Afghan Refugees
I’m going to lead with the Afghan piece because I’ve had several exchanges with various new players in the mess over the past week. They serve to highlight how broken our refugee/asylum/immigration process is, and how people are stepping up wanting a voice in its resolution. But I’m going to start on a very positive note, sharing some of the culture the Muslim community is bringing to Tucson.
Over the weekend my bride and I attended the wedding of the daughter of one of our contacts from within the community. These photos give a flavor of the traditions we joined in celebrating. First, the groom arrived on horseback. It really reminded me of when I rode in on a white stallion at our wedding, sweeping my bride off her feet. Well, maybe not exactly like that – mine was an orange ‘78 Rambler Hornet. But it did have a cool 4 track tape player bolted inside the glove box, and 3 of the 4 windows worked.
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And this shot shows the many multi-colored dresses the women wore. For those of you who have donated sewing machines it’s important to realize that sewing their own clothes is a common practice with the refugee group we’re working with. And yes, I intentionally did not crop out the American flag. It’s an important piece of a multi-cultural statement we should embrace.
Ok, onto the challenge of reunification. I’ll get this one out of the way first. My contact in the state department finally emailed me last week with this note: “Can call this morning.” That’s it. I don’t live on my computer and so didn’t see it until afternoon, my time. And no, he didn’t take the initiative of calling so I guess his email was an invitation for me to call him. I take that as nothing new from D.C.
The Star ran a story last week – another of their Associated Press cut and pastes. The headline and point of the story was that ‘violence is down in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over.’ If that wasn’t so tragically incorrect, it’d be comical. The Star did a little piece on the Afghan judge swearing me in last December, and did a very nice little piece about a local lady ‘adopting’ a refugee family. Beyond that they have taken a pass on digging into the mess we’re experiencing in trying to reunite families.
KJZZ is an NPR affiliate. Last week their local reporter Alisa Reznick ran this very good piece that updates portions of our efforts to reunite Judge Wakili and his family. It also touches on how fractured the process is:
https://fronterasdesk.org/content/1756033/6-months-after-evacuation-afghan-refugee-family-still-trying-reunite-tucson
A pastor from a Phoenix church heard Alisa’s piece and reached out to me. He is also working on this issue. We’ll call him Pastor Ken for now. He and I will be working jointly on holding our congressional delegation and administration accountable for reunification of families, and for getting people who actively supported our efforts safely to the U.S. Thousands are stuck in Afghanistan and in 3rd countries, their lives endangered every day. More on that to come.
A part of the problem we’re experiencing is the system is clogged with refugees, and the federal government is still trying to operate with systems that were marginally effective when we were allowing in far fewer people. Under Trump the maximum number of refugees allowed was reduced to 18,000 annually. We’re at 6x that number now. That target goal is shown in this chart from the Migration Policy Institute. Note this is through October, 2021. Since then we’ve absorbed over 70,000 refugees from Afghanistan alone.
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 It looks like a chart of a COVID surge, but in this case it’s people leaving life-threatening conditions in Afghanistan getting to safe haven here. We are trying to use the resettlement protocols we have in place that didn’t work very well three years ago. The State Department and others in our federal system are insisting we’re bound by those policies. We are not – we showed that we are not when we evacuated 73,000 Afghani’s last August. People are dying because our system is stuck in its own way.
If you’d like to see the full MPI report, here’s the link:
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/programs/data-hub/charts/us-annual-refugee-resettlement-ceilings-and-number-refugees-admitted-united
Last week I also resumed contact with the judges’ wife’s sponsor. She has been on the ground in Afghanistan and knows the conditions. She’s also well connected with others who still are.
One example of how wrong the Star AP article was, is exposed in this piece that was shared with me through one of those contacts – a guy I spoke with in the UK. During the zoom call I had on Saturday with the contact in Scotland he confirmed the UK is similarly sweeping this issue aside and failing to expedite getting people out of harm’s way. He’s a former BBC journalist who worked in Afghanistan, and is also a councilor in the Scottish Highlands. He’s working the same Afghan issue that I and my staff are wrestling with. How to get MP’s (congress and our state department on this side of the pond) to step up the process and save some lives.
