New Newsletter Dry Run 3/25/22

Title 42 Was Never About Covid

This week marks two years since Title 42 was installed, and immigrant advocates once again lobbied the Biden administration to put an end to the policy, which public health experts have repeatedly said was established on a false premise. The COVID-19 pandemic gave government officials in the Trump administration the perfect footing to finally achieve an idea they had been floating since 2018: shutting down migration for health reasons.

Trump officials knew the policy was scientifically baseless; CDC public health experts noted “there was no valid public health reason” for such an order.

Some background: Since COVID-19 was first reported in the U.S. in early 2020, widespread community transmission has been the driving source of COVID-19 spread within the country. Research soon showed that the majority of cases came from travelers, mainly from Europe. But the Trump administration didn’t put intra-national travel restrictions in place. Instead, it implemented Title 42 in March 2020.

The government claimed the order was made to suspend the “introduction” of certain individuals who have been in “Coronavirus Impacted Areas.” Yet when Title 42 began, COVID-19 rates in the U.S. were among the highest in the world. And it targeted travelers who came from Canada and Mexico — not the European travelers who were known to be carrying the virus.

Read: An asylum seeker told ICE he was 17. They detained him with adults anyway.

Today, even though more is known about COVID-19 spread, the DHS still uses the policy to block and expel people facing life threatening situations in their home country. So far, over 1.7 million people in search of safety have been sent back under the order, and more people will end up the same way if the policy continues.

Migrants and activists protested Monday at a migrant outreach center along the US-Mexico border against “two years of waiting, injustice, and suffering.”

Read: An asylum seeker told ICE he was 17. They detained him with adults anyway.

Next week, the CDC is expected to decide whether Title 42 will be finally lifted or remain in place.

Read: How Homeland Security investigations work

When lifted, the government will have to use existing systems to either process people into the country, and release or deport them. New policies may also be instated.

“Some of the signals we’ve been getting from the administration indicate that there have been trying to put together a long term plan of how to process asylum seekers coming to the southern border,” says Stephen Kang, Detention Attorney at ACLU National. “There are some questions “of what would replace Title 42, in terms of the asylum processing system, and that is an issue that we and other asylum advocates continue to monitor,” said Kang.

Do you have thoughts on how the Biden administration will handle the eventual end of Title 42? Reply to this email.

NEWS WE ARE FOLLOWING

New York
New Jersey disburses $625 Million in Federal Emergency Rental Assistance:
There is $87.3 million more from the U.S. Department of Treasury, which will be used to help households on the waiting list.

How a New York-based nonprofit has been helping young dancers flee Ukraine:
The Youth America Grand Prix helped to arrange placements for young ballet dancers outside Ukraine, emailing acceptance letters that dancers could use to get across the border. —Los Angeles Times

Around the U.S.
Nearly 2,000 lawyers volunteer to help Ukrainians in U.S. obtain TPS and work permits:
The number of lawyers volunteering to help Ukrainians seek safety in the U.S. was growing to 1,958 by Tuesday afternoon, and so far attorneys come from more than 100 law firms. —Reuters

New ICE policy would make agents seek approval before subpoenaing reporters:
A new policy would demand that ICE officials ask a senior such as the ICE Director before issuing subpoenas to news media reporters. —Buzzfeed News

Three Muslim U.S citizens sue CBP authorities for violating their rights at the border:
A new lawsuit calls for border officials to stop religion-based questioning and seeks the erasure of records that hold information unlawfully obtained from the three Muslim plaintiffs.

Asylum granted in Belarus to U.S. Capitol riot suspect:Evan Neumann, 49, a former San Francisco Bay area resident who is facing federal criminal charges from the Jan. 6 capitol riot — which he denies — was granted asylum in Belarus. —Washington Post

Washington D.C.
Biden admin. set to release new rule for processing asylum seekers at the border:
A new Biden administration rule, now uploaded for public inspection, will treat the “credible fear interview” as an application for asylum.

