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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

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** **The Biden administration is planning to launch a new program that
"reinvents migrant detention," reports Stef W. Kight of Axios
.
Changes include expanding home confinement and the curfew pilot
program, with the underlying goal being to end the use of for-profit
detention centers (also a campaign promise
). Homeland Security Secretary
Alejandro Mayorkas "recently called detention reform a priority." 
 Nearly 180,000 undocumented immigrants in the U.S. are already being
monitored via ankle bracelets and other Alternatives to Detention
(ATDs), compared to around 35,000 when Biden first took office. 

"Alternatives-to-detention [programs] are an effective method of
tracking noncitizens released from CBP custody who are awaiting their
immigration proceedings," a DHS spokesperson told Axios. "Those who do
not report are subject to arrest and potential removal by ICE." 

Welcome to Tuesday'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]
.  

BORDER SYSTEMS - Border Patrol has hired more station officers at the
"limit line" - which indicates the borderline shared between U.S. and
Mexico - to deter migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S., Kate
Morrissey of The San Diego Union-Tribune

reports. "Legally an asylum seeker should just be able to drive into the
United States and seek asylum. There's nothing wrong with that. It's
a perfectly legal way to do it," said Erika Pinheiro, litigation and
policy director of Al Otro Lado. And as Laura Collins, director of the
George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, wrote in an
op-ed last week for the El Paso Times
,
with migration patterns changing, the U.S. government needs
to "[rethink] what effective border policy is" and implement a system
that "anticipates and manages migrant populations, treats those seeking
refuge with dignity, and appropriately enforces our laws against those
who exploit the vulnerable." 

AMELIA AND ROSA - Sixteen-year-old Amelia Domingo is working at a
chicken plant in Enterprise, Alabama, after fleeing her hometown in
western Guatemala. She crossed into the U.S. and turned herself over to
immigration authorities last February, Reuters

reports. And after spending about a month in a crowded shelter for
unaccompanied minors, she was released to her sponsor and older sister,
Rosa, who has lived in Alabama for more than a decade. "Enterprise
welcomes us," said Rosa. "The jobs are just waiting for us." Authorities
have struggled to shield migrant children from labor contractors
who "have steered kids into jobs that are illegal, grueling and meant
for adults" - but many, like Amelia, feel they have no choice but to
earn enough to repay the smugglers who got her to the U.S. in the first
place.  

'IT'S NOT RIGHT' - Unaccompanied migrant children in Florida
shelters are still "caught up in state-federal squabble" due to Gov.
Ron Desantis' (R) order to stop issuing or renewing shelter licenses,
reports Juan Carlos Chavez of the Tampa Bay Times
. "Adding
political conditions on the care of migrant children and youth is a very
selfish position," said Aztrith Oliva, who left Honduras at 14 and
spent a month in a shelter. "It's not right." In an effort to buck up
his base, DeSantis traveled to Miami yesterday to surround himself with
supporters - many of whom came to the U.S. as children themselves
through Operation Pedro Pan, Syra Ortiz-Blanes and Bianca Padró
Ocasio report for the Miami Herald
.
While the shelter rule has divided Pedro Pan migrants, they write,
Florida faith leaders are likening the policy to "religious persecution
and restriction on our freedom to worship." 

**2022 REFORMS** - Smaller-scale reform may be the only way to get
immigration measures passed amid the 2022 midterms, writes C. Stewart
Verdery, Jr., former Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security and one of
our CNSI leaders, in an op-ed for The Hill
.
While comprehensive reform may be a long shot, Verdery writes, "let's
imagine a smaller deal that attempts to at least reform where there is
some consensus, albeit politically tenuous:" Improving the U.S.-Mexico
border management system, legalizing Dreamers and agricultural workers,
and retaining high-skilled students and temporary workers. Jeff
Schultz, Pastor of Preaching & Community at Faith Church in
Indianapolis, echoes Verdery's sentiment in an op-ed for The
Indianapolis Star

with a call to Indiana's congressional delegation: "I'm praying God
would guide them to finally make these reforms happen - for the good
of the immigrants in my congregation and community, for the health of
our economy, and, ultimately, to allow us to live up to the best of our
national values."    

AFGHAN ADJUSTMENT ACT - HIAS, one of nine faith-based refugee
resettlement agencies contracted with the federal government, is urging
congregations and individuals to push for the Afghan Adjustment Act via
its National Call-In Day for Afghans
today, Yonat Shimron reports
for Religion News Service
.
Meanwhile, check out local coverage in Siouxland News

and KCAU

of yesterday's "Loving our Immigrant Neighbor" event in Sioux City,
Iowa. Stories from these speakers amplify the need for Congress to pass
an Afghan Adjustment Act
.
 

For more on local welcome efforts:  

* Volunteers from Indiana and Ohio transformed an unused building "into
Catholic Charities' new Cabrini Center, which will offer temporary
housing and resettlement services to Afghan refugees starting a new life
in Fort Wayne." (Kevin Kilbane, Crux
) 

* In collaboration with CIOGC's Afghan Refugee Task Force
, the Masjid Rahmah
Great America Islamic Center in Lake Villa, Illinois, is one of several
suburban mosques in the area preparing to welcome Afghan families and
serve as temporary shelter. (Madhu Krishnamurthy, Daily Herald
) 

* After some Afghan evacuees requested sewing machines, Adrian Brown, a
volunteer with New Haven-based Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services,
posted the request in a Facebook Group and "ended up with 25 sewing
machines that were in good enough working condition to make their way to
the refugees they were looking to support." (Cinnamon Janzer, Next City,
The Oregonian
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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