The Washington Post - USA (2021-11-23)

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23 , 2021. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE A

TUESDAY Opinion

BY ROBERT MANN

M

any Americans took fresh notice

of Louisiana’s sardonic junior

U.S. senator, John Neely Kennedy,

last week when the Republican

lawmaker questioned the patriotism of Pres-

ident Biden’s nominee for comptroller of the

currency.

“I don’t know whether to call you ‘profes-

sor’ or ‘comrade,’ ” Kennedy told Saule

O marova, a Cornell Law School professor,

during her confirmation hearing before the

Senate Banking Committee on which Ken-

nedy serves.

When Kennedy asked whether she had a

resignation letter from the Communist

youth group the Soviet-controlled Kazakh-

stan government forced her to join as a child,

Omarova responded, “Senator, I’m not a

Communist. I do not subscribe to that ideol-

ogy. I could not choose where I was born.”

Omarova told Kennedy the Communist re-

gime persecuted her family, adding, “That’s

who I am. I remember that history. I came to

this country. I’m proud to be an American.”

Among those criticizing Kennedy for try-

ing to smear Omarova was Sen. Sherrod

Brown (D-Ohio), who said his colleague

from Louisiana had violated “senatorial

courtesy.” That includes, Brown added, “not

doing character assassination.”

But Kennedy’s antics at the hearing

should have surprised no one in the room.

Since entering the Senate in 2017, he has

specialized in outrageous comments on Fox

News, on the Senate floor and in committee

hearings.

An acerbic Biden critic, Kennedy is a

fount of sharp-but-folksy one-liners. He

punctuated his 2016 Senate campaign spots

with, “I will not let you down. I’d rather

drink weedkiller.” With his exaggerated

Southern accent, he affects a mixture of Mr.

Haney, the con artist of the 1960s CBS sitcom

“Green Acres,” and the bombastic Looney

Tunes rooster, Foghorn J. Leghorn.

The 70-year-old Kennedy is so committed

to this persona that a columnist for the New

Orleans Times-Picayune challenged readers

in 2019 to guess the author of a series of

eccentric statements: Foghorn Leghorn or

Kennedy? It was a difficult quiz.

Whenever Kennedy appears on Fox News

or launches an attention-getting stunt, those

of us in Louisiana who know him well roll

our eyes and reflect on the Kennedy we knew

before his Senate election.

We recall the brainy graduate of Vander-

bilt University, the University of Virginia

Law School and Oxford University’s

Magdalen College; the relatively progressive

Democrat who ran for the U.S. Senate in

2004; the man who, despite his 2007 party

switch, served capably as state treasurer

from 2000 to 2017; the official who, although

in the same Republican Party as then-

Gov. Bobby Jindal, was a fierce critic of

Jindal’s reckless fiscal policies.

Mostly, we wonder what happened to the

reasonable, non-incendiary Kennedy we

once knew.

In preparing this piece, I found a lengthy

interview Kennedy did in October 2004 with

the Shreveport Times. In pitching his Demo-

cratic Senate candidacy, he was articulate,

restrained and progressive. He scorned the

tax cuts for wealthy Americans that then-

President George W. Bush had signed. He

favored increasing the federal minimum

wage.

He was no Bernie Sanders liberal, but he

was the progressive Democrat in the race —

so much so that some prominent Black

leaders, including our congressional delega-

tion’s most liberal member, Rep. William

J. Jefferson of New Orleans, backed him.

But what stood out in that 2004 interview

was the absence of the homey sayings, abu-

sive zingers and character assassinations

that have become Kennedy trademarks. He

was nothing like the man you see these days

insulting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-

Calif.) — “It must suck to be that dumb” — or

vilifying then-Interior secretary nominee

Deb Haaland as “a neo-socialist, left-of-

Lenin whack job.”

When people outside Louisiana ask me

about Kennedy, I tell them he’s not the folksy

bumpkin you see on TV, but a wealthy,

well-educated attorney with an Oxford de-

gree. Just like Pat Buttram, who portrayed

Mr. Haney in “Green Acres,” Kennedy is

acting. He’s a shape-shifting, attention-

h ungry politician who found a role — wily

country boy — that brings him some fame.

Since the days of Huey Long, Louisiana

has celebrated its brash, entertaining and

clever politicians. But Kennedy’s latest me-

dia splash was not clever. It was entertaining

only to those who enjoy cruelty and xeno-

phobia. It was conduct that, until recently,

might have earned Kennedy criticism from

some members of his party. The pre-

Kennedy would have abhorred it.

What troubles me about Kennedy’s latest

stunt is not just what it revealed about a

politician doing what some unprincipled,

opportunistic politicians have always done.

What bothers me more is what it says about

Louisiana politics, and today’s Republican

Party, that Kennedy could expose himself as

a xenophobic demagogue and pay no price

for it.

Robert Mann, a mass communication professor

at Louisiana State University and former press

secretary for Democratic senators Russell Long

and John Breaux of Louisiana, is the author of

“Backrooms and Bayous: My Life in Louisiana

Politics.”

