The Supreme Court yesterday said the Trump administration may continue its “Remain in Mexico” policy, reversing a decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Robert Barnes reports for The Washington Post. Officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), the policy, which has been in place for 13 months, has so far sent 60,000 migrants back across the southern border to Mexico to await decisions in their asylum hearings.

Shot: Judge William A. Fletcher of the Ninth Circuit wrote in the opinion, “Non-Mexicans returned to Mexico under the MPP risk substantial harm, even death, while they await adjudication of their applications for asylum.”

Chaser: In audio obtained by CNN, the Trump administration itself has admitted the dangers of MPP. In official Justice Department audio, a lawyer for the government said kidnapping was “potentially a reality for every respondent” impacted by MPP.

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

NEW DATA – New research out this morning from the Public Religion Research Institute finds deepening divides on immigration policies and perceptions of immigrants along lines of party, religion and age. The paper is well worth your time. While there is good news (bipartisan and cross-religious support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants), the challenges PRRI lays out are sobering (the deep partisan divide across nearly all measures).

COVID-19 – In an address last night, President Trump announced he would suspend “all travel” from Europe to the United States for at least 30 days amid the coronavirus outbreak, Stephanie K. Baer and Hamed Aleaziz report for BuzzFeed News. However, administration officials later clarified those restrictions would apply only to foreign nationals who’d been present in one of 26 European countries over the last two weeks. Restrictions also will not apply to U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents or their family members. Immigration experts criticized the move: “This is not going to be terribly effective and distracts from where the focus needs to be,” said John Sandweg, a former senior Department of Homeland Security official in the Obama administration.

PUBLIC CHARGE FEARS – More than 40 House Democrats have signed a letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging the administration to reconsider its “public charge” rule amid the coronavirus pandemic, reports J. Edward Moreno for The Hill. The rule, which penalizes immigrants who may use public assistance programs, could now threaten public health by discouraging immigrants who are displaying symptoms from seeking out testing and care. “Individuals infected with coronavirus who are left untested will risk spreading the disease in our communities, potentially furthering the spread of coronavirus in the United States,” reads the letter, which was spearheaded by Rep. Norma Torres (D-California).

GUATEMALA – The Trump administration continues to turn away hundreds of asylum seekers who have reached the Texas-Mexico border by flying them to Guatemala and asking them to seek asylum there instead, reports Reynaldo Leaños Jr. for NPR’s All Things Considered. Under the administration’s Asylum Cooperative Agreement with Guatemala, more than 800 migrants from Honduras and El Salvador have now been sent to Guatemala. Alicia, one Honduran asylum seeker traveling with her teenage son and who was sent Guatemala after arriving at the U.S. border, recounted a five-minute interview with U.S. immigration officials during which she was not able to explain why she was seeking protection or her hopes to reunite with family in the U.S.: “I told him I had nothing to do with Guatemala and that I didn’t know anyone in Guatemala, so what could I possibly do there?”

VIDEO COURTS – The Trump administration is increasingly relying on video hearings to process the immigration cases of children in U.S. government custody, report Kate Brumback and Nomaan Merchant for the Associated Press. This week, dozens of children being held in Houston appeared via video before a court in Atlanta — but the hearings were plagued by technical difficulties. “It almost felt in the courtroom what was happening was the processing of file after file because kids weren’t there,” said Gladis Molina, child advocate program director at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights. “They were just images on a screen as opposed to children whose lives were being impacted by the decision that was being made in court.”

CAREGIVER AND PROTECTOR – For this week’s “Only in America” episode, I spoke with Ai-jen Poo, co-founder and executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance, about recognizing the importance and dignity of domestic work — and the role these workers play in times of crisis. As Ai-jen recently wrote in an op-ed for The New York Times, “when we think about the coronavirus — whom we need to listen to, whom we must protect and who will protect us — remember the domestic and direct care workers.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali