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‘WE’RE READY FOR IT’ — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Tuesday that the Biden administration has learned from the Haitian migrant crisis "and is prepared for the possibility of additional groups" arriving at the border, Rebecca Morin reports for USA TODAY. "[W]e have developed plans that should something like that occur again, we’re ready for it," he said of the makeshift migrant camp in Del Rio, Texas. Still, Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill reports that Mayorkas "missed a self-imposed deadline to complete an investigation into officers on horseback who dispersed Haitian migrants despite a pledge to wrap the review within days, not weeks." In an op-ed for The Washington Post, former asylum officer Jesús G. Ruiz tells the important history of Haiti as "a legal sanctuary of freedom for people across the Americas in the 19th century. In their search for survival and dignity, Haitians themselves are now in need of similar protections." REUNITED — It took eight years. After fleeing the Taliban and hopping around military bases and refugee camps from Qatar to El Paso, Saeed Sharifi has finally been granted humanitarian parole and reunited with his family in Texas, reports Michael Williams of The Dallas Morning News. However, Saeed is still waiting for his sister, a women’s rights lawyer, who is currently moving from safe house to safe house in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Jacob Thompson of WKBN 27 tells the story of Afghanistan veteran Rick Stockburger, who used social media and Google Maps to get Afghan allies to safety. For more on what the evacuation effort means for Stockburger and others, read WFMJ 21’s reporting and watch their compelling TV report. Today’s sample of local stories:
NOBEL PRIZE — Immigrants "have kept doing what they have done for years —winning Nobel Prizes," Stuart Anderson of the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP) writes for Forbes. Per new NFAP research, immigrants "have been awarded 38%, or 40 of 104, of the Nobel Prizes won by Americans in chemistry, medicine and physics since 2000," and three of the four U.S. winners of the Nobel Prize this year in physics, chemistry and medicine are immigrants. "The rise in immigrant Nobel Prize winners reflects an overall increase in the reputation and capability of American institutions and researchers post-1960, and a greater openness to immigration has helped make the United States the leading global destination for research in many different science and technology fields," the study concludes. PICTURE BOOK DREAMS — Austin Wells of Blue Ribbon News tells the story of Rosie Pova, a Bulgarian immigrant who now lives in Rockwall, Texas and is a successful children’s book author. "I call [picture books] little geniuses because they accomplish so much in not a lot of pages," said Pova, whose latest book was included in a New York Times list of picture books about imagination and identity. "If I can accomplish what I have accomplished – going from being an immigrant who couldn’t speak English correctly to a published author – [children] can, too, no matter what their goals are or the obstacles they may face." Thanks for reading, Ali |
