Thursday, October 28
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

The Biden administration issued new guidance
 on
Wednesday barring immigration enforcement actions in or near
'protected areas' such as schools, hospitals, parks,
parades, places of worship and funerals, reports Miriam Jordan
of The New York Times
. 

Under the guidelines, effective immediately, immigration agents must
"refrain from making arrests, conducting searches, serving subpoenas or
carrying out other enforcement actions" in those areas. 

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted that these new
rules mark a profound shift in interior enforcement and are intended to
improve the day-to-day lives of millions of undocumented
immigrants. The announcement is similar to DHS guidance issued in
April
,
which banned civil immigration enforcement activities at or near
courthouses, with a few narrow exceptions. 

Speaking of courthouses, the Biden administration announced a new class
of 24 immigration judges on Wednesday "which includes several
immigration attorneys with more than a decade of experience in nonprofit
and private practice," reports Alyssa Aquino of Law360
. 

Welcome to Thursday'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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MINIMUM WAGE - The private prison industry profits handsomely off
of our nation's love of detaining immigrants. The Florida-based
GEO Group, which operates the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma,
Washington, "made $18.6 million in profits from the facility" in 2018,
Gene Johnson writes for the Associated Press
. But
rather than pay minimum wage to detainees performing work in the
facility - a cost they could have easily afforded - GEO paid
detainees only $1 a day. On Wednesday, a federal jury determined that
the company must now pay minimum wage, and "will now consider how much
the immigrant detainees who worked at the facility are owed - an
amount expected to run into the millions." Good.  NORTHBOUND -
Edgar H. Clemente of the Associated Press
 tells
the humanizing stories of families across Central America and the
Caribbean trekking north through Mexico. "Better to run the risk, maybe
one can make it (to the U.S.), than to be there caged without work,
without a place to work, without food, without anything," said Dayana
Flores, a young mother from Honduras. Added Mexican Carlos Fuentes,
whose children were targeted by gangs: "We're out of money and so we
decided to come with the caravan and thank God they haven't detained
us." Over at Reuters,
 Jose Torres and
Lizbeth Diaz report that the majority of the latest caravan members
are families with young children. Some of these migrants aim to reach
Mexico City, "where they hope the asylum process might be faster, while
others say they seek to make it to the United States." 

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FAITH AND COMMUNITY - In communities across the U.S., churches
partnering with resettlement agencies like World Relief
 are among the first to welcome Afghans
as newcomers. And "some believe their outpouring of hospitality in 2021
may represent an attitude shift among evangelicals towards
refugees," reports Heather Sells of CBN News
. Such
is the case in North Texas, where hundreds of church volunteers have
signed up for training to support the new wave of Afghan refugees in
the next few months. "I think there's a shift that's taking place,"
said Northwood Church Pastor Bob Roberts. "We're coming back to who we
are - and we've always cared about
people." For the second episode of our multi-part series
 about
Afghan resettlement for Only in America, I spoke to Madhu Sharma
of The International Institute of Akron
 about their work in the wake of the Afghan
evacuation. 

Here's today's roundup of local stories: 

* As part of the Scholar Rescue Fund
 and Scholars At Risk Network
, Indiana University is trying to
connect displaced Afghan students with "fund fellowships or
temporary teaching and research positions." (Jon Zimney, 95.3 MNC
) 

* Scottsdale, Arizona, immigration attorney Darius
Amiri helped Afghan interpreter Zabi resettle in the U.S. this
summer - and they finally met in person this week. (Shelle
Jackson, KVOA
)

* Airman 1st Class Nicolas Baron recently donated
his utilities blouse - "which was seen draped over a sleeping
Afghan child aboard a C-17 Globemaster III in an iconic photo from the
August Afghan refugee evacuations in Kabul" - to the National History
Museum of the U.S. Air Force to memorialize evacuation
efforts. (Rachel Nostrant, Military Times
) 

'LET'S NOT LET THEM DOWN' - The U.S. must do more for our
Afghan allies, writes Ahmed Mushref, a former interpreter for the
U.S. military in Iraq, in an op-ed for the Military Times
.
In 2010, Mushref and his family were able to relocate to Houston on
a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) and build roots there, starting an
interpretation business and managing the refugee services program
at Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston. But since the Trump
administration slashed refugee admissions, resettlement organizations
are in desperate need of more resources to accommodate Afghans -
and Mushref urges the Biden administration to prioritize helping these
organizations rebuild capacity. "When I look at my two little girls,
I'm filled with gratitude that we made it out of Iraq alive," he
writes. "Our Afghan allies deserve the same protection ... Let's not
let them down."  

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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