Monday, November 1
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In recent decades, hundreds of thousands of congressionally allotted
green cards have gone unused because of bureaucracy. At the same time,
the backlog of green card applicants has grown to more than 5 million
.
Per-country caps create decades-long waits for immigrants from countries
like India and China.  President Biden's latest reconciliation
proposal would help the latter by helping the former: It would
"recapture" those unused green cards, "making them available for
immigrants who are currently caught up in the backlog," report Zolan
Kanno-Youngs and Luke Broadwater of The New York Times
. 

Members of both parties have supported green card recapture - both
amid the current conversation, as Andrew Kreighbaum and Ellen M. Gilmer
of Bloomberg Law
 have reported,
and longer ago, per the Times story. The Senate parliamentarian has not
ruled on the current proposal, but when the Senate, under Republican
control, passed a reconciliation bill in 2005 that would have recaptured
unused green cards, there was no challenge on procedural grounds, as the
Niskanen Center has pointed out
. 

Over the weekend, I wrote about
how
recapturing green cards is good for our economy and our national
security.  

Welcome to the "Eat Your Kids' Halloween Candy" edition of
Noorani's Notes. If you have a story to share from your own
community, please send it to me at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected] .

[link removed]

**TAKE TWO** - The Biden administration will again try to end the
Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or "Remain in Mexico" policy at the
border, Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters

reports. Biden first wound down the program earlier this year, but a
federal judge ordered the administration to restart it. A new Homeland
Security memo "squarely addresses some of the alleged failures of the
prior memo," department officials said Friday, adding that the
administration will seek to have the court order vacated. In the
meantime, the administration is still taking steps to restart the
program by the middle of November to comply with the court order. Our
bottom line: MPP is not part of the humane solution we need at the
border. 

**'MONSTROUS BUREAUCRACY'** - Long lines for required U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) check-ins - and limited
capacity due to COVID-19 measures - have resulted in several
dozen migrants camping out overnight in Houston to get appointments,
reports Elizabeth Trovall of the Houston Chronicle
.
The scene? Camping chairs, travel mugs, and some people sleeping in
their cars. "It surprised me because I thought (the check-in process)
was something more quick, more organized," a Venezuelan asylum seeker
said. Migration Policy Institute research director Randy Capps has it
right: "This is a perfect example that makes it very hard for immigrants
to comply with this monstrous bureaucracy that they have to deal with.
And part of the reason why it's so monstrous is because the rules are
inflexible, and the burden always falls on the immigrant when something
goes wrong." 

**TULSA'S WELCOME** - As the Los Angeles Times'

Molly Hennessy-Fiske reports, there are serious challenges facing the
effort to resettle Afghan evacuees. But my friend Eric Costanzo, pastor
of South Tulsa Baptist Church, shared this: About 170 Afghan refugees
have arrived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Pastor Eric's church has
partnered with Catholic Charities to give them a warm welcome, as Tim
Stanley of Tulsa World

reports. Volunteers greet every refugee at the airport with snacks,
water, and a teddy bear for every child. "[E]verybody's come together
on this," said church missions director Karen Pirtle. For an update on
bigger-picture resettlement efforts, see Jen Kirby's Vox

piece. And take in Jeff Gammage's latest in the Philadelphia Inquirer

to get a feel for evacuated Afghans' fear for family members left
behind. 

Here are more stories of local welcome: 

* Together with other faith groups, Phoenix-area Jewish leaders are
working "to address the needs of Afghan refugees." (Neetish Basnet,
Arizona Republic
)

* St. Louis native and former U.S. Army Capt. Charles Mullenger has
partnered with the International Institute of St. Louis to raise money
for resettling Afghan refugees. (Andrea Smith, Ladue News
)

* Jewish Family Services of Washtenaw County ,
one of five resettlement refugee groups in Michigan, is collaborating
with its network of volunteers to gather necessary donations like food
and clothing. (Danny Schwartz, The Detroit Jewish News
)

* We should all aspire to friendships like the one between Amin Faqiry
and Jonathan Dator. (Antonia Noori Farzan, The Providence Journal
)

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**BACK PAY** - Last week we noted that detainees in the GEO Group's
Tacoma, Washington, immigration detention facility must now be paid
the state minimum wage for work completed. In addition to increasing pay
from $1 per day to $13.69 per hour, on Friday the for-profit company was
ordered to pay "nearly $17.3 million" in back wages to detainees held
since 2014, reports Nina Shapiro of the Seattle Times
.
Today, a judge considers a separate suit brought by state Attorney
General Bob Ferguson, claiming wages for detainees held since 2005. GEO
and CoreCivic, another private detention company, face similar suits in
New Mexico, Colorado and California.

Thanks for reading,
Ali

 

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