Good Tuesday morning.
Here’s a subject that has been causing controversy of late – especially in suburban counties to the north of New York City, where local elected officials are fighting in court in an effort to block Mayor Eric Adams from sending migrants to temporarily (or longer) live within their borders.
It’s World Refugee Day, which, according to the UN, “celebrates the strength and courage of people who have been forced to flee their home country to escape conflict or persecution.”
Before we go any further, we need to get some definitions straight. A lot of words are tossed around these days – “refugee,” “migrant”, “asylee”, “immigrant” “undocumented”, “illegal” – and they are not all interchangeable, even though they are often used as such.
Let’s start here: Both asylees and refugees are unable or unwilling to return to their home country because of persecution or fear of persecution due to a wide range of issues including but not limited to race, religion, nationality, political opinion, etc.
Both refugees and asylees must meet this same legal standard; the difference is in where they apply for protection.
A refugee does so while still overseas and then enters the U.S. with that status. An asylee requests protection upon arrival and is granted that status, while an asylum seeker requests asylum at a U.S. port of entry or after arriving here.
The asylum process in the U.S. is complicated and often takes a number of years to complete, during which time asylum seekers have very limited access to benefits. If they manage to secure legal counsel, for which demand is rising and funding is not necessarily keeping pace here in New York, they have a much better shot of succeeding in immigration court.
There is a bill pending in Albany – the Access to Representation Act – that would establish a guaranteed right to counsel for those facing deportation, which would make New York the first state in the nation to do so.
According to Amnesty International, there is no internationally accepted legal definition of a migrant. Broadly speaking, they are individuals who are staying outside their country of origin (for work, school, to be with family, etc.) but are not asylum seekers or refugees. Migrants may or may not have left their country of origin due to persecution or some other form of violence.
The Department of Homeland Security says an immigrant is “any person lawfully in the United States who is not a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or person admitted under a nonimmigrant category as defined by the INA Section 101(a)(15).” Those who are undocumented are in the country but do not possess a valid visa or other immigration documentation.
An internally displaced person, meanwhile, is someone who is forced to flee their home but never crosses an international border.
Now that we have all that cleared up, back to World Refugee Day, the theme of which this year is “Hope Away From Home.”
According to the UN, the number of people forced to flee their homes as a result of war (notably the ongoing conflict in Ukraine), persecution, human rights abuse and climate change reached an all-time high of 108.4 million in 2022. That is an increase of 19.1 million from 2021 and more than twice the 42.75 million peak a decade ago.
There are no signs that this annual increase will be slowing any time soon. We have already seen on a relatively small scale – comparatively speaking – the challenges posed by this crisis at the local level. It is clearly a problem that will be with us for some time, and one that will require compassion, patience, and most of all, funding – a lot of funding – to address.
There’s really no good way to shift from a topic as serious as this one to something as mundane (yet important for a variety of reasons) as the weather….but it’s going to be another relatively nice day, with partly cloudy skies, a slight chance of an afternoon shower, and temperatures in the low 80s.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden arrived in the Bay Area yesterday afternoon, where he visited a nature preserve in Palo Alto to announce more than $600 million for climate adaption projects.
In California, Biden touted his administration’s record on climate change, which he called “the most aggressive climate action ever,” while hitting Republicans in Congress for trying to block it.
The president ramps up his reelection effort this week with four fundraisers in the San Francisco area, as his campaign builds up its coffers and lays strategic foundations for 2024.
Biden is embarking on a string of political fundraisers through the end of June to bolster the initial stages of his 2024 reelection campaign.
A recent poll with good news for Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. raises questions about whether Biden should be worried about his reelection chances.
The unexpected polling strength of an anti-vaccine activist with a celebrated Democratic lineage points to the president’s weaknesses, which his team is aiming to shore up.
A vaccine scientist said he was “stalked” after podcast host Joe Rogan called for him to debate Democratic presidential candidate and anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr.
Biden said that the threat of Russian President Vladimir Putin using tactical nuclear weapons is “real”, days after denouncing Russia’s deployment of such weapons in Belarus.