Sen. Foghorn

Leghorn,

Republican

of Louisiana

BY HATICE CENGIZ

D

ear Justin:

A little over three years ago,

my fiance, the journalist and

Post contributing columnist

Jamal Khashoggi, walked into the Saudi

Consulate in Istanbul believing he was

going to pick up some documents needed

for our upcoming wedding. He was in-

stead murdered inside the consulate by

operatives acting on the orders of Saudi

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Perhaps you heard about his case. His

brutal murder made headlines all over

the world. Ever since, many human

rights organizations and individuals, in-

cluding myself, have been calling for

justice and accountability.

That’s why I am writing to you with a

plea: Cancel your Dec. 5 performance in

Saudi Arabia. This is a unique opportu-

nity to send a powerful message to the

world that your name and talent will not

be used to restore the reputation of a

regime that kills its critics.

There are no doubts about the circum-

stances of Jamal’s murder. An investiga-

tion by the United Nations deemed the

murder an “international crime” and

held Saudi Arabia “responsible.” The

U.S. intelligence community has also

placed the blame on the head of the

crown prince himself.

Please know that your invitation to

participate in a concert in Jiddah comes

directly from MBS, as the crown prince is

known. Nothing of significance happens

in Saudi Arabia without his consent, and

certainly not an event as important and

flashy as this. Your face is even featured

on the event’s website with his — the

executioner of my fiance, Jamal.

I know that you are dedicated to your

fans and are traveling to Saudi Arabia on

their behalf. However, there are

h undreds of Saudis, of all ages, back-

grounds and religious beliefs, languish-

ing in prison, punished for merely ex-

pressing their opposition to the merci-

less Saudi dictatorship of MBS.

All forms of oppression are evil, no

matter where they occur. Last year, you

wrote to your followers: “I want to use

the platform I have to remind people that

racism is evil and it is ingrained in our

culture.” Considering this very honor-

able commitment that you have made to

take a stand against injustice, please use

your platform now to support the cause

of human rights in Saudi Arabia. This

year, you released an album that you

titled “Justice.” You also released one

titled “Freedom.” Saudi Arabia is in dire

need of both.

Do not sing for the murderers of my

beloved Jamal. Please speak out and

condemn his killer, Mohammed bin

S alman. Your voice will be heard by

millions.

If you refuse to be a pawn of MBS, your

message will be loud and clear: I do not

perform for dictators. I choose justice

and freedom over money.

The writer was Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee.

Please, Justin Bieber, don’t perform in Saudi Arabia

JEROD HARRIS/GETTY IMAGES

A mobile billboard urging Justin Bieber to cancel his upcoming concert in Saudi

Arabia is seen near the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles on Sunday.

H

elen Muradyan, a second-year

resident physician, stopped

working last month.

Not because her skills

aren’t needed. To the contrary: The

Southern California community hos-

pital and health clinic that employed

Muradyan struggle to find staff even

during normal times. The pandemic

worsened their staffing shortages.

“At one point we were operating at

150 percent of capacity,” Muradyan

told me. “We worked day, night. We

worked without breaks or anything,

without seeing our loved ones, without

seeing our family.”

But Muradyan, an immigrant from

Armenia, had to stop working — be-

cause the U.S. government couldn’t be

bothered to process her application to

renew her work permit. Eventually,

her existing work permit expired, and

her employers had to terminate her.

Many factors contribute to our na-

tionwide labor shortages, which are, in

turn, driving supply-chain problems

and inflation. Most of those issues —

lack of child care, early retirements,

fear of getting ill, burnout — would be

difficult for employers or policymak-

ers to resolve even if wages rise. But

there’s one underappreciated factor

contributing to labor shortfalls that

the Biden administration could allevi-

ate almost immediately: the “missing”

immigrant workers.

Immigration inflows slowed sharp-

ly during the Trump administration

and then collapsed under the combi-

nation of Trump-era policies and

p andemic-driven closures. The num-

ber of visas issued by the State Depart-

ment’s Foreign Service posts, for exam-

ple, fell by more than 60 percent

between fiscal years 2016 and 2020.

There are millions fewer immigrants

here today than would have been the

case if pre-Trump trends in immigra-

tion had continued.

But the labor force is also losing

immigrants already here legally,

whose work permits are expiring be-

cause the Biden administration hasn’t

gotten its act together.

For immigrants in the country law-

fully, renewing an existing work per-

mit was once relatively straightfor-

ward. When Muradyan applied for a

renewal in 2019, she recalls the process

took two to three months. That’s close

to the average processing time such

applications required in recent years.

Her experience this year has been

very different.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration

Services (USCIS) received her renewal

application in April; then, for months,

Muradyan heard almost nothing. Re-

quests to expedite processing were

rejected twice, then ignored. On

Oct. 13, her existing permit expired. It

might be months more before USCIS

reviews her pending application: The

agency field office handling her case

estimates that similar applications are

taking 9.5 to 11 months to process.

Terminations that result from these

delays affect more than workers. Mu-

radyan’s employers, for instance, have

had difficulty covering her scheduled

shifts.