The article tells the story of a journalist – Peter Jouvenal – who is now in the custody of Taliban. His background is working with all sides of the Afghan struggle, trying to bring the warring factions together and trying to provide humanitarian aid to locals. He has been detained for two months, is allowed to speak briefly to his wife by phone and is likely in a single room cell that lacks any outside lighting. Meals consist of boiled rice and occasional beans added in. This was one of the good guys who had established rapport with Taliban. Because that group is so loosely coupled and cannot control the actions of their own members, even people like Peter are now in jeopardy of losing their lives. The premise of the AP story - ‘violence is down’ - is silly. You don’t need to be overtly violent when you can simply walk into someone’s home and abduct them. Or starve them. I pulled this quote from the Global Geneva story:
"According to human rights groups, hundreds if not thousands of Afghans, including journalists, NGO workers and former police, have been arrested, beaten and even killed by the Taliban. Peter’s detention constitutes another impediment to the Taliban receiving desperately needed foreign aid."
Here’s a link to the full piece:
https://www.global-geneva.com/peter-jouvenal-a-journalist-veteran-of-afghanistan-held-by-the-taliban/
My reconnection with Ahmad’s wife’s sponsor also resulted in exchanges with people in Boston and California – all of whom are deeply involved in this same effort of reunification. Our misstep wasn’t only manifested in Tucson and Arizona. The world is watching how we manage to save these lives – or not. I’ll share more on those new contacts as the work I’m doing with the Phoenix pastor develops.
In my frustration about reuniting the family I kicked around the idea of my legally adopting the judge’s wife and bringing her over that on deepened when I learned that some people up in Phoenix have protested allowing refugee kids into schools. It reminded me of this image below-
Alabama Governor Wallace standing his ground and blocking black students from entering the University of Alabama.
I’d like to think we won’t be seeing any of this in Tucson and that it’s just a Phoenix thing. We’ll see though.
On a very positive note, on Friday Ahmad’s wife let us know she had received word from the Turkish government that our application on her behalf to extend her legal stay in that country was accepted. It took 2 months, 4 agencies and the 6-day Fed Ex escapade to get that done. But keeping her in Turkey is of course not the goal. The goal is reunification.
And on another positive note, we’ve been able to donate over a dozen sewing machines and related material to this refugee community. Many of them are very skilled in textile work. I shared the wedding photos of some of their handiwork up above. I’m hoping these donations will help in getting some of them into employment situations. More on that to come. Thank you for the kitchenware, pots and pans, pressure cookers, laptops – all still very much in need. As we’ve seen in the past, Tucsonan’s step towards needs, we don’t block entryways of schools.
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Genna
After nearly 10 years, the Ayup family is finally getting close to a decision by our judicial system. Having worked with them throughout the process of cleaning up the initial TPD mess of an investigation and getting the case reopened, my staff is intimately familiar with the facts of the case. Last week the killer plead guilty to negligent homicide. For most of us that piece was always a given – at the very least. But the plea deal is what has the family feeling like Genna has never gotten her day in court.
Under the deal prosecutors are recommending probation. That could be for up to 3 years. We’ll know that when sentencing happens on March 18th. It’s likely. If he violates probation he could face up to 4 years in prison. We’ll be watching to see what terms are assigned to the probation.
The most charitable description of what happened to Genna is that after having been drinking, the guy came home and says he was trying to put a new grip on a gun that had a loaded clip in, along with a bullet in the chamber. He says it accidentally went off and killed Genna. Their 2 year old son was in the room observing. A reconstruction of the scene we had done by a Private Investigator, including TPD witness statements, leads to a much different conclusion. But with a plea deal, no jury will ever hear another set of facts.
The guy’s defense team alleges ‘politics’ is playing a role in the case. In fact the only political piece was campaign contributions given to the Pima County attorney that caused a conflict of interest. That in turn caused this case to have to be redirected to the Pinal County Attorney.
If you are handling a loaded weapon, be sure you haven’t been drinking, be sure it’s not pointed at your girlfriend, be sure a 2 year old kid isn’t in the room, and be sure to say any fatality associated with your behavior was an accident. That gets you probation in Pima County.
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HB2166 – No Sales Tax on Gun Sales
And on a related note, our state legislature is about to pass a bill that will eliminate the sales tax from the purchase of guns and related accessories. You see, guns are as essential as food – which is not taxed. And evidently that extra 5.6% sales tax has made it so people all over the state have not been able to exercise their 2nd Amendment right to purchase a weapon. We have plenty of legislators who believe the more guns that are in circulation, the safer we are. So when Ducey signs this bill you won’t face that confiscatory extra $10 on the $200 handgun you’ve been after. It’s Arizona. And we have mid-term elections coming in a few months.
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Rodeo and the Wild West
While I’m on the wild west gun culture I’ll share a bit about the rodeo. It begins this week and has quite a following. Animal lovers are generally not found out in the bleachers at the rodeo grounds.
This image above has two examples of cruelty done to animals during rodeos. One is found in what’s in the guy’s hand circled in red, and the other is the rope being held by the guy next to him.
