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GREEN CARD RECAPTURE — My new op-ed for The Hill lays out why recapturing green cards is good for our economy and our security. Today, the U.S. green card application backlog is some 5 million and counting, in large part due to the loss of green cards that go unused each year because of processing delays. Through budget reconciliation, Congress could essentially "recapture hundreds of thousands of green cards that have gone unused over several decades." This is particularly important in the global competition for talent that drives everything from micro chip design to AI development. The bottom line: "Immigration is the United States’ competitive advantage over China and much of the world. Our failure to reform the system is weakening our hand." Over at Forbes, our friend Stuart Anderson goes into more detail on the issue. For more on how budget reconciliation could positively impact more than 7 million undocumented immigrants, see Jasmine Aguilera’s piece in TIME Magazine. IN ABSENTIA — Advocates say the San Francisco Immigration Court is rushing deportation orders for immigrants who are not able to make their case to stay in the country, Tal Kopan and Deepa Fernandes report in the San Francisco Chronicle. The court appears to be scheduling hearings "for immigrants whose mail was being returned as undeliverable" — and sending notices of the hearings to the same incorrect addresses. Up to 173 people got deportation orders in such proceedings in August and September after only 20 similar orders were issued from January through July, the Chronicle found. "It’s especially problematic that the San Francisco Immigration Court is spending significant time and resources to obtain so many removal orders through a special docket in cases where they know people will not be able to appear for their hearings," said Sean Riordan, an attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.
‘ROOM FOR NUANCE’ — In an interview with Manuel Roig-Franzia for The Washington Post Magazine, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas relays how a UCLA seminar he took on propaganda in the late 1970s shaped his views and approach to politics. "In a sense, he is the one now holding a seminar on language — but for an entire nation knotted in an intractable immigration fight that stretches back decades," writes Roig-Franzia. To further illustrate the "the power of words," Mayorkas breaks down his conversation with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) on "rounding up" immigrants at the border. In reality, what Secretary Mayorkas "is looking for, what he struggles to explain in a political environment pulled taut from the poles, is room for nuance." The key question: "Can his moderate path fix an intractable crisis?" HUMANITARIAN EFFORTS — More than 100 humanitarian groups are urging President Biden to do more to evacuate at-risk Afghans left behind after the U.S. military withdrawal in August, Joseph Clark reports for The Washington Times. Last week, leaders from international development, humanitarian, and immigration organizations sent a letter to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan: "These individuals played key roles in efforts to strengthen Afghanistan’s government, judiciary, civil society, and media and to protect human rights. For their work, many now face the threat of violent retaliation at the hands of [the] de facto authorities." Moreover, "[t]he evacuation of these individuals should be seen as no less significant than any other priority evacuees, given their work advancing democracy, human rights, and human dignity and level of risk." Here’s today’s list of local (and international) stories of welcome:
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