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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 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.
SEPARATED FAMILIES — 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.
- 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, )
- 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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