Monday, December 13
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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Evacuations in Afghanistan are slowing down - and at-risk Afghan
refugees are getting caught in the backlog, Karen DeYoung and Missy
Ryan report for The Washington Post
. Despite
veterans, students, and a coalition of other advocates pushing to get
Afghans to the U.S., there are still thousands who may face a long
road to refuge.  

"The White House, together with the State Department, have purposefully
crafted the narrowest possible criteria for being evacuated to the
U.S.," said Alexa Greenwald of Sayara International, one of several
nongovernmental organizations helping with Afghan evacuation
efforts.  

Currently, there aren't any commercial flights in or out of
Afghanistan, per U.S. and Qatari officials. And with winter
approaching, there will likely be fewer charter flights. 

For at-risk Afghans, "there is likely to be a significant, if not an
indefinite, wait," conclude DeYoung and Ryan. "Some who make it out on
their own, or with the help of advocates on the outside, may never be
admitted." 

Meanwhile, a new issue is emerging in the U.K. as the  Nationality and
Borders Bill
 seeks
to clamp down on unauthorized immigration and allow the government
to revoke citizenship without notification
. As I
wrote  over the weekend, in a
world with so many immigration-related "worsts," we need to find a new
consensus.  

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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**AFGHANISTAN TO ALBANY** - Noor Khan, who worked alongside the
U.S. Army, is one of some 250 Afghans resettling in Albany this
year, reports Rayan El Amine for The River.
 When
the Taliban took over Afghanistan, Khan 
travelled across multiple countries before reuniting with his
family of twelve, who left their home country in 2019. While
his arrival to the U.S. felt like "someone gave me a hundred billion
dollars," Khan said, he still has a heavy heart for leaving behind his
wife and kids, who did not qualify for resettlement in the U.S. "In
Afghanistan, if you have a problem with me, you have a problem with my
whole family," he said of the threat his family faces from the
Taliban. "Given the chance to kill my brothers, my wife, my
children, it's not a problem. They won't hesitate." 

Here's today's local stories of welcome: 

* Village Fabric shop in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina, auctioned a welcome blanket made by the
community for a little more than $1,300, which went to Church
World Service to support their Afghan resettlement efforts. (Taylor
Neuman, Spectrum News
) 

* The Washington Post
's
Antonio Olivo details heroic efforts in the D.C. area to facilitate
Afghan resettlement.  

* A retired chief warrant officer with the South Dakota Army National
Guard and his son, who serves with the Iowa National Guard, are
joining forces to assist evacuees at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin. (Randy
Dockendorf, Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
) 

* Medical and dental students from Campbell University, Duke
University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill volunteered at a health clinic on Saturday
to provide Afghan evacuees awaiting refugee status with medical
and dental care. (Hayley Fixler, CBS 17
) 

**ROOM TO GROW** - The percentage of foreign-born citizens and
residents in the U.S. has declined significantly for the first time in
over a decade, Stef Kight reports for Axios
,
according to an analysis of new and experimental U.S. Census Bureau
data. The new American Community Survey (ACS) data "also revealed the
smallest decade gain in the foreign-born population since the 1960s, at
3.6 million. In comparison, the immigrant population grew by 8.8 million
during the 2000s." With an aging U.S. population, Kight
notes, we need to boost immigration to fill job openings and support
economic growth (our Room to Grow paper
 explains this
in detail).  

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FLORES SETTLEMENT - After months of internal debate, the Biden
administration is reversing "Trump-era regulations that would
terminate a long-standing court settlement
 designed
to protect migrant children in U.S. custody," reports Camilo
Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
. The
Flores Settlement Agreement "has governed the care of children in U.S.
immigration custody since 1997 through strict standards for government
shelters and detention sites," but was always intended to be replaced
by more permanent regulations, Montoya-Galvez notes. The
administration "will now work on its own rules to codify the Flores
settlement." Meanwhile, per CNN
's
Priscilla Alvarez, a new government memo reveals Office of Refugee
Resettlement (ORR) officials' frustration and alarm over the
conditions unaccompanied migrant children faced in government custody
earlier this year.   

**'I HOPE SOMEONE CAN HELP US'** - Three years ago, the Abraha
family moved from an Ethiopian refugee camp to Austin,
Texas, reports Luz Moreno-Lozano for the Austin American-Statesman
. Tahaguas,
the oldest of the four Abraha siblings, is now looking for an
immigration attorney or a refugee resettlement organization to
help her younger brother  Sergealem, who remains in the Ethiopian
camp. The family is part of the Statesman's Season for Caring
program, which works with local nonprofits to assist families in
need - but family reunification is one of the more challenging items
on their wish list. "I feel responsible for my
brother," said Tahaguas. "He is only 17 and living there all alone,
and I know that life. I remember that life ... It's been hard, and I
hope someone can help us."  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali  

 

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