Monday, August 8
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THE FORUM DAILY

Next week marks the one-year anniversary of the U.S. military withdrawal
of Afghanistan and the fall of Kabul. 

With the anniversary near, the International Refugee Assistance Project
(IRAP) and others reflected on the withdrawal, evacuation, and
resettlement efforts in a press conference Thursday
,
urging the U.S. and Congress to "fulfill its moral and legal obligation
to protect the tens of thousands of Afghan allies and their families
stranded in Afghanistan," reports Brooke Anderson of The New Arab
. 

"For the past year, IRAP, and our colleagues from the Evacuate Our
Allies coalition have done everything possible to convey this urgency to
the Biden administration, while offering concrete and actionable steps
they can take today to make pathways to safety work for Afghans at
risk," said Sunil Varghese, policy director of IRAP. "...What we are
seeing are small improvements, improvements that can make all the
difference for an individual, but that are not nearly commensurate with
the size and gravity of the task." 

As NBC News
'
Julia Ainsley reports, there are still tens of thousands of Afghans who
want to leave Afghanistan, including our allies who are forced to live
in hiding. "After Americans left Afghanistan, I passed one year of my
life like a prisoner. No work. No food," said a former Afghan
interpreter for a U.S. army captain. 

These reflections come as the Refugee Processing Center released refugee
data for July, with
just 2,589 total refugees resettled. As our policy expert Danilo Zak
points out
,
with only two months left in the fiscal year, we're on track to
resettle 21,228 total refugees - which isn't remotely close to the
refugee ceiling President Biden set of 125,000 last September. If these
low refugee resettlement numbers continue, Zak warns, it will be the
third lowest total in the history of the resettlement program. 

On the local welcome

front: 

* The Oregon Department of Human Services' Refugee Program recently
provided $2.8 million for nonprofits and community groups helping with
Afghan resettlement efforts. (Mike Sunnucks, Herald and News
) 

* A youth refugee soccer camp in Abilene, Texas, including some newly
arrived Afghans, has started a new business: selling camper-designed
soccer balls around the world. Rwanda Children and Zambia Medical
Mission are helping to distribute the balls abroad. (Heather Claborn,
KACU
) 

Welcome to Monday's edition of The Forum Daily. I'm Becka Wall,
the Forum's digital communications VP. This week we're trying a
slightly different format - let us know what you think! If you have a
story to share from your own community, please send it to me at
[email protected] . 

Today's top news stories: 

* For The Atlantic
,
Caitlin Dickerson thoroughly investigates the history behind Trump
administration's "zero tolerance" policy, which separated more than
5,500 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Last week,
450 faith leaders and groups signed a family reunification letter
,
pushing for more funding and support from Congress to help families who
were previously separated at the border.  

* NYC Mayor Eric Adams condemned Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for sending
some migrants to the city against their will, reports POLITICO
's
Erin Durkin. Meanwhile, the brunt of Abbott's efforts to continue
busing thousands of asylum-seeking migrants from Texas border towns to
D.C. and New York City, is falling on volunteers, reports Benjamin
Wermund for The Houston Chronicle
. 

* Although the order to officially end Migrant Protection Protocols,
a.k.a. the "Remain in Mexico" policy, reached district courts on
Saturday, it is still unclear "if, when and how the program will once
again be terminated," per Kate Morrissey and Ana Ramirez of The San
Diego Union-Tribune
. 

* More than a million applicants may not live to see their green cards,
visas, work permits, and naturalization petitions processed or approved,
due to decades-long backlogs exacerbated by pandemic-related delays,
reports Andrea Castillo for The Los Angeles Times
.  

* The recent gun-violence bill, which combined goals from several
leaders on both sides of the political spectrum, should be used as a
road map to tackle and pass meaningful immigration reform, write C.
Stewart Verdery Jr., former Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security
and R. Gil Kerlikowske, former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border
Protection, in an op-ed for The Seattle Times
. 

* In recent weeks, dozens of immigrants, U.S. citizens, and activists
have joined a multilingual postcard-writing campaign spearheaded by
South Florida's Miramar Circle of Protection, urging Department of
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to extend Temporary
Protection Status to Nicaragua and other Central American countries, per
Syra Ortiz-Blanes for the Miami Herald
. 

Thanks for reading,  

Becka  

 

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