Tuesday, December 21
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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For The Dallas Morning News
 in
collaboration with Marfa Public Radio, Alfredo Corchado and Annie
Rosenthal report that thirteen migrants who were kidnapped in September
in the Chihuahua desert are now feared to be dead after a turf war
between drug cartels - "part of an increasingly violent feud between
rival gangs over smuggling routes in this northern state bordering
Texas," per U.S. and Mexican sources.  

Some veteran security and immigration experts believe  "that the
violence is, in part, spurred on by restrictive U.S. immigration
policies that have left tens of thousands of migrants in limbo along the
border, lingering in dangerous Mexican towns where they can easily fall
prey to criminal groups." Policies like the Migrant Protection
Protocols (MPP) and Title 42, for example.  

Though the investigation is ongoing, families of the missing
migrants just want closure: "We just want to know what happened, where
they are. Where the person is that we're waiting for at home," said
Rocío Martinez de Alvarez, the wife of one of the 13 migrants.  

Welcome to Tuesday'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]

MORE FROM THE BORDER - Attorneys with the Border Project say at
least 24 vulnerable immigrants who should have been shielded from
MPP due to medical conditions or fear of increased risk of harm in
Mexico were mistakenly returned to Mexico earlier this month, report
Adolfo Flores and Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News
. The Border
Project, "a pro bono endeavor to provide legal aid to immigrants
operated by the Jones Day international law firm," sent an email
to CBP identifying the issue, leading to at least nine of the
24 being removed from the program. Separately, on Monday, Haitian
migrants - including Mirard Joseph, the Haitian migrant
photographed being chased by mounted Border Patrol agents in
September - filed a lawsuit against the
government regarding Border Patrol's inhumane treatment at the
southern border, reports Eileen Sullivan of The New York Times
. The
lawsuit "alleges that the Biden administration knew an influx of
migrants was coming but deliberately made no humanitarian
preparations." 

**WINTER WORK VISAS** - For the first time ever, the Department of
Homeland Security is making an additional 20,000 H-2B seasonal
guest-worker visas available for this winter season, reports Michelle
Hackman of The Wall Street Journal
. "Of
the 20,000 additional visas, 6,500 will be set aside for applicants from
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Haiti - all countries that have
sent large numbers of migrants to the U.S. border in recent months,"
notes Hackman. The rest of the visas will be for returning workers from
other countries. This brings the total seasonal work visas this fiscal
year to over 50,000. Employers can hire for
these guest worker slots starting now until March
31. Additionally, DHS plans to update the seasonal-worker
program next year to address exploitative employers, among other
concerns.  

YOUNG MIGRANTS - Young people in search of a better life were at
the forefront of this year's dangerous migration journeys to the
U.S. and Europe, report Patrick J. McDonnell and Nabih Bulos of The
Los Angeles Times
. Nearly
80 percent of the more than 5.5 million first-time asylum seekers in
Europe since 2014 were 34 or younger, per Eurostat, the statistical
branch of the European Union. And almost one third were
teenagers. A more concerning statistic: More than 1,600 migrants and
refugees have been lost at sea this year alone. "We are here out of
necessity," said Maria Joseph, an 18-year-old Haitian hoping to reach
the U.S. "I want my son to have a good education ... That's why we
are here, risking everything." 

[link removed]

**BORDER WALL** - The unbuilt portion of Trump's  signature border
wall is now just tens of thousands steel bollards slowly rusting
throughout the southwestern borderlands, writes John B. Washington
for The Atlantic
. The
steel is "worth at least a quarter of a billion dollars. The Department
of Defense owns most of that steel, but it's unclear what will -
or can - be done with it." Meanwhile, DHS announced Monday
that the U.S. will use border security funds "to close gaps and
clean up Trump-era construction sites," per Camilo Montoya-Galvez
of CBS News
. FYI,
if you're in the D.C. area and want an
immersive look at what happens at the southern border, check out the
National Building Museum's "The Wall / El Muro: What is a Border
Wall?" exhibit, as Jonathan Lehrfeld highlights for Medill News
Service
. 

'WELCOME THE STRANGER' - A coalition of Crawfordsville,
Indiana, churches have formed the Crawfordsville Afghan Refugee
Coalition (ARC) to raise money to permanently resettle an Afghan
family in the Indianapolis area, reports Nick Hedrick of
the Journal Review
. "We
need to do what we can, where we can, when we can ... Resettling one
of the families out of thousands was the place to begin," said David
Hadley, one of the facilitators of the effort. "... it's a part of
our Christian responsibility ... to welcome the stranger." ARC is
working with Indianapolis-based nonprofit Exodus Refugee Immigration
Inc. to connect with a family.  

More on local welcome: 

* A class of sixth graders at Deerpark Middle School in Austin,
Texas, collaborated with local animator Kristen Maxwell to write
welcome letters to Afghan refugees - and bring them to life through
video. (Kelsey Thompson, KXAN
) 

* In collaboration with two other nonprofits, the Bridge of
Books Foundation  spearheaded an
effort to donate nearly 9,000 books to Afghan families temporarily
housed at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.
(Gloria Stravelli, The Two River Times
) 

* Baseer Basil, owner of Kabul Market - the only Afghan grocery
store in Georgia - is "working closely with the IRC in Atlanta to
offer discounts to refugee families, and will regularly deliver food to
newly arrived Afghans." (Paradise Afshar, The Atla
nta
Journal-Constitution
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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BORDER WALL - The unbuilt portion of Trump's signature border
wall is now just tens of thousands steel bollards slowly rusting
throughout the southwestern borderlands, writes John B. Washington
for The Atlantic. The steel is "worth at least a quarter of a billion
dollars. The Department of Defense owns most of that steel,
but it's unclear what will - or can - be done with
it." Meanwhile, DHS announced Monday that the U.S. will use
border security funds "to close gaps and clean up Trump-era
construction sites," per Camilo Montoya-Galvez of CBS News. FYI,
if you're in the D.C. area and want an
immersive look at what happens at the southern border, check out
the National Building Museum's "The Wall / El Muro: What is a Border
Wall?" exhibit, as Jonathan Lehrfeld highlights for Medill News
Service. 
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