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SAN DIEGO In 2022, the Republican Party could really use a pep talk from the Gipper.

How the GOP of today cries out for the spirit of Ronald Reagan. He got right so many things that the Republicans of today are getting wrong.

For instance, I don't suppose Reagan, an ardent foe of the Soviet Union who demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall" in Berlin, would look kindly on how former president Donald Trump fawns over Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, Trump dubbed Putin a "genius." Yes, because nothing moves your Mensa application to the top of the pile like overestimating the competence of your forces and underestimating the resistance of the opposition.

Nor would Reagan be proud of how some Republicans have of late done the bidding of organized labor by twisting an "America First" agenda into a familiar form of tariff-driven protectionism that says U.S. industries should be excused from having to compete with global competitors. For Republicans, the first hint that they made a colossal mistake by falling in line behind Trump's restrictive trade policies should have been when the Biden administration decided to keep those policies in place.

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And, of course, "Dutch" who signed into law the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted legal status to nearly 2.7 million undocumented people would surely be disgusted by the way in which many Republicans now approach immigration. Whereas Reagan believed in welcoming the stranger and often spoke about how immigrants benefit America, the Republicans of today opportunistically grab hold of the issue with a toxic combination of dishonesty, cynicism, racism and fear.

Not that Democrats are much better. They lie to constituents and rail against the same restrictionist immigration policies that they later adopt as their own. They cater to organized labor, much of which wants to keep out foreign workers who could turn into competitors. They rack up record numbers of deportations, put refugee kids in cages, and embrace light-skinned Ukraine refugees while rounding up dark-skinned Haitians using Border Patrol agents on horseback. Then, instead of just admitting their sins, anti-immigrant Democrats point fingers at Republicans for being the preferred party of nativists.

I'm not sure. Has anyone polled nativists? I imagine they would be fine with the parts of President Joe Biden's immigration agenda that were borrowed from Trump.

However, one recent development that is causing angst among Republicans, and other Americans, is the Biden administration's decision to "86" Title 42. The controversial public health statute which has allowed Customs and Border Protection agents to turn away, since March 2020, as many as 1.7 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border without letting them apply for asylum is set to end on May 23.

All this turning away was done under the pretense of helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 into the United States, but where both the Trump and Biden administration really found Title 42 useful was as a convenient device to keep out immigrants and refugees.

In fact, the statute is so convenient that, in the Senate, a bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would keep Title 42 in place - presumably forever or at least until senators no longer have to run for reelection, whichever comes first.

Meanwhile, in the four U.S. states that border Mexico, Republicans are panic-stricken. They warn that the nation's southern border is about to be overrun by the underprivileged, the unwashed, the unwanted.

You know, the same kinds of folks who built this country in the first place.

Leave it to politicians in both parties to take something intended to be temporary, and try to make it permanent to serve their short-term political interests.

Title 42 was supposed to be a temporary behavior modification to protect public health. You know, like masking. But while many Republicans couldn't wait to rip off their masks and protest against efforts by bureaucrats and local governing bodies to make masking permanent, they are in no similar hurry to surrender Title 42.

But surrender, we must. With nary a peep from Congress, the Biden administration has already lifted the policy with regard to Ukrainians who wish to apply for refugee status. It can't justify not doing the same for desperate people from other dark corners of the world.

America is strong enough and good enough to handle whatever comes her way. Just like she always has.

At least, I bet that's how Reagan would see it.

Ruben Navarrette can be reached at ruben@wctrib.com.

2022, The Washington Post Writers Group

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Ruben Navarrette: The legacy of Reagan still looms large. It's the Republican Party that got smaller. - West Central Tribune

TheHealthcare Workforce Resilience Act(HWRA)is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens.Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Todd Young (R-IN) andformer Sen. David Perdue (R-GA).

In March 2021, Sen. Durbin formally introduced the bill into theSenate to strengthen the country's healthcare workforce byrecapturing unused visas and assigning them to foreign nationalphysicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The intent of HWRA is to bring more qualified immigrant doctorsand nurses into the U.S. to address healthcare employment issuescaused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It may also help alleviate thecountry's shortage of healthcare workers.

Even though the senators unveiled HWRA at the start of theCOVID-19 pandemic to prompt immigration reform and supporthealthcare workers, it also addresses an issue that started beforethe pandemic.

Prior to 2020, the U.S. healthcare system already had a shortageof workers. Research from theNew American Economy (NAE)showsthat in 2018, before the pandemic struck, approximately 27healthcare practitioner jobs were available for each unemployedhealthcare practitioner.

