First of all, thank you so much to everyone sending along the local stories you are seeing. We can’t always fit them in, but the local reporting adds an important perspective to the Notes. (This is also a reminder to subscribe to your local paper.)

A new report from Boundless Immigration finds that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) closures are preventing the naturalization of thousands of potential new voters each day ahead of the 2020 presidential election, Stuart Anderson writes in Forbes.

“The numbers are adding up. ‘Boundless did the math, and estimated that 2,100 immigrants will run out of time to vote each day that USCIS offices remain closed,’ according to the study. ‘The number increases for each month the COVID-19 shutdown remains in effect.’” There are currently around 650,000 pending naturalization applications.

As the delays mount, Mohamed Malim — a former refugee from Kenya — is selling handmade “citizenship bracelets” to raise money for other immigrants and refugees to help them pay their naturalization applications fees, reports Aline Barros for VOA News.

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

ESSENTIAL, BUT NOT PROTECTED – Migrant farmworkers in the U.S. have been deemed “essential” but remain among the most vulnerable workforce populations during the coronavirus pandemic — often working without benefits, workplace protections, minimum wage or health insurance, Adam Wernick reports for The World. “The 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act, the federal law from the New Deal era that granted industrial workers simple benefits like overtime after an eight-hour workday, excludes farmworkers.” What’s more, most farmworkers — unlike many retail food industry workers— do not receive any hazard pay.

FOREIGN DOCTORS – The Trump administration is removing restrictions in order to allow up to 1,500 foreign doctors to practice in crisis areas outside of their approved regions within the U.S., Nicole Narea reports for Vox. “Foreign doctors have long faced barriers to practicing in the US. Despite being willing to contribute to the country’s coronavirus response, many have been unable to do so, either because they have been shut out of American residency programs or because the immigration system stands in their way.” Specifically, foreign doctors in rural communities will be allowed to administer care and provide telehealth services in crisis areas. Dr. Amit Vashist of Ballad Health, which serves Appalachian communities, spoke to this issue in last week’s episode of “Only in America.”

NO PROTECTION – In the nearly two months since the Trump administration’s immigration restrictions have been in effect, only two people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border have been granted permission to stay in the U.S., reports Nick Miroff in The Washington Post. “Lucas Guttentag, an immigration-law scholar who served in the Obama administration and now teaches at Stanford and Yale universities, said the border measures ‘are designed to pay lip service’ to U.S. law and international treaty obligations ‘without providing any actual protection or screening. The whole purpose of asylum law is to give exhausted, traumatized and uninformed individuals a chance to get to a full hearing in U.S. immigration courts, and this makes that almost impossible ... It’s a shameful farce.’”

LESSONS FROM BAGHDAD – Refugees can offer helpful insights for Americans seeking to cope with life under lockdown, reports Heath Druzin for Boise State Public Radio. He profiles an Iraqi refugee family that fled violence in Baghdad and has been living in Boise, Idaho, for more than a decade. Amid the pandemic, “they’re getting through the new reality in much the same way they did in Iraq: through community.”

MASK MASTER – Ebrahim Mohammad Eshaq, a recently resettled refugee from Afghanistan living in Michigan, is making up to 100 cloth face masks per day for American health care workers, reports Andrea Goodell for Rapid Growth Media. “I am so happy that I can do something that can contribute to the people here for their safety, something that is needed. I can work and contribute to the community,” said Eshaq, who is now known locally as the “Mask Master.” He and his family have been strongly supported throughout their resettlement by church volunteers and international nonprofit Bethany Christian Services.

HI MOM – For this week’s special two-part Mother’s Day episode of “Only in America,” I sat down with my mom. Under the pretense of teaching me how to properly cut a mango, we ended up discussing her journey to the U.S., the difficulties of building a life in a new country and living thousands of miles away from family, and the neighbors who became like family.

Thanks for reading,

Ali