Biden praised his own experience in foreign policy on Monday, saying it was the equal of anyone — including veteran diplomat Henry Kissinger.
The president called Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s (R-Ala.) hold on military nominees over the Department of Defense’s abortion policy “bizarre.”
Biden hailed what he said was progress in restoring US-China ties after Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up two days of meetings in Beijing, including talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Blinken met with Xi Jinping and said they agreed to “stabilize” badly deteriorated U.S.-China ties, but America’s top diplomat left Beijing with his biggest ask rebuffed: better communications between their militaries.
Former AG William Barr suggested that AG Merrick Garland should release the FBI-produced document alleging a criminal bribery scheme involving Biden to Republican lawmakers, provided necessary steps are taken to protect the life and safety of the source.
A submarine on a tourist expedition to the Titanic shipwreck in the Atlantic has vanished with likely only four days’ worth of oxygen, and authorities are now searching for the missing passengers, which includes a famed explorer, authorities and family said.
The Coast Guard confirmed that it was searching for the vessel after the Canadian research ship MV Polar Prince lost contact with a submersible during a dive about 900 miles east of Cape Cod, Mass., on Sunday morning.
The state Assembly is returning to the Capitol to finish up its session today. Whether it will approve legislation to extend government-subsidized health insurance to undocumented immigrants hangs in the balance.
A lucrative gaming agreement between the Seneca Nation and Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration has unraveled in recent days, capped by a statement from the Nation’s president accusing Hochul of “utter disregard” for the process.
New York state lawmakers finished up this year’s legislative session a week ago without approving a bill that would allow New York City to set and lower its speed limit, dealing a blow to street safety advocates.
Environmental organizations in New York are making a last-minute push for the passage of a measure meant to expedite off-shore wind development in the state amid local opposition in Nassau County.
The New York state Labor Department will start to monitor stronger protections for warehouse workers in the state, including mandates they quickly receive data about their work speed and company-set quotas after legislation took effect yesterday.
Hochul announced a development project to encourage tourism in the North Country.
Former Staten Island Assemblyman Michael Cusick has been appointed to the board of trustees for NYPA, the country’s largest state-run power organization which provides electricity to hundreds of nonprofits organizations and public entities.
Not only has he known he’d have the Big Apple’s top job for at least three decades, Mayor Eric Adams revealed God has visited him several times to help him plan for the role and most recently instructed him to publicly preach about his faith.
Adams was delivering an eight-minute Father’s Day sermon at the historic Lenox Road Baptist Church in Flatbush when he shed light on why he has chosen to speak more publicly on his Christian faith in recent months.
Adams joined fathers and sons of all ages for the annual Father’s Day Walk and Talk on Saturday.
A majority of the City Council has signed a letter calling on Adams to add at least $195 million for legal service providers to next year’s budget, warning that the city-supported lawyers face a “funding crisis.”
Republican Assemblyman Alec Brook-Krasny faces harsh criticism after railing against transgender people at a recent Brooklyn community board meeting.
The city’s Board of Elections tracked just under 10,000 ballots cast during the Big Apple’s first weekend of early voting, setting the stage for an anticipated low turnout primary election.
The city Health Department says its disease data collection system was so swamped during the pandemic that it needs to spend $5 million to overhaul it.
A vegan New York City landlord has listed a spacious apartment with beautiful views but will only rent to prospective tenants who agree not to cook any meat or fish in the kitchen.
The city’s Human Rights Law lists 14 characteristics that landlords are not allowed to consider in deciding whether to rent an apartment, including age, race, family status, job, income source, and sexual orientation. Fondness for meat is not one of them.
Rodent complaints were down 15% in New York City last month compared to the previous year — but “we may never know” if the borough’s millions of rats are playing hide and squeak, or if weary residents are tired of complaining about them, experts say.
American Airlines said they plan to begin nonstop flights from Albany to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport starting Oct. 5.
A historical marker will be placed at the site of a former church where it is believed a U.S. president’s father preached, Town of Colonie Supervisor Peter G. Crummey said.
