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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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On Monday, the Biden administration brought 36 migrants back to the
U.S. from Mexico for their asylum hearings as part of the
reimplementation of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), a.k.a.
"Remain in Mexico" policy, Stef W. Kight of Axios

reports.  

After initially restarting MPP in El Paso in December, the
administration also expanded MPP to San Diego on Monday, Kate Morrissey
reports for The San Diego Union-Tribune
,
noting that the first returns to Mexico from San Diego are expected
today or Wednesday.  

More than 200 migrants have been returned to Mexico following a
court-ordered reimplementation of the Trump-era program last month,
notes Kight. The administration has asked the Supreme Court

to intervene and allow them to end MPP, continuing a legal battle that
began when the administration first tried to end the policy back in June
.
 

As Morrissey writes, the reimplementation has raised humanitarian
concerns and logistical questions.  

"While the administration has taken measures intended to mitigate some
of the most egregious elements of MPP's prior iteration, a program
that requires asylum seekers to remain in one of the most dangerous
parts of the world while their cases are pending in U.S. immigration
courts cannot guarantee their protection from persecution and torture,
as required by U.S. law," said the union representing asylum officers.
 

Welcome to Tuesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. I'm Joanna
Taylor, communications manager at the Forum, filling in for Ali. If you
have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
.  

[link removed]

HINDSIGHT - CNN
's
Priscilla Alvarez looks back at immigration in 2021, and the Biden
administration's struggles to make good on its goals. From the
reinstatement of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) to the
continuation of Title 42, Alvarez notes that many Trump-era policies
have continued under Biden. Meanwhile, the Boston Globe'
s
Marcela García identifies immigration as "the most neglected story of
2021" - despite being "one of the things that just undergirds
everything about this country," as CBS News' Ed O'Keefe put it
. While there
are measures the administration can - and should - take to improve
our immigration policies, there's also a critical opportunity this
year for Republicans and Democrats in Congress to build consensus around
reforms that benefit native-born Americans and immigrants alike.  

ICE LEAD - Sheriff Ed Gonzalez of Harris County, Texas, a Law
Enforcement Immigration Task Force co-chair, was
nominated to lead U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) back in
April 2021. The deadline for the Senate to hold over his nomination for
the next legislative session was yesterday, meaning "he likely will need
to be nominated again and will face an uphill battle to be confirmed,"
Elizabeth Trovall reports for the Houston Chronicle
.
ICE has not had a Senate-confirmed leader in five years, including the
entire duration of Trump's presidency, notes Trovall. The Forum's
take
:
Sheriff Gonzalez would bring a more humane and measured approach to
immigration enforcement.  

[link removed]

'FOR MY FAMILY' - For the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
,
Lara Farrar tells the story of Mahdi Faizy and Ahmad Ghani, who escaped
Kabul and are adapting to life in Arkansas. With the help of refugee
resettlement agency Canopy Northwest Arkansas, they were able to
resettle safely; but starting a new life thousands of miles from home
has not been easy. While Faizy is grateful for the opportunity to
rebuild a life with his family in Fayetteville, he acknowledges that the
transition "will be a hard journey [in the U.S.] for many families, for
my family." Meanwhile, Amna Nawaz and Ebony Joseph of PBS News Hour

report that more than 50,000 Afghan evacuees have been placed in local
communities - but around 23,000, including unaccompanied minors,
remain in legal limbo across six military bases in U.S.  

Here are today's local stories: 

* The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Waukesha,
Wisconsin, spent all of December sharing the Christmas spirit by
providing meals to newly arriving Afghan refugees. (Rose Schmidt, CBS 58
) 

* Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipient Muzhgan Azizy, who escaped
Afghanistan just weeks before the Taliban takeover, is now one of 12
Afghans working for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service in
Alexandria, Virginia, to help resettle fellow evacuees. (Libby Cathey,
ABC News
) 

* Back Country Apparel in Des Moines, Iowa, is collecting donations for
Lutheran Services of Iowa to help welcome as many as 300 Afghan families
to the area. (Carson J. S. Reichardt, Local 5 News
) 

ASYLUM - Back in May, the Biden administration implemented an
expedited asylum process for recently arrived families like Pablo López
and his son, who fled political violence in Nicaragua, in an effort to
prevent them from joining the 1.5 million-plus immigration court
backlog. But as Tyche Hendricks of KQED

writes, "without legal help, López and thousands like him must navigate
an unfamiliar system on their own - and face deportation if they
fail." Unlike the criminal court system, federal immigration courts do
not provide a court-appointed lawyer, and asylum seekers like Pablo have
had little luck finding an affordable attorney with the resources to
complete their case on the expedited timeline and bridge language
barriers. López has been granted two court extensions as he continues
searching for a lawyer, but if he doesn't bring a completed asylum
application to court on Jan. 26, he and his son face deportation. 

* In other asylum news: Syracuse University data shows that Houston
immigration judges denied

between 89 to 100% of cases in fiscal years 2016 to 2021. And in
Mexico, refugee and asylum claims "almost doubled

between 2019 and 2021, reaching a historic high of over 130,000,
authorities said Monday." 

Thanks for reading, 

Joanna

 

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