Tuesday, October 26
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

According to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
data, interior immigration arrests fell to the lowest level in more
than a decade in fiscal year 2021 - "roughly half the annual
totals recorded during the Trump administration," report
Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti of The Washington Post
. 

"Officers working for ICE's Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO)
made about 72,000 administrative arrests during the fiscal year that
ended in September, down from 104,000 during the 2020 fiscal year."  

Under Biden, ICE is focused on arresting more serious criminals:
Between Feb. 18 and Aug. 31, ICE arrested 6,046 individuals with
aggravated felony convictions, compared with 3,575 in the same period in
2020, per officials. 

Meanwhile, the Biden administration will officially restart President
Trump's Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program in
mid-November with potential changes, Stef W. Kight at Axios
 reports,
including access to the coronavirus vaccine for enrolled asylum
seekers. 

Under the updated program, migrants are likely to be returned
to Mexico through seven ports of entry across California, Arizona and
Texas - and "[o]fficials are preparing to handle as many as 175
asylum cases per day at makeshift courts being built in Laredo and
Brownsville, Texas." 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you
missed Day One of  Leading The Way

** **yesterday, you can catch up on some of the great conversations
via our highlight reel
 - and don't
miss the sneak preview
 of
today's programming.  

We hope you'll join us as we close out LTW today, including my
conversation with USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou. Register here
 by
1 p.m. ET

** **to guarantee your spot. Please note that there might be a short
delay in sending your credentials.  

[link removed]

PRIVATE SPONSORS - More details on the administration's
new program allowing private citizens to sponsor Afghan
evacuees from Axios'
 Stef
Kight: "Groups of at least five adults can apply, complete background
checks and start fundraising the $2,275 per refugee
required." Meanwhile, for the Sahan Journal
, Hibah
Ansari tells the story of how Muhammad Nishat - an Afghan who
worked on a U.S. government project - and his family escaped
the country after the Taliban's takeover. The challenging 44-day
journey led his family of nine to safety in two Minnesota hotel
rooms.  

Here's today's series of local stories: 

* School officials in Fort Worth, Texas, are
helping resettled Afghan students enroll in the
district's International Newcomer Academy, a school for refugee
students and others who have recently immigrated to the U.S. (Silas
Allen, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
) 

* Members of the Jewish Family and Community Services of Pittsburgh
 collaborated with evangelical
Christian and Muslim volunteers to cook Afghan meals for new
arrivals relocating to nearby Monroeville. (WTAE
) 

* As part of the school's Pro Bono program
, University of Virginia School
of Law students are "helping local Afghan families who hold special
immigrant visas to fill out paperwork they hope will reunite them with
their loved ones. (Eric Williamson, University of Virginia School of
Law
) 

* The Schultz Family Foundation
, Stand Together Foundation
 and The Starbucks Foundation
 announced
the Mobilizing America for Refugees Fund Monday, which will
provide more than $1 million to community-based organizations helping
with Afghan resettlement efforts. (Schultz Family Foundation
)

[link removed]

REMEMBERING EFRAÍN - An internal ICE investigation found
that medical and security staff at Georgia's Stewart Detention
Center violated numerous agency rules when dealing with a detainee
with mental illness in 2018, José Olivares reports for The
Intercept
. Efraín
Romero de la Rosa, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia before
being detained, took his own life after 21 days in
solitary confinement that summer. ICE's External Reviews and
Analysis Unit "found that staff had falsified documents; improperly
dealt with Romero's medication; neglected to follow proper procedures
for his care; and improperly placed him in disciplinary solitary
confinement - despite multiple warnings of Romero's declining mental
health."   

UNACCOMPANIED IN COURT - There is currently no plan
for providing legal counsel to unaccompanied migrant children in
U.S. immigration courts - and that's a problem, writes Sarah
Burr, a former assistant chief immigration judge in New York and
Immigrant Justice Corps board member, in an op-ed for The Hil
l. "How
does a child, already intimidated and confused by the courtroom setting,
understand the nature of the court proceedings and the charges against
them? How can a child understand the complexities of immigration law,
their burden of proof, and possible defenses against deportation? The
short answer is they cannot." Despite the Biden
administration's Counsel for Children Initiative
 and nonprofit organizations'
efforts to hire and train immigration
attorneys to represent minors, Burr writes, more needs to be
done to ensure children are not alone in courts. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

P.S. The Citizens of the World Choir
 in London is using music
to change perceptions of migrants and refugees. Check out the
wonderful story by Sertan Sanderson on Info Migrants
. 

 

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