Friday, January 14
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

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A congressional hearing next week will address challenges in the
nation's immigration courts, reports Tal Kopan of the San Francisco
Chronicle
.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-California) is calling the hearing, which could pave
the way for legislation she has been working on to overhaul the system.
The courts have a backlog of more than 1.5 million immigration cases and
have faced criticism for "inconsistency across judges and courts,
antiquated bureaucracy and labyrinthine structure that's difficult for
immigrants without lawyers to navigate." 

Lofgren's bill would make the nation's immigration courts an
independent system "and allow them to function more like a justice
system," Kopan notes. Judges' appointments would occur "over several
years, so one administration would not get to hand-select the entire
staff when the courts become independent." 

Welcome to Friday's edition of Noorani's Notes, and an early
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We'll be back Tuesday. If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]
.  

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MISSING IMMIGRANTS - Don't look now, but a drumbeat is growing.
It's one that recognizes that our nation's labor shortage can be
attributed, in large part, to two years of lost immigration, and 2
million fewer working-age immigrants. Axios'

Emily Peck goes as far as saying, "Unless there is policy intervention,
there will still be a shortage of immigrant workers, which holds back
other parts of the economy." I have an idea: Legalize Dreamers,
farmworkers and TPS workers, and increase legal immigration by 37%. Not
just because we have room to grow
.
But because we need to grow.  

LEGAL REPRESENTATION - The American Bar Association is seeking to
enlist pro bono lawyers for the 72,289 migrants who have been placed in
the "Dedicated Docket," a program that is fast-tracking
asylum-seekers' deportation proceedings, reports Sandra Sanchez of
Border Report
.
Right now, only a small percentage of those asylum-seekers are getting
access to legal counsel, according to a new report by Syracuse
University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). "In a
forthcoming report, we show that even though the administration has
acknowledged the importance of legal representation, only 15% of all
cases have representation, so far," said TRAC researcher Austin Kocher.
 

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SEPARATED FAMILIE

**S** - Although President Biden has said separated migrant
families should be compensated for the trauma caused by former
president Trump's "zero tolerance" policy, the Justice
Department is telling courts that families have no legal entitlement
to such compensation, report Maria Sacchetti and Sean Sullivan
of The Washington Post
. "At
issue in this case is whether adults who entered the country without
authorization can challenge the federal government's enforcement of
federal immigration laws under federal tort claims laws," per a Jan.
7 DOJ brief in one of the cases. "They cannot." Migrant
families are seeking compensation from about 20
lawsuits and hundreds of administrative claims. The Trump
administration separated more than 5,500 children from their parents
 at
the U.S.-Mexico border, per government data.  

COMFORT FOOD - The U.S. government requires all sponsors to provide
certain essentials for incoming refugees resettling in their new home,
including a "culturally appropriate meal
,"
reports Claudia Kolker of Texas Monthly
.
For Afghans arriving in Houston, the source of those meals is Omer
Yousafzai's restaurant. A former refugee and then a U.S. military
recruiter in Afghanistan, Yousafzai owns Afghan village, "a crossroads
- not just for Afghans, but for veterans and homegrown Houstonians who
love exploring the world through the city's restaurants." Said Ashley
Faye, development director of YMCA International Services resettlement
agency: "People bond over food ... This is just one way we can let new
families know they are welcome." In a colder clime, U.S. Navy Reserve
public affairs officer Lt. Cmdr. John Ripley expresses in the Bangor
Daily News

why we should continue to keep the spirit of welcome alive. 

More on local welcome: 

* New Paltz for Refugees, an independent group created just three months
ago, has helped raise funds to resettle an Afghan family of seven in
upstate New York. The network is "now a core group of six volunteers
leading about two dozen general volunteers tasked with specific needs
like social services, media, education, and fundraising." (Alexandra
Zissu, Times Union
) 

* Bonnie Titcomb Lewis and Lisa Day, temporary employees of Maine
Immigrant & Refugee Services in Lewiston, have helped clean 10
apartments to prepare for the arrival of Afghan refugees. (Daryn Slover,
Sun Journal
)
 

* In a variety of ways, local schools in Brattleboro, Vermont, are
working to make newly arriving Afghan students feel welcome and get
oriented. (Chris Mays, Brattleboro Reformer and Vermont News & Media
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali

P.S. Love this interview with filmmakers and MacArthur "geniuses"

Cristina Ibarra and Alex Rivera, whom I had the privilege of speaking to
for an Only in America podcast episode
. 

 

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