Nursing is experiencing a labor shortage, which led to itscategorization as a"Schedule A"occupationby the Department of Labor (DOL). DOLclassifies occupations as "Schedule A" if there are notenough qualified workers in the U.S. for a specific job.

In the healthcare sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown thatthere is an urgent need for more qualified healthcare workers.

As a result of the healthcare worker shortage, hospitals haverepeatedly exceeded their capacity throughout the pandemic. In someinstances, healthcare workers have worked shifts up to 24 hours,theNiskanen Center reports.

To compensate for the shortage, nurses have been called out ofretirement to work, and school nurses have been called to hospitalsto assist. More so, the Association of American Medical Colleges(AAMC) reports thatpandemic and nationwide nursing shortage have ledto increased burnoutamong staff.

One major issue in the U.S. immigration system that HWRA wouldaddress is unused visas. In total, the HWRA wouldallow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services torecaptureabout 40,000 visas for healthcareprofessionals, including 25,000 visas for nurses and 15,000 visasfor physicians. If signed into law, the legislation would also helpalleviate the shortage of healthcare workers in the country.

Unused visas are a widespread concern in the U.S. immigrationsystem. Unissued visas in the healthcare industry have beenparticularly problematic during the pandemic as the countrygrappled with a shortage of healthcare workers. Despite thewillingness of foreign healthcare workers to come over to the U.S.to improve the situation, help has beenslow to arrive, according to theNiskanen Center.

Thousands of nurses from other countries have been hoping to getinto the U.S. throughout the pandemic. However, because they arenot typically eligible for temporary work visas, they must waituntil immigrant visas are available. Many foreign nationals aresubject to limitations, such as country caps and backlogs.

Several times in the past, Congress has managed to recaptureunused visas. In 2000, Congress passed the American Competitivenessin the 21st Century Act. In 2005, it passed the EmergencySupplemental Appropriations bill. Collectively, thetwopieces of legislationrecapturedalmost 200,000 visas.

Even so, the Niskanen Centerreportsthat over 505,000employment visas went unused between 1992 and 2009. Over 175,000visas were unused and never recaptured between 2005 and 2009. Byrecapturing unused visas again, Congress could significantlyenhance the nation's healthcare workforce by allowing qualifiedworkers into the country.

HWRAproposes recapturing visasfroma pool of previously unused employment-based visas Congress hasalready authorized. The visas would be issued by their prioritydate, and they would also be eligible for premium processing.

Ultimately, the bill may help to alleviate the shortage ofhealthcare workers in the U.S. Although it is designed to providerelief for an overtaxed healthcare system, HWRA would also remedyan employment situation that would likely persist into the futurewithout legislative intervention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a severe shortage ofhealthcare workers, and it has strained healthcare systems acrossthe country. Luckily, there is renewed bipartisan support for abill to repair the country's healthcare system.

The HWRA isawaiting further action in theSenate, and it hasgained support from moreorganizationssince its introduction, includingthe American Health Care Association/National Center For AssistedLiving.

Originally published 20 April, 2022

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The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act: A Legislative Vaccine Against COVID-19? - Immigration - United States - Mondaq

DUBAI, April 21 (Reuters) - Iran will not abandon plans to avenge the 2020 U.S. killing of Quds Force Commander Qassem Soleimani, despite "regular offers" from Washington to lift sanctions and provide other concessions in return, a top Iranian official said on Thursday.

Over the last year, Iran and the United States have engaged in fitful, indirect talks in Vienna to revive a 2015 nuclear deal that then-President Donald Trump reneged on in 2018 and that Iran, in turn, began violating in 2019.

Under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Iran agreed to limit its nuclear programme in return for relief from economic sanctions.

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While they appeared close to resurrecting the deal in March, talks stalled over last-minute Russian demands and whether Washington might drop Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which includes the Quds Force, from its Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list.

"The enemy keeps sending messages that if we give up on avenging Soleimani, they will give us some concessions or lift some sanctions," Revolutionary Guards' Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri said.

"This is pure fantasy. The Supreme Leader has emphasized the need for revenge and the Revolutionary Guards' top commander has said that revenge is inevitable and that we will choose the time and place for it," he added.

Asked about the comments, a State Department spokesperson said if Iran wanted sanctions relief beyond the 2015 nuclear deal, it must address U.S. concerns beyond the pact.

While neither Tangsiri nor the U.S. spokesperson specified what they meant, they appeared to be alluding to Tehran's demand that Washington drop the IRGC from its FTO list.

