Pandemics test us, and our country’s immigration policies do not put the U.S. in a good position to combat the coronavirus outbreak, writes Wendy E. Parmet, law professor and director of the Center for Health Policy and Law at Northeastern University School of Law, in a must-read op-ed for STAT.

Take the “public charge” rule, which went into effect one day before the CDC warned Americans to prepare for the spread of COVID-19. “Confusion and fear about the rule may also drive many parents to disenroll their children, even though the use of Medicaid by minors will not count against them. Thus, just as more people are likely to start needing testing and treatment for a worrisome infectious disease, untold numbers of them may drop their health insurance and avoid health care for fear of being found a public charge.”

Parmet captures the challenges we face, from the fact that immigrants are more likely to hold jobs that don’t provide health insurance to fears of immigration enforcement to the shortage of health care workers because of cuts to legal immigration.

Most importantly, Parmet points to the necessary solutions outlined in an open letter to Vice President Pence signed by 700 law, public health, and human rights experts.

From Los Angeles, welcome to the Thursday edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you would like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

TRUMP’S LATINO OUTREACH – On Wednesday President Trump promoted tax cuts, trade deals and his border wall in front of the Latino Coalition Legislative Summit, and “his 23-minute speech lacked any incendiary anti-immigrant rhetoric,” reports María Peña in NBC News. In front of more than 350 business leaders, the president “highlighted the contributions of Hispanics and how his administration's policies have produced a historic 3.9 percent unemployment rate among Latinos as well as the creation of 3 million additional jobs.” According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate among Latinos is currently 4.3%.

‘FLOOD THE STREETS’ – The Trump administration is ratcheting up its enforcement in so-called “sanctuary” cities, with at least 500 special agents “who normally conduct long-term investigations into dangerous criminals and traffickers” joining an intensified arrest campaign, a team at The New York Times reports. “Immigration and Customs Enforcement has begun 24-hour-a-day surveillance operations around the homes and workplaces of undocumented immigrants.”

THE STREETS OF PHILADELPHIA – A Honduran mother who took sanctuary in a Philadelphia church for 554 days with her four children —two of whom are U.S. citizens — will be permitted to live legally in the U.S., reports Jeff Gammage in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The mother, Suyapa Reyes, “has received a grant of deferred action from federal immigration authorities. Those approvals typically allow undocumented families to live and work in the country without fear of deportation, usually for one or two years to start.”

FAST TRACKING CHILDREN – The Trump administration will fast-track immigration proceedings for thousands of children through “a pilot program in Houston to video stream their hearings — a move advocates say will jeopardize their asylum cases and speed up deportations,” reports Lomi Kriel at the Houston Chronicle. In addition, immigration judges were instructed to rule on detained children within 60 days, giving them much less time than usual.

BUSINESS – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey and other Republican legislators are pulling back on a controversial ballot measure to ban “sanctuary cities” in the state’s constitution, due to “growing sentiment against the bill, fueled by organized, outspoken community activists and business leaders who’ve grown wary of measures they say can be damaging to Arizona’s reputation, and by extension, its economy.” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero told Fronteras: “Many business leaders in Arizona made personal calls to different state legislators and to the Governor's Office to ask that we not repeat the same mistake that was done by Republicans back in 2010,” when SB 1070, the “show me your papers law,” led to protests, boycotts and economic losses.

DEPORATION FOR MILITARY WIFE, MOM – Rebecca Trimble was born in Mexico, adopted by an American family as a baby, and — believing she was a U.S. citizen — voted in the 2008 presidential election. The problem: Rebecca had never been formally adopted and has no legal status, reports Jeff Landfield in the Alaska Landmine. Today, Rebecca is married to a member of the U.S. military and has two children. But on Feb. 10 she “received a letter from the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) informing her she had 33 days to leave the country.”

THE MYTH OF THE IMMIGRANT BURDEN – For this week’s “Only in America” podcast episode, I talked to Alejandro Flores-Muñoz, a Dreamer and entrepreneur who has started three companies, about building his own businesses and assisting other Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients and marginalized business owners start and grow their own companies.

Thanks for reading,

Ali