By: Jeff Brumley, Baptist News Global
Ali Noorani’s passion for refugees, and his gift for building coalitions around migrant justice causes, has made him a leader in the U.S. immigration reform movement and a must-have on news outlets ranging from PBS Newshour and Fox News to The New York Times and USA Today.
Noorani, who steps down this spring as president and CEO of the National Immigration Forum after 14 years on the job, said his concern for immigrants developed while previously working for community health centers in some of Boston’s biggest immigrant and ethnic neighborhoods.
“Walking from one neighborhood to the next was like walking around the world. I might start in Haitian and African American communities and pass through Central American and old-school Irish neighborhoods, then end up in a vibrant Vietnamese community,” he explained. “I began to understand not only the contributions of immigrants, but also how immigrants struggle to navigate a pretty poorly designed immigration system.”
Religion is not a driver of Noorani’s work, he said, explaining that while his Pakistani immigrant parents raised him in a Muslim home, he has not remained active in the faith.
Yet since 2008, Noorani has led the Forum from a $2.5 million-a-year operation to a $6 million annual budget and has created multiple independent organizations led by religious or political conservatives and moderates who all favor the compassionate and just treatment of refugees. Those include Women of Welcome, the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force and the Council on National Security and Immigration.