As part of its post-Brexit immigration plans, the U.K. government is announcing the end of visas for “low skilled” workers – including those from the EU, BBC News reports.
“The government said it would not introduce a route for lower-skilled/lower-paid workers, urging businesses to ‘adapt and adjust’ to the end of free movement between EU countries and the UK. … But bodies representing farming, catering and nursing are warning that it will be hard to recruit staff under the new system.”
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out — Reuters reports on the initial reaction from the Confederation of British Industry: “[In] some sectors firms will be left wondering how they will recruit the people needed to run their businesses. With already low unemployment, firms in care, construction, hospitality, food and drink could be most affected.”

Welcome to the Wednesday edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

DECADES TO REVERSE – With all eyes on the 2020 election, Tyche Hendricks at KQED breaks down how President Trump’s actions on immigration — from new asylum restrictions to ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — will have lasting effects even if there’s a change next year in the White House. “Little tweaks have huge policy implications … So any future administration that’s more friendly to immigration is going to require decades to reverse this,” said Sarah Pierce, an immigration policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.

ROWING – Henrique “Hicu” Motta — a Brazilian immigrant who made waves for his impressive coaching skills and helping young immigrant girls excel in the often exclusive sport of competitive rowing — is facing a surprising green card denial, jeopardizing his “extraordinary” work. A U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) letter “said that the evidence did not show that Mr. Motta had received a ‘major, internationally recognized prize or award’ for his team. … Rather than grant a renewal, immigration authorities earlier this month requested that Mr. Motta submit further evidence of his ‘extraordinary ability,’” reports Miriam Jordan in The New York Times. But as Mr. Motta notes, winning for him is not measured by medals, but instead by the success of getting these girls into college.

INTERNATIONAL ILLINOIS – Top universities in Illinois are urging the state’s congressional delegation to act on immigration as visa troubles plague their international students and faculty, reports Lynne Marek for Crain’s Chicago Business. A letter signed by 29 university officials “cited delays and denials for entry and employment visas, sudden revocations of formerly valid visas, and delays in processing requests for temporary employment of international students after they graduate.” The state’s 53,000 international students “contribute an estimated $1.9 billion to the state’s economy and support more than 25,000 jobs.”

QUARANTINED IN CHINA – Hua Hou and Elizabeth Sun, Chinese-born parents with two U.S. citizen children, had to return to China recently to renew their work visas, Monica Campbell reports for PRI’s The World. They made the journey into a family trip with their children, 10-year-old Francine and six-year-old Liam. “Then the novel coronavirus — and the subsequent shutdown of much of China — derailed their plans. The family landed in Beijing in early January and have since been unable to return to Alameda, near San Francisco, where they own a home and where their children were born.” For now, the family doesn’t know when they’ll be able to leave the country and return to their life in California.

“THE DISAPPEARED” – In the first part of an investigative series for Reveal, Aura Bogado explores the struggles of “the disappeared” children who have been separated from their families and languishing in the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) — sometimes for years. One 17-year-old girl she encountered in court has been in immigration custody since the age of 10. “There are laws, rules and legal settlements guiding ORR’s handling of children that I had assumed would prevent something like this from happening,” Bogado writes. “But I have learned through my reporting that the government can pretty much do whatever it wants. It can take a child from their family without explanation. It can detain a child indefinitely.”

GREYHOUND – According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) documents obtained the Associated Press, Greyhound and other bus companies that travel across the border have the power to stop border patrol agents from checking buses for potentially undocumented immigrants, “contrary to the company’s long insistence that it has no choice but to do so.” A memo from last month signed by then-Border Patrol Chief Carla Provost “confirms the legal position that Greyhound’s critics have taken: that the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment prevents agents from boarding buses and questioning passengers without a warrant or the consent of the company.”
Thanks for reading,

Ali