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WORKFORCE — The idea that immigrants and refugees are part of the solution to labor shortages isn’t just abstract. In Iowa, La Luz Centro Cultural and Genesis Youth Foundation, organizations that serve immigrants and refugees, are launching programs to help address the state’s worker shortage, Kassidy Arena of Iowa Public Radio reports. "It's about education and empowerment," said La Luz Director Claudia Rivera. "...We want to make sure that we have quality employees and our jobs are being filled." Meanwhile, Dianne Solis reports for the Dallas Morning News, "[l]abor shortages are rippling through the service and construction industries, pushing up wages even among unauthorized immigrant workers." ‘THERE’S LESS FEAR’ — In January 2021, newly elected Democratic sheriffs in Georgia’s Gwinnett and Cobb counties ended participation in 287(g), a federal program that "deputized local law enforcement to act as immigration agents" on behalf of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Ending the partnership has "[ushered] in an era of stability for the undocumented population living in or transiting through metro Atlanta," writes the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution's Lautaro Grinspan. Cobb County Sheriff Craig Owens says his department has noticed "much better communication with the Hispanic community." Which means much safer communities for all.
LIFELINE LIMITED — The federal government has been unresponsive for months to appeals from particularly vulnerable asylum-seekers, Adolfo Flores reports for BuzzFeed News. Cases include people in need of medical help, among others, whose petitions for humanitarian parole — "one of the few lifelines asylum-seekers have" — are going unanswered. In the meantime, they are stuck in Mexican border cities and at risk of extortion, kidnapping or assault. "We really are only submitting the most at-risk, the most vulnerable cases
whose lives are threatened if they don't receive safety in the US," said Chelsea Sachau, an attorney with the Florence Immigrant & Refugee Rights Project.
EVACUEES — Michelle Hackman at The Wall Street Journal has the latest on Afghan evacuees’ vetting process, relocation and assistance. By the numbers, more than four-fifths of Afghan evacuees brought to the U.S. have been moved off military bases and into communities. But they remain "in a sort of legal limbo" in terms of their status, as they were brought here on "temporary humanitarian grounds." (This is why we need an Afghan Adjustment Act.) Meanwhile, locally:
‘KAFKAESQUE’ — If you thought federal bureaucracy was bad, wait until you read this: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services operates "almost entirely on pen and paper." This means some 80 million files are stored in various facilities, including the underground Federal Records Center in Kansas City, The Wall Street Journal’s Michelle Hackman reports. Since these facilities have closed or severely limited access amid COVID-19, citizenship application backlogs have increased. "This situation has turned into a Kafkaesque bureaucratic immigration nightmare, and the applicants deserve better," said Susan Cohen, an immigration attorney with Mintz Levin and author of Journeys from There to Here: Stories of Immigrant Trials, Triumphs, and Contributions. Thanks for reading, Ali |
