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AFGHANISTAN — United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi is warning of a potential "humanitarian crisis" if countries do not engage with the interim government in Afghanistan, Asad Hashim reports for Al Jazeera. Grandi met with officials in Afghanistan as well as in Pakistan, which is home to 1.4 million registered Afghan refugees. (Grandi will be speaking at our annual Leading the Way convening next month.) Stateside, here’s a must-read from a few days ago: The Indianapolis Star’s Rashika Jaipuriar tells the story of Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez and the community that is remembering him. Sanchez, a Mexican American and Indiana resident, was one of the 13 U.S. service members killed in the Aug. 26 attack in Kabul. And in The Wall Street Journal, Jessica Donati tells how a family of eight escaped Afghanistan and is beginning a new life in Rochester, New York. Meanwhile, local support and aid for Afghan refugees continue:
LEGISLATIVE STEP — The Senate parliamentarian on Sunday evening said no to Democrats’ efforts to include immigration measures in their budget reconciliation plan, reports Marianne Levine of Politico. Next steps are unclear; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats "plan to meet with the Senate parliamentarian in the coming days and pursue other options." Meanwhile, in Morning Consult today, two police chiefs and members of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force write of their support for immigration solutions via reconciliation. "We have always supported bipartisan paths to immigration solutions, and still do," write Ramon Batista, the retired chief of Mesa, Arizona, and Brian Kyes, the police chief of Chelsea, Massachusetts. "But when push comes to shove, the solutions themselves matter most." H-1B VISAS — A recent court ruling could make it easier for international students to obtain H-1B visas, Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) writes for Forbes. A federal judge blocked a Trump administration regulation that would have ended the H-1B lottery system. "An international student may be 54% more likely to get an H-1B petition under the current H-1B lottery system than under the Trump administration’s regulation," according to an NFAP analysis of cases of recent international students and filings for H-1B petitions. RELIGIOUS LIBERTY — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) order restricting ground transportation of migrants "undermine[s] our religious obligation to help those in need," writes Bishop Daniel Flores, leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Brownsville, Texas, in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal. "We have a religious obligation to serve the poor who are suffering in front of us. That’s why we have asked a federal court — with the help of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty—to protect our First Amendment right to serve these migrants. … In these extraordinary times, it is essential that the Catholic Church in the United States be free to meet the needs of migrants." Thanks for reading, |
