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:
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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)
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Sen. Roger Marshall’s (R-Kansas) office created an evacuation helpline to aid Afghan families with ties to Kansas. (Sarah Motter, WIBW)
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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)
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Ramstein Air Base in Germany has transformed into "an intense evacuation hub housing thousands of men, women and children." (Loveday Morris, The Washington Post)
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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)
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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."
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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