"If Iran wants sanctions lifting that goes beyond the JCPOA, they will need to address concerns of ours beyond the JCPOA," the U.S. spokesperson said. "Conversely, if they do not want to use these talks to resolve other bilateral issues beyond the JCPOA, then we are confident that we can very quickly reach an understanding on the JCPOA and begin reimplementing the deal."

"Iran needs to make a decision," the spokesperson added.

The Quds Force is the foreign espionage and paramilitary arm of the IRGC that controls its allied militia abroad. The Trump administration put the IRGC on the State Department's FTO list in 2019, the first time Washington formally labelled another nations military a terrorist group.

"Under any return to the JCPOA, the United States would retain and aggressively use our powerful tools to address Irans destabilising activities and its support for terrorism and terrorist proxies, and especially to counter the IRGC," the State Department spokesperson said.

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Reporting by Dubai Newsroom and by Arshad Mohammed in Saint Paul, Minn.; editing by Grant McCool

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Iran refuses to abandon avenging Soleimani despite U.S. offers - Reuters

No filmmaker in Iran is immune to the pressures of censorship. Movies made in the country must gain approval from the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance not only for distribution purposes but for shooting permits as well. For directors and producers with stories that violate government standards say, a scene where a woman removes her traditional headscarf, or another violation of Islamic law the options for maintaining creative freedom are simple: Submit a script with the offending scenes removed, then shoot them anyway. Or hit the road.

Panah Panahi took the second option for his acclaimed debut, but Hit the Road is hardly an anomaly. In a sense the car becomes a second house for us Iranians, Panahi said in a phone interview with IndieWire ahead of his movies U.S. release. There is a level of security inside the car. Thats why you see so many road films.

Still, youve never seen a road film quite like Hit the Road. A bittersweet family drama and thrilling escape story all at once, the movie follows a boisterous family as they make their way to the countrys borders in northwestern Iran under mystery purposes. The whole movie takes place in and around a single vehicle: Farid (Amir Simiar) is a 20-year-old man making his way out of Iran with the help of his doting parents (Hassan Madjooni and Pantea Panahiha) while his six-year-old younger brother causes trouble from the backseat. The movie careens from tragic arguments to slapstick comedy, and even finds room for a mystical dream sequence as the group makes its way to a murky destination.

Panahis own father, the revered filmmaker Jafar Panahi, took advantage of the vehicle in this fashion for his wistful 2015 comedy Taxi, which the director shot within the confines of a cab as he drove around Tehran. The movie, produced even as the older Panahi had been banned from filmmaking by the Iranian government, won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival that year. For the younger Panahi, growing up in his fathers shadow compelled him to make movies with his own distinctive sensibilities even as he gleaned some practical tools for creating unfiltered art in a society that demands compromise.

I have no choice but to make the films in Iran because I know these people better than I know people anywhere else, Panahi said. We were able to make this in peace. We tried to not make headlines with the film so they werent sensitive about it. First you make the film, then you think about the issues that exist for it.

Ultimately, Hit the Road didnt pass muster for Iranian censors, but it didnt need a domestic release to generate validation for the young filmmaker. The movie was a hit with audiences and critics at Directors Fortnight out of the Cannes Film Festival last year, and went on to gain further appreciation on the fall circuit. All of that came after censors rejected the screenplay for Hit the Road outright for obvious reasons: It depicts the very real struggle that many Iranians face when theyve been accused of violating the countrys religious standards.

This couldnt have been more inspired by a real incident, Panahi said. Most of my friends have immigrated out of the country, and two or three of them have immigrated illegally. They were the ones who actually mapped out for me how this was done.

Sipa USA via AP

While Iranian cinema has been revered for years due to the likes of Jafar Panahi, the late Abbas Kiarostami, and Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, Panahi is among the spate of younger filmmakers trying to sort through the challenges of making movies there through the secretive processes necessary to get the job done. Last years Berlin-premiering drama Ballad of a White Cow, from co-directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moqadam, was banned in the country due to a plot that was critical of the countrys execution laws. The plot finds the widow of man who was wrongly convicted fighting for justice after his exoneration, only to become enmeshed with the very judge who sentenced her husband to death.

Sanaeeha told IndieWire that while a version of the script made it past the seven-member committee necessary to gain permission for a shooting permit, the final cut screened for another committee that barred it from distribution. This second permission is harder than the first, Sanaeeha said. It is difficult thing to force. What is clear is that we are not willing to have our films censored on a large scale, nor are we prepared to screen our films at any price.