Biden admin vows to accept 100,000 Ukrainian refugees into the country:
The new comes as President Biden meets with allies in Brussels as part of broader efforts with NATO and European Union partners. —CBS News

CATCH UP ON DOCUMENTED EXCLUSIVES

Afghans help each other start over in Albany
Their exit from Afghanistan was traumatic. Now, some 350 Afghans are grappling with resettlement in New York’s capital — with language, housing, job and health insurance concerns.

How Ithaca, New York, became a safe haven for refugees:
A quiet college town upstate is growing into a global hub for people fleeing oppression in Myanmar, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria and beyond.

Home health aides wanted billions in unpaid wages. They only got $30 million. Now, they’re fighting for more:
An ongoing battle to end 24-hour shifts and receive unpaid wages.

Jobs
Outbound Immigration Advisor
What: New York University is seeking an Outbound Immigration Advisor to deliver immigration services for U.S. and foreign national students and scholars studying or working abroad to permit lawful entry into the country.
When: February 7, deadline
Where: Read more about the role and apply here.

Bilingual Immigration Attorney
What: Riis Settlement is seeking to hire a full-time Immigration Attorney in NY, with a strong background in immigration law and demonstrated commitment to immigrant rights.
Where: Read more about the role and apply here.

USCIS is hiring for multiple entry-level attorney positions
What: The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Office of the Chief Counsel, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), is seeking recent and soon-to-be law school graduates who will have graduated on or after January 1, 2020, for entry-level positions in several locations across the U.S.
Where: Read more about the role and apply here.

Documented’s Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio on covering Afghans’ accounts of resettling in Albany:

About 1,800 Afghans of the 76,000 who fled their home country last summer ended up in New York state. For most, the exit was traumatic, and the adjustment to life in the United States has layers of complications including learning a new language, a different education system, and difficulties finding employment, housing, and transportation, and health insurance.

Documented’s Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio immersed herself in an Afghan community in Albany, to report on an exclusive story. Below, she speaks on covering the story and key takeaways.

Fisayo Okare: What stood out the most for you in the story?

Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio: They're going through a lot of difficulties right now in resettling. But two of the biggest things that kept coming up were: the translators in school – I put this in the story as well – kids sitting in school without knowing what's going on there. Some of the kids in the family told me that most of the time they did not have translators in school so they didn't understand what was going on in class. The image of children sitting there without understanding what's going on was striking and one of the teenagers told me when it comes time to take a test, she doesn't know how to answer the questions and it makes her feel sad. That's a frustrating situation for children who are trying to build a new life. And then the health insurance issue also stood out a lot. The mom in the family was two months pregnant and started experiencing a lot of pain, but her health insurance had not come through yet so she didn't seek medical help till several days later, after the pain became too much.

FO: That's a really painful and difficult situation to be in.

GMN: And she ended up having a miscarriage. And we don't know what would have happened, maybe if she went earlier to seek medical help. If she had health insurance, maybe she would have felt more comfortable going earlier to seek medical help. And some people are not even able to work yet because the paperwork is backed up, and they don't have social security numbers, yet. They're kind of waiting for this to come through. But they need to make money, obviously, to feed their families.

Support Documented’s reporting for $10.

FO: What are some key things you’d want readers to take away from the story?

GMN: I think it really showed that although most of the attention on Afghanistan and Afghan evacuees was concentrated back in August and September when thousands of people were fleeing the country, people still need assistance, and it's not just...this isn't something that's over, people are still kind of struggling to resettle and looking for ways to resettle and looking for that assistance to make the transition just a little bit easier. They've already been through such a traumatic time, fleeing their country. And so I feel like after that, the news cycle, you know how it is, kind of wasn't looking at their stories so much anymore. But we still do need to be looking at how the process of resettlement is going and hearing the Afghan people's accounts of resettlement, even long after. Everyone I met is actively seeking to rebuild their lives and taking all these amazing steps to do so. But they just aren't enough resources or the right amount of assistance that there should be.

Three times the expected number of Afghans were resettled around Albany, and volunteers who arrived years ago from Afghanistan have been helping evacuees with directions and translations. But local groups are stretched thin in meeting their needs. Read the full story on Documented.