Thursday, November 11
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In honor of Veterans Day, we want to take a moment to thank all
veterans for their sacrifice and service.  

A group of Democratic senators announced a bill Wednesday that would
halt the deportations of some immigrant veterans, per Russell
Contreras at Axios
.
The bill "would help prevent deportations of noncitizen veterans,
provide pathways to citizenship for some immigrant service members and
their families and allow deported veterans to return home to the U.S." 

Currently, some 1,000 U.S. military veterans
 live
abroad due to their immigration status. 

Meanwhile, it's the work of army veterans like Matt Carpenter and
Rick Stockburger, both of whom returned to Ohio after having served in
Afghanistan and elsewhere, who exemplify what it means
to welcome and support Afghan refugees. For WVXU's Cincinnati
Edition
, Carpenter
and Stockburger talk about their evacuation effort and more. (I talked
to them earlier this week for an upcoming episode of Only in America.
Their story is incredible.) 

Speaking of, for this week's episode of Only in America
, we
look at how the military community has stepped up to the challenge of
welcoming Afghans. And as Congress considers passing an Afghan
Adjustment Act to provide evacuees a path to permanent status, our
policy team has a new explainer
 on
what we can learn from prior Adjustment Acts and what they mean for
Afghan resettlement.  

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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**CLEARED TO WORK** - Following a class-action lawsuit, the Biden
administration "will make it easier for some immigrant spouses to
continue working legally with a visa but without renewing their
employment authorization," reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street
Journal
. "The
change will benefit tens of thousands of immigrants, primarily Indian
women, who are the spouses of H-1B and L-1 visa holders who
were caught in a monthslong backlog
 to
receive their work permits." The COVID-19 pandemic and
Trump-era changes to renewal requirements exacerbated permit
processing delays amid a growing backlog. "This is a huge victory for
spouses, it saves people money and time," said Jesse Bless, director of
litigation at the American Immigration Lawyers Association. 

'THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS' - The Biden
administration issued new immigration enforcement guidance
 in
September (slated to be finalized Nov. 29), but Ohio immigrant
advocates say the implementation of these new priorities has been
inconsistent across U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field
offices, Yilun Cheng reports for The Columbus Dispatch
. Biden's
new rules "[limit] arrests and deportations to noncitizens considered
threats to national security, public safety or border
security" - but immigrants like Said Said, a Tanzanian
immigrant and father who has lived in the U.S. for more than 20
years, remains in custody and faces deportation because of an expired
student visa. "This is outrageous. You are violating your own two
separate directives/guidelines," wrote Said's attorney Nazly
Mamedova in an email to ICE after the agency denied his latest
request for relief. 

[link removed]

'WE ARE DYING HERE' - Children are "suffer[ing] from hunger and
hypothermia" at the Belarus-Poland border, where thousands of
migrants have gathered hoping to cross into
Poland, reports Sara Cincurova for Al Jazeera
. "I
see children dying in front of my eyes and I can't do anything to help
them," said "Ibrahim," a 37-year-old Syrian. "We are dying
here." A group of medical workers with Border Aid has treated a few
dozen children at the border, some with severe conditions - and at
least one child has reportedly died. With winter approaching, "NGO
workers and activists in Poland have raised the alarm over child
refugees on both sides of the border as the crisis deepens
 and
weather conditions deteriorate." 

SAM AND ADAM - For Louisiana's The Advocate
, Ellyn
Couvillion tells the story of how "Sam," a U.S. contractor who worked
in Afghanistan, helped his Afghan
interpreter "Adam" escape Kabul. When Sam first found out Adam
was in danger in August, he "began a frantic letter-writing campaign to
Congress members and President Joe Biden." With Sam on the phone
throughout, Adam was able to reach the Kabul airport and wait 15 hours
for an evacuation flight. Through Catholic Charities, Sam officially
became Adam's sponsor and helped him resettle in the U.S. in
late October. "It was like you were in a hell, and then you're going
to paradise," Adam recounted. 

Here is today's collection of local stories: 

* In New Haven, Connecticut, the newly formed Shoreline Interfaith
Resettlement "will be co-sponsoring an Afghan refugee family with
Integrated Refugee Immigrant Services (IRIS) in the coming
months." (Ben Rayner, Zip 06
) 

* At Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, instructors like Afghan refugee and teacher
Painda Mohammad Mashal "are teaching refugees of all ages about the
English language and American culture." (CBS 58
) 

* The Missouri group "RAISE" is organizing community support to help
Afghan refugees resettle in Joplin. (Jake Kaufman, FOX 2 Now
) 

Thanks for reading,  

Ali 

P.S. Check out this New York Times
 piece
on 'The Walk,' a project about refugees, which the Times
describes as "one of the year's most ambitious pieces of theater -
and certainly the piece of theater with the biggest stage." 

 

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