Monday, March 21
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

Ukrainian refugees being welcomed into the U.S. are far and few between
compared to other countries, reports Miriam Jordan of The New York Times
.
 

Thanks to the hospitality of strangers and volunteers like Paul and Rose
Chorney of Auburn, California, a few Ukrainian families have found
refuge.  

"There are going to be a lot more Ukrainian families coming, however
they can," said Paul Chorney, whose family immigrated to the U.S. from
Ukraine when he was 18. Now his church is helping those displaced by
the Russian invasion.  

"The absence of a clear signal from Washington on how many it is willing
to accept and questions about whether Europeans will get preferential
treatment over refugees from Asia, Africa and the Middle East have
created deep uncertainty, leaving displaced Ukrainians to make their way
to the border and hope for help from private sponsors like the
Chorneys," Jordan writes.  

As a result of cuts to the program over the years, I told her, "Our
refugee program is unable to meet this moment." (I will be speaking
with Miriam this Thursday, March 24, for an event sponsored by Zócalo
Public Square. Register here
.) 

Pressure continues to build for the Biden administration to provide
clear, legal pathways for Ukrainians to find asylum in the U.S. Conor
Finnegan of ABC News

reports that the administration is considering ways to fast-track
bringing Ukrainians, including expediting visa processing for immediate
family members of U.S. citizens.  

With the refugee resettlement system decimated under the Trump
administration and backlogs continuing to grow, John Holland and
Courtney Rozen of Bloomberg Law

explain that even Ukrainians with ties to the U.S. face a "visa
nightmare."  

Meanwhile, Daina Beth Solomon of Reuters

reports that Russians seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border "are
frustrated they are not getting in like Ukrainians are, despite leaving
their homeland over the invasion of Ukraine." 

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

10 MILLION - The U.N. announced that an estimated 10 million
Ukrainians have been displaced since the start of the war, reports
Axios'

Rebecca Falconer. Jamey Keaten of the Associated Press

notes that the upward trend is heading "toward the levels of
displacement from Syria's devastating war, which has driven about 13
million people from their homes both in the country and
abroad." That's alarming - especially without a robust refugee and
asylum system to support them. And while Krakow, the second- largest
city in Poland, is offering refuge to Ukrainians, Agnieszka
Pikulicka-Wilczewska of Al Jazeera

reports that the city is quickly running out of space. 

* With the help of his brother and friends from Utah, Rob Sturgill of
Twin Falls, Idaho, flew to the Ukraine-Poland border and rented vans to
help shuttle refugees to safe locations. (Isabella Bright, KSAW
) 

**TITLE 42** - Sunday marked the two-year anniversary of the
implementation of Title 42. And there is no clear sign of the
administration phasing out or reversing the public health policy any
time soon, despite pressure from advocates to do so, per Rafael Bernal
and Rebecca Beitsch of The Hill
.
"Every day that this policy is in effect, it actually endangers human
lives, harms public health, bolsters racist tropes and damages the
CDC's [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] credibility and the
administration's credibility. It also violates U.S. and international
law," said Eleanor Acer, director of refugee protection at Human Rights
First.  

60 VOTES TO HOPE - In their SCOTUS confirmation hearing curtain
raiser, Politico
's
Marianne Levine and Burgess Everett spent some time with Sen. Dick
Durbin (D-Illinois), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who
is "now engaging with [Sen. John] Cornyn [R-Texas] and Sen. Thom Tillis
[R-North Carolina] to see if he can get an immigration deal." The real
question, per Durbin: "is there anything we can do on the subject of
immigration that can win 60 votes in the Senate? We're going to test
that." Over the weekend, after news of Durbin's statement, I wrote
that "the path to hope
requires 60 votes." It's a path that brings clarity to the debate for
the public, which in the long term, "leads to a larger coalition of
Americans supporting immigrants and immigration." 

**AFGHAN WOMEN** - In an op-ed for The Chicago Reporter
,
Nadine Naber, professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Global Asian
Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, calls on
Americans to empathize with - and support - Afghan refugee women
who have fled their homes after the fall of Kabul. Not only are they
suffering physically, Naber writes, but emotionally and mentally, too.
Afghan women "are protecting loved ones while they are personally
suffering. They are caring for children, taking neighbors to see
doctors, and feeding people while they strive to care for themselves."
To support them on a national scale, Congress must pass the Afghan
Adjustment Act
.
 

Locally:  

* Pilar's Tamales in Ann Arbor, Michigan, held a drive-thru tamale
sale on Sunday to help raise money for Afghan resettlement, with
proceeds going to Jewish Family Services. (Jordyn Pair, MLive
) 

* A food truck donative drive was held in Gainesville, Florida, this
weekend to support Afghan and Haitian refugees in the area. (Jacqueline
Macia, WUFT
) 

* In Arizona, the Sheraton Phoenix Downtown recently hired more than 40
Afghan refugees and hosted a lunch to celebrate Nowruz, a public holiday
in Afghanistan and throughout Central Asia marking the start of spring
and a new year. (Claudia Rupcich, ABC 15
) 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

P.S. VICE World News
has a powerful
digital story series highlighting the untold narratives of "the women
narcos who became some of Latin America's most feared - and
respected - crime bosses." For more on the border and the war on
drugs, see this recap on VICE Video
. 

 

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