In normal times, millions of small financial transactions happen every day as immigrants across the world wire portions of their paychecks to loved ones back home, Monica Campbell reports for The World. But things have changed.

“This year, the economic crisis is wrecking that cash flow. Worldwide, remittances are expected to fall a staggering 20% this year — plummeting by about $100 billion, according to a recent report by the World Bank.” That means hundreds of millions of people will feel financial pain in countries including India, China, Mexico, the Philippines and beyond.

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

MIGRATION IN A PANDEMIC – Migration from poorer nations to richer ones has come to a halt amid the coronavirus pandemic as migrants face border closures, suspended asylum systems, interruptions in global transportation, and lockdowns, reports Kirk Semple at The New York Times. “In Latin America, once-crowded migratory routes that led from South America, through Central America and Mexico and to the United States have gone quiet.” East African migration to Gulf States has dropped, farms in Western Europe have less laborers from Eastern Europe, Afghans have returned from Iran and Pakistan, and Haitians have returned from the Dominican Republic, among other changes globally. “The pandemic has essentially — not absolutely, but essentially — stopped international migration and mobility dead in its tracks,” said Demetrios G. Papademetriou, co-founder and president emeritus of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington.

FRONTLINE FOOD WORKERS – Viengxay Khuninh was born in Laos and immigrated with his wife to the U.S. in the 1980s, where he began a 37-year run working at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Dakota City, Nebraska, reports Dolly Butz in the Sioux City Journal. Last month, after COVID-19 began spreading in the plant — where hundreds of workers have since tested positive — Khuninh, a father of four, died of the virus. “The facility will remain closed through Monday for ‘deep cleaning.’ Tyson also said last week it had started testing all of its Dakota City employees. Khuninh, who died April 24, was the second of three Tyson workers to succumb to COVID-19.” Over the weekend, I wrote about the administration’s failure to treat these essential workers with the dignity they deserve.

FRONTLINE HEALTHCARE – Louise Rogenski, a CT technologist scanning patients suspected of having COVID-19, faces another kind of uncertainty: She’s a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipient. As Jeff Gammage reports in the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on the fate of DACA by the end of June, and in the battle against the coronavirus, “[Louise] and many other DACA recipients serve at the point of the spear — an estimated 27,000 doctors, nurses, pharmacists, technicians, physician assistants, and home aides.” Meanwhile, Pilar Pedraza at Kansas ABC affiliate KAKE reports that immigrant doctors in the U.S. providing critical care on the COVID-19 frontlines are asking be moved to the front of the green card line. Dr. Akshath Kamath, who treats COVID-19 patients and is here on an H-1B visa, sees Kansas as his home. “Among the rules, his family can only stay in the U.S. as long as he can work.  If he catches the virus at work and is permanently disabled or dies, they have to leave the country.” More on this topic later this week on “Only in America”— stay tuned.

JUDGES – The Justice Department has changed the hiring process to fill vacancies on the Board of Immigration Appeals, clearing the way for judges with records denying asylum claims, Tanvi Misra reports for CQ Roll Call. New memos obtained by the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association show “shortened hiring timelines and suggest preference given to judges with records of rulings against immigrants.” And there’s more: The documents also “demonstrate the influence held over the board by the political leadership of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, the Justice Department agency that oversees the nation’s immigration court system, particularly its director, James McHenry.” 

DEFYING THE UTAH WAY – The president’s April 20 tweet to “temporarily suspend immigration” is a far cry from Utah’s immigrant-friendly culture, writes Samuel Benson in a Deseret News opinion piece. “Forget that Trump’s proclamation potentially violates international refugee protection standards or keeps us from obtaining talented front-line workers. Politics aside, the idea of barring immigrants from our nation and our state — without the legitimate justification of economic or public health concerns — does not reflect Utah’s ‘unique culture, history and spirit of inclusion.’”

DETAINED IN A PANDEMIC – Health experts and advocates have filed a lawsuit pushing for the release of 18 immigrants in federal detention in Alabama, Jonece Starr Dunigan reports for AL.com. “In a 65-page complaint, advocates detail multiple reasons detained individuals at the facility are in danger of becoming ill during the coronavirus pandemic, including the inability to follow social distancing regulations, insufficient testing and screening protocols and failure to adhere to federal health guidelines. ‘Plaintiffs fear for their lives because they have medical conditions,’ the petition states. ‘And for good reason: they are trapped in a facility that can only be described as a breeding ground for the disease.’”

Stay safe, stay healthy,

Ali