In February, the filmmaking pair won the Eurimages Co-production Development Award at the Berlinale to support production of their next project, My Favorite Cake, which centers on a middle-aged woman in Iran. They are in the process of assembling additional support overseas, while still battling with censors to make the movie in the country. Our stubbornness and constant bickering will continue, since we strongly believe that the majority of our audience is Iranian, and it is their right to see our film at a cinema, Sanaeeha said. All our humility and sacrifice is towards getting permission to screen our film.

But other filmmakers have settled with alternate approaches. For example, the upcoming thriller Holy Spider, which premieres in competition at Cannes next month, was shot in Jordan as a stand-in for the city of Mashhad due to the challenges involved in gaining permits for its controversial subject matter. (The cast, however, is entirely Iranian.) While promoting his last film Border at the Telluride Film Festival, Abbasi said he was hoping to provide a contrast to Western impressions of Irans religious extremism. You just want to let people know that not all Iranians are like that, he said. Were people, you know?

Hit the Road is now in theaters in New York from Kino Lorber. It opens in Los Angeles on May 6.

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Iran Censors Its Most Exciting Filmmakers, but They Make Great Movies Anyway - IndieWire

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf faces calls for his resignation after photos that went viral show his family members returning from a trip to neighboring Turkey.

Drawing a wave of rage from Iranians, the pictures were initially posted in a chain on Twitter by well-known whistleblowerVahid Ashtari, who said he had confirmed the identities of Ghalibaf's wife, daughter and son-in-law with staff at Tehran's international Imam Khomeini Airport.

Ghalibaf's son, Elias, although not involved in the trip, was quick to issue an apology of his own in an Instagram post, criticizing his sister and brother-in-law for their "unforgivable wrongdoing" by traveling abroad at a moment when ordinary Iranians are grappling with economic hardships. Yet he denied reports that the family visit was meant for shopping for a layette set for his yet-to-be-born nephew or niece.

The speaker's son expressed regret at how the family trip "will now make all past accusations leveled against my father appear credible." He claimed that despite the parliament speaker having opposed the trip, his daughter and son-in-law had proceeded with it regardless. Elias did not explain why his mother had also joined the pair despite her husband's disapproval.

A close ally of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ghalibaf has been facing a chain of fraud allegations, particularly dating back to his tenure as Tehran's mayor (2005-2017). Despite mounting evidence presented by whistleblowers, the Iranian judiciary has never formally charged the former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general.

"Kindly Resign," read an April 21 headline from the Reformist paperAftab-e-Yazd. "This will be recorded in history: At a time when Iranians were struggling to make ends meet, the parliament speaker's wife and daughter visited Turkey to buy a layette," the paper wrote. The parliament speaker has yet to publicly address the scandal.

Iranian outlets and social media users dug back into presidential debates in 2017, when Ghalibaf ferociously attacked the government of his moderate rival, former President Hassan Rouhani, for conducting a lavish lifestyle. Ghalibaf pledged that as future president, he would represent what he described as the underprivileged 96% of the population in a battle against the affluent, privileged 4%.

"In the face of such bombshell news, he has to resign from all his posts," tweeted Reformist pundit Abbas Abdi. "I am wondering how he would from now on look into the cameras to talk against the privileged 4%."

To soothe public frustration with livelihood strains, Iranian officials have in recent years largely blamed the country's economic crisis on US sanctions, advising citizens to economize on consumption and tighten belts. Contradicting those guidelines, the Ghalibaf family saga appeared to have only added up to previous controversial cases of corruption embroiling senior authorities and their families. And all those cases were juxtaposed with the poignant accounts about a growing number of Iranian kids and teenagerswho have committed suicide in the past few years after being pushed over the edge by poverty.

"You cannot stand at the podium, preaching the public on the merits of domestic production and in the meantime send your own family off shopping in Turkey," Ashtari said in his tweet chain.

To some Ghalibaf supporters, the chaos was mainly rooted in partisan rivalries and an orchestrated campaign aimed at discrediting him. "What a feast they are throwing," wrote Ghalibaf adviser Mohammad Saeed Ahadian. "No matter how exaggerated the wrongdoing is, a father cannot be blamed for his child's deeds."

But Ghalibaf was not spared criticism from some hard-liners either, including members of the Stability Front, whose nominee for the speakership in 2020 lost the battle to the influential politician.

And Javan, a newspaper representing Ghalibaf's fellow comrades in the IRGC, advised him to "keep his eyes wide open." While attempting to set him apart from the scandal, the paper enumerated past Ghalibaf-linked controversies, noting that he ought to be more watchful of the demeanor of his family members. "Will he learn a lesson?"

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Iran parliament speaker in hot water over family's trip to Turkey - Al-Monitor