Tuesday, September 28
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

The U.S. has expelled nearly 4,000 Haitians in just
nine days, "including hundreds of families with children, without
allowing them to seek asylum as part of an ongoing deportation blitz,"
reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
.  

Per Department of Homeland Security data, between September 19 and
September 27, 37 U.S. expulsion flights landed in Haiti. According to
the International Organization for Migration (IOM), about 44% of the
deportees Haiti has received since September 19 are women and
children. 

Giuseppe Loprete, chief of mission for the Port-au-Prince-based chapter
of the IOM, explained that "many, if not all" of those
expelled to Haiti - the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere
- previously lived in South America and have not been to their home
country in years.  

"I don't think Haiti can really absorb thousands of homeless people,
many of whom don't have family or support networks in the country, in
this short amount of time," said Adam Isacson, an analyst for the
Washington Office on Latin America. "It's probably going to work to
the advantage of gangs and extortionists who pretty much run vast
parts of Port-au-Prince. These people are going to be exploited." 

Ishaan Tharoor's analysis in The Washington Post
 of
the Biden administration's response to the situation is well worth
the read.  

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]
. 

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FAITH RESPONSE - Prior to thousands of Haitian migrants being
cleared out from Del Rio, Texas, a coalition of faith groups and other
organizations was "providing them with sandwiches, water and other
essentials," report Luis Andres Henao and Peter Smith of
the Associated Press
. (Our
friends at World Central Kitchen tell me they
provided approximately 100,000 meals on site.) Many of these
migrants are now receiving support from faith-based groups in Houston
and El Paso as they try to connect with family and sponsors throughout
the U.S., but some critics say these efforts are prompting more
migrants to come. "We are apolitical," said Carlos Villareal, a
Houston-area leader in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints. "Our concern is mainly with the families, that we can help
them. It's also the Golden Rule - do unto others as you would have
done unto you. ... These people are just here seeking an
opportunity." 

'HOLY GROUND' - "Welcome. We can't imagine how hard this has
been, but we're very glad you're safe. And we're very glad that
you're here." These are the words Kent Annan, co-director of the
Humanitarian Disaster Institute at Wheaton College, told each Afghan
evacuee he interviewed upon their arrival in the U.S. In an
op-ed for The Dallas Morning News
,
Annan writes how these 16 days he spent working with Operation
Allies Welcome  "were among my most
intense and meaningful. I tell my Wheaton College graduate students and
alums, 13 of whom also deployed with me, that it's like stepping onto
holy ground when we serve people in humanitarian crises who are enduring
their most vulnerable moments."  

Here's today's sampling of local stories: 

* Students at McNeal Elementary School in Lakewood Ranch, Florida, have
collected 46 bags' worth of donations for Afghan refugee children.
(Bill Murphy, Bay News 9
) 

* While arriving Afghans wait to be processed, soldiers from Fort
Hood, Texas, have paired up with evacuees to teach language classes to
both adults and children. (El Paso Herald-Post
) 

* Mattress Firm has committed to donating $50,000 and 450 mattresses
to "support the resettlement efforts for Afghan refugees in Austin,
Dallas and Houston, Texas, and around the U.S." (Sheila Long
O'Mara, Furniture Today
) 

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HIGH-TECH TALENT - Michigan needs workers for its high-tech
industries - and recruiting highly-skilled foreign workers is the
best way to meet that immediate demand, Malachi
Barrett reports for MLive
. "Michigan
consistently ranks among the top 10 states for migrant workers
with H-1B work visas
,
which allows companies to employ foreign workers in specialty jobs that
require technical expertise," Barrett writes. But with a limited
number of visas available each year, many positions are left
unfilled. "There is optimism with the new administration that
immigration reform would truly be something we could all work on
together," said Glenn Stevens, executive director
of MICHauto. "There's no question there's a focus on immigration
reform, and the talent that we're going to need moving forward." For
more on the importance of high-skilled immigration to America's
competitiveness and national security, see the Council on National
Security and Immigration's new white paper
. 

UNCLE C'S - Uncle C's Chicken and Waffles in Alexandria,
Virginia, has an immigration story most people don't know
about, Tim Carman writes in The Washington Post
. The founders
of Uncle C's, Sayed Qayum and Sam Bahary, "are not African
Americans or Southerners or even Southerners by way of New York or the
City of Angels," writes Carman. They're Afghan Americans whose
families fled war in the 1980s - and they're not the only
ones: "Afghans have a long history with fried chicken in America, one
more absorbing chapter in the ever-evolving saga of the dish
 in
our country." People tell me Uncle C's is really good (and
also halal). My colleague who has the first pen on your morning
note, Dynahlee, just went - and says it
doesn't disappoint.  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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