Thursday, August 26
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

A "chorus of governors," including at least eight Republicans, have
publicly signaled their willingness to accept Aghan refugees in their
states. The GOP governors' welcoming message is "in stark contrast to
the party's nativist trajectory under President Donald Trump and a
reversal from how many Republican governors reacted six years ago when a
refugee crisis exploded in Syria," Phillip M. Bailey writes for USA
Today
.  

One of the main differences, Bailey writes, is the vocal support of
conservative Christians. "I think the ones who are reading the Bible
carefully have a strong basis to want to welcome persecuted people,"
said Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization for World
Relief. "I think the biblical record on this is actually pretty
clear." The Evangelical Immigration Table
 sent a letter
 to
President Biden last week calling for the U.S. to keep its commitment
to our Afghan allies. 

"It's important that all governors, faith leaders and people say, 'We
want refugees, and we love refugees,'" added Chris Palusky,
president and CEO of Bethany Christian Services and a signatory on
the letter. "And if they don't know, they should become informed
about the plight of refugees and who they are."  

Leaders at the local, state and national levels continue to support
evacuation and resettlement efforts worldwide: 

* In Ohio, Cleveland Catholic Charities and the Refugee Response, with
support from Global Cleveland, led a legal clinic on Monday
to help hundreds of people with family members in Afghanistan file
immigration paperwork on their behalf. Cleveland has
already welcomed more than 30 Afghan refugees (Cameron
Fields, Cleveland.com
).
And Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio is preparing to welcome an
Afghan family of eight to Cincinnati. (Joanna Bouras, Fox19
) 

* Sen. Roger Marshall's (R-Kansas) office created an evacuation
helpline to aid Afghan families with ties to Kansas. (Sarah
Motter, WIBW
)  

* Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-New York) has committed to
resettling refugees; her state plans to resettle 1,320 refugees and
Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants this fiscal year. (Nick
Reisman, Spectrum News
) 

* Ramstein Air Base in Germany has transformed into "an intense
evacuation hub housing thousands of men, women and children." (Loveday
Morris, The Washington Post
)  

* Uganda has welcomed 51 Afghan evacuees after a request from the U.S.
government to temporarily host them. (Abdi Latif
Dahir and Musinguzi Blanshe, The New York Times
) 

* More than 75 Afghan women's soccer players, officials and
relatives have arrived in Australia, which expedited its humanitarian
visa process to welcome them. (Liz Clarke, The Washington Post
) 

Resettling Afghan allies and refugees will show America at its
best, write Cecilia Muñoz and John Bridgeland - former White
House policy officials under Presidents Obama and George
W. Bush, respectively - in an op-ed for The Hill
. 

Welcome to Thursday's edition of Noorani's Notes. I'm Joanna
Taylor, communications manager at the Forum, filling in for Ali today.
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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VETTING PROCESS - While the GOP is united in its criticism
of Biden's "chaotic" military withdrawal, the party is
divided on whether to welcome Afghan evacuees, Annie Karni
writes for The New York Times
. "To
those on the right suggesting they aren't vetted and we shouldn't
be willing to take them in: they were vetted enough to be co-located
with U.S. forces and to put their lives on the line to help them," said
Alyssa Farah, former communications director under President
Trump. "Those opposing relocating refugees to the U.S. are egregiously
misreading public sentiment, especially within the Christian community
in the U.S." For more on the robust security screenings evacuees face,
see Stef W. Kight's explainer
 for
Axios and the Forum's latest statement
. 

LATIN, CENTRAL AMERICA - The Biden administration committed to
addressing both corruption in and migration from Central
America - but addressing the latter has meant "depending on the
very governments it has promised to police," Natalie Kitroeff writes
for The New York Times
. "Their
priority is migration, and they are sacrificing justice," said Helen
Mack Chang, a Guatemalan human rights activist. "They're doing the
same thing as Trump." Alongside a photo essay in The Washington Post
,
Nicoló Filippo Rosso writes that in parts of Latin America, political
corruption is one of the key factors "fueling cycles of violence and
displacement that are both symptoms and causes of
disrupted societies."  

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ICE REFORM - While Sheriff Ed Gonzalez's nomination
 to
lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) awaits Senate
confirmation, Meena Venkataramanan of the Los Angeles Times
 spoke
with advocates, former detainees, lawmakers and law enforcement
officials about the reforms they want to see. "For those who must be
detained, conditions must be improved," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren
(D-California), who chairs the House Subcommittee on Immigration and
Citizenship. Alternatives to detention
 also have support,
and in terms of collaboration with local law enforcement, some are
calling for a rollback of "programs such as 287(g), which trains state
and local law enforcement officers to perform some functions of federal
immigration agents," Venkataramanan writes.  

DIVERSITY MODEL - Storm Lake, Iowa, was one of the few rural places
to post population growth in the latest census - thanks to
immigration and its accompanying diversity, Art Cullen writes in an
editorial for The Storm Lake Times
. Storm
Lake offers a lesson for other rural areas struggling to
survive, he writes: "There will be jobs in a new energy economy in
towns that have actively resisted immigration. Someone will have to fill
them ... Iowa's future, like its past, is bound up in the endless
cycle of immigration. Storm Lake is attempting to make the most of it,
and so are the little towns around. It's a tremendous tale of success
that Iowa should study." 

Thanks for reading,

Joanna

 

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