This week the Trump administration is busy drafting new restrictions to prevent asylum seekers from applying for work permits until they have been in the country for at least a year, Julia Ainsley reports for NBC News.
“Under previous guidelines, asylum-seekers were able to apply for work permits 150 days after filing asylum applications, allowing them to seek employment while they await a decision on their case by an immigration judge. Due to a backlog in immigration courts, asylum cases currently take approximately two years to be adjudicated. … advocates say it would still force immigrants to work in a shadow economy.”
This Thursday, the only immigration convening of moderate and conservative leaders from across the country takes place in Washington, D.C. Please join us for our annual event, Leading the Way: An American Approach to Immigration. (Media can register for the event here.)
Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.
Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
PUT TO REST – An asylum-seeking migrant died after being pulled off life support — against his family’s wishes — soon after being detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Alan Gomez reports in USA Today. Nebane Abienwi, a father of six, suffered a “medical emergency” while in ICE detention, and was later removed from life support even after his family said they requested that doctors continue with lifesaving measures. “We did not approve that … One hundred percent, we did not,” said his brother, who has “twice been denied a visa to travel to the USA to identify the body and accompany it back home to Cameroon.”
“IT ABSOLUTELY MAKES SENSE” – Access to low-interest capital has helped millions of people get out of poverty. As Kevin Sieff writes in a Washington Post profile, in Guatemala, microfinance is now funding migration. “Nothing else that most of these households could invest in can compete with those astonishing returns to investment … So it absolutely makes sense that when some families are able to access capital through microlending, they invest it in migration,” said Michael Clemens of the Center for Global Development. As the U.S. clamps down at the border, the only thing migrants return to is more debt.
INADMISSIBLE? – Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a case about a vague phrase — “renders inadmissible” — that nobody seems to understand. “How the two words are interpreted will affect whether some lawful permanent residents, also known as green card holders, are eligible for cancellation of removal,” Ephrat Livni reports in Quartz. And it’s not clear how things will go. Per Supreme Court Justice Stephen Beyer: “This statute is as obscure as any I’ve seen … it wasn’t a genius who drafted this.”
‘OUR AMERICAN DREAM’ – In an effort to successfully explain immigration to her children, attorney Fiona McEntee decided to write a children’s book about the topic, writes Rick Kogan at the Chicago Tribune. McEntee, an immigration attorney and immigrant herself, wrote “Our American Dream” because “I looked for a book that reflected what has been going on with the types of immigration issues I was dealing with and that children might be hearing about in the news,” she says.
NOT SAFE – Lawyers for refugees and rights groups argued in a Canadian court Monday that the U.S. is not safe for refugees, and a Canada-U.S. deal that requires asylum seekers to first apply for sanctuary in the U.S. “ought to be ripped up,” Anna Mehler Paperny reports for Reuters. “Human rights groups, including Amnesty International and the Canadian Council for Refugees, have also joined the case, which could change the way the two countries cooperate on refugee issues.” Though it doesn’t get much attention, more than 50,000 people have crossed the U.S.-Canada border unauthorized to file refugee claims in the past three years.
OUT WEST – On the ground in Montana, Gallatin Refugee Connections held its third annual donation drive Sunday, gathering housing necessities for new refugee families settling in the Missoula area, Megan Mannering of KXLH Helena reports. “We hear all the time, ‘thank you,’ it’s definitely one of the first phrases people learn, and now we know how to say thank you in many languages,” said Helen Rolston-Clemmer, who serves as finance manager of the International Rescue Committee in Missoula. Meanwhile in Logan, Utah, Andrew Dawson reports in Runner’s World on a running group, Athletics United, which was started in 2017 as a way to help and connect refugees. Turns out running is universal language and can serve as an icebreaker to meet new people: “We started talking about how we could use running to connect with our community,” said co-creator Mike Spence. The group now has mentors and works with kids from ages 3 to 13.
Thanks for reading,
Ali
Was this email forwarded to you?
Sign up now to get Noorani's Notes in your inbox.
 |  |  |  |  |