Wednesday, December 8
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

 

NOORANI'S NOTES

 

Still enjoying Noorani's Notes? Please confirm you want to continue
your subscription by clicking this link ,
or any other link in this email. Thanks!  

For the first time since 2019, the largest federal law enforcement
agency in the nation has Senate-confirmed
leadership. Yesterday, Tucson, Arizona, Police Chief Chris
Magnus was confirmed as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) on a 50-47 vote, as The Wall Street Journal's
 Michelle
Hackman reports.  

Magnus has been a longtime member of the Law Enforcement Immigration
Task Force
, and we
are grateful to have his leadership at our borders
and within CBP. His confirmation comes at a crucial time, given
the high levels of migrant encounters at the border and ongoing
challenges within the  agency.  

See our statement on his confirmation here
,
and read the response from the Council on National Security and
Immigration's C. Stewart Verdery here
.  

On the local level, Deqa Dhalac made history Monday as she was
elected mayor of South Portland, Maine, the state's fourth largest
city. She's the first Somali American mayor in the U.S.,
as Kelley Bouchard reports in the Portland Press Herald
 -
and won in the country's whitest state, notes Catherine E. Shoichet
of CNN
. 

Welcome to Wednesday'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]
.  

[link removed]

'RISK OF DANGER' - An internal report from the Department of
Homeland Security illuminates how the agency's civil rights
office advised Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) officials against Haitian deportations, reports
Hamed Aleaziz of Buzzfeed News
. According
to a civil rights office memo on Aug. 31, conditions in
Haiti "create a risk of danger to deportees due to perceived political
opinion and/or individual demographic characteristics." The
administration has deported more than 9,000 Haitians since September, 
Aleaziz notes.  

RETRIEVED

** **- The Cavazos family is getting its land back. In
Texas, where most of the land along the U.S.-Mexico border is
privately held, a federal judge ruled in April that the federal
government could take the family's 6.5 acres - a move initiated
under the Trump administration in its zeal to build a border
wall. But per a Tuesday court filing, the Biden administration 
will officially return the land to the family, reports Priscilla
Alvarez of CNN
. "Now
that we have successfully stopped the construction of a needless and
wasteful border wall on their property, Ms. Cavazos and her family will
be able to continue their quiet and fulfilling life beside the Rio
Grande," the Texas Civil Rights Project, which has
been representing the family, said via a tweet
. 

FAITH RESPONSE - Scripture says to take care of the vulnerable,
including immigrants, but "are we evangelicals as strong on this issue
as the Scriptures encourage us to be? If not, why? And if we want to do
better, what do we do about it?" David Baker asks in an op-ed
for Christian Today
. Baker reflects
on the 27 or more migrants who drowned two weeks ago
while trying to seek refuge in the UK - and the many who will
continue to make the dangerous journey. "[M]ost importantly, we
can pray and let Scripture shape us as we choose how to respond
individually," he writes. Speaking of individual responses:
About 80 Catholic sisters from 24 congregations nationwide recently
banded together in front of the White House, calling on the
administration to "[e]nd the immoral use of Title 42," reports Rhina
Guidos of Catholic News Service
. 

[link removed]

THE MOHAMMADI SIBLINGS - Two Afghan siblings made an impossible
decision to leave their parents and a crumbling Afghanistan in search
of a better life, Elizabeth Doran reports on syracuse.com
. The
family traversed a series of checkpoints, stops in different countries
and one month at a military base in Virginia before InterFaith Works
of Central New York was able to help them permanently resettle in
Syracuse. Before the Taliban took over, Khudadad Mohammadi, 29, was
a law student, and Haseena, 24, was a schoolteacher. "We feel very
safe here, but we fear for our parents and the others left there,''
said Haseena. "We are calling on people to take care of those still
there and come up with a rescue plan." To the west, Natalie
Gonnella-Platts, director of the George W. Bush Institute Women's
Initiative and a Buffalo native, makes the case in The Buffalo News
 that
Afghan refugees "represent opportunity" for the area. 

Also on the local front: 

* Catholic Social Services has helped resettle 75 refugees in Lincoln,
Nebraska, many of whom are anxious about family members they had to
leave behind. (Bria Battle, 10/11 NOW
) 

* New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) "announced Tuesday that $2 million
will be allocated for refugee resettlement services statewide," as
the 1,800 Afghan refugees the state anticipates continue to
arrive.  (Massarah Mikati, Times Union
) 

* In New Haven, Connecticut, the Yale Muslim Students Association and
Yale International Relations Association co-hosted a banquet for Afghan
refugees, which raised over $3000 and counting for refugee resettlement
agency Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services. 
(Miranda Jeyaretnam, Yale News
) 

JUDGES

** **- For decades, the National Association of Immigration Judges
represented immigration judges in negotiations with the Department of
Justice. The Trump administration had successfully stripped judges of
their right to unionize, and the Biden administration had refused to
negotiate with them - but this week the Department of Justice
agreed to "recognize the union as the exclusive representative for the
nation's immigration judges and follow the terms of their collective
bargaining agreement," The Guardian's
Alexandra
Villareal and Joanna Walters report. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

 

DONATE

 

**Follow Us**

 

[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]
[link removed]

 

 

 

The

**Only in America** podcast brings you to the people behind our
nation's immigration debate.

 

Listen now on:

 

**iTunes**
,
**Stitcher**
,
**Spotify** ,
and **more.**

 

 

National Immigration Forum

10 G St NE, Suite 500

Washington, DC 20002

www.immigrationforum.org

 

Unsubscribe from Noorani's Notes

or opt-out from all Forum emails.

 

                                               
           
_________________

Sent to [email protected]

Unsubscribe:
[link removed]

National Immigration Forum, 10 G St NE, Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002, United States