Tuesday, November 30
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

One of the smartest organizations working along the U.S.-Mexico border
is the faith-based Hope Border Institute. Based on interviews with 51
migrants at three shelters in Ciudad Juarez, they're out with a new
report , "No Other Choice: An
Exploration of the Root Causes of Migration to the Southern Border." 

Julian Resendiz at Border Report
 writes
that the new report underscores that criminal gangs and
cartels are impacting migrants, small business owners and farmers
alike. "Nearly 70 percent of our interviewees were extorted or
threatened by a criminal organization or gang," the report said.
"Despite having few resources to hand over, the gangs pursued them with
an incredible degree of persistence and violence."  

"We found that traditional drivers of forced migration - including
poverty, violence, absence of rule of law and criminal control over
lives and livelihoods - continue to push people out of Central
America and Mexico," Hannah Hollandbyrd, a policy specialist at Hope
Border Institute, told Border Report. "But the COVID-19 pandemic and
climate change are compounding these push factors." 

Welcome to Tuesday'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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**TRAUMA AND HEALING** - In Arizona's Maricopa County - "the
epicenter of the US' immigration wars" - immigration status can
deeply affect mental health, Terry Greene Sterling reports for The
Guardian
.
As a former undocumented immigrant himself, Lehigh
University psychology Professor Germán Cadenas has done extensive
research on the psychology of being undocumented. Mental health
challenges like anxiety, depression and PTSD "can stem from being
marginalized, hunted and detained as well as from feeling dehumanized by
xenophobic rhetoric, an exclusionary higher educational system,
predatory employment practices, civil rights violations and the
uncertainties of changing immigration policies," according to
researchers and advocates, Greene Sterling writes. But Professor
Cadenas underscores that identifying harmful systems, and engaging in
activism around them, can help immigrants protect their own mental
health - and help others heal as well. 

'I WENT BACK' - Paired with striking photos from Omar Ornelas,
Lauren Villagran of the El Paso Times
 tells
the story of Haitian migrant John Lafontant. After leaving his home
country of Haiti nearly ten years ago to work in Chile,
Lafontant sought better opportunities in the U.S. But arriving
in Del Rio, Texas, instead of a door to the U.S., he found "more
than 14,000 people, including families with children, waiting outdoors
for days or weeks without adequate shelter, food or potable water but
with Border Patrol tickets in hand." After receiving a warning message
from his brother that the U.S. had begun deporting Haitians at the
Del Rio encampment, Lafontant crossed
back into Mexico. With shelter at a Seventh Day Adventist Church
and a factory job in Tijuana, he could start over. "I went back so
they didn't deport me, too," recounted Lafontant. "... I can't go
back to Haiti." 

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RESETTLEMENT WOES - The Biden administration paused refugee
resettlement in October to focus on assisting Afghan evacuees -
but some resettlement agencies say the move is unnecessary
and thwarts their efforts to rebuild capacity after the Trump-era
hollowing out of resettlement infrastructure, reports Danae King
of The Columbus Dispatch
. "When
we were asked do we want to pause (refugee) arrivals, I said no
because it's apples and oranges," said Angie Plummer, executive
director of Central Ohio's Community Refugee and Immigration Services
(CRIS). "We don't think that it's necessary. It's not a competition
for resources to have these folks come." The State
Department says not all refugee cases have been paused, as it is
prioritizing some urgent cases. The pause is set to be lifted on Jan.
11. 

DISPLACEMENT PARALLELS - In a column for Baptist News Global
,
Erich Bridges dives deep into the recent history of
displacement across Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan and
Myanmar. Turkey is currently the top host country for displaced
people, "with more than 4 million refugees and asylum seekers." After
meeting with Afghan refugees on a recent visit to Turkey,
Bridges attended a meeting hosted by his church on the needs of Afghans
arriving in the U.S., including a family living in a hotel with a
newborn. "I couldn't help but think of Mary and Joseph, desperately
searching for shelter and warmth as their holy child entered the world,
Bridges writes. "... Could Jesus be coming to us again in the guise of
an Afghan child? And if so, will we welcome him and give him shelter?" 

Here is today's compilation of local stories: 

* In partnership with the International Rescue Committee,
the non-profit Welcome Home Jersey City has helped resettle
nine Afghan families in Jersey City, New Jersey, with more to come.
(Jake Maher, The Jersey Journal
) 

* College Park Baptist Church in Greensboro, North Carolina, along with
other groups in Triad, helped the first Afghan refugees resettle in
the area. Efforts to welcome new arrivals included "driving them to
the grocery store, helping to navigate setting up the discount cable
that helps them connect to stations in their language, and using an
online translation app to communicate." (Nancy
McLaughlin, Greensboro News & Record
) 

* Bethany Christian Services has partnered with Fresno
Interdenominational Refugee Services (FIRM) and other organizations to
welcome and support Afghan refugees in Fresno, California.
(Carmen Kohlruss, The Fresno Bee
)  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

**P.S. **Some personal news: yesterday we announced
 that
I will be transitioning out of the Forum next spring, after nearly
14 years with the organization. I am deeply grateful for the
opportunity to be a part of this incredible organization, and to all of
you for reading and engaging with these Notes for the past few
years. This also leaves us with a question for you: What should we
call Noorani's Notes?

 

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