Friday, November 19
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

Yesterday's North American Leader's Summit pretended migration
did not exist.  

As The New York Times'
 Katie
Rogers and Natalie Kitroeff report, "the leaders seemed intent on
relaying diplomatic niceties over tackling thornier questions like trade
disputes or the surging numbers of migrants." 

Duncan Wood, vice president of strategy at the Wilson Center, pointed
out that "[t]he power balance between the Mexican government and the
U.S. government has shifted because of the circumstances." Mexico knows
"they can hurt the Biden administration, and they know that the Biden
administration knows that."  

In other words, since neither country wants to invest the political
capital necessary to create a functional approach to migration through
the hemisphere, migrants are political pawns.  

An important correction: Yesterday we incorrectly cited
that a makeshift migrant camp in Tijuana was cleared out on
Oct. 28. As the Associated Press
 reports, the makeshift
camp was not cleared out that day; "[m]igrants had to register for
credentials or leave," and migrants with credentials continue to come
and go. And a clarification: Although Mexico is allowing more
than 1,500 migrants to stay and work, per Al Jazeera
, that
allowance is temporary: "Mexican immigration agents offered one-year
residency permits on humanitarian grounds." Thank you to our reader who
pointed these out. 

Welcome to Friday'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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GOP AND IMMIGRATION - Should Democrats' efforts to include
immigration in reconciliation not be successful, the Republican Party
has an opportunity to address immigration, reports Suzanne Monyak
of Roll Call
.
"There's obviously ample evidence that the GOP is making unprecedented
inroads with the Latino community, and I think this is a really strong
opportunity to come forward with legislative proposals that would
balance both security ... with very viable options on legal channels,"
said Daniel Garza, president of The LIBRE Initiative. Rep. María Elvira
Salazar (R-Florida) says she is willing to work with Democrats and is
preparing a plan that would offer work permits (but not citizenship)
to undocumented immigrants. Other Republicans have worked on legislation
that would address farmworkers. But as GOP consultant Mike Madrid asks,
"Do [Republicans] believe that there's enough growth with Hispanic
voters to tone down the rhetoric ... ?" 

IMMIGRANT VETERANS

** **- U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) recently
issued new immigration guidance to make it easier for U.S. military
veterans facing deportation to become citizens, per Univision's
 David
C. Ramos. About 530,000, or 3 percent of the
nation's veterans were born elsewhere, according
to the Migration Policy Institute. The memo is part of an effort
to ensure that veterans and their families can stay in or return to the
U.S., "to remove barriers to naturalization," and to make immigration
services more accessible. The situation of former U.S. Marine Paul
Canton, originally from New Zealand, helped inspire the change and now
he can apply to become a citizen. "My journey is almost over but how
many veterans are there just getting started on this. I hope we have
raised some awareness," Canton said.  

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BELARUS AND POLAND - How migrants have been treated, by both
the European Union and Belarus, is just reprehensible. The lack of a
clear EU migration system allows Belarus President Alexander
Lukashenko to weaponize migration. Caught in the middle are real
people. The New York Times
 has
updates on the situation, including Iraq organizing its first
repatriation flight and Belarus clearing out migrants from the main
border crossing with Poland. Tatsiana Kulakevich of Talking Points Memo
 has
a great explainer about the crisis, including background, resolutions,
and potential political consequences if Lukashenko doesn't step back
soon. As I said in my conversation with Cheddar News
 last
evening: Real people's lives are being put at great risk. 

'WORRIED FOR THEIR LIVES' - More than 28,000 Afghans have
applied for humanitarian parole since the summer, but only about 100
have been approved, reports Philip Marcelo of the Associated Press
. (See
our explainer of parole here.
) USCIS
says it's "ramping up staff to address the growing backlog," but
the slow pace threatens the safety of Afghans who have family in the
U.S. "'We're worried for their lives,' says Safi, a
Massachusetts resident whose family is sponsoring 21 relatives seeking
humanitarian parole. 'Sometimes, I think there will be a day when I
wake up and receive a call saying that they're no more.'" 

Here is today's compilation of local stories:  

* Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne, Indiana, has welcomed and resettled
60 Afghan refugees to the area, with a goal of resettling up to
75. (Brian Davis, WOWO
) 

* A nonprofit in Muncie, Indiana, called AWAKEN
 has recently "created a subcommittee
dedicated to the relocation of Afghan refugees." (Rebecca Rosado, Ball
State Daily
) 

* The Welcome Fund, created by Welcome.US, "has raised more than $12
million so far, including a $4.6 million donation from former investment
manager Ed Shapiro through the Shapiro Foundation." (Nicole
Wallace, The Chronicle of Philanthropy
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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