Thursday, September 2
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

It did not have to be this way.  

As of Wednesday morning, the U.S. government "was housing nearly
20,000 Afghan refugees at military installations in five states, while
another 40,000 evacuees remained at bases overseas awaiting
processing," CBS News
 reports. 

The State Department said, "that it appeared a 'majority' of
Afghans who had worked for the U.S. military and applied for Special
Immigrant Visas (SIVs) had not been successfully evacuated and remained
in Afghanistan," NBC News'
 Dan
De Luce reports. 

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R- Illinois) called on the Biden administration
to provide a detailed breakdown of the number of Afghans and
Americans who were evacuated and the number of allies that remain in
Afghanistan, reports Laura Kelly for The Hill
.  

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and former national security
adviser H.R. McMaster "are making a joint appeal to top U.S. and United
Nations officials to extract orphans from Afghanistan before they're
taken by the Taliban," per Noah Bressner and Margaret Talev at Axios
. 

And Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) wrote
a letter to DHS this week calling for the evacuation and
resettlement of Afghan journalists, NPR
's Claudia
Grisales reports. 

Meanwhile, a number of Republican congressional candidates who served
in Afghanistan are making it their mission to
continue assisting efforts to evacuate Afghan allies, Paul
Steinhauser writes in Fox News
.  

As newly arrived Afghan refugees enter the U.S., "[t]hey will become
as thoroughly American as their native-born peers, and their energy,
ambition and pluck will be an enduring gift to their new country," The
Washington Post
's
editorial board writes. And in an op-ed for Religion News Service
,
Bethany Christian Services CEO Chris Palusky adds: "Today, our Afghan
friends need the United States government to keep its word. Their lives
depend on it. And Christians need to be on the front lines praying,
advocating and helping." 

On that note, more stories of communities across the country -
conservative and liberal - who continue to prepare for the
arrival of Afghan refugees: 

* Salt Lake City, Utah, received its first Afghan SIV recipient this
week. (Kyle Dunphey, Deseret News
)

* In West Michigan, Kalamazoo First Congregational Church is preparing
to welcome 100 Afghan refugees. (Emirrora Austin, News Channel 3
)

* Airmen at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware are donating supplies to
support vulnerable Afghans. (Sarah Ash, ABC 47
)

* Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) announced that his state welcomed its
first group of Afghan refugees this week. (ABC 15
)

* Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) says the state is ready to welcome Afghan
refugees. (Andy Chow, WKSU
)

* Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) "said nearly 50 of the state's Air
National Guard service members have been activated to support Afghan
ally refuge efforts around the country." (Fox 29
)

For a clearer understanding of the immigration processes involved for
evacuees, the Forum's Danilo Zak broke down the different pathways
to protection
 for Afghans at
risk.  

Welcome to Thursday's edition of Noorani's Notes. Have a
great Labor Day weekend; we'll be back on Tuesday. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.  

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**MPP NEGOTIATIONS** - Following a court order to reinstate the
policy, the Biden administration has begun conversations with
the Mexican government on the Migrant Protection
Protocols (MPP), a.k.a. 'Remain in Mexico,' report Nick Miroff
and Mary Beth Sheridan of The Washington Post
. The
ruling "has left administration officials in the awkward position of
having to ask Mexico to help reinstate a policy Biden denounced
,"
they note. "The Mexican government, in coordination with the U.S.
government, is moving forward under our laws and international law in
favor of orderly, safe, routine migration," said Roberto Velasco, chief
officer for North America at Mexico's foreign ministry. "However,
what's needed is a major, large-scale U.S. effort to deal with the
root causes of migration." 

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**NATIONAL SECURITY** - An "often overlooked benefit the United
States gains by welcoming, educating, employing, and investing in
high-skilled immigrants: national security," write C. Stewart
Verdery, Jr. and Elaine K. Dezenski, members of the Council on
National Security and Immigration (CNSI
), in a Morning Consult
 op-ed. "The
contributions of these immigrants strengthen the U.S. economy,
contribute to our global influence and help export American values such
as transparency and intellectual property protections." Along these
lines, 40 members of Congresss sent a letter
 to
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck
Schumer calling for the budget reconciliation package to "include
relief for the approximately 1.2 million individuals languishing in the
employment-based green card backlog." Thousands of green cards are set
to go to waste by the end of this month if processing delays continue
past their expiration date, Ellen M. Gilmer at Bloomberg Government
 points
out. 

**FARMWORKERS** - The number of farmworkers on H-2A temporary
agricultural visas "more than tripled over the past decade, a statistic
that could help lawmakers pushing to make the temporary worker program
more attractive," Megan U. Boyanton reports for Bloomberg Law
. Per
a new report
 from the
Agriculture Department's Economic Research Service, the number
of laborers participating in the H-2A program spiked to 258,000 in 2019
from 79,000 in 2010.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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