A local nonprofit is sounding the alarm about a worsening affordable housing crisis that’s driving homelessness to new heights across Northern Virginia.
Falls Church-based Homestretch released new data showing that finding affordable housing in the region has become increasingly difficult for many residents.
An Arlington nonprofit has launched a new emergency assistance fund for out-of-work federal employees.
Arlington Thrive’s new Federal Worker Resilience Fund, which provides direct aid for rent, utility payments and other essentials, is meant to support fired and furloughed federal workers “whose jobs were affected by recent policy changes.”
The Supreme Court tends to hand down its most controversial and political decisions at the end of June, and this year’s batch did not disappoint. In this brief advertorial, we’ll review the three most important decisions with respect to immigration law and migrants: the decision preserving birthright citizenship (Trump v. Barbara), the decision which effectively allowed the Administration to abolish TPS (Mullin v. Doe), and the decision which allowed the Administration to continue to turn away almost all asylum seekers at the U.S. border (Mullin v. Al Otro Lado).
Trump v. Barbara: Birthright Citizenship Lives On
We predicted that the Administration’s attempt to abolish birthright citizenship would fail. We were right, but only just. A bare majority of five justices (Roberts, Barrett, Sotomayor, Jackson, Kagan) found that the Trump Administration’s executive order seeking to abolish birthright citizenship by fiat was barred by the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of citizenship to “[a]ll persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” A sixth (Justice Kavanaugh) concurred in the judgment, but did not find that birthright citizenship was guaranteed to all by the 14th Amendment, instead holding that President Trump’s executive order simply contravened 8 U.S.C. § 1401(a), which codifies birthright citizenship as a matter of statute.
Birthright citizenship is safe for the foreseeable future, even if there are changes to the court’s composition. Congress is not going to abolish or amend 8 U.S.C. § 1401(a), and it is hard to see how a new executive order could make its way before the court before the end of the current President’s term.
Mullin v. Doe: TPS is Doomed, Doomed, Doomed
We offered no prediction on Mullin v. Doe, but, truth be told, we weren’t surprised by the outcome. When the Temporary Protected Status program was enacted, Congress specifically exempted TPS determinations from judicial review. (Yes, Congress can do that!) The statutory bar was fairly stark: “[t]here is no judicial review of any determination of the [Secretary of Homeland Security] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state.” The challengers argued that this bar applied only to the substantive decision to designate a country’s designation or terminate a country’s TPS designation, so the courts could review procedural steps taken along the way toward a designation. That mattered here, because the Trump Administration is (a) very bad at following proper procedures, and (b) very bad at concealing its malignancy from the public. As Justice Kagan’s dissent points out, the President of the United States has offered the following opinions about Haitians: they eat the cats and dogs of the good people of Springfield, Ohio, they “probably have AIDS,” Haiti is a “shithole country,” which is “filthy, dirty, and disgusting.” But Justice Kagan’s dissent was cosigned by only two other Justices – Sotomayor and Jackson.
Only two countries were directly affected by the decision in Mullin v. Doe – Syria and Haiti. But every other TPS-designated country (Burma, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Honduras, Lebanon, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela, and Yemen) is either already terminated or living on borrowed time. There is, in our judgment, no way that TPS can survive for any country if the Administration declines to extend it. (more…)
It now costs a median $36,000 per year to rent a two-bedroom apartment across Arlington County.
The median rental price in May stood at $2,488 for one-bedroom units and $3,006 for two bedrooms, according to figures reported by Apartment List.
A vegan soul food institution is living on just east of Shirlington, even after its original location in D.C. closed last year.
NuVegan Cafe — formerly Everlasting Life — used to attract long lines in Columbia Heights, with locals and visitors alike lining up to get soul food from an entirely vegan menu.
