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With the U.S. committing to welcome up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees but no direct resettlement or visa routes, a growing number of Ukrainians are arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana "hoping for new lives or temporary respite in North America," Kevin Sieff reports for The Washington Post.
A list of Ukrainians seeking to enter the U.S., where they would be granted humanitarian parole for one year, "is kept on a yellow legal pad on a folding table inside a blue camping tent, a few feet away from the multilane highway that connects Mexico to the United States" and is "written in English and Cyrillic by volunteers, many refugees themselves, waiting for their own numbers to be called." A small encampment has now formed in Tijuana.
"They said it could be two or three days," said sunflower farmer Valentina Shymanservska, No. 884. Added home renovator Maxim Polosov, No. 363, "I can’t believe we’re still waiting."
(You’d think that by now our immigration and asylum system would be more sophisticated than a legal pad.)
Meanwhile, religious groups and pastors across the country are mobilizing to support Ukrainian refugees, report Deepa Bharath and Luis Andres Henao of the Associated Press: "In Southern California, pastors and lay individuals are stationing themselves at the Mexico border waving Ukrainian flags and offering food, water and prayer. Around the country, other religious groups are getting ready to provide longer-term support for refugees who will have to find housing, work, health care and schooling."
On the local front, Kyle Dunphey of Deseret News profiles Eva, a teen who fled Ukraine with her family and is now "helping streamline the complex process many Ukrainians will soon undergo to stay in the U.S."
Finally, a big thank you to Stuart Anderson for his generous review of Crossing Borders in this morning’s edition of Forbes.
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Forum Daily, formerly 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 this newsletter, please spread the word. They can subscribe here.
TITLE 42 — The Los Angeles
Times’ Cindy Carcamo spoke with Ricardo Zúniga, the Biden administration’s special envoy for Northern Triangle countries, on the root causes of migration from Central America and "how they are expected to result in an uptick of immigration from the region." It’s not just Mexican and Central American immigration anymore, Zúniga noted, "because the displacement caused by the pandemic is so widespread." Zúniga also mentioned that State Department officials have been preparing to lift the public health rule Title 42 for months, but he’s concerned about misinformation regarding the policy reversal: "They are going to be sold an impression that now, ‘The border is open. There are no more restrictions. Title 42 is gone. You won’t be returned,’" he said. "And the question is how to make sure people understand and get the real information ahead of time that the implications are real."
LINCOLN — More than 30,000 immigrants and refugees call Lincoln, Nebraska, home. Now the city and surrounding county have a new plan to help newcomers integrate, Margaret Reist of the Lincoln Journal Star reports. The Welcoming & Belonging Strategic Plan "identifies six action steps that touch on equitable access, civic engagement, education, economic opportunity, safety and health, and affordable housing, and includes more specific recommendations to improve services." Said City Clerk Soulinnee Phan, herself the daughter of Laotian refugees: "Giving a chance to be able to have a new start and be a part of and live in a community that cares and that is welcoming is one of the most powerful things we can provide as Lincolnites."
‘RAMADAN IN A NEW COUNTRY’ — To help Afghans celebrate Ramadan this month, the United Church of Christ (UCC) produced a series of webinars called ‘Ramadan in a New Country’ to educate Christians about Islam’s holy month, reports Emily McFarlan Miller of Religion News Service. "This is going to be the first Ramadan that these Afghan refugees are going to spend in a country that doesn’t celebrate Ramadan, and they’ve been through a lot," said the Rev. Irene Hassan, the UCC’s minister for refugee and migration
services. "Imagine being in a country that doesn’t celebrate Christmas," Hassan explained to webinar attendees this past weekend. "This will be a new world to them." So far, between 75 and 100 UCC churches are sponsoring Afghan families, about 800 people total, per Hassan.
- Elshan Moridiabadi, a chess grandmaster living in Durham, North Carolina, gave Afghan refugee students at a Raleigh elementary school an opportunity to learn chess online. "This is something that really gives them a little familiarity with something that they love, as simple as the game of chess," said Chris Cox, principal of Stough Magnet Elementary School. (Rick Armstrong, WRAL)
- In partnership with The International Rescue Committee, a coalition of "Arizona State students, Valley rotary clubs, and local businesses" helped to furnish an Afghan family’s new home in Phoenix on Saturday. (AZFamily Digital News)
- Travis Heights Elementary School in Austin, Texas, is raising money via a thrift store, with donations and proceeds going to Afghan refugee children in need. (Asher Price, Axios
Austin)
HEALTH CARE OPPORTUNITIES — A new fellowship for immigrant health care workers, organized and funded by the city of Boston and the nonprofit African Bridge Network, has been instrumental in helping hospitals in the area fill vacancies, per Steph Solis of the Boston Business Journal. "By doing those fellowships or internships, they are giving us a chance to actually integrate with the system, and I think that’s really great," said Christelle Etienne, originally from Haiti, one of the ten latest fellows. "By us showing proof of concept here to the professional fellowship, we hope it will begin to push the state and the different industries to begin to really update their standards around certification and to be adapted to a world that is now a lot more globalized," said Yusufi Vali, director of the Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement in Boston.
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