The Trump administration is finalizing plans with El Salvador to send at least 2,000 migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to the Central American country, reports Hamed Aleaziz for BuzzFeed News. DHS officials, including acting secretary Chad Wolf, met secretly with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele in Miami on Friday to finalize those plans. “The State Department has already advised U.S. travelers to ‘exercise increased caution’ when traveling to El Salvador, where ‘violent crime, such as murder, assault, rape, and armed robbery, is common.’”

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court is weighing another emergency relief request from the Trump administration to let the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) — also known as “Remain in Mexico” — to continue, Ephrat Livni reports for Quartz. If justices do not grant the requested stay by tomorrow, March 12, the policy will be temporarily halted in California and Arizona, meaning migrants who cross the border into those states will no longer be subject to MPP.

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

PUBLIC CHARGE – Even before the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule takes effect, new research finds it has been denying visas on related grounds at 19 times the rate seen at the end of the Obama administration, reports Stef W. Kight for Axios. The study, published by the National Foundation for American Policy (NFAP), finds that visa refusals on public charge grounds — including for spouses, children, and parents of U.S. citizens — increased 1,846% between fiscal years 2016 and 2019. “Trump’s new policies could supercharge efforts to keep out immigrants whom the government predicts might one day use certain tax-funded social safety nets,” Kight reports. NFAP projects that family-based visas and family applicants from Mexico, Dominican Republic, China and Haiti may be hit especially hard.

H-1B VISAS – A D.C. district judge this week invalidated key parts of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) policies responsible for higher H-1B visa denial rates and other restrictions, writes Stuart Anderson, executive director of NFAP, for Forbes. As a result of the ruling, companies that believe an H-1B petition was unlawfully denied will be able to file a case in the District of Columbia; USCIS will also have to provide specific grounds if it only approves an H-1B application for less than three years. “This ruling is a life-saver for companies that provide business services because it restores predictability,” Bradley Banias, a partner with Wasden Banias LLC, told Anderson. The decision “could save companies hundreds of millions of dollars because USCIS can no longer use short-term approvals that require repeated filings.”

TEXAS – In an op-ed for The Dallas Morning News, Hau Khai, a refugee from Myanmar who is now a pastor in Texas, speaks out against Gov. Greg Abbott’s attempt to block refugee resettlement in Texas. “Today, I am an American citizen, and I am the pastor of a church in North Texas. I have built a life on the principles of charity, compassion and faith. So, it is difficult to accept that the state that welcomed me with open arms 10 years ago is closing its doors to others like me. I often wonder what would have happened to me if I had not been granted refugee status. I wonder if I would even be alive today.” In January, Texas became the first state to announce it would not accept new refugees under a new executive order from the Trump administration allowing local leaders to reject refugees. A federal judge has temporarily blocked that order.

NEW ROOTS – More news from North Texas: The New Roots Community Garden, created by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), is providing immigrants and refugees a place to heal and socialize, Sriya Reddy writes for the Dallas Observer. The IRC currently manages four gardens throughout Dallas with a total of 37 gardeners who receive sustainable farming training and typically visit the garden two or three times a week. “Food and gardening have a huge healing aspect of returning to the land or having responsibility over land,” said Isabella Chamberlain, the Dallas New Roots coordinator. “When one family is busy, [others] water their plots. I’ve seen them harvest for each other, too. It’s very collaborative.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali