Thursday, February 3
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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Let's start with something cool. For months now, we have been
including a few articles everyday highlighting stories of Americans
welcoming Afghans to communities across the country. The team put
together an interactive map

of these stories, offering a picture of the remarkable work across the
country (and beyond). If you like it, do me a solid and share with your
friends.  

Moving on.  

New research

from the National Foundation for American Policy reveals that issuing
fewer immigrant visas amid the COVID-19 pandemic did not help the U.S.
economy improve or grow, NFAP Executive Director Stuart Anderson writes
in Forbes
.
 

"There is also no evidence of faster employment growth or lower
unemployment rates for college graduate U.S. natives as a result of
decreased admissions via the H-1B program," writes University of North
Florida economics professor Madeline Zavodny in the report. "Instead,
labor markets that had been more reliant on temporary foreign workers
via the H-1B program before the pandemic appeared to have had more
unfilled jobs during the pandemic." 

The news comes as some stakeholders

have argued against the Biden administration increasing the number of
H-2B visas by 20,000, "even though such visas help reduce illegal entry
and prevent at least some of the dangerous border crossings," Anderson
notes.  

Today marks one year since our Room to Grow

paper was published (and covered by The New York Times

and Axios
).
The case is clear: We need to increase levels of immigration to address
both demographic decline and labor shortages. The situation is only
going to get worse.  

Welcome to Thursday's edition of Noorani's Notes. If you have
a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected]
.  

[link removed]

BORDER

**S** - Twelve migrants froze to death on the shared border between
Greece and Turkey on Wednesday, per several Turkish officials, report
Carlotta Gall and Safak Timur of The New York Times
.
"For more than a year, Greece has been taking tougher measures to keep
migrants out. It built a fence and policed the land border, forcing
migrants who came from Turkey back across the river," they note. Over in
the U.S., Matt Shuham of Talking Points Memo

reports that the National Butterfly Center at the southern border is
shutting down for the "immediate future" after being targeted for
right-wing conspiracy theories resulting in a physical altercation.
Somewhat related: The nomination of Texas sheriff Ed Gonzalez, also an
LEITF member, to lead ICE
has advanced out of Senate committee for a second time "despite GOP
objection," per Geneva Sands of CNN
.
Also, here's a great story
 about
the need to build trust between law enforcement and immigrant
communities. 

**PRESSURE ON DESANTIS GROWS** - Internal documents between Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and President Biden show an ongoing debate "over
whether migrant children who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border alone
should be cared for by shelters in Florida, as they have been since
2005," reports Priscilla Alvarez for CNN
.
"Historically, when we've talked about children, there's been
nonpartisan agreement that children deserve protection," said Lisette
Burton, chief policy and practice adviser at the Association of
Children's Residential & Community services. "I haven't seen before
a time where really vulnerable children have been put at the center of
political arguments in this way." Echoing this point, Women of Welcome
Director Bri Stensrud told World Magazine
's
Addie Michaelian that the order is "forcing [foster facilities] to
choose between vulnerable kids." For more on this shelter rule, see our
press statement
. 

[link removed]

FAILED EVACUATION - A new report released today by the Republicans on
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says a lack of planning by the
Biden administration resulted in  "a botched [U.S. military] withdrawal
that left hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan partners
behind," reports Dan De Luce of NBC News
.
"The United States will have to deal with the fallout of this failure
for years to come," said Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking
Republican on the Committee. "With the Taliban hunting down those who
had assisted the United States, State should have planned to relocate a
sizable amount of these people," per the report. All the recent news
about the Afghan evacuation led me to write about our circles of empathy
.  

SPONSOR CIRCLES - In a Q&A For Christianity Today
,
Wheaton College's Kent Annan speaks with Danielle Grigsby of the new
Community Sponsorship Hub to explain how sponsor circles play into
Afghan resettlement efforts. "No matter where people are in the United
States, they can welcome a newcomer to their community and provide them
with the practical support they need to get settled by serving as a
certified sponsor circle," Grigsby says, noting that sponsors help with
tasks from finding initial housing to enrolling children in school. 

Today's local welcome efforts include: 

* For the holidays, Larry and Trudy Rankin of Lakeland, Florida, spent
10 days volunteering their time to help with Afghan resettlement as part
of a welcoming effort by El Calvario United Methodist Church in Las
Cruces, New Mexico. "The couple's tasks included ferrying the
refugees around in a van - taking them shopping and to the park and,
on one occasion, searching for a phone repair shop after a toddler
dunked her parents' cell phone in a toilet." (Gary White, The
Lakeland Ledger
) 

* The first Afghan refugee family recently resettled in Bennington
County, Vermont. Now, the Ethiopian Community Development Council's
Multicultural Community Center, in collaboration with Bennington County
Open Arms and other volunteers, are working to help secure housing for
the 100 additional families expected to arrive by the end of February.
(Jim Therrien, Bennington Banner
) 

* Bethany Christian Services in West Michigan is hosting a virtual
webinar next Tuesday to spread awareness about the "dire need" for
Afghan refugees to find foster homes. West Michigan couple Silas and
Coryn Mittelstaedt are fostering a 12-year-old boy: "...our foster son,
he likes to tinker and build things and it's just great to see a kid
start being a kid again." (13 On Your Side
) 

Don't forget to check out our latest episode

of Only in America, featuring Casey Verderosa from Ithaca Welcomes
Refugees explaining how Ithaca, New York, became a hub of welcome for
immigrants and refugees. 

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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