Tuesday, August 24
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Something key to watch today: the virtual G7 meeting, where leaders
plan to call on President Biden to officially extend the Aug. 31
deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops (and evacuating
our Afghan allies), a team at CNN
 reports. Special
Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants were told to stay away from
Kabul's airport on Monday.  

The urgency for Afghan allies and their family members is clear in
another CNN
 report from Brianna Keilar and
Veronica Stracqualursi: The Taliban have sentenced the brother of an
Afghan translator to death. "You have been accused of helping the
Americans," the Taliban wrote in the first of three letters to the
Afghan man. "You are also accused of providing security to your brother,
who has been an interpreter."  

Meanwhile, Afghan SIV applicants, their families and others at
risk have begun to arrive at Fort McCoy in western Wisconsin, reports
Juliana Tornabene for NBC15
. And
the Defense Department has added Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in
New Jersey as a receiving location, reports Monsy Alvarado of NJ
Spotlight News
. 

The evacuation must continue until everyone is evacuated. And with many
Afghan nationals already having arrived in the U.S., the State
Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration must help
ramp up resettlement efforts. 

For more on what the U.S. must do now, media are invited to join our
press call at 11 a.m. Eastern today with a national security expert and
Afghanistan veteran, two refugee resettlement leaders and a policy
expert here at the Forum. Contact me
 for details. 

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]
.  

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**BIPARTISAN SUPPORT** - A consensus is emerging in support of
resettling our allies, including 79% of 2020 Trump voters and 76% of
Republicans, reports Andrew Solender for Forbes
. The
findings, from a CBS News/YouGov poll
 released
Sunday, point to an opportunity to strengthen our country, as Ali
writes in an op-ed for Barron's
: "Making [resettlement] an all-hands-on-deck
effort will marginalize nativists, strengthen our democracy and, most
importantly, save the lives of thousands of
Afghans." Per the Association of Wartime Allies
,
some 88,000 Afghans are still in the SIV application
process, Solender reports. 

**BORDER SOLUTIONS **- Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's response and
rhetoric regarding the border are not in line with realities for border
residents, reports Uriel J. García of The Texas Tribune
. Locals want "more
COVID-19 test kits and shelter space rather than more state troopers,"
García writes. "The people coming through here are hungry, they're
escaping violence," said Jesús Gasca, a parishioner and volunteer at
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church. "I think what we need instead is
to have a little bit of humanity." Pharr, Texas, Police Chief Andy
Harvey echoes this sentiment in an op-ed for the Brownsville Herald
:
"To address [the border] effectively, politicians and other
influential voices must first stop weaponizing the border for political
gain ... The current challenge ... is an opportunity to make our
immigration system work better for all of us - law enforcement, border
communities and immigrants alike." 

**COVID ANSWERS **- The Wall Street Journal
's
Michelle Hackman breaks down why the increase in crossings at the
southern border isn't likely fueling an increase in U.S. COVID-19
infections: Not every migrant is allowed to enter. Most who do enter
are being tested for COVID-19. And in several cities along the
border, major shelters caring for migrants are offering COVID-19
vaccines. The bottom line: "Most public-health experts say it isn't
likely that migrants are contributing significantly to transmissions
within the U.S., since nearly all are tested and quarantined before
release, and because the Delta variant is already widespread
," she
writes. For a visual, our new infographic 
walks
through COVID-19 protocols at the border step by step.  

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**PLAYBOOK** - ICYMI: Census Bureau data published last week
underscores that America's birth rate is declining. In the past
decade, the U.S. population grew at the second-slowest rate since the
government started counting in 1790 - and the slowest since the 1930s.
But immigration can help, writes Shikha Dalmia, visiting fellow
of Mercatus Center at George Mason University, for The Washington
Post
: "America
might borrow a page from Canada. Its immigration policy is expressly
meant to offset its aging population and low birthrates. ... Canada's
immigration intake is
 0.9
percent of its population - or three times America's per capita
rate." Elsewhere, a team at The New York Times
 pulls
from census data to offer fascinating details about the diverse and
growing population in the U.S. that identifies as Asian.  

**PARALYMPIAN REFUGEE** - As inspiring as I find the Olympics, I
think the Paralympics - which open today - are on another level.
This year's games will feature a Paralympic Refugee team for the
first time, and Alex Azzi of NBC Sports
 reports
on the team's only female competitor: Alia Issa, who was born in
Greece to Syrian refugees. "I'm really happy that I can represent
women - and women with disabilities - in sport because I want to
pass the message that women shouldn't stay at home," she told NBC
Sports' On Her Turf. "If you have a disability, that should not hold
you back. You can still achieve great things through hard work." Issa
speaks about looking up to the NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis
Antetokounmpo, who was also born in Greece to parents who
had emigrated from elsewhere: "He's my idol because he also [came]
from another country as an immigrant. From starting in Greece, he
achieved such great things overseas. One day in my sports career... I
want to achieve great things like he did." 

Thanks for reading,

Dan

 

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