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‘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.
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:
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 |
