Friday, December 17
 ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

 

NOORANI'S NOTES

 

If you haven't already, please let us know if you want to continue
receiving Noorani's Notes by clicking this link
, or any other link in this e-mail.
Thanks!  

The Biden administration has ended conversations about a settlement
agreement for thousands of children separated from their families
under Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, report Michelle Hackman and
Sadie Gurman of The Wall Street Journal
.  

Hundreds of families filed lawsuits "seeking monetary damages for
the psychological trauma
 they
say the separations caused," and the government will now take cases to
trial, per Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union, a
negotiator in the talks. 

In other news, CNN's
 Daniella Diaz and
Priscilla Alvarez report that the Senate parliamentarian
rejected Democrats' third proposal to include immigration in the
budget reconciliation bill.  

And for this week's Only in America
, we
continue the story of Fugees Academy in Ohio. We hear from students
and faculty about what it was like at the school after the 2016
election, their advice for those new to the U.S., and what they look
forward to for the future.  

Welcome to Friday'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]

BORDER 

**NUMBERS** - Border apprehensions increased by more
than 5 percent in November, according to preliminary CBP data, the
first increase since July, report Maria Sacchetti
and Nick Miroff of The Washington Post
. Arrests
totaled more than 173,600, a number "driven by sharp increases in
arrivals from Venezuela, which smashed the record set in October, as
well as steady arrivals from Cuba, parts of Central America and
Mexico." About half of those arrested were expelled back to their
countries of origin or Mexico under the  pandemic-era Title
42 policy. Separate from the data, reporters from the Associated
Press
 take
a moment to reflect on their border coverage this year, offering some
incredible anecdotes. And in a new post on our website
,
my colleague Danilo Zak reflects on his first experience at the
border this fall. 

CHILDREN STUCK - More than 44,000 immigrant children who have
survived abuse or abandonment are stuck in a Special Immigrant
Juvenile Status (SIJS) backlog, waiting up to five years to receive
their earned green cards, reports Jasmine Aguilera of TIME
. A November
report from The Door ,
a nonprofit youth advocacy organization, and the End SIJS Backlog
Coalition  "shows that the SIJS backlog
began in 2016 and grew to nearly 64,000 by April 2020, mostly impacting
children from Central American countries and
Mexico," notes Aguilera.  

AFGHAN DEVELOPMENTS - On the resettlement front,  CBS News'
 Camilo
Montoya-Galvez reports that seven states have received more than half
of the 31,611 Afghan evacuees relocated  from U.S. military
bases. Meanwhile, Jessica Donati of The Wall Street Journal
 reports that "[m]ore than 60,000
Afghan interpreters and others who have applied for visas to seek
shelter in the U.S. after working alongside American forces still
remain in Afghanistan." According to a State Department official
who provided the numbers, some 33,000 of
them have met stiff vetting requirements "and could be eligible for
immediate evacuation." 

[link removed]

VIETS FOR AFGHANS - Many Vietnamese American families remember
what it's like to flee a country post-war and are now stepping up to
help Afghan refugees resettle, reports Kurtis Lee for the Los Angeles
Times
,
with photos from Francine Orr. In September, the Biden administration
developed a pilot program for groups to become "sponsor circles." Among
those groups is Viets for Afghans , a
nonprofit founded after the Taliban takeover by Vietnamese refugees and
the children of refugees. The group has raised more than $15,000 since
August and has helped three Afghan families so far. "We see our
families - our own loved ones - in the current situation with Afghan
refugees," said Thanh Tan, who helped found the group. 

Here are more stories of local welcome:  

* Jewish Family Services of Greater Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is
partnering with several local organizations in preparation to resettle
up to six Afghan families early next year. (Candace Scalese, CBS 21
) 

* Volunteers and staff at Catholic Charities in Stillwater,
Oklahoma, are "working to get apartments furnished, stocked and ready
to go" in anticipation of resettling 40 families. (Michelle
Charles, Stillwater News Press
) 

* Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is opening a new resettlement
office in Alexandria, Virginia,
and anticipates resettling about 700 Afghan evacuees. (Fredrick
Kunkle, The Washington Post
) 

MEET ME FOR LUNCH? - At a family of Afghan restaurants in the D.C.
area, the women are in charge - and that's no accident. In the
weeks after Afghanistan fell to the Taliban, Omar Masroor, owner of four
Afghan restaurants in the area, raised funds, but "it didn't seem
like enough," Jada Yuan of The Washington Post
 reports. So,
in a "direct reaction to how Taliban society forces women into the
shadows," he turned his
restaurants - Bistro Aracosia, Aracosia McLean and Afghan
Bistro - to the women in his family. His wife, Sofia, said,
"It doesn't matter where you're from, whether you're from
Afghanistan, America or any other country. I think women have
to work harder to prove what they're capable of doing or for
someone to listen to them or to acknowledge them." This is a fantastic
story.  

Thanks for reading,

Ali

P.S. Perennial holiday favorite "A Charlie Brown Christmas" is
scheduled to air Sunday on most PBS stations. You may not know
that Mexican American Cuauhtémoc Melendez, known as
Bill, directed the 1965 CBS special, at a time when Hispanics in
American entertainment were rare. Russell Contreras of Axios
 has
the story. 

 

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