At 2 p.m. ET today, the National immigration Forum is hosting a press call with health care leaders to discuss the critical role immigrants are playing on the frontlines of the response to the coronavirus pandemic. Along with representatives from Bethany Health Care Center, the Association of American Medical Colleges, and the Society of Hospital Medicine, Edison Suasnavas, a Molecular Oncology Specialist and DACA Recipient, will be speaking to the importance of immigrants in addressing health care worker shortages in the U.S. and specific actions policymakers can take to navigate the coronavirus pandemic.

For media interested in joining, please contact Magen Wetmore.

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

RELEASED – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has so far released more than 160 immigrant detainees in an effort to curb the coronavirus outbreak after identifying 600 detainees as “vulnerable,” reports Hamed Aleaziz for BuzzFeed News. Among those identified for potential release so far are “individuals 60 years old and older, as well as those who are pregnant.” Meanwhile, advocates continue to push for the release of all nonviolent ICE detainees, noting that all are vulnerable in detention centers where social distancing simply isn’t feasible: California lawyers are working to free as many detainees as they can on humanitarian and constitutional grounds, Andrea Castillo and Brittny Mejia report for the Los Angeles Times. “Having anyone in these prisons that is eligible for release otherwise is really stupid at this point,” said Robyn Barnard of Human Rights First. “ICE should be doing everything they can to alleviate the burden on our hospitals.” There are approximately 37,000 immigrants currently living in detention centers.

HOUSTON SHELTERS – Seven staff members at a Houston-area shelter for detained migrant children have tested positive for COVID-19, Elizabeth Trovall reports for Houston Public Media. The shelter currently holds about 38 migrant children ages 5 to 17 who arrived in the U.S. unaccompanied. While none have tested positive, advocates are now urging the immediate release of children who can be reunited with family members in the United States. “The nature of detention provides no options for children and staff to follow federally mandated social distancing guidelines, and their communal living conditions places them at a higher risk of contracting coronavirus,” said YMCA International’s director of immigration legal services Elizabeth Sanchez-Kennedy. While Texas has not yet confirmed positive cases among migrant children, five kids across two New York City-based shelters have tested positive for the virus.

HOTSPOT – The city of Chelsea, Massachusetts, home to a large population of working Latino immigrants, has emerged as a new coronavirus hotspot with the highest rate of cases in the state, Marcela García writes in a column for the Boston Globe. Of more than 40,000 Chelsea residents, 66% are Latino. “Not only are these immigrants – mostly Latino, many of them here without legal status – the most economically vulnerable, but a high proportion of them already have limited access to health care and other public support networks. Working from home is a privilege that they simply don’t have.” When I lived in Boston, I spent a lot of time in Chelsea working with amazing organizations. It’s a wonderful place, and as García notes, these immigrant communities “can’t remain an invisible problem when a public health crisis is overwhelming the state. And it’s only going to get worse for this population unless we start paying attention.”

441,000 – Cancellations of citizenship oath ceremonies and in-person interviews due to COVID-19 mean that hundreds of thousands of immigrants may not be able to become citizens in time to vote in the November elections, reports Suzanne Gamboa for NBC News. According to Boundless Immigration, a technology company that helps immigrants apply for green cards and citizenship, if ceremonies and interviews remain cancelled until October without remote alternatives, about 441,000 prospective citizens would be deprived of their chance to vote. “The problem is [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)] hasn’t come up with a next step and come up with remote pathways for people to take the oath and do interviews,” said Doug Rand, cofounder of Boundless Immigration and former advisor to President Obama. Rand urged USCIS to administer the oaths in other ways.

CBP STAFF – The National Treasury Employees Union, which represents U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers, is arguing that the agency is making it harder for employees to take time off by making vague claims about needs for support during the coronavirus pandemic, Betsy Woodruff Swan and Daniel Lippman report for Politico. Despite a drop in the number of people traveling into the U.S., some union members say they’ve been tapped to help stop “an anticipated influx of COVID-19 infected migrants crossing the borders.” I talked to Politico about what’s really going on here: “If anything, migrants are afraid of getting COVID-19 if they were coming into the U.S. The crisis in front of CBP is the spread of the virus among immigrants currently in their custody. That’s the crisis to come.”

Thanks for reading and stay healthy,

Ali