The Gatsby Social Club, a gathering spot for many of the 60,000 Ukrainians living in New York City, has "morphed into a factory churning out humanitarian supplies for Ukraine."
The Washington Post’s Maria Sacchetti reports that in New York, home to more Ukrainian immigrants than any other U.S. city, "[s]ome U.S. residents have already left to fight alongside Ukrainians, while others are proudly donating money to the army and humanitarian aid groups online."
And "in neighborhoods where more Russians and Ukrainians live together, many immigrants are worried about people in both countries. New York is home to similar numbers of immigrants from both countries, and they share social media sites, grocery stores and restaurants. Many Russian immigrants oppose the invasion."
Meanwhile, the New York Times’ Miriam Jordan reports how the conflict is leading immigrants from Russia, Ukraine and other former Soviet countries to reassess how they define their identity: "Some, fearing how they will be perceived by the public at large, are shifting from accepting being broadly painted as Russians to explicitly identifying with their countries of origin."
At the U.S.-Mexico border, data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show that officials encountered 6,400 Russians in the four months between October 2021 and January of this year, Reuters reports. "That's more than the roughly 4,100 apprehended during the entire 2021 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30." A little more than 1,000 Ukrainians were apprehended from October 2021 through January, compared to about 680 last fiscal year.
To increase their chances of entering the U.S. and avoiding Title 42 restrictions, migrants are purchasing cars, which are stopped less frequently at the border than people crossing on foot. Migrants are also sharing tips on social media platforms and messaging apps: "In a recent exchange in one Russian-language Telegram group, viewed by Reuters, a chat member said ‘helpers’ charge at least $1,500 per person to provide a car. Another was trying to find a seat in a car for his Ukrainian mother."
Welcome to Monday’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].
FLEEING — The International Organization of Migration has described the nearly 1.5 million refugees fleeing Ukraine as "the fastest and largest displacement of people in Europe since World War II," The Wall Street Journal reports, and BuzzFeed News posted a series of gut-wrenching photos of Ukrainians saying goodbye to their families at train stations across the country. Meanwhile, BuzzFeed’s Adolfo Flores and Hamed Aleaziz tell the story of Alex and his family, who were able to
make it to Seattle just in time because Alex was lucky enough to have a tourist visa. And in an op-ed for USA Today, Henna Hundal, a public policy specialist at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and Simran Jeet Singh, executive director of the Aspen Institute's Religion & Society Program, underscore a critical point: The plight of Ukrainian refugees and how the world is welcoming them should "reaffirm that the decimation of homelands, livelihoods and dreams is unequivocally tragic and compelling, no matter which groups of refugees it happens to or
where."
STILL SEPARATED — Some immigrant families separated by the Trump administration are yet to be united, per recent court filings. NBC’s Jacob Soboroff tweeted, "Biden admin and ACLU say they can confirm reunification of 2,762 children with parents from whom they were deliberately separated at border by Trump. More than 1,000 may still remain separated." Meanwhile, NPR looks at the long-term effects of Trump’s travel ban and tells the story of Naser Almuganahi, a U.S. citizen from Yemen, who is still trying to get a visa for his wife.
'HOT MESS DUMPSTER FIRE' — Friday afternoon was a head spinner. Early in the afternoon, as CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez reported, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government's authority to use Title 42 to expel migrants "but barred U.S. border officials from expelling families to countries where they could be harmed." Hours later, Montoya-Galvez reported that Texas District Court Judge Mark Pittman ruled that the Biden administration cannot exempt unaccompanied migrant children from Title 42 expulsion. As my friend and immigration super-lawyer Karen Tumlin of the Justice Action Center said in a twitter thread explaining what Biden should do now, "That answer has always been clear: end the hot mess dumpster fire 🗑️🔥of a policy that is Title 42 once and for all for all migrants."
AFGHAN RESETTLEMENT PLAN — The Biden administration is planning to complete Afghan resettlement by the end of August — about a year after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, reports Zainab Fattah of Bloomberg. A senior State Department official told reporters Friday that while an estimated 85,000 Afghan refugees have been resettled across communities in the U.S., "thousands more remain in facilities in the United Arab Emirates, Albania, Mexico and other countries." To date, about 100,000
Afghans who have applied for Special Immigrant Visa (SIVs) are still stuck in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, more than 900 Evangelical leaders recently signed a letter to Congress, spearheaded by The Evangelical Immigration Table, calling for a path to permanent legal status for Afghans in the U.S., per The Jerusalem Post.
Here’s today’s local stories:
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In partnership with Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area and other groups, the ADAMS Center in Sterling, Virginia, has been "offer[ing] spiritual and physical aid to Afghan refugees, through its social services, youth, education and Imam’s departments." (Samantha Willis, VPM News)
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A $65,000 grant from the nonprofit Interfaith Works CNY is helping Afghan arrivals with housing and employment needs in Syracuse, New York. (Katie Zilcosky, WAER)
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Members of Detroit’s Dawoodi Bohras Community joined local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints members over the weekend to help the nonprofit Zaman International deliver housewarming kits to resettled Afghans in the area. (Mark Hicks, The Detroit News)
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