Friday, March 11
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

Large disparities have emerged among national responses to Ukrainian
refugees, Chantal Da Silva reports for NBC News
.
Ukraine's neighbor Moldova has taken in 82,000, for example, while the
UK's barriers have been labeled a "cruel farce." 

The whole point of the 1951 Refugee Convention
,
Sonya Sceats of Freedom From Torture told NBC, "was to put a stop to
these kinds of barriers and to establish the principle that if you're
fleeing for your life ... you are allowed to turn up and claim asylum on
arrival."  

In Poland, the arrival of 1.4 million people - two refugees every
three seconds - is causing a strain, Drew Hinshaw and Ian Lovett
report in The Wall Street Journal
.
"This is like our biggest humanitarian crisis after the Second World
War," said Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who has seen 200,000
Ukrainians arrive in his city in just over a week. "What can we do? We
are one city."  

Meanwhile, at the Mexico-U.S. border, the Ukrainian family that was
turned away Wednesday under Title 42 was allowed in Thursday, as
Priscilla Alvarez of CNN

reports. 

And this morning for The xxxxxx
,
I wrote, "The United States can and must do more-for Ukrainians, yes,
but also for refugees fleeing conflict around the world, regardless of
their nationality."  

Welcome to Friday'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] .
And if you know others who'd like to receive the Notes, please spread
the word. They can subscribe here.

**TITLE 42** - Pressure is building on the Biden administration to
lift the Title 42 public health restrictions at the border. Hamed
Aleaziz at BuzzFeed News

scoops (of course) that Homeland Security officials are planning to tell
their Mexican counterparts of plans to end Title 42 this April. Aleaziz
writes that in a draft document, DHS warned that  "[r]eturning to
prepandemic [border processing] practices could 'seriously strain'
border resources and lead to a challenging humanitarian situation in
northern Mexico." DHS officials, according to the documents, also want
Mexico "to impose a 'hardcopy' visa requirement for Russians and
Brazilians, which would theoretically make it harder for them to enter
the country for the intention of heading to the US border." 

**THAT WAS THEIR PLAN** - Yesterday, the Census Bureau published the
2020 Census' post-enumeration survey and demographic analysis
estimate. Per Roll Call
's
Michael Macagnone, "The agency missed almost 5 percent of the
country's Hispanic population, the largest miss for that population
group in decades." Remember, the Trump administration spent years trying
to add a citizenship question to the census to stoke fear in immigrant
communities around completing the census. And, as Macagnone writes,
Trump "later cut counting short as part of an effort to exclude
undocumented immigrants from apportionment results." Yes, this was their
plan. But, as it turns out, conservative-leaning states of Texas,
Florida and Arizona, "received fewer congressional districts in
apportionment than projected."   

**'NOTHING CAN EXPLAIN'** - In a world of soul-crushing stories
about people trying to flee violence and conflict, this may be one of
the most soul-crushing. In The Atlantic
,
George Packer writes about Afghan women who fought against the Taliban,
now scared for their lives as they try to figure out a way to escape the
country before Taliban soldiers find them. Telling the story of
Lieutenant Shakila Nazari, a member of the Afghan military who now lives
in Kansas after a harrowing escape from her home country, "Nothing can
explain why Nazari should be safe while Noori, Mahdieh, Fatima, and
Najibeh should be running for their lives, why America should welcome
one and refuse the others." If there is one thing you read today, it
should be this.   

**AFGHAN WOMEN** - Immigration reforms would help Afghan women start
new lives in the U.S., advocates said during an International Women's
Day event Tuesday, per Julia Mueller of The Hill
.
"The war for Afghan women is not over," said Afghanistan Ambassador to
the U.S. Roya Rahmani. Cindy McCain, U.S. Ambassador to the United
Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, said that in light of the
difficulty to qualify for and obtain visas, "I just think we need to
reform the whole idea of this and make sure it works." Meanwhile, Jordan
Ballor of The Gospel Coalition

highlights the opportunity many Christians are seizing to welcome Afghan
refugees: "Christians in particular have opened their wallets, their
hearts, and even their homes to refugee families fleeing the chaos in
Afghanistan." 

Locally on the welcome front: 

* In Asheville, North Carolina, a variety of community organizations and
churches are assisting Afghan refugees "with groceries, medical
appointments, and laundry, as well as church vans providing
transportation" - as is the Islamic Center of Asheville, which has
doubled in size in recent months. (Maggie Phillips, Tablet magazine
) 

* "Everything was regular, I woke up to go to the hospital to work for
my patients and suddenly I heard [from] the TV that the government has
collapsed," said Mohammad Azimy, a former Kabul dentist. He is now
learning English at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin,
as a first step toward re-establishing his career. (Noelle Friel, NBC 26
)  

* Nonprofit Feeding Chittenden is
helping Afghan evacuees in Vermont adapt, starting with groceries
delivered by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants. (Jack
Thurston, NECN
)  

**BACKLOG** - Unless you are steeped in the intricacies of immigration
policy, it can be hard to decipher the difference in immigration
categories and what it means for a person's life. The Cato
Institute's

David Bier sheds a bright light on the consequences for some 7.7 million
immigrants stuck at various stages in the family immigration process:
"Nearly 1.6 million family-sponsored immigrants will die before they
have the chance to immigrate to the United States legally." After laying
out the data, Bier's solutions include exempting spouses and minor
children of primary applicants from the green card cap and recapturing
previously unused green cards. Agree.

Thanks for reading, 
Ali

 

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