Wednesday, Sept. 8
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

The Biden administration is requesting an additional $6.5 billion for
the upcoming fiscal year in order to assist in the resettlement of
Afghan refugees, per CNN
.
According to White House officials, "the government is expecting 65,000
Afghan refugees to arrive in the US by end of September and another
30,000 over the next 12 months."   

Thousands of new Afghan arrivals are posing some challenges for
resettlement agencies, "including uncertainty surrounding the Special
Immigrant Visa (SIV) process, a short supply of affordable permanent
housing, and high demand for social services," reports Christine Mui
of The Hill
.  

"Normally, we would have up to a couple of weeks' notice before
people would arrive, which gives our local colleagues an opportunity to
find housing, to equip the housing, to mobilize the local community,"
said Erol Kekic, senior vice president of the Immigration and Refugee
Program at Church World Service. Now, given the urgency of the Afghan
situation, the organization "has experienced some instances where they
weren't notified about certain evacuees until they had already arrived
at a U.S. airport."  

Meanwhile, the stories of welcome for Afghan allies continue to pour in.
This morning's sample includes:  

* Team Rubicon, a disaster relief organization in Wisconsin's Coulee
Region, is partnering with Catholic Charities to gather donations for
Afghan refugees. (Alex Loroff, WEAU
)

* Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston is partnering with a range
of organizations, including Rice University student organizations, to
prepare for the arrival of Afghan refugees. (Prayag Gordy, The Rice
Thresher
) 

* Todd Blakesley and Lee Lawless of San Diego welcomed an Afghan family
of six into their home on Saturday. (Megan Healy,  Fox 5 News
) 

* At Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, Afghan refugee donations
have reached capacity. (Nicole Maxwell, Alamogordo Daily News
)

* Northwood Church in Texas trained some 150 volunteers to assist Afghan
refugees with resettlement and employment. (Elizabeth Campbell, Fort
Worth Star-Telegram
)

* Lutheran Community Services Northwest is supporting Afghan refugees
resettled in Seattle. (Matthew Hipolito, The Daily
)

* British Afghanistan veteran Matt Simmons was "brought to tears" after
receiving donations for his campaign, Ems4Afghans
, a community-based organization
that provides a taskforce to support other agencies and Afghan refugees.
(Danielle Desouza, Independent
)

* The United Arab Emirates welcomed 41 Afghan evacuees, including
members of the Afghan girls' cycling and robotic teams, along with human
rights activists and family members. (Tawfiq Nasrallah, Gulf News
)

Welcome to Wednesday'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]

**SECOND CHANCES** - After his prison sentence was reduced for good
behavior, Mexican-born Leonel Sanchez "became one of the 1,500
foreign-born California prisoners who earn their release each year, only
to be transferred to federal detention and told they may be kicked out
of the country," reports Daniel Trotta of Reuters
.
"I thought I was going to walk away a free man because ... I was
contributing to the communities. Fighting fires, saving property and
animals, people's homes and stuff," said Sanchez by telephone from
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. A new bill could
end the prison-to-ICE deportation pipeline for people like Sanchez:
The VISION Act
,
introduced by California State Assembly member Wendy Carrillo (D),
passed the Assembly in June. Per Trotta, the bill is expected to pass
the Senate soon and then head to Gov. Gavin Newsom's desk. "He made a
mistake," said Danny De La Torre, Sanchez' former employer of 20
years. "We're all entitled to a second chance." 

**NEW STAGE** - Today, the Biden administration "will restart a
high-level economic dialogue with Mexico after a gap of four years,"
Nandita Bose reports for Reuters
.
On the agenda: "promoting investment in the Northern Triangle of
Central America - which includes Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras -
in an effort to stem migration from the region." Meanwhile, Latin
America News
 reports
that "the president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, hoped that
the US government would open a 'new stage' in immigration
matters."  

[link removed]

**CHILDREN OF IMMIGRANTS** - Many of us with immigrant parents owe
them so much for the sacrifices they made. Paradise Afshar at
the Atlanta Journal-Constitution
 profiles
a number of these families in a moving story well worth your time.
Another child of immigrants, the Carnegie Corporation's Geri Mannion,
was recently profiled by Inside Philanthropy
.
Finally, our friends over at the George W. Bush Institute have a new
podcast series, The Story of U.S
.
(They were kind enough to have me on for this week's episode.)   

**DREAMERS** - In a Tampa Bay Times
 op-ed,
five Florida university presidents voice their support for a pathway to
citizenship for undocumented students - and call on Congress to act.
"With more than 12,000 DACA-eligible students in Florida, every day on
our campuses we see firsthand the hopes, aspirations and hard work of
many of Florida's nearly 70,000 Dreamers," they write. "Granting them
a pathway to citizenship is no act of charity; it's enlightened
self-interest." A permanent solution is feasible with the bipartisan
American Dream and Promise Act

(passed in the House), and the upcoming budget reconciliation process
.
"All of our students have dreams and aspirations that will enrich our
state and country, and we all lose if those dreams go unfulfilled," they
conclude.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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