Thursday, December 2
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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The Biden administration and Mexico have agreed to officially restart
the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols program (MPP), known as the
"Remain in Mexico" policy, per an agreement Wednesday night, report
Nick Miroff and Kevin Sieff of The Washington Post
. The
restart of the program is "expected to begin next week in San Diego and
in the Texas cities of Brownsville, Laredo and El Paso," according to
one official.  

Under the Trump administration, more than 60,000 asylum seekers were
returned to Mexico, "where they were often preyed upon by criminal
gangs, extortionists and kidnappers," note Miroff and Sieff. Yet,
"[t]he new iteration of the program 'will be fairly close to the
previous version,' said another official with knowledge of the
plans."  

Meanwhile, Al Jazeera
 reports
that Mexico also announced a plan
 Wednesday to
collaborate with the U.S. on addressing the root causes of
migration from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. 

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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DETENTION - In the early days of his administration, President
Biden signed
 an
executive order to phase out the Department of Justice's use
of private prisons. Although the commitment did not apply to the
immigrant detention system, immigration advocates in New Jersey
successfully closed a number of detention facilities. But as
The Washington Post's
 Maria
Sacchetti reports, not only are detainees being moved to other states,
"Officials also have renewed contracts with four Geo Group detention
facilities in Florida, Colorado, and Texas, and in September, they
signed an agreement to open a women's detention center in Berks
County, Pennsylvania, a county-owned facility that used to house migrant
families. ICE also extended its contract with the last detention center
in New Jersey, CoreCivic-run Elizabeth Detention Center, company and
state court records show." Meanwhile, in the The Texas Tribune,
 Uriel
J. García cites Syracuse University's TRAC data that finds, since
October, "a recorded 22,129 immigrants were in ICE detention centers,
a 56 percent increase since Biden took office." The detention system,
and the private prisons that profit from it, continue to thrive.  

RECONCILIATION REDUX - The latest iteration of immigration
provisions in the budget reconciliation bill went to Senate
parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough on Wednesday, Suzanne Monyak
reports in Roll Call
. MacDonough will
decide whether provisions that would grant temporary protections for
millions of undocumented immigrants adhere to the rule that
reconciliation bills "primarily impact the federal budget." In the
words of Laura Collins of the George W. Bush Institute, "These are not
full immigration reform provisions. They are Band-Aids. They are fixes.
They look back on some things that need to be fixed, or that need a
repair. They don't move forward with a new, modern immigration system
that actually meets the needs of the country." 

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'REFUGEES ARE A BLESSING ...'

** **- U.S. military veterans are not forgetting about Afghan allies
who remain in Afghanistan, as Rachel Nostrant of the Marine Corps
Times
 reports. In
an open letter  to members of
Congress and Biden administration officials, they call for specific
action steps to continue to evacuate and effectively resettle
allies. Among the requests: "a multi-year, actionable plan for
evacuating our Afghan allies," an Afghan Adjustment Act from Congress
(see the Forum's explainer for more context on that here
),
funding for the State Department and other agencies, and broadening of
Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) eligibility. Nearly 300 people have
signed the letter. Related: In an interview with Stuart Anderson
at Forbes
, HIAS
CEO Mark Hetfield goes into depth about the situation in Afghanistan
and our current refugee resettlement program. And drops a gem:
"Refugees are a blessing to this country. If you don't believe me,
volunteer, meet some, and see for yourself."  

On the local-welcome front:  

* "We're doing a lot of welcoming work, enrolling in schools,
enrolling in English classes, doing home visits, delivering welcome
kits, getting people on their feet and able to live here in this
community," says Erika Brown Binion, executive director of the Refugee
Development Center in Lansing, Michigan. (Lawrence Cosentino, Lansing
City Pulse
) 

* Resettlement agencies in Tennessee have welcomed more than 300 of the
600 Afghan evacuees they anticipate by February, and they are
balancing immediate and longer-term needs. (Liam Adams, Nashville
Tennessean
)

* North Carolina's new state budget includes a $250,000 grant
for Interpreting Freedom Foundation, supports former military
interpreters as they resettle in the U.S. (A.P. Dillon, The North
State Journal
) 

* A story my colleague and SUNY New Paltz alumna Dynahlee will
appreciate: Just four weeks after forming, New Paltz for Refugees has
raised $26,000 to help resettle Afghan families and has just welcomed a
family of seven. (Hudson Valley 1
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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