Here’s a new line: I couldn’t agree more with acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. We are “desperate” for more immigrants. According to a recording obtained by Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey at The Washington Post, Mulvaney made those remarks at a private gathering Wednesday night, saying that the U.S. is “running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years.” He went on to state that the president wants more foreign workers despite his “anti-immigrant” rhetoric, and praised the immigration systems of Canada and Australia.

If Mulvaney is serious, he needs to say this publicly – and in the U.S. Unless he takes on the Stephen Miller faction of the White House, none of this counts. Mulvaney has a positive history on immigration, and he is now in a position of great power — he should use it.

In related news, the Trump administration has decided to allow 45,000 additional visas for seasonal guest workers this summer — the highest number since Trump took office, Michelle Hackman reports for The Wall Street Journal. Last month, 189 Democrats and Republicans called on the administration to max out the seasonal worker cap this year.

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

OUR DEMOGRAPHIC FUTURE – Maybe Mick Mulvaney is reading these Notes. A week ago we quoted Brookings Institution demographer William Frey, who said, “We desperately need immigration to keep our country growing and prosperous.” Frey was talking about a Census Bureau report showing that limiting immigration could reduce the U.S. population, and now Frey has taken a deeper dive, posting an analysis on Brookings’ website. “The projections show that the current level of immigration is essential for our nation’s future growth, especially in sustaining the younger population,” Frey writes. “Moreover, despite suggestions to the contrary from the administration, lowering immigration levels further will not keep the nation from becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. Even if the number of migrants was reduced to zero, the percentage of the population that identifies as a nonwhite race or ethnic group would continue to rise.”

FARMWORKERS – The Senate must make sure the Farm Workforce Modernization Act makes it to the president’s desk, writes Fred Leitz, a Michigan farmer and former president of the National Council of Agricultural Employers, in an opinion piece for Fox Business. The bill, which would reform the visa program for immigrant farmworkers — and for some long-term workers, provide the eventual opportunity to earn a green card — is vital to the survival of American farms, according to Leitz. “We’ve watched our industry erode as tighter borders and disinterest in farming from U.S. workers has devastated our labor supply. … Without enough hands at harvest, acres of fresh fruit and vegetables rotted, farmers scaled back production, and every year more farms closed their doors for good.” The House passed the bill in a bipartisan vote in December. Now the ball is in the Senate’s court.

E-VERIFY ECONOMICS – Two new opinion pieces on Florida’s proposed mandatory E-Verify program underscore its potential negative impacts on Florida’s economy. Writing in Florida Today, the Rev. Joel Tooley of First Church of the Nazarene in Melbourne points out that “E-Verify would place an added bureaucratic burden on small businesses and nonprofits in Florida, with certain consequences for the viability of businesses and services provided for Floridians.” Meanwhile, Dr. Rick Harper, a consultant, and Ted Hutchinson, Florida State Director for FWD.us, write in the South Florida Sun Sentinel that the program would cause a drop in economic activity by targeting the state’s critical workforce of undocumented immigrants: “The domino effect … would be a net loss of 253,000 jobs in Florida, $10.66 billion in lost earnings, and $1.25 billion in lost state and local tax revenue each year.”

BREXIT AFTERMATH – The U.K.’s proposed post-Brexit immigration overhaul would be particularly hard on female immigrants, Ceylan Yeginsu writes at The New York Times. The new points-based system, which would require prospective immigrants to receive a job offer of a certain salary, would disproportionately keep out women, who are more likely to work in jobs like home and senior care — jobs that are poorly compensated “not because care work is ‘low-skilled,’ but because the work force is 80 percent female and therefore undervalued and underpaid,” said Mandu Reid, leader of the Women’s Equality Party. Imposing the salary requirement would mean “shutting out care workers, piling pressure on women to take on yet more unpaid care, and widening the existing social gap between need and provision,” according to Reid.

Thanks for reading,

Ali