“Sometimes, my colleagues call me

asking like, ‘Okay, your patient came —

what’s supposed to happen for her

exactly?’” Muradyan says. “My

h ospital is struggling, my colleagues

are struggling, my patients are

s truggling.”

Muradyan is struggling, too.

An asylum seeker, Muradyan lives

with her elderly parents and her

1 0-year-old U.S.-born son, who has

started asking whether they will be

able pay their rent. She lost her health

insurance, which was tied to her em-

ployment. The longer it takes USCIS to

process her paperwork, the worse the

possible consequences get: Under her

residency program’s rules, if she miss-

es 12 weeks of work, she has to redo an

entire year of training (and would have

to wait until July 2022 to restart). Her

license to prescribe medication will

expire if she is out of work too long.

She is hardly the only person hurt by

USCIS’s backlog.

Muradyan is a plaintiff in one of

several national class-action law-

suits against USCIS over processing

delays. A nonprofit representing the

c o-plaintiffs in her suit, the Asylum

Seeker Advocacy Project, says at least

2,000 of its members have either re-

cently lost their jobs because of

w ork-permit processing delays or are

on the verge of having their documents

expire.

These asylum seekers have been

employed in industries experiencing

high-profile labor shortages: truck

driving, food services, nursing, tech.

And some firms that employ these

unlucky immigrants are losing multi-

ple workers.

Abelardo Rios is a telecommunica-

tions field technician who has been

installing 5G equipment in Florida.

His employer sometimes struggled to

recruit workers even before covid-19,

he says, “because not everybody is

willing to go up a tower that’s 400 feet.”

Nonetheless, he and his direct su-

pervisor are being let go this month

because their work-authorization re-

newal applications are stuck in the

USCIS backlog.

“My employer basically has told us

that if they keep us working, they

would be breaking the law, and they

can’t do that,” Rios said. Because he,

too, wants to stay on the right side of

the law, he’s not sure how he’ll make

his next mortgage payment. Like

Muradyan, Rios is his family’s sole

breadwinner.

Cases such as Rios’s or Muradyan’s

shouldn’t take long to adjudicate: On

average, USCIS employees spend only

12 minutes before rendering a decision

on each employment authorization ap-

plication, according to a 2019 agency

estimate.

But the queue to get any specific

application reviewed is long — and

growing. As of June 30, nearly

1 .4 million employment authorization

applications were pending. That’s dou-

ble the size of the backlog that existed

right before covid-19 reached the

United States. It’s triple the number

from the quarter just before Donald

Trump took office.

Multiple factors have expanded the

backlog: Pre-pandemic, Trump offi-

cials had deliberately slowed down

processing of nearly all immigration-

related applications. The red tape and

other obstacles they added increased

costs not just for applicants but also

USCIS. The agency had a budget crisis

last year and ultimately froze the hir-

ing of new employees and laid off

contractors.

Covid safety measures then further

slowed processing.

The Biden administration has re-

versed many Trump-era policies but

the agency remains understaffed. And

shrinking the work-permit backlog

does not appear to be a Biden adminis-

tration priority, even as it touts a

“whole-of-government” approach to

unblocking supply chains and reduc-

ing inflationary pressures.

When asked what role the constrict-

ed immigrant labor force might play in

today’s economic bottlenecks, White

House officials often change the sub-

ject. When I asked USCIS what it is

doing to shorten wait times for em-

ployment documents, the agency said

it was “committed to using all available

policy and operational improvements

to reduce both the number of pending

cases and overall processing times,”

and cited several changes it has made

to expedite processing. (Some of those

were the result of a recent settlement

in a different class-action case.)

The problem, says Cato Institute

research fellow David Bier, is that the

administration h as "done a lot of the

reversing of the bad stuff that Trump

did to slow things down even more, but

not enough to go above and beyond

that necessary to get rid of the back-

logs and added delays that the Trump

policies originally created.”

So what could USCIS do, while it

rebuilds it staff?

Eliminating some redundancies

from the process is a good start. The

agency could also automatically ex-

tend more existing work permits while

applicants wait for their renewals to be

processed. Some categories of

n oncitizens already get this courtesy,

but even those grace periods are too

short. Asylum seekers, for instance,

have their existing work permits auto-

extended for up to 180 days while the

renewal application awaits process-

ing. But as Muradyan’s case and others

show, that’s not enough time to avoid a

lapse in employment.

“It doesn’t make sense, that if some-

one really wants to work, they can’t go

back to work because of these delays,”

she said. “It’s like they just don’t care.”

CATHERINE RAMPELL

The missing immigrant workers

AMANDA LOPEZ FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Dr. Helen Muradyan, an asylum-seeker from Armenia, is unable to work because of delays in renewing her permit.

Foreign-born population in the United States, actual

vs. if pre-Trump trends had continued

Millions of people, not seasonally adjusted

2010 20122014 2016 2018 20202022

36

34

38

40

42

44

46 45.

43.

Actual population

Note: Trend line is based on population changes from end of Great Recession through last

month of Obama administration.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics via FRED/Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. THE WASHINGTON POST

Foreign-born population if

pre-Trump trends had continued