There are now an unprecedented 800,000 immigrants working legally in the U.S. who are waiting for green cards, reports Abigail Hauslohner at The Washington Post. Most of those waiting for employment-based green cards are Indian, and “the backlog among this group is so acute that an Indian national who applies for a green card now can expect to wait up to 50 years to get one.”

As Congress remains gridlocked over potential legislation to fix the backlog, business leaders are among those calling for a quick resolution, worrying that Indian workers could begin seeking easier paths to citizenship in other countries. “Valuable, skilled people decide they should leave because they’re never going to get what they had hoped for,” warned Bruce Morrison, a lobbyist and immigration attorney. “Companies in America move jobs abroad to employ those skills elsewhere. And American prosperity suffers.”

From New York City, welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

UNDER THE RADAR – While many of the Trump administration’s immigration policy changes — from separating families to detaining children — have resulted in public outcry, others have generated significantly less media attention, writes Annalisa Merelli for Quartz. Among those changes that have been more incremental but “no less consequential”: social media tracking of migrants, increased denaturalization efforts, a change that removes domestic violence as grounds for asylum, and more.

FIRST RESPONDERS – Writing for the Washington Examiner, David J. Mahoney, sheriff of Dane County, Wisconsin, urges Congress to pass the Kerrie Orozco First Responders Family Support Act, a bill to support families of first responders killed in the line of duty by quickly naturalizing their spouses, parents, or children. The legislation is named for the family of police officer Kerrie Orozco, whose husband, Hector, was forced to wait five years to apply for citizenship after becoming a single father in the wake of Kerrie’s death. “When we send our officers into harm’s way, I know our community has their back, but it’s about time our country had their back as well,” writes Sheriff Mahoney. More than 80 members of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force have supported the legislation, as well as the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA) and the National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA).
SHORT OF ITS GOAL – The Trump administration may not fulfill its promise to build 450 miles of wall along the southern border by the end of 2020, Ted Hesson reports at Reuters. Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told reporters yesterday that its “hard right now to be able to say whether we’re still going to be able to meet that goal.” Trump has continued to tout construction of the border wall on the campaign trail. Earlier this week, congressional lawmakers said they had reached an agreement to prevent a government shutdown with a spending package that would provide $1.375 billion in border wall funding. The spending package just passed the House of Representatives and will be taken up by the Senate this week.

TENNESSEE – As the deadline approaches for states to let the Trump administration know whether they intend to accept more refugees, faith groups in Tennessee are calling on Gov. Bill Lee (R) to allow refugees to resettle in the state, Holly Meyer at the Nashville Tennessean reports. “Tennessee evangelical churches and ministries have been active in serving newly arrived refugees for decades, and we pray you will not restrict the ability for us to love our global neighbors in this way,” reads a letter to Gov. Lee signed by 659 Tennessee evangelicals.

CRISIS IN JAPAN – With more than 70 million refugees around the world forcibly displaced from their homes, Matt Katz of Gothamist/WNYC traveled to Japan, a nation that awards legal status to less than 1% of asylum seekers. The eight-part audio series offers a deep dive into asylum in Japan, highlighting the breadth of the global refugee crisis: “Through it all, we hear echoes of the politics of the Trump Administration, and see shadows of the struggle of immigrant New Yorkers, past and present.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali