Whether their families have been in the U.S. for months or for generations, doctors, nurses, home health aides, cleaners and janitors, cashiers, childcare providers, delivery drivers, and farmworkers are out there responding to, helping contain, and supporting us all through the COVID-19 pandemic.

As we have continuously highlighted throughout these challenging weeks, Americans — regardless of where we were born — are standing shoulder-to-shoulder in our response to this pandemic.

Along these lines, “The #AllOfUs coalition is launching this morning, and it will attempt to make the case that immigrants are critical to COVID recovery efforts,” report Anna Palmer and Jake Sherman in POLITICO Playbook. “Members include the George W. Bush Institute, José Andrés, Postmates, the National Association of Evangelicals, the NAACP, the Libre Initiative, UnidosUS, the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, the National Immigration Forum and the Emerson Collective. They're kicking off with a $165,000 media ad buy in the South and Midwest.”

You can read more about the campaign here, and we hope you’ll join us in spreading the message via Twitter and Facebook.

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

“WE URGE YOU TO RECONSIDER” – The Evangelical Immigration Table sent a letter yesterday to President Trump urging a reversal of new policies restricting legal immigration and compliance with laws designed to protect the vulnerable. “Reducing legal immigration and setting aside laws designed to protect vulnerable people at this time will neither slow the spread of COVID-19 nor speed the economic recovery,” reads the letter. “Instead, we are concerned that these restrictions will hinder economic growth, contribute to family separation, increase illegal immigration and put vulnerable children and families who have fled persecution at risk of further harm. We urge you to reconsider.” Earlier this month, the Table also wrote to the Trump administration urging the release of migrant detainees from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers in order to help slow the spread of the virus.

RELIEF POLITICS – President Trump said on Tuesday that he’s considering tying coronavirus relief to compliance with the administration’s preferred “sanctuary city” policies, Katelyn Burns reports for Vox. The president wants states to make “sanctuary-city adjustments” in exchange for financial support. “It should come as no surprise then that Trump would try to leverage coronavirus relief toward pushing states to dump sanctuary city rules. The Trump administration has long battled against the policy, which it claims shelters undocumented immigrants from prosecution by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and creates more criminal activity.” A reminder that the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force has some great resources on the realities of immigration and local law enforcement.

TESTING – In immigration detention centers where the spread of coronavirus is likely rampant, diagnostic testing capacity remains extremely limited, report Jimmy Jenkins and Matt Katz for NPR. About 2% of the 32,000 immigrants currently detained by ICE have been tested, and 50% of those tests have come back positive. “The agency says more than 300 detainees and 35 employees at ICE detention centers have tested positive. But ICE does not report how many contractors have gotten sick, including medical and corrections staff.” When those staff members get sick, they in turn can spread the virus across their own communities.

TPS EXTENSIONS – In an op-ed for Univision, Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the highest-ranking Latino member of Congress, calls on his colleagues and the Trump administration to immediately extend work authorizations to all immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), who have been integral to the nation’s coronavirus response. “During this pandemic, approximately 11,600 TPS recipients are working on the frontlines of the health care system as physicians, intensive care nurses, paramedics, respiratory therapists, and health technicians,” he writes.

UNDER FIRE – Trump’s order barring some types of immigration for at least 60 days during the pandemic remains under fire from experts citing the potential economic fallout, reports Quinn Owen for ABC News. “It’s very hard for me to see the direct correlation in terms of immediate and practical positive impact on displaced U.S. workers,” Caroline Tang, an Austin-based attorney, told ABC. Meanwhile, EJ Montini points out in a column for the Arizona Republic that Trump’s executive order would have barred Melania Trump’s parents from joining their family in the U.S.: “Now that Trump’s extended family is safely inside he wants to close the door. And lock it.”

RADIOTHON – With so many members of the immigrant community going without access to financial relief, the Iowa chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens is partnering with the radio station “La Q Buena” for a radiothon. KCRG’s Phil Reed reports that in addition to helping community members, the radiothon “will also help small business owners who didn't get money through the payroll protection plan. The money from the event will go to American Friends Service Committee's Iowa Immigrant Emergency Fund and the Iowa Small Business Relief Fund.”

Stay safe, stay healthy,

Ali