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In the guy’s hand is an electric shocker that delivers up to 5,000 volts. Just as the chute opens in the bronco events, the guy zaps the horse with the device as a way to ensure its sufficiently bucking. This close up shows the device in the guy’s hand a couple of seconds after the horse has left the chute. |
But if that isn’t enough to make sure the rider has an exciting time, the rope being held is called a cinch strap – or a bucking strap. Here’s a close up image.
The bucking strap is wrapped around the widest part of the horse’s abdomen. The guy in the chute yanks on it as the gate opens, tightening it up and causing severe discomfort. The goal between both the electric shock and tugging on the cinch strap is to cause the horse to buck more violently. Never mind the pain the animal is experiencing. These same devices are used to make the bulls buck more violently during bull riding.
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And you’ve likely seen the calf roping contests.
A split second later, this image above turns into this below:
I don’t have any naïve expectation that the Tucson Rodeo is going away – just as I don’t have any naïve expectation that the Arizona legislature is going to suddenly conclude that more guns in circulation do not make us a safer community. But it’s important that the casual observer of the activity know the enjoyment is not shared by the animals involved.
Alvernon Grant Initiative
I’ve shared information on the AGI meetings in the past, but since we’ve had some recent neighborhood meetings in which people have asked about organizing to monitor crime in their area I felt it’d be good to remind you of this model.
AGI has been actively meeting regularly for well over a decade. The meetings are monthly. They include residents of the four registered neighborhoods in the Alvernon/Grant area. They also include TPD and local businesses. The reason these meetings are effective is they constitute force-extenders for the police. Neighbors and businesses let TPD know what they’re seeing in their area. That information allows the police to make deployment decisions based on the input. The purpose of the AGI meeting is to let the police and others who live and work in the area hear about what’s being observed. What they are not is an hour spent telling TPD about response times and focusing on an individual experience with a case.
The next AGI meeting is coming on Tuesday, March 8th at 6pm. It’ll be held virtually. If you’d like to see how the model works and how the meeting is conducted email paloverdena@gmail.com by noon on the 8th and they’ll share the link. These work best when a few neighborhoods all joined by common boundaries collaborate with TPD. If you’re interested in some of the history of AGI, note that in your email and I’m sure Palo Verde president Ronni Kotwica will respond to you. And if you’d like some help in forming your multi-neighborhood group based on this model please reach out to us at W6 and we’ll work with you on getting something established.
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Accessible Vaccination Event
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The Direct Center for Independence works with members of the disabled community, encouraging independent living. They’re hosting a vaccination event on February 28th for people needing a COVID vaccine. They will host a follow up event on March 28th for 2nd shots or boosters.
The event will be held at the Direct Center offices located at 1001 N. Alvernon, just south of Speedway. The event will be fully accessible, staffed with ASL interpreters, and stocked with Pfizer, Moderna and J&J shots. You should reserve a time in advance. Use this link to get signed up:
https://www.directaz.org/
They can also help with any transportation needs you might have.
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Cyclovia
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You can now sign up for the upcoming Cyclovia. The event is coming on Sunday, March 27th.
It’ll be a 5 mile ride rolling through downtown and circling through South Tucson. The event will begin at 9am and will last until 3.
Here’s an image of the route map.
To sign up go to:
www.cycloviatucson.org.
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Flu Season
For the third straight week our flu infection map continues to improve. I’ll keep checking on it, but unless things begin to go south, I’ll drop the item from the newsletter. Here’s the current map:
 Hopefully we're getting close to newsletters without any reference to COVID either.
Becton Dickinson
Last week I shared the action the city is taking related to the proposed Becton Dickinson facility. It’s the one scheduled to use Ethylene Oxide to sanitize medical equipment. The issue is that EO is highly flammable, and highly toxic. The EPA is right now re-evaluating EO and will likely soon issue new, more strict standards for its use.
The county has authority over issuing clean air permits in the region. Pima County Department of Environmental Quality (PDEQ) has submitted a draft permit to the EPA for its consideration. I know at least a few of the members of the Board of Supervisors are supporting the idea of waiting on the permit until the new air quality standards for EO are issued. They may bump against some legal issues though if they try to slow-walk the permit. But the reality is Becton Dickinson still has issues with the city permit process, so there’s certainly no rush to get the facility up and running.
A question arose about whether the city or the county had offered any financial incentives to attract BD to the area.
The answer is that no, neither one did. And we’re told that neither did Sun Corridor. So this project will move ahead according to the legal constraints PDEQ is under, and as design documents are submitted to and approved by the city planning department.