Running the Army Ten Miler or the fall half marathon? We’re kicking off our fall training programs with a free training run, followed by an introduction to training, and a chance to ask some coaches questions about your own training. Run is free. We’ll chat after the run at post-run coffee. We will have two distances: 4 miles and 7 miles. We will have pacers running everything from a 7:30 mile to a 12:30 run-walk, so everyone will have someone to run with. No need to RSVP, just come out and run!
An advocacy group is calling on Arlington school officials to push back on a new state policy on reporting students as either male or female.
On May 12, the Virginia Department of Education’s policy on records collection removed an option to designate some students as “other” rather than male or female.
By OLIVIA DIAZ Associated Press/Report for America
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Two Virginia Democrats are battling Tuesday to be their party’s nominee for attorney general. Yet, the name mentioned most in their campaigns is not that of their opponent, but rather a man who lives just over the Arlington Memorial Bridge: President Donald Trump.
The Arlington County Civic Federation wants county leaders to be more transparent when negotiating with developers on community benefits.
In a comprehensive resolution on planning and zoning issues, delegates overwhelmingly voted last week to ask for a “clear, written, transparent process” for determining what benefits the county seeks when developers pursue rezoning and land-use changes.
Threats Sent to County Board Member — “It’s genuinely unreal sometimes. Here’s two recent threats I’ve received as a local Democratic elected – there are more like this Its ALWAYS unsettling & I’m grateful for our local public safety team that vets every message, what happened in Minnesota is part of a broader problem.” [Maureen Coffey/X — NSFW]
1950s Clarendon Pedestrian Proposal — “Locally, there was an intriguing story of a missed opportunity, with the headline of “Wilson Boulevard Mall Shaped By Planners”. The article described a “bold plan to revamp Clarendon into the largest and most modern business district in Northern Virginia”. The idea was to close down large portions of Wilson Boulevard and convert the area into a pedestrian mall. Who knows, maybe 77 years later it is time to revive the idea?” [FCNP]
Remembering Gov’t Farm in Arlington — “On this day in Arlington history, November 29, 1940: All official activity ends at the Arlington Experimental Farm. The Arlington Experimental Farm, located on a portion of the Arlington estate close to the Potomac River, had been the main research facility for the US Department of Agriculture in the Washington area since 1900.” [AHS]
Trash Fire in Pentagon City — “Per scanner, trash fire in a RiverHouse apt bldg spread lots of smoke to upper floors. ACFD extinguished the fire and set up ventilation. Scaled back response around 7:30p.” [ARLnow/X]
Flash Flooding Friday Night — “Some streets around me, including N Fillmore in Clarendon, are flooded.” “Many reports of 1-3″ in an hour in N. Va that caused streams to rise 6-7 feet.” [Adam Theo/Bluesky, CWG/X, IEMBot LWX/X]
Automatic Train Control Returns — “Six months after launching Automatic Train Operation (ATO) on the Red Line, the entire Metrorail system will be operating in ATO starting Sunday, June 15, when the mode rolls out to the Blue, Orange, and Silver lines. This development marks the first full return to ATO since 2009.” [WMATA]
It’s Monday — Showers are most likely in the afternoon, with cloudy skies and temperatures reaching around 73°F. There will be a northeast wind at around 8 mph and a 50% chance of precipitation. Expect another chance of showers Monday night, as cloudy conditions persist with lows near 66°F and a light east wind of 3-6 mph. [NWS]
Today’s Morning Notes are brought to you by Industrious. ARLnow has been in an Industrious office for years and we love the convenience — you get to focus on your work rather than worrying about brewing your own coffee or keeping the copy machine stocked. Industrious has several Metro-accessible coworking locations in Arlington.
Anti-Trump protesters mobilized in force across Arlington today (Saturday) as part of nationwide “No Kings Day” demonstrations ahead of the military parade in D.C.
Waving signs, banners and American flags, they cheered from overpasses and chanted outside the Clarendon Metro station. An estimated 5,000 people lined long stretches of Langston Blvd from Rosslyn to Falls Church, in an attempt to form an enormous, 5.2-mile “human chain.”
