As thousands of immigrants are deported by the federal government amid the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns are growing over those who have been sent back home while sick with the virus.
Caitlin Dickerson and Kirk Semple report for The New York Times: “This past week, Guatemala’s health minister, Hugo Monroy, said American deportation flights were aggravating the outbreak in Guatemala by returning people already infected with the virus. … The United States, Dr. Monroy said, ‘has practically become the Wuhan of America.’ Various Guatemalan officials have put the number at between 30 and 43, most of them apparently aboard two flights that arrived on March 26 from Mesa, Ariz., and [last] Monday from Brownsville, Texas.”
Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
TRANSLATORS – Reporting for BBC News, Victoria Stunt and Megan Janetsky explore how a group of indigenous language translators is giving a voice to Latin American migrants in U.S. immigration courts who do not speak English or Spanish. “There are 25 protected indigenous languages in Guatemala, the most common of which, Mam and Quiché, in turn have many different dialects. In 2016, [Promoters of Migrant Liberation co-founder Ana Gómez] began to assemble a group of women across the country who as well as Spanish speak an indigenous language. Between them, the women speak 22 Guatemalan Maya languages and a handful of Mexican and Afro-Caribbean indigenous languages.” Ericka Guadalupe Vásquez Flores, who works with Promoters of Migrant Liberation, told the BBC that “her goal is to empower the migrants who are facing a foreign system in which the odds are stacked against them, regardless of whether they are eventually granted asylum in the U.S. or not.”
DOWNEY – The food bank at Southeast LA’s Downey First Christian Church has been a lifeline for the area’s undocumented and mixed-status families — who have been left especially vulnerable to the economic impacts of the COVID-19 outbreak — seeing “close to 300%” of their usual attendance. Erick Galindo writes in his Mis Ángeles column for LAist: “It keeps [food bank director] Marty [Fehn] up at night sometimes thinking about how this will be the new normal. But every weekend he's out there again with the volunteers, giving away food and walking the line to pray for those who want it and at least say hello to those who need it.”
IDLIB – Just a few weeks ago, we were reading about Syrian refugees pinned against the Turkish border, fleeing another onslaught in their home country — a crisis that the COVID-19 pandemic has added another layer to. “One million people have been displaced in Idlib, and social distancing isn’t a viable option in overcrowded refugee camps. If violence wasn’t enough to get Syrians to flee, the prospect of contracting coronavirus in a country with such few medical resources left may well do the trick,” Ian Bremmer writes for TIME. But during the pandemic, Pawel Zerka of the European Council on Foreign Relations warns of a toxic conflation of fears: “[If] the public debate plays up the perceived link between the virus, borders, and migrants, this will come dangerously close to arguments about national purity and racial superiority.”
MOHAMED AND YASIN – Too often, those with advanced professional training are forced to flee their home countries as refugees. For UNHCR, Celine Schmitt and Rachel Jenkins tell the storis of two doctors living in France, Mohamed and Yasin, who are refugees from Libya and Somalia, respectively. Once COVID-19 struck, Mohamed registered for the emergency roster of medical professionals. “An epidemic can be stressful, but it’s nothing compared to war,” said Mohamed. “I am not scared. I am ready to go anywhere in France to help.” Yasin, who founded the Network of Exiles in France, is continuing his organization’s work facilitating language exchanges and volunteering to translate documents amid the pandemic and explain the lockdown to asylum seekers in their own language. “During difficult times, the language barrier can become frustrating. We want to help.”
HUNGER STRIKES – Immigrant advocates are sounding the alarm about widespread hunger strikes over COVID-19 concerns across California detention centers, despite denials from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). “At Otay Mesa, where 18 detainees had tested positive for COVID-19 as of Friday evening, an estimated 200 people launched hunger strikes last week, according to Mindy Pressman, a spokesperson for the immigrant advocacy organization Otay Mesa Detention Resistance,” Rebecca Plevin reports for the Palm Springs Desert Sun. “And at Mesa Verde, a group of women have been forgoing meals since April 9, according to Susan Beaty with Centro Legal de la Raza.”
IMPACT IN IDAHO – Undocumented immigrants in Idaho — who make up a significant part of the state’s essential workforce — are struggling as they are denied COVID-19 economic relief from the federal government, reports Rachel Spacek at the Idaho Press. Silver lining: “The Community Council of Idaho is helping provide the families of farmworkers food boxes, because it has been hearing that families have been unable to find some food items at grocery stores, said Irma Morin, the organization's CEO.” Estefanía Mondragon, executive director of the immigrant rights organization PODER, said the group is starting a relief fund for undocumented immigrants, but raised larger concerns. “‘We are seeing creative ways to help support the immigrant community. Other organizations are also creating immigrant COVID funds, but is that going to cover everything for everyone? Probably not,’ she said, adding that it is disappointing to see few safety nets behind undocumented Idahoans.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
Was this email forwarded to you?
Sign up now to get Noorani's Notes in your inbox.
 |  |  |  |  |