Thursday, September 16
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

The Biden administration notified governors and mayors yesterday that
"an initial group of 37,000 Afghans will soon be headed to states across
the country after many faced harrowing journeys from
Afghanistan," Axios
'
Stef W. Kight reports.  

Over at The Hill
,
Rebecca Beitsch and Laura Kelly write how bipartisan lawmakers aided
the Afghan evacuation a month ago, the toll it took on them,
and their decision to further examine the choices made. And The
Wall Street Journal's
 Michelle
Hackman has a great explainer on how Afghan refugees are vetted, where
they go next, and how we can support them. 

In Germany, Afghan refugees have created makeshift
communities at Ramstein Air Base as they wait to come to the U.S.,
reports Nancy A. Youssef for The Wall Street Journal
. Meanwhile, Afghans already in
the U.S. worry about their families left behind, Carson Frame writes
for The American Homefront Project
.  

Despite the challenges, stories of local welcome continue:

* The Nashville International Center for Empowerment and Catholic
Charities announced Tuesday that they are preparing for the arrival of
hundreds of Afghan refugees.
(Natalie Neysa Alund, Nashville Tennessean
) 

* Lutheran Social Services of New England is preparing to welcome 200
Afghan refugees to Massachusetts over the next six months "and is
already lining up housing and other aid." (Jim Kinney, MassLive
) 

* No Lost Generation, a student organization at George Washington
University, "will meet families arriving at the airport, help them
move into their homes in Maryland and Virginia and share advice about
resettling in the U.S." (The GW Hatchet
) 

* More than 300 Airbnb hosts in Virginia have signed up
to provide free temporary housing for Afghan refugees. (Richmond
Times-Dispatch
) 

* Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) confirmed Wednesday that a group of Afghan
refugees will be coming to Mobile. (Shelby Myers, FOX 10 News
) 

* More than 79 members of the Afghan women's soccer team and their
families have arrived in Pakistan with help from Khalida Popal
, a
former captain of Afghanistan's national women's soccer team.
(Mychael Schnell, The Hill
) 

Welcome to Thursday'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]
.  

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GROWTH - Hispanics and Latinos accounted for more than half of the
nation's population growth in the last decade, reshaping both big
states and small towns, report Suzanne Gamboa and Nicole Acevedo in
a region-by-region analysis for NBC News
. "The Latino
population has been dispersing across the United States for years - a
reflection of where the nation's population is moving and where
opportunities are located," said Pew Research Center's Mark Hugo
Lopez. And when it comes to Hispanics relocating to places with
new economic opportunities, he added, "oftentimes immigrants are
leading the way." Moreover, New American Economy
 is
out with a great update about the economic contributions of
Hispanic Americans: "Hispanic households now collectively earn more
than ever-to the sum of more than $1.2 trillion and paid
almost $309 billion in taxes in 2019 alone-and remain one of the
fastest growth segments of the U.S. population." 

UNLIMITED POTENTIAL - St. Paul, Minnesota Mayor Melvin
Carter announced a new program Wednesday "that will provide up to
$2,000 in no-interest loans to residents who need help covering the
costs of applications for naturalization or other immigrant benefits,"
reports Katie Galioto for The Minneapolis Star Tribune
.
"We know that when immigrants become naturalized, their ability to
participate in our community, their ability to participate in our
economy, their ability to contribute to our city increases
tremendously," Carter said. "We are looking forward to continuing to
build our economy not by luring in folks from out of town, but by
ensuring that we double down and always invest in and bet on the
unlimited potential of our neighbors." 

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EXTREME HEAT - A coalition of 68 organizations urged the Biden
administration via a Wednesday letter
 to
"[adopt] a climate-informed approach to policies affecting border
communities, migrants, and asylum seekers," per Human Rights Watch
. "We need
a new way to manage our borders, a humanitarian response that welcomes
both migrants seeking safety and border community members at our ports
of entry. Doing so will save thousands of lives," said Vicki Gaubeca,
director of the Southern Border Communities Coalition. "Responses to
extreme heat in the border region, including access to humanitarian
shelters and water, should be nondiscriminatory and accessible
regardless of migration status." 

THE DARIEN GAP

** **- Every day, at least 500 migrants from around the world set
sail from the small town of Necocli, Colombia, "to start a week-long
trek through the jungle that takes them into Panama - the next stop on
the long road to the United
States," Astrid Suárez writes for the Associated Press
. According
to Panamanian officials, one quarter of them are children. "While
trekking through the lawless jungle known as the Darien Gap, migrants
face the risks of being swept away by rivers, assaulted by armed groups,
or getting lost in the rainforest," Suárez notes. Said Jackie
Charles, a Haitian migrant boarding a boat in Necocli: "We want God
to help us prosper ... Our country is in crisis and we need to
support our family." 

**'AMERICAN SIKH'** - A new animated film, "American Sikh," is set
to chronicle the life of Vishavjit Singh, who is "known for his
Captain America persona - a Sikh man equipped with his turban and
beard - fighting against bigotry, intolerance and perceptions of what
an American should look like," reports Alejandra Molina of Religion
News Service
. "There
is not a lot of representation of people who look like me in the
American entertainment landscape. Because that story hasn't been
told, it leads to a persistent level of ignorance," Singh said
in a Kickstarter video aiming to raise funding for the film. "So
that negative impact on fellow American lives can be countered by
telling stories of Sikhs in America." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

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