A migrant from El Salvador died in federal custody yesterday from COVID-19, marking the first death of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainee, report Maria Santana and Catherine E. Shoichet at CNN.

Dr. Ranit Mishori, a senior medical adviser for Physicians for Human Rights, said in a statement that the “heartbreaking tragedy at Otay Mesa could have been prevented had U.S. immigration officials heeded the recommendations of medical experts and acted in time … Thousands of doctors, advocates, and even the former acting head of ICE have been sounding the alarm for months about the grave risks of immigration detention amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The government cannot say it did not know this would happen.”

Camilo Montoya-Galvez at CBS News reminds us that “[m]ore than 48% of the 1,460 detainees who have been screened for the virus have tested positive.”

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

UNEQUAL IMPACT – A new Washington Post-Ipsos poll finds that COVID-19 is taking a disproportionate economic toll on certain racial and ethnic groups, Tracy Jan and Scott Clement report for The Washington Post. Whereas 11% of white adults report being laid off or furloughed since the outbreak began, 20% of Hispanic adults and 16% of black adults being laid off or furloughed. “Among Hispanics who are U.S. citizens, 15 percent report being laid off or furloughed, a rate similar to blacks. But among Hispanic noncitizens, which includes undocumented immigrants as well as green-card-holding permanent residents, 32 percent report being laid off or furloughed; they are also the most likely group to be left out of government assistance programs.”

NURSES DAY – National Nurses Day was yesterday, and last week Agnes Constante at NBC News profiled Johns Hopkins nurse Erika Roño – “one of an estimated more than 150,000 Filipino nurses in the U.S. who continue to work in the field as the pandemic continues.” Roño told NBC News: “Coming from the Philippines, you hear about the United States being a superpower. We can do a lot of great things, and this is happening. Why is this happening?”

ESSENTIAL – The coronavirus pandemic has revealed just how essential many undocumented workers are to keeping food on American tables, writes Alfredo Corchado, Mexico border correspondent for the Dallas Morning News, in an opinion piece for The New York Times. “In the past, the United States has rewarded immigrant soldiers who fought our wars with a path to citizenship. Today, the fields — along with the meatpacking plants, the delivery trucks and the grocery store shelves — are our front lines, and border security can’t be disconnected from food security. It’s time to offer all essential workers a path to legalization.”

CRITICAL DACA – With a decision on the future of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) coming down from the Supreme Court as early as today, many Dreamers on the frontlines of the pandemic are anxiously awaiting their fate. Per Julián Aguilar at the Texas Tribune: “The Center for American Progress estimates that about 202,000 DACA recipients, including more than 30,000 in Texas, work in industries the federal government considers ‘essential critical infrastructure.’… 27,000 DACA recipients are health care workers — including nurses, dentists, pharmacists, physician assistants, home health aides, technicians and other staff.”

FOUR SENATORS – Republican Sens. Cotton (Arkansas), Cruz (Texas), Hawley (Missouri) and Grassley (Iowa) have penned a letter to the White House urging the president to “suspend all new guest-worker visas for 60 days; suspend all non-immigrant guest-worker visas for 60 days; and continue to suspend new non-immigrant guest-worker visas for a year or until unemployment bounces back to ‘normal levels,’” Jake Sherman and Anna Palmer report in Politico Playbook.“They are also requesting Trump suspend EB-5 visas — a program by which an immigrant can become a green-card holder by investing in business in the U.S.” All of this tracks awfully close to The Washington Post’s assessment of Stephen Miller’s plans for the future. 

VISA DENIALS – H-1B visa denial rates are already at all-time highs, but Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes that the Trump administration may soon roll out further restrictions on their issuance. “Before enacting new measures, analysts recommend the administration take into account the restrictions on H-1Bs already in current law, including the low annual limit for new H-1B petitions, and the high denial rates imposed by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).”

BACK IN BLACK – As President Trump continues pushing to paint the steel bollards of the U.S.-Mexico border wall black, Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey at The Washington Post report that the design choice could cost taxpayers at least $500 million. “Trump has not let go of the idea, insisting that the dark color will enhance its forbidding appearance and leave the steel too hot to touch during summer months. During a border wall meeting at the White House last month amid the coronavirus pandemic, the president told senior adviser Jared Kushner and aides to move forward with the paint job and to seek out cost estimates…” Maybe Mexico will at least pay for the paint job?

Thanks for reading,

Ali