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POLAND-BELARUS BORDER — Violence and chaos erupted "at the Poland-Belarus border on Tuesday, as migrants desperate to cross into the European Union threw stones at Polish border guards who responded with water cannon and tear gas," reports a team at CNN. With each side blaming each other, and weather conditions deteriorating, the situation is only worsening, they note. "Today we have witnessed how the Polish security forces on the Belarusian-Polish border used special means containing toxic irritating chemicals against refugees, including women and children," Igor Malyk, deputy head of the Belarusian Armed Forces’ Department of Radiation, Chemical and Biological Protection and Ecology, told Belarusian state media BeITA. For more context on the story, see Pawel Florkiewicz and Joanna Plucinska’s piece for Reuters. POLITICAL PRESSURES — A group of Senate Republicans wrote a letter Monday calling on their colleagues "to reject government spending bills" that don’t include Trump’s border wall funding, reports The Hill’s Aris Folley. Just last month however, Senate Democrats talked about redirecting funds "toward bolstering border security technology, among other measures." NBC’s Suzanne Gamboa says Democrats are banking on part of Biden’s Build Back Better agenda, "which includes an immigration ‘parole’ provision that would give undocumented immigrants — some who have been in the U.S. for decades — permission to work and a temporary 10-year reprieve from deportation."
TITLE 42, EXPLAINED — For The Washington Post, Philip Bump dives deep into the recent history of the Title 42 policy — emblematic of the "Trump-era politicization of the pandemic that still benefits Joe Biden." But recidivism is rising because of Title 42, driving up apprehension numbers. "Without Title 42, the number of apprehensions would probably be lower and the number of asylum seekers higher. The administration, it seems, is willing to take that trade-off," notes Bump. In a Sept. letter, public health experts called on the Biden administration to end the use of the pandemic-era policy. ‘A FAMINE ALREADY’ — A group of organizations, including members of AfghanEvac Coalition, are urging the U.S. government to provide "additional resources to help tens of thousands of people get out of Afghanistan" following the U.S. military withdrawal, reports Ben Fox of the Associated Press. "The State Department doing enough isn’t enough; we need whole of government solutions; we need the international community to step up and we
need it quickly," said Peter Lucier, a former Marine who served in Afghanistan, now working with Team America. "Winter is coming. There is a famine already." Here is today’s series of local stories of communities across the U.S. welcoming Afghans:
Thanks for reading, Ali |
