Wednesday, September 22

The Democratic-led House approved $6.3 billion in emergency funding for Afghan refugee resettlement on Tuesday, reports Al Jazeera.

The bill, which now heads to the Senate, sets new timelines to process asylum claims from Afghan evacuees and requires U.S. officials to interview refugees within 45 days. It would also require the Department of Homeland Security to submit quarterly reports to Congress on the number and status of Afghan evacuees in the U.S. and overseas on U.S. military bases.

"This funding will ensure the government agencies involved in the resettlement process have the capacity necessary to help our Afghan allies build new lives in safety in the United States," said Rep. Deborah Ross (D-North Carolina).

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].

AFGHAN WELCOME — Christians are turning to the Bible to help welcome and resettle Afghan refugees, writes Shane Bennett of Healing Nations in a piece for Denison Forum (republished in the Christian Post). "This Afghan migration to our shores may be the greatest opportunity in years for us to obey Jesus’ instruction to act like the good Samaritan," he writes, encouraging Christians to befriend and advocate for their new neighbors. "May the God who opened doors for this blessed influx of Afghans open up opportunities for each of us, as he sees fit, to extend the love, grace, present peace, and hope of Jesus to both newly arriving Afghans and Muslims all over."

Here’s this morning’s sampling of local stories of welcome:

KindWorks is rounding up volunteers to cook homemade Afghan welcome meals for refugees resettling in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area. (John Gonzalez, ABC 7)
Florida law firm Pajcic & Pajcic donated $50,000 to Catholic Charities Jacksonville’s refugee resettlement program to support Afghan SIV holders and humanitarian parolees. (Katherine Lewin, Florida Times-Union)
Sacramento, California’s Elk Grove Unified School District "began offering culturally appropriate meals and setting aside rooms in many of its middle and high schools for prayer during Muslim holidays" in preparation for arriving Afghan students. (Diana Lambert, KQED)
More than 30 major companies — including Amazon, Facebook, Pfizer and UPS — will join the Tent Coalition for Afghan Refugees, founded by Chobani’s Hamdi Ulukaya, to integrate, train and hire Afghan refugees as they rebuild their lives in the U.S. (Erin Doherty, Axios)

DEL RIO — The Biden administration’s response to the humanitarian crisis facing Haitians at the border is still developing. The Washington Post reports that the U.S. is preparing to double the number of deportations to Haiti, "raising alarm that thousands of cash-strapped migrants will add a new dimension to the humanitarian crisis in a country torn apart by violence, natural disaster and political strife." Meanwhile, two U.S. officials told the Associated Press that many Haitian migrants are being released into the U.S., "undercutting the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion." What’s clear is that the administration’s response to Haiti "has drawn condemnation from both Republican hardliners and Democratic allies," Maureen Groppe and Rebecca Morin write for USA TODAY. Said Edward Alden, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations: "There are lots of people trying to flee desperate situations in countries that are on our doorstep. And there’s no particularly good answer as to how to deal with that."

UNHCR RESPONSE — As the Biden administration ramps up deportations to Haiti, Gessika Thomas and Daina Beth Solomon of Reuters report on the scene that returnees "reacted angrily as they stepped off flights at Port-au-Prince airport after spending thousands of dollars on arduous voyages from the troubled Caribbean nation via South America hoping for a better life in the United States." U.N. refugee chief Filippo Grandi (who is speaking at our Leading the Way convening in October) "said U.S. expulsions to such a volatile situation might violate international law and could constitute refoulement or exposing people seeking shelter to life-threatening situations." As a new camp grows on the Mexican side of the border, "Mexican and Haitian authorities held talks on Tuesday about how to deal with the migrant influx, with Mexico set to offer space for Haiti's government to open consular offices in the southern cities of Tenosique and Talisman, close to the Guatemalan border."

GOODWIN HOUSE — Around 17% of the nation’s medical workforce is made up of immigrant employees at long-term care facilities. In a Washington Post column, Petula Dvorak tells the touching story of how residents at Goodwin House, a retirement home in northern Virginia, honor the immigrant staff members who aid them every day. In two weeks, residents raised $40,000 to fund nearly 90 staff members’ citizenship application fees, in addition to tutoring them in preparation for the citizenship test. Nicola Stevens, a Jamaican-born cafeteria worker, "said she never had grandparents growing up. ‘But I have so many grandparents now,’ Stevens told the residents who helped her, who nagged her to study as her citizenship test came up."

Thanks for reading,

Ali