Tuesday, March 29
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NOORANI'S NOTES

 

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which will be open through April
22. Thank you!

A significant drop in immigration is the key reason that the U.S. grew
at the slowest pace in history in 2021, Derek Thompson writes for The
Atlantic
.
The steady decline in immigration, due in part to economic factors in
various countries along with restrictionist U.S. immigration policies,
drove the record-setting downturn in overall population growth.  

"Simply put, the U.S. has too few births, too many deaths, and not
enough immigrants. Whether by accident, design, or a total
misunderstanding of basic economics, America has steered itself into the
demographic danger zone." 

Last year, we talked about how immigration is necessary for the U.S. to
grow
. And
given the growing U.S. labor shortage, that's even more true today. 

David Casas, director of The Libre Initiative Georgia, writes an op-ed
for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

that "there is a strong correlation between access to education
opportunities and a robust workforce" in the state.  

Casas, a former Republican member of the Georgia House of
Representatives, goes on to voice support for federal reforms like the
"Dream Act
, Farm
Workforce Modernization Act
,
and Bipartisan Border Solutions Act
 that
would improve the legal immigration system, protect dreamers and
essential workers, empower doctors and nurses, and protect the
border." 

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

UKRAINIANS - With millions of Ukrainians internally and externally
displaced, family reunification and resettlement efforts in the U.S. are
especially critical, report Rupa Shenoy and Hafsa Quraishi of WBUR

in an interview with Sasha Chanoff, founder of RefugePoint
. Chanoff explains the urgent need for the
Biden administration to rebuild the refugee resettlement system to meet
the needs of displaced families, adding that we also must be prepared
for "alternate options if this war doesn't end quickly." A key point:
"... as we build our new resettlement program, and as we look to support
Ukrainians, we can't overlook those who are in extreme and desperate
circumstances around the world."  

AFGHAN CHILDREN - An estimated 200 Afghan teens who fled the country
alone after last year's Taliban takeover remain unaccompanied and in
U.S. federal custody, report Melissa Sanchez and Anna Clark of
ProPublica
.
An investigation including law enforcement records, internal documents,
and interviews with about a dozen people who have worked with or talked
to the children in the shelters reveals that "young Afghans have been
waiting in what seems like never-ending detention," while suffering
from severe trauma. While the State Department is still working on
coordinating their parents' evacuation from Afghanistan, it is unclear
how or when families will be reunited. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghan
evacuees face an uncertain future in the U.S. because they only have
access to temporary forms of legal status, Abigail Hauslohner writes for
The Washington Post
.
This is why we need an Afghan Adjustment Act
.

On the local front: 

* With private-public sponsorships and strong public support, more than
700 Afghans have resettled in Connecticut since September. (Tom Condon,
CT Mirror
) 

* A group of around 25 Afghan men have found a "safe space" at Ramin
Mohamand's daily soccer games at Gillis Neighborhood Park in Austin,
Texas. (Jake García, KVUE
) 

BIDEN'S BUDGET - The Biden administration's Fiscal Year 2023
budget "would substantially increase funds for the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) while further taking the agency away from the
enforcement-heavy policies imbued into it by the Trump administration,"
Rafael Bernal and Rebecca Beitsch report for The Hill
. "Notably,
the Budget makes smart investments in technology to keep our borders
secure and includes funding that will allow us to process asylum claims
more efficiently as we build a safe, orderly, and humane immigration
system," said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in a statement. In
addition to increased CBP and ICE funding, the budget request also
includes $765 million for USCIS, although the agency would remain mainly
funded by application fees. Moreover, the budget proposal almost
doubles funding for the immigration courts, which would allow them to
hire 100 additional immigration judges.  

**DETENTION** - In addition to the increases, the administration seeks
"to cut more than 25 percent of the bed capacity at immigration
detention facilities" via its budget request, per Eileen Sullivan of The
New York Times
.
The administration recently ended a contract with a detention facility
in Alabama and is reducing the use of three other detention centers
which have been heavily criticized for poor living conditions. For
more on this, see Maria Sacchetti and Nick Miroff's piece in The
Washington Post
.
These necessary changes are being proposed against a backdrop of
immigrants and advocates urging the administration to shut down
immigration detention centers like Florida's Glades County Detention
Center

and LaSalle Correctional Center

in Louisiana. Cruel treatment and abuse of Black migrants in these
facilities have underscored the "disturbing and overlooked problem of
anti-Black racism in immigration detention." 

COVID-19 VACCINES - The Biden administration plans to offer COVID-19
vaccines to migrants taken into custody at the U.S.-Mexico border,
reports Priscilla Alvarez of CNN
.
The administration will provide up to 2,700 vaccines per day and
increase to 6,000 daily by the end of May, according to a notice to
Congress. "We have to ensure that as we apprehend individuals and that
they are turned over to an NGO or released in the community that we've
set them up for proper care," Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz told CNN
last week. Meanwhile, "a bus brigade is vaccinating Mexican citizens
with COVID-19 shots that Texans aren't using," report Karen Brooks
Harper and Jason Garza of The Texas Tribune
.
Thanks to a cross-border initiative launched in June, "roughly 2,000
Nuevo Laredo residents per day get COVID-19 shots in Laredo - 10% of
Texas' daily total." 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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