Some good news this morning: The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) yesterday announced that it will provide an additional 35,000 seasonal work visas to meet labor demands for the summer, marking “the largest increase since President Trump took office.”

In a smart move, as reported by Michelle Hackman in The Wall Street Journal, “10,000 [seasonal work visas] will be set aside for workers from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, the only countries that will be allowed to send new applicants. … DHS officials said that providing these people a pathway to work lawfully in the U.S. will reduce the incentive to migrate illegally.”

Your Friday edition of Noorani’s Notes comes from the city by the bay with some spectacular rock star hair. Have a great weekend.

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].


REVERSING RUST BELT TRENDS – According to a new analysis from Reuters, immigration over the last decade is responsible for reversing “what would have been outright population declines in 18 cities, including Detroit, Milwaukee and Akron, Ohio, rust belt manufacturing towns in swing states where the 2020 presidential election will be decided.” The story also notes how more restrictive immigration policies under the Trump administration threaten economic growth in the Midwestern states “where businesses struggle to fill jobs.”

VETERAN HOMECOMING – Former U.S. Marine Joel Diaz Rincon, who was deported in 2001 in an “erroneous immigration court decision” following a nonviolent theft charge, was allowed to return to the United States on Wednesday after a judge vacated the original order, Daniel Gonzalez reports for the Arizona Republic. “Years after Diaz Rincon was deported, new case law clarified that theft offenses such as his could not provide a basis for permanently deporting a lawful permanent resident … Diaz Rincon is the second deported veteran to return to the U.S. as part of the Public Counsel's deported veteran program.” His attorney estimates that at least 300 veterans have been deported by U.S. authorities. And ICYMI: Under the Trump administration, processing times have increased for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) — the visas offered to Afghans and Iraqis who assist the U.S. government in their home countries — Monica Campbell reports for PRI’s The World. Right now, at least 15,000 SIV applications are pending.

“ALL OF US NEED HELP” – In a profile for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Gracie Bonds Staples highlights the impact of Friends of Refugees Providing Education and Empowerment (F.R.E.E.), a local non-profit in Clarkston, Georgia, and its founder Kelli Czaykowsky. Moved by a visit to Clarkston’s refugee community in 2010, Czaykowsky secured 12 scholarships for refugee children to attend Duluth Adventist Christian School — and since then, F.R.E.E. has helped more than 100 refugee children enroll. “Czaykowsky said she has been criticized even by some family members for her outreach to refugees when there are so many native-born Americans in need. ‘I think if people would take away their biases, they’d see that these children are ours, too, she said. And their parents are working, paying taxes like the rest of us, but they need our help. All of us need help sometimes.’”

DREAMING BIG – The president may protect Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients as part of an immigration deal later this year, Anita Kumar and Marianne Levine report for Politico. “During a White House meeting on Thursday, Trump told Republican senators that he wants to get something done to address ‘the underlying problem,’ but only after the [upcoming Supreme Court ruling on the issue].” Meanwhile, an analysis by Fwd.us finds that if DACA is fully ended, “three-quarters of the roughly 24,040 jobs that will be lost each month will be concentrated in 12 states across the country.”

ABOUT THAT BURGER – While watching José Andrés’s new MSNBC show, “What’s Eating America,” I got to thinking about my recent trip to Iowa and the relationship between the state’s food industry and its immigrant workforce. So in an op-ed for Washington Monthly, I looked at how immigration crackdowns could stand between you and your favorite hamburger. Under the Trump administration’s immigration policies, “the strength and dynamism that immigrants and refugees bring to rural America — and our agricultural sector — is at risk.”

CERTIFICATION – Following Attorney General Bill Barr’s recent intervention in a federal asylum case, new concerns are being raised about Barr’s use of the “historically little-used power” of certification to circumvent federal immigration court decisions, reports Kim Bellware in The Washington Post. “Immigration lawyers and judges say the Trump administration is using the power with greater frequency — to the point of abuse — as it seeks to severely limit the number of immigrants who can remain in the United States. The administration is also using it as a check on immigration judges whose decisions don’t align with the administration’s immigration agenda, experts say.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali