Monday, November 22
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

On Friday, the House of Representatives passed a $1.68
trillion spending package
 that includes a
number of immigration measures. But, as Sahil Kapur reports for NBC
News
, "[a] number
of provisions may be revised or removed to meet the rules and keep all
50 Democratic-caucusing senators together."  

The current version of the bill "would grant provisional work permits
to about 6.5 million undocumented people in the U.S., under a process
known as parole
. ... But
it's unclear that the policy will comply with the Senate budget
rules." 

Welcome to Monday'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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CLIMATE 

**NATIVISM** - Nativist forces around the world are co-opting the
climate change debate to advance anti-immigrant policies. In a
brilliant piece for The Guardian
, Oliver
Milman explores how "[t]his wrapping of ecological disaster with fears
of rampant immigration is a narrative that has flourished in far-right
fringe movements in Europe and the U.S. and is now spilling into the
discourse of mainstream politics." This "environmental populism,"
Milman writes, "has attempted to dovetail public alarm over the climate
crisis with disdain for ruling elites ... and calls to banish immigrants
behind strong borders." ICYMI, we partnered with the Metropolitan
Group, Migration Policy Institute and RAND Corportation to issue a new
report, "The Link Between Migration Narratives, Policy and Power
."
One of those narratives was climate change.  

'THIS GENERATION'S ELLIS ISLAND' - The Washington Post's
 Abigail Hauslohner chronicles
how Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico has operated as a
"village" housing 7,100 Afghan refugees for the past three
months. "We are this generation's Ellis Island," said Curtis
Velasquez, an Air Force colonel who serves as
the camp's 'governor.' Meanwhile, for USA TODAY
,
Deirdre Shesgreen tells the powerful story of U.S. Army Special
Forces veteran Matt Coburn and his Afghan former
colleague, Azizullah Azizyar, who recently reunited in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. "This is the place where we're going to live. This is
the place where we belong," Azizyar told his wife Roqia and their young
children before their plane landed on Oct. 14.  

Here is today's collection of local stories: 

* With the help of Northeast Ohio Navy veteran Ken Harbaugh and other
volunteers, "[m]ore than 200 Afghan refugees will be treated to a halal
Thanksgiving thanks to donations and help from Assad's Bakery,
Kifaya's Kitchen and mothers in Cleveland's Afghan
community." (Cameron Fields, Cleveland.com
)

* At the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, students
from the Darden Military Association organized a "clothing collection
for Afghan families." (Madison McNamee, NBC 29
) 

* Kent County, Michigan, recently received two six-figure grants "to
meet the health and nutritional needs of newly arriving Afghan
refugees." (Bianca Cseke, FOX 17
) 

HOPE FOR REFORM - During a public session of the U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops' fall general assembly last week, Catholic immigrant
advocates expressed their "optimism on [the] future of immigration
reform," reports Rhina Guidos of Catholic News Service
. "Millions
of our brothers and sisters, our immigrant brothers and sisters, are in
the United States without status, caring for our children, working in
our hospitals, cleaning our homes and providing essential services,
without (legal) status," said Anna Gallagher, executive director of the
Catholic Legal Immigration Network. Auxiliary Bishop Mario
E. Dorsonville of Washington, chairman of the USCCB's migration
committee, also noted that undocumented immigrants aren't looking
for material goods, but for meaningful reform - "the chance to make
a new life in the U.S," as Guidos puts it. 

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'THEY DESERVE BETTER' - Temporary Protected
Status (TPS) holders are an integral part of Houston's Christian
community, write Steve Wells, pastor of South Main Baptist
Church, and Andrea Castaneda-Lauver, co-youth pastor at Houston First
Church of the Nazarene, in an op-ed for the Houston Chronicle
. "TPS
recipients are more than just contributing members of our society; they
are also our neighbors, many are members of Houston's diverse church
community, and throughout the Bible, God calls upon his people to love,
welcome and seek justice for vulnerable foreigners," they write, calling
on Congress to create a path to permanent status for those left in TPS
limbo. "This is an unsustainable life. They deserve better. As their
neighbors and as Christians, we should do better by them." 

GASTROADVOCACY - Food has an incredible power to bring communities
together. For Salon Food
,
Kayla Stewart features Washington, D.C.'s one-of-a-kind Immigrant Food
restaurant, showcasing its ability to counter misinformation about
immigrants while serving delicious meals. "Food has forever unified
people," explained Chief Operating Officer Téa Ivanovic. "For someone
unfamiliar with the issues facing immigrants in America, it's daunting
to jump into the complex topic of immigration without a baseline
understanding of what immigrants contribute ... But it's a lot less
tough to sit down with a group of friends and learn about how your
favorite dishes or flavors have come from immigrant cultures across the
globe." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

P.S. Highly recommend this coverage of the Book Truck, an
initiative by the Mexican Consulate in San Diego "to promote literacy
and reading, especially in Spanish, among children along the border and
beyond," per Salvador Rivera of Border Report
. 

P.P.S. An important correction: We mistakenly got Univision's David
C. Adams' name wrong in Friday's Notes edition. Our apologies. We
really appreciated your immigrant veterans story
, David. 

 

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