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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Across the political divide, Americans are mobilizing to welcome,
support, and aid Afghan refugees, Miriam Jordan and Jennifer
Steinhauer report for The New York Times
. "Even
the most right-leaning isolationists within our sphere recognize the
level of responsibility that America has to people who sacrificed for
the nation's interest," said Caleb Campbell, lead pastor of Desert
Springs Bible Church in Phoenix, Arizona.  

Hugh Hewitt, a leading conservative figure and Trump supporter, wrote
in his Washington Post
 column: "I
believe millions of Americans are ready, especially through their
churches, to 'adopt' refugee families, and spread them across the
United States as the latest wave of exiles who renew our country as they
rebuild their lives." 

Meanwhile, amazing local stories of welcome continue to roll in (a
couple of UK stories for good measure):  

* In Texas, Fort Bliss is working with nonprofit organizations like El
Paso Office of New Americans, the Armed Forces YMCA El Paso, and the
Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services, Inc. to provide donations for
Afghan refugees. (KFOX 14
) 

* Two North Carolina military wives and
a local business have teamed up with Welcome House Raleigh to
collect supplies and donations for newly arrived Afghan refugees. (Chris
Lovingood, WRAL
)

* The International Rescue Committee in
Charlottesville, Virginia, is helping Afghans resettle with support
and donations from the community. (Isabel Cleary, NBC29
)

* Afghan refugees have arrived at Holloman Air Force Base
in southern New Mexico, where they were greeted by personnel cheering
 and  welcome signs. (Associated
Press
)  

* In California's East Bay, Jewish Family and Community
Services hosted a fundraiser on Monday to help Afghan refugees and are
calling for more volunteers. (Ella Sogomonian, KRON4
)

* Building Peaceful Bridges, a nonprofit in the Chicago suburb
of Glenview, is working to reunite families in the area with
relatives still in Afghanistan. (Daniel I. Dorfman, Chicago Tribune
)

* Connecticut's Institute for Refugees and Immigrants (CIRI) in
Bridgeport is preparing to welcome up to 150 Afghans. (Brian
Lockhart, Connecticut Post
) 

* Illinois lawmakers have pledged to welcome and support about 500
Afghan refugees. (Mike Lowe, WGN-TV
) 

* Local organizations are looking to raise $750,000 to support the 350
Afghan refugees coming to Buffalo, New York. (Anthony Reyes, WKBW-TV
) 

* Scotland's regional councils have drawn up plans to welcome
hundreds of Afghan refugees. (Laura Paterson, PA Scotland
) 

* More than 17,000 new items have been donated for Afghan families in
less than a week by businesses and individuals to help them settle in
the United Kingdom. (Helen Pidd, The Guardian
) 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.

[link removed]

**'I BESEECH YOU' **- Over the weekend, The Times'
 Natalie Kitroeff reported
that the Supreme Court's order that the Biden administration
restart the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) "brought some measure of
relief" to administration officials. Sister Norma Pimentel, executive
director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, took to The
Washington Post
 to urge
President Biden to improve the living conditions migrants face. "In the
name of God and in the spirit of decency that has been a hallmark of
Americans for generations, I beseech you: If this policy must continue,
let us find a way to end the worst cruelties that have defined it thus
far." Pastor Lorenzo Ortiz told Elket Rodríguez of Fellowship
Southwest
: "It's
a type of torture. MPP kills and ends families." 

**DESIGN **- A potential solution lies just west of Tijuana. There,
Teddy Cruz, a Guatemalan-born architect, and Fonna Forman, a political
scientist from Milwaukee, are designing a permanent, sustainable
structure for homeless refugees, reports Alastair Gordon for The New
York Times
. Working with pastors
Gustavo Banda Aceves and Zaida Guillén, "they set out to develop not
just emergency housing but a stable community that made use of the
resources at hand." Meanwhile, the ACLU of San Diego asked an
appellate court last Wednesday to reinstate a federal order so
asylum seekers could regain access to legal counsel, reports Elizabeth
Ireland for Times of San Diego
.  

[link removed]

**MIGRANT CHILDREN** - Per data obtained by Axios
,
the U.S. government has lost contact with thousands of migrant children
released from its custody, Stef W. Kight reports. "Roughly
one-in-three calls made to released migrant kids or their sponsors
between January and May went unanswered, raising questions about the
government's ability to protect minors after they're released to
family members or others in the U.S.," notes Kight. "While we make
every effort to voluntarily check on children after we unite them with
parents or sponsors and offer certain post-unification services, we no
longer have legal oversight once they leave our custody," an HHS
spokesperson told Axios, adding that many sponsors do not return
calls nor do they want to be contacted.  

**PUBLIC SAFETY** - Hennepin County Sheriff David Hutchinson was
elected in 2019 based, in large part, on his immigration positions,
the Minneapolis Star Tribune's
 Dave
Chanen reports. Those positions are still in place - in June,
Hutchinson issued a directive to "greatly limit the use of immigration
detainer warrants to hold people in jail who should otherwise be
released." He told Chanen he sees the change as a way to improve
public safety and improve trust with immigrant communities: "New
Americans are often crime victims because they are vulnerable. We are
doing all we can for the county. We are not the federal government." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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