Welcome to Friday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.
The U.S. Court of Appeals affirmed Thursday that the Trump administration is responsible for providing the most basic sanitary supplies to children in immigrant detention — including “soap, towels, showers, dry clothing [and] toothbrushes.”
Edvard Pettersson at Bloomberg writes, “The long-running litigation over enforcement of the so-called Flores agreement from 22 years ago comes as new allegations have emerged in recent months about squalid conditions at U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in Texas and Florida where thousands of youngsters are housed.”
Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].
VERY RELIGIOUS — In 2017, Gallup’s Frank Newport found that “Mississippi remains the most religious state in the U.S., with 59% of its residents in 2016 classified as ‘very religious.’" Well, the state’s religious community is stepping up to help families impacted by the massive immigration raids that took place last week. The Daily Beast’s Scott Bixby reports that more than 100 parishioners at St. Anne Catholic Church in Carthage were detained — a number that represents nearly half of the church's weekly attendees. The Rev. Michael O’Brien, pastor of Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Canton, told Bixby, “‘We are now running a crisis center in our parish hall.’”
CORPORATE REVOLTS — Major companies that do work to support the Trump administration’s immigration policies are increasingly facing internal revolts from their employees. Per Sara Fischer and Courtenay Brown at Axios, "Employees at Google circulated a petition Wednesday demanding that Google publicly commit not to support government agencies that engage in practices they feel amount to ‘human rights abuses’ … Whole Foods employees demanded this week that Amazon, their parent company, cut ties with Palantir, a government contractor that's being called out for its work with ICE.”
CLIMB THE LADDER — Republican Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey has come out against the Trump administration’s “public charge” rule, reports Howard Fischer of Arizona's Capitol Media Services, via the Arizona Daily Star. “‘I want to see people who will climb the economic ladder. I think many of us have a family story similar to that,’” Ducey said. The governor also “questioned the wisdom of the recent raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement on workplaces looking for those who are in this country illegally.” Good on you, Governor Ducey.
GPS TRACKING — New reports reveal that federal authorities are utilizing GPS tracking technology to monitor the movements of immigrants, and the resulting data contributed to the Mississippi raids. Per NBC’s Daniella Silva, “Federal immigration authorities were able to track an undocumented Guatemalan woman from the time she left her home in the morning and headed to work at a food processing plant in Mississippi, to the time she left work roughly 10 hours later ... Unsealed search warrants from the raid reveal that immigration authorities have tracked such GPS data from dozens of undocumented immigrants with ankle monitors.”
NFL SUPPORT — Josh Norman, a cornerback for the Washington Redskins, and Demario Davis, a linebacker for the New Orleans Saints, helped pay the bail of immigration activist Jose Bello, who was “arrested by ICE in May after he presented a poem he wrote criticizing family separations and the Trump administration at a public forum on immigration issues,” Ella Torres at ABC News writes. Davis tweeted, “For 87 days we kept a man from his freedom & family for reciting a poem. Yesterday he was able to post bail. This dehumanizing, psychological torture needs to stop. And we can stop it."
DOES IT MAKE SENSE? — As the Trump administration ramps up workplace raids, nonpartisan economist Stuart Anderson questions in Forbes whether the federal government should be implementing policies that undermine the economy. “What if the raids are eventually so successful that all unauthorized immigrants are either deported or voluntarily leave the country and no future unauthorized immigrants take their place? It’s an important question, since immigrants are a key part of U.S. labor force growth — and labor force growth is a key component of economic growth.”
Thanks for reading,
Ali
Was this email forwarded to you?
Sign up now to get Noorani's Notes in your inbox.
 |  |  |  |  |