I’ve asked for a risk assessment tied to how we can contain and treat a catastrophic release of EO. What we cannot do is simply march this facility through the regular permit and design review process pretending there isn’t a significant environmental threat if we don’t insist on that risk assessment. If we lose sight of what’s down the road we face the very real threat of litigation over cancer clusters – just as like what’s now happening with BD in Georgia.
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Here’s a copy of the cover page from the Georgia lawsuit. This is going on right now – even as we consider opening a new Tucson BD plant. It doesn’t make any sense to several of us.
Higher Ground
Kids who come from broken homes and who live in low-income and/or high crime areas are significantly more likely to drop out of school than kids coming from less challenging circumstances. Higher Ground is an after school program that works with youth, encouraging them to stick with school and not become a drop out statistic.
Higher Ground offers after school tutoring, activity work in dance, art and P.E. They also do financial literacy. Maybe most importantly, they give kids some added counseling to help counteract some of the built-in risk factors. They’re operating at a variety of TUSD locations – and they’re hiring new staff. If you’d like to become more familiar with the work they do, and also check out the employment opportunities, use this link: here is the link for the Community School jobs.
Covid Case Counts
Our case counts continue their decline. Much of that is to the credit of those of you who have chosen to get vaccinated and boosted. I shouldn’t be overly critical though. This chart shows the top 10 reasons to avoid a vaccination for COVID.
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There’s a current internet conspiracy anti-vax call to arms alleging thousands of reports of horrible impacts from the COVID vaccine that were mysteriously removed from circulation.
There’s also an internet site where even more people claim to have been abducted by space aliens and returned to earth. It’s really simple – vaccines work.
Orange County in central New Jersey only has a 53% vaccination rate. And only 26% have received a booster. It’s one of the least vaccinated places in the country. As a result they have the highest death per capita rate in the country. In fact, at one out of every 200 residents, they’re worse than any country in the world except for Peru. One distinguishing factor about Orange County, N.J. is Trump won there by over 30 percentage points. I’ve shared graphs that are similar to this in the past. The NY Times calls it the “Red COVID phenomenon.” Red states with low vaccination rates.
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Another factiod – theBMJ is a medical journal that’s intended for health care professionals. In a recent article they reviewed the long haul effects of having had COVID. The study revealed that in the year following the infection, people were more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders and other mental health problems. They studied 154,000 patients, none of whom had pre-existing mental health diagnoses or treatment for at least 2 years before coming down with COVID. Use this link if you’d like to see the full study: A large new study
People with COVID were nearly 40% more likely to be diagnosed with depression and 35% more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety than those who had not had COVID. Stress and adjustment disorders, sleep disorders, brain fog, confusion and forgetfulness were all elevated in COVID recoverers. That led to an increased incidence of opioid use disorders.
It’s good news that our infection numbers are decreasing. Based on the research though, COVID will be manifesting itself in the community in unpredicted ways for a long time. There continues to be no excuse – except that one listed above – for not getting the vaccine.
Here’s the list of mobile vaccination clinics Pima County Health is offering this week. They’re free, but you should pre-register to cut down on the wait time. You can use this link to get to the site:
https://webcms.pima.gov/cms/One.aspx?portalId=169&pageId=669257
Case counts continue to decrease. That’s all good. Here’s the trend since the first of the year up through last week. Keep in mind that 2,700 new cases in Pima County is not a low number. It continues to place the region in a high risk category.
Week of 12/27 - 4,229 new cases
Week of January 2nd - 10,433 new cases
Week of 1/10 - 15,472 new cases
Week of 1/17 - 18,308 new cases
Week of 1/24 - 13,735 new cases
Week of 1/31 - 8,634 new cases
Week of 2/6 - 4,749 new cases
Week of 2/13 - 2,761 new cases
Harvard Global Health Institute
At the end of the month the Arizona Department of Health Services will reduce their COVID reporting to once per week. So far the Harvard team has not announced cutting back on providing data. But if things continue in their current positive direction, they may not be far behind. Here’s this week’s risk level map from the Harvard Global Health folks. It continues to show significant improvement over previous weeks. Arizona continues to be all in red.
 All of the Pima County numbers continue to drop, and drop significantly. Here are the current numbers. Our daily new cases need to get below 100 for us to get out of the high risk category, but considering where we were a month ago, this is very good news.
 And here’s my usual closing – the current Arizona COVID count by county. You can find all of this data at www.azdhs.gov. We’ll have to see if the state continues issuing these when they go to once per week reporting.
Sincerely,
Steve Kozachik
Council Member, Ward 6
ward6@tucsonaz.gov
City of Tucson Resources
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