Tuesday, August 17
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In an address to the nation Monday, President Biden spoke of plans
to evacuate more of our Afghan allies in coming days. Last night,
he issued a memo
 authorizing
up to $500 million in aid "for the purpose of meeting unexpected
urgent refugee and migration needs of refugees, victims of conflict, and
other persons at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan,
including applicants for Special Immigrant Visas."  

"Over the next two weeks, we're going to be as aggressive as we can in
moving as many people as we can," Pentagon spokesman John
Kirby told the Military Times
.
"That's seats on airplanes, not just military airplanes, but
commercial and charter airplanes as well." 

In The New York Times
, Miriam
Jordan has an update on what's next for our Afghan allies. Pentagon
officials said Monday that Fort Bliss in Texas and Camp McCoy in
Wisconsin will be used to house thousands
of Afghan refugees temporarily, reports Abby Livingston of The
Texas Tribune
. "There
may be other sites identified if services ... [or] additional capacity
is needed," said Department of Defense official Garry Reed. Wisconsin
refugee resettlement agencies are among those preparing for Afghan
refugees who may arrive soon, Sophie Carson reports
for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
. 

How leaders respond to the need to resettle refugees will be important.
Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox (R) set the right tone in a tweet
: "Utah stands
ready to welcome refugees from Afghanistan, especially those who
valiantly helped our troops over the past 20 years. We must stand by
America's allies." 

In a statement  on
Monday, members of the Council on National Security and
Immigration (CNSI) called on the administration to prioritize the safe
evacuation of our Afghan allies. "The Biden administration's failure
to execute a timely evacuation has put tens of thousands of vulnerable
Afghans in grave danger - especially women and girls," said
Elizabeth Neumann, Founding CNSI Leader and former Assistant Secretary
for Counterterrorism and Threat Prevention at DHS. "The Biden
administration must now make every effort to save our allies from the
Taliban. We must also demonstrate global leadership and mobilize the
international community to safely resettle thousands of Afghan
refugees."

We should, we must, welcome these people, who have risked their lives in
service to the United States. 

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

[link removed]

OUR CHARACTER - The U.S. has a moral obligation to keep its promise
to get Afghan allies out of Afghanistan, two faith leaders (and Forum
consultants) write in an op-ed for The xxxxxx
.
"We have an obligation to help Afghan translators and their families
because they helped us. Because we promised we would. And because the
only reason they are now in danger is precisely because they helped
us," writes Southern Baptist pastor Alan Cross. "How can we leave them
behind to be murdered by the Taliban, when they have put themselves at
risk for us ... when they have placed their family networks,
reputations, and honor at our service?" asks North Carolina church
leader André Mann, who worked and lived in Afghanistan for six years.
"What we do for the Afghan translators in the next week," forewarns
Cross, "will tell us what kind of character we have." 

REMAIN IN MEXICO - Catching up on a couple of important stories from
late last week: U.S. Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern
District of Texas ordered
 the
Biden administration to reinstate the Trump-era Migrant Protection
Protocols (MPP
) on Friday, reports Michelle
Hackman of The Wall Street Journal
. "Since
[its] termination, the number of enforcement encounters on the southwest
border has skyrocketed," wrote Kacsmaryk. But Aaron Reichlin-Melnick,
policy counsel at the American Immigration Council, questions that
reasoning: "[N]o one had been put into [the program] for months before
Biden had terminated the policy, and yet this judge falsely claims that
ending it somehow contributed to the current border
surge." Kacsmaryk has stayed his ruling for a week to allow the
Biden administration an opportunity to appeal. 

[link removed]

DREAMER LETTER - More than 2,800 evangelical Christians nationwide
have signed a letter
 to Congress urging
their senators and representatives to address the plight of Dreamers,
reports Ken Camp of the Baptist Standard
.
"Reforms to our federal immigration laws are long overdue, and we see
the negative impacts of a broken immigration system on the immigrant
families within our congregations and our communities," the letter
states. "Providing a permanent DACA solution is the most
pro-family, pro-education, pro-economy and pro-faith step that
Congress and the president can take on this issue," said Jesse Rincones,
executive director of the Hispanic Baptist Convention of Texas. As Jon
Aragón, pastor and director of the Living Faith Bible Fellowship in
Tampa, told the Tampa Bay Times
'
Juan Carlos Chavez: "Caring about immigration, refugees or children
being separated from their families is not a bipartisan issue. It's an
ethical and moral one."  

'AN ESSENTIAL STEP' - The U.S. bishops' migration
chair says Catholic leaders support the immigration provisions in the
$3.5 trillion reconciliation package passed by the Senate, per Catholic
News Service
. "While
Catholic social teaching is implicated by many components of the budget
resolution, we are pleased that the resolution sets up an opportunity
for many undocumented persons to receive legal status," said Auxiliary
Bishop Mario Dorsonville of Washington, who is chairman of the U.S.
Conference on Catholic Bishops' Committee on Migration. "Ultimately, a
more comprehensive reform of our immigration system is needed,
but ensuring access to permanent legal status and citizenship for the
undocumented is an essential step." 

Thanks for reading,

Dan

 

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