sieff of The Washington
Post
. Migrant arrivals mainly
from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala "are being tricked, because
in Mexico they are told that in [the remote Guatemalan border town
of] El Ceibo there will be a bus that will take them to
their countries. These are lies," said Natalia Lorenzo, who works for
the Guatemalan government's human rights ombudsman. El Ceibo's
Casa del Migrante shelter is already
overwhelmed and has recently implemented a two-night limit for
migrants it accepts, Sieff reports.  

AFGHAN ALLY EFFORTS

** **- Scott Grasser, a retired U.S. Army Special Forces captain and
longtime country security director for a construction company doing
work in Afghanistan, has written 14 letters on behalf of
Afghan former employees to support their Special Immigrant Visa (SIV)
applications, reports Denise Goolsby for the Palm Springs Desert
Sun
. "I
was their boss in Afghanistan," Grasser said. "They saved my
life. I'm just doing what my father taught me. Help them."
Meanwhile, six diocesan Catholic Charities staffers are working with
Afghan allies who were recently relocated temporarily to Fort Lee,
Virginia, reports Zoey Maraist of The Arlington Catholic Herald
. "For
those directly involved in the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, some people
told me they locked themselves down in their homes ... because they
thought they might be targeted," said Hekmatullah Latifi, a 2016 SIV
recipient who is now helping others resettle.

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**PRO-DREAMERS** - Republican Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick
Scott must find a permanent immigration solution for Dreamers,
writes the Rev. Joel Tooley, lead pastor at First Church of the
Nazarene in Melbourne, Florida, and executive director of Mosaic
Compassion, in an op-ed for The Orlando Sentinel
. "As
a faith leader of a congregation in the evangelical tradition, I cannot
think of a more pro-life, pro-family, pro-America stand to take than to
ensure Dreamers have a permanent legal solution," he writes. Up
north in New York, ER resident physician and DACA beneficiary Juan
Vasquez writes in an op-ed for The Washington Post
 about
how bureaucratic backlogs are keeping him from his life-saving
work: "I now find myself in the strange position of not being able to
work as an emergency room doctor because the pandemic has hobbled the
federal agency responsible for renewing DACA eligibility
applications. In other words, "I can't treat coronavirus patients,
or others, because COVID-19 has left DACA in disarray." 

'A PLACE TO STAY' - The Arlington,
Massachusetts-based nonprofit Misión de Caridad is helping
migrants and refugees in desperate need at the U.S.-Mexico border,
reports Jesse Collings of Wicked Local
. The
program has about 10 employees and volunteers in the Boston area and 35
workers in Mexico - many of whom live in poverty
themselves - who provide food, clothing, and health education to
migrants. "A lot of [migrants] do not think about going to the U.S.,
they are really too poor for that," said co-founder Jean Sicurella.
"They are fleeing due to violence and they are looking for a place to
stay." Speaking of a place to stay, Religion News Service's
 Tamarra
Kemsley reports that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
has added a new section to its official handbook for leaders, calling
on members to welcome and support refugees in their
local communities. 

SCHOOLHOUSE BUS - The Los Angeles-based Yes We Can
World Foundation gained accreditation as the first international
agency to teach migrant children south of the U.S.-Mexico
border while on buses, reports Salvador Rivera of Border Report
. So
far, the organization has three full-time schools in Tijuana, Mexicali,
and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, which provide bilingual instruction and
"specialty courses such as understanding the migrant
process [and] emotional intelligence," notes Rivera. "Our
curriculums and programs serve as a bridge school to prepare migrant
children for what their academic future could be whether they end up in
the U.S. or in Mexico," said Estefanía Rebellón, the organization's
founder and executive director. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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