Hospitals are scrambling to find medical professionals amidst a shortage, but many foreign physicians and nurses are being prevented from filling the void, Miriam Jordan and Annie Correal report for The New York Times. “Some are having difficulty securing appointments for visas at U.S. consulates overseas that are hobbled by skeletal staffing,” while others “are running into travel restrictions imposed in the midst of the pandemic.” And among foreign health workers already in the U.S., some cannot leave their current employer to go to a COVID-19 hotspot due to work restrictions imposed by their visas.
Last month, as COVID-19 started spreading rapidly, the State Department issued guidance to expedite processing for foreign medical professionals. However, “many of those working to get medical help from overseas said there was an apparent lack of coordination between the various government agencies involved, including Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department.”
Just when we most need a functioning immigration system, we realize we don’t have one.
Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
MARCO – As COVID-19 spreads, immigrant communities are likely among the hardest hit — especially in places like Langley Park, Maryland, where 80% of adults are not U.S. citizens, reports Michael E. Miller in The Washington Post. “Here, countless cooks, construction workers and cleaners are suddenly out of a job without any chance of unemployment benefits or federal stimulus checks. Those who still work often do so in close quarters and at high risk of infection, even as their more affluent neighbors in Takoma Park or Silver Spring telework from the safety of single-family homes.” The situation is tenuous for people like Marco, a 55-year-old Honduran immigrant who works in construction; his nine-year-old daughter has disabilities and a feeding tube in her stomach, his seven-year-old son has asthma, and his wife does not have legal status.
FARMWORKERS – More than a million farmworkers are in orchards, fields and packing plants ensuring we have enough to eat, writes Catherine E. Shoichet at CNN. The work is not without risk, to all of us: “workers and groups who represent them are sounding an alarm. Their warning: As the virus spreads, many farmworkers are living and working in conditions that put their health particularly at risk. And if outbreaks hit farmworker communities hard, they say, that could put the nation's food supply at risk, too.”
TAXPAYERS – Millions of taxpaying immigrants will not receive any assistance from the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package, report Astrid Galvan, Philip Marcelo and Claudia Torrens for the Associated Press. “Roughly 4.3 million mostly unauthorized immigrants who do not have a Social Security number file taxes using what’s known as a taxpayer identification number.” These immigrants not only work and contribute to the treasury, but they collectively have 3.5 million children — many of whom are U.S. citizens, all of whom will be excluded from the stimulus.
REFUGEES – Access to healthcare is limited and social distancing is impossible for the 70 million refugees around the world, Rashaan Ayesh reports for Axios. Ayesh lays out five factors that make refugees and displaced people vulnerable to the coronavirus: population density, difficulty accessing basic necessities, limited access to information, a stretched humanitarian supply, and strains on finances of governments and nonprofits.
STORY COUNTY – To help immigrants in Story County, Iowa, weather this crisis, multiple local organizations have created an emergency fund, reports David Mullen at the Ames Tribune. “We know from national stats that immigrants are disproportionately affected by this pandemic … On top of that there are some immigrants who don’t have access to state benefits who have taken a financial hit due to this current pandemic,” said Anneke Mundel, community impact director at United Way of Story County. United Way, St. Cecilia Catholic Church, St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, Ames Interfaith Refugee Alliance, Good Neighbor Emergency Assistance, and AMOS-Ames are all involved with the effort. “The Gospel tells us to ‘feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless,’ so we always try to live our lives that way,” said Pastor Jim Secora of St. Cecilia. “Continuing to help those is need is just a way of life.”
BRUNSWICK – The 15 refugee families in Brunswick, Maine, are safe and healthy as they practice social distancing — but COVID-19 is taking a toll in other ways, reports Hannah Laclaire at the Brunswick Times Record. “[The] transition has proved even more difficult than planned, with the outbreak of a global pandemic, causing fear, stress, interruptions and added complications in the already complicated immigration process.” Nsiona Nguizani, who was hired to facilitate the cultural transition for the families, is the “‘only outside person right now,’ making trips to the store for food, household supplies, baby supplies and prescriptions, as well as keeping general assistance appointments and acting as liaison for the hospital, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.”
LONG READ – For your next long read: More migrants than ever before are crossing the Colombia-Panama border to get to the U.S., and for The California Sunday Magazine, Nadja Drost spent five days inside the Darién Gap, “one of the most dangerous journeys in the world.” I highly recommend.
Stay safe, stay healthy,
Ali
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