On Wednesday, a federal appeals court ruled “that the Justice Department can refuse to give crime-fighting money to cities and states that consider themselves sanctuaries and refuse to share information with federal immigration authorities,” Pete Williams reports for NBC News.

Note that three other federal appeals courts have come to the opposite conclusion, “ruling that the government was wrong to withhold the grants from sanctuary jurisdictions including San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.”

Meanwhile, the Forum’s own Laurence Benenson and Jonathan Haggerty of the R Street Institute write in an opinion piece for Morning Consult that Attorney General William Barr’s comments on sanctuary cities were misguided and overlook the importance of building community trust.

“Here are the facts: In most instances, it is lawful— and smart — for jurisdictions to maintain policies the administration is attacking. … Many localities have adopted community policing strategies, which recognize that state and local law enforcement need the trust of their communities. An individual fearing that he or she might be subjected to deportation after reporting crimes or working with law enforcement is less likely to report that crime in the first place.”

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


DESPERATE FOR IMMIGRANTS – Last week, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney acknowledged that the U.S. is “desperate, desperate for more people.” Jeanna Smialek and Zolan Kanno-Youngs at The New York Times write about the economic reality underpinning Mulvaney’s comments: “The foreign-born population has been expanding only tepidly during Mr. Trump’s tenure. That slowdown could have long-lasting and profound repercussions, economists warn.” In fact, the Times cited a recent report from the National Foundation for American Policy that projected a 30% plunge in legal immigration by 2021 and a 35% decline in average annual growth of the U.S. labor force.

DENATURALIZATION – The Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it is creating a dedicated section for reviewing denaturalization cases, reports Priscilla Alvarez in CNN. Per Assistant Attorney General Jody Hunt: “The Denaturalization Section will further the Department's efforts to pursue those who unlawfully obtained citizenship status and ensure that they are held accountable for their fraudulent conduct.” Keep in mind that the Justice Department has filed around 94 of these cases over the last three years. This feels like a solution in search of a problem.

NOT IN MY BIRD SANCTUARY – Commissioners of a small rural county in South Texas will not allow the federal government to survey for a border wall on public lands near a bird sanctuary, reports Sandra Sanchez in Border Report. “‘That right of entry is our constitutional right to demand better protections, to not allow just anyone to come onto our lands, especially those who want to denigrate it and cause destruction,’ Melissa Cigarroa, a member of the [No Border Wall] coalition who also is president of the board of directors for the Laredo-based Rio Grande International Study Center, told commissioners.”

VOTERS – According to a new Pew Research report, the number of immigrants eligible to vote has risen 93% since 2000 — from 12 million to 23.2 million — and today 1 in 10 eligible voters are immigrants, writes Suzanne Gamboa in NBC News. Interesting fact: “Only a quarter (25 percent) of Latino voters are immigrants. But among Asian Americans, two thirds of eligible voters are immigrants. Among African Americans, immigrants account for 8 percent of voters; among whites it's 3 percent.”
COUNTY LEGAL FUND – Harris County commissioners approved a resolution this week creating Texas’s first county-funded immigration legal services fund, Elizabeth Trovall reports for Houston Public Media. “The resolution, proposed by County Judge Lina Hidalgo, allocates an estimated $500,000 in its first year to help people facing deportation who can’t afford a lawyer. The funds would go toward helping improve due process in the federal immigration system, Hidalgo said.”

LAWYER UP – High-dollar corporate firms are supporting lawyers along the southern border, reports Dianne Solis in the Dallas Morning News. “The largely pro bono efforts come as the most restrictive changes in asylum and refugee policies in decades are leaving immigration attorneys across the U.S. buried in cases.” Numerous attorneys are mobilizing to help with cases at the border: “Some were drawn by surging numbers of migrant children coming across the border without parents during a 2014 crisis. Others were parents who couldn’t stand the spectacle of parents being separated from their children under a more recent Trump administration policy. Now, still more say they are sickened by the sight of desperate asylum seekers.”

FLORIDA E-VERIFY – There are myriad problems with Florida’s proposed legislation to require the use of E-Verify in the state, writes Mario H. Lopez, president to the Hispanic Leadership Fund, in an op-ed for The Capitolist. First, Lopez argues, Republicans who pass it are effectively passing an “onerous mandate that disproportionately harms small and family-owned businesses.” Second, E-Verify isn’t always reliable — and could prevent hundreds of thousands of people from working who are otherwise eligible while still permitting some undocumented immigrants to work. “Florida Republicans would do better to read the data from E-Verify itself and heed the concerns of conservatives who are legitimately worried about creating a repressive system where an American needs a government permission slip to simply provide for themselves and their families.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali