The Forum Daily, formerly Noorani's Notes
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THE FORUM DAILY

 

The Biden administration just released refugee resettlement data
for April. Our
policy expert Danilo Zak has the breakdown
: 

Only 1,984 total refugees were resettled in April, "a decrease from
March as the system continues to flounder at Trump-like levels." 

More than halfway through Fiscal Year 2022, we've only resettled
18,414 refugees total - nowhere near the refugee ceiling the
administration set at 125,000
. 

After the administration committed to resettle 100,000 Ukrainians, the
U.S. resettled just 125 in April and 12 in March. The good news: The
Uniting for Ukraine

program has had 14,500 applications in just 10 days.  

As for Afghan refugees, there is a "small but very notable increase" in
their resettlement this month. 

To be blunt, the administration needs to walk the talk and accelerate
these processes. They are saying the right thing, but painfully slow in
terms of execution.  

Welcome to Friday's edition of The Forum Daily. 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 IMPACT** - In a Senate panel Thursday, DHS acting assistant
secretary for border and immigration policy Blas Nuñez-Neto told Sen.
Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) that lifting Title 42 will result in a decrease
of border crossings, per Nick Miroff of The Washington Post
.
This is a stark contrast to the administration's predictions that
there will be an increase of border crossings following the policy lift.
As Miroff explains, "the point Nuñez-Neto was making is a more nuanced
one that has been shared quietly among migration analysts and some CBP
veterans. Because the Title 42 'expulsion' process carries no legal
consequences, many adult migrants are attempting to cross again and
again until they can successfully sneak past U.S. agents." See our Title
42 infographic
for more
details on the impact of this border policy. (FWIW, advocates have not
been quiet about this. The administration has just failed to adequately
explain the situation.) 

'BROKEN IMMIGRATION SYSTEM' - In the absence of immigration
reforms, immigration judges have immense power over court
decisions, which has resulted "in a profusion of complex and
often-contradictory court rulings," Jasmine Aguilera reports for TIME
Magazine .
According to experts,
"[b]ecause Congress has failed to act meaningfully since the 1990s to
reform the U.S. immigration system, immigration policy has been
increasingly shaped by court challenges." (Take Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton, for example, who has filed 11 immigration-related lawsuits
against the Biden administration). "This is a manifestation of our
broken immigration system," said Stephen Yale-Loehr, professor of
immigration law at Cornell University. 

**VALUABLE LESSONS** - We can learn from the welcome and evacuation
efforts for Afghan and Ukrainian refugees to build a better refugee
resettlement system, writes David Miliband, President and CEO of the
International Rescue Committee, in an op-ed for TIME Magazine
. Among his
recommendations: "lock in the innovation that underpins Operation
Allies Welcome as part of a reset of the U.S. Refugee Admissions
Program." We can learn from refugees themselves, too: 98-year-old Leonid
Stanislavskyi recently fled Ukraine, resettling in South Florida - and
is now the world's oldest competitive tennis player, reports Tom
D'Angelo of Palm Beach Post
.
Lastly, this Mother's Day weekend, Jill Biden is traveling to Romania
and Slovakia to "[meet] Ukrainian refugees, most of whom are women and
children," per Darlene Superville of the Associated Press
.
Talk about inspiration and resilience. 

On the local front: 

* With the help of staff at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of
Galveston-Houston, 20 Afghan students at Heights High School and their
families are acclimating to life in the U.S. (Adam Zuvanich, The Leader
) 

* Sacramento-based Asian Resources, Inc .,
founded by two former refugees, is providing an on-the-job training
program by matching refugees like new Afghan arrivals with employers in
the region. "Since we already face the challenge, we can guide them how
to get start, so it won't delay their settlement in the U.S.," said
Chong Vang a company founder and former refugee from Laos. (Van Tieu,
ABC10
) 

* Five young Afghan women shared their stories journeying from Kabul to
Tempe, Arizona, after they got "an opportunity to study at Arizona State
University as part of a resettlement program in partnership with the
International Rescue Committee." (Milken Institute
) 

DREAM ACT - As a tribute to Utah's late Sen. Orrin Hatch - the
longest-serving Republican U.S. senator in history - Congress should
pass the DREAM Act, which he co-sponsored with Sen. Dick Durbin
(D-Illinois) in 2001, writes Glori H. Smith, Ph.D., a retired Utah
school teacher, in an op-ed for the Deseret News
.
"However, more important than making a statement or a lasting tribute,
is that enacting the DREAM Act is the right thing to do because it helps
people who, through no fault of their own, are undocumented." Smith
concludes by urging Republican Utah Sens. Mike Lee and Mitt Romney to
support the DREAM Act in 2022.  

'WE FEED PEOPLE' - Earlier this week, I had the good fortune to
attend a screening of Ron Howard's new documentary about our friend
Chef José Andrés and the heroic work of World Central Kitchen.
The trailer for the film
is out now, and the full documentary starts streaming on Disney+ on May
27. It is a beautiful film - particularly when they interview farm
workers who put food on our table but, at the height of the pandemic,
depended on WCK for their own food. Drop it in your queue. And, yes,
when I met Howard, I told him, "There is always money in the banana
stand." (Only one more week of these terrible jokes from me.)  

Thanks for reading, 

Ali 

 

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