The $2 trillion coronavirus relief package is intended to help either citizens or people with green cards or work visas — but not the country’s roughly 8 million undocumented workers (representing about 4.8% of the nation’s labor force), Monsy Alvarado reports for NorthJersey.com. “That's left an extra layer of anxiety for immigrants without legal status who have lost their jobs or seen work hours reduced amid the statewide shutdown of ‘nonessential’ businesses. Many turned to local organizations for help to put food on the table and pay other expenses.” For domestic worker Lorena Duarte and landscaper Javier Martinez — and many others like them — this is an especially perilous moment.
Indeed, many immigrants — including those in mixed-status households — feel forgotten, reports Olivia P. Tallet in the Houston Chronicle. “It’s sad to think what’s happening to them,” said Julia de León, an immigrant from Mexico and member of the National Domestic Workers Alliance board. “It’s like they suddenly don’t exist.”
Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
10,000 PHYSICIANS – We’ve all been inspired by the EMTs, nurses, doctors and other health professionals streaming to COVID-19 hotspots from around the country to help. But Sharon Lerner reports for The Intercept that the U.S. “has more 10,000 physicians who were trained in the U.S. but are unable to work for any hospital other than their current employer because of visa restrictions.” Lerner also highlights a Society of Hospital Medicine letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that lays out a range of necessary policy changes to get health care expertise where we need it most.
NO DISTANCING – For the 70 million people living in refugee camps or displaced around the world, slowing the spread of COVID-19 might not be possible, reports Feliz Solomon in the Wall Street Journal. “Containment measures used elsewhere such as social distancing and testing would be either impossible or ineffective in unsanitary, crowded camps.” Researchers found that one introduction of the coronavirus at a refugee camp in Bangladesh “would likely lead to a large-scale outbreak—and between 1,647 and 2,109 deaths.”
CBP CASES – More than two dozen U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) employees who work on or near the U.S.-Mexico border have tested positive for COVID-19, per Border Report. Altogether, 160 CBP employees have tested positive, with the highest number in New York City. “El Paso Matters, an El Paso-based nonpartisan media organization that first noted the number of infected CBP employees, reported Monday that the agency hasn’t posted similar data for people in its custody and that CBP officials didn’t immediately say whether they would be sharing that data.” Meanwhile, El Paso Matters’ Bob Moore projects the city will reach “12,800 cases by May 2.” Call me a skeptic, but I don’t think the border wall is stopping COVID-19 from moving into Ciudad Juárez.
ICE CASES – Two employees at the Krome detention center, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Miami-Dade County, have tested positive for the coronavirus, reports Monique O. Madan in the Miami Herald. “As of Monday afternoon, 13 detainees and seven ICE detention center employees nationwide have tested positive for the virus. However, those numbers do not reflect the number of third-party contractors that work at ICE facilities who have tested positive for COVID-19. It also doesn’t make mention of how many people at their facilities have been tested or are being monitored for the virus.” To keep all of us safe, we need as few people held in detention right now as possible — you can’t social distance inside a prison.
EMPTY-HANDED –The very people whose job it is to keep America from going hungry — farmworkers deemed “essential” by the U.S. government — are struggling to feed themselves, reports Danica Jorden at Common Dreams. Making an average of $11,000 annually for backbreaking work, immigrant farmworkers are showing up to food banks and being turned away due to the high number of people looking for food. “Lariza Garzon and the Episcopal Farmworker Ministry saw their food delivery for farmworkers in Dunn, North Carolina swamped on March 27 by immigrant families in search of basic foodstuffs. According to Ms. Garzon, more than 200 families came to the EFWM’s offices, and at least 50 families were forced to leave empty-handed.”
ESSENTIAL – Meet the people in California farm country harvesting your tomatoes, folks stocking shelves at Winn-Dixie grocery stores, and flight attendants on airlines — all on the frontlines of this pandemic — in this podcast episode from Reveal and PRX.
Thanks for reading,
Ali
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