The Trump administration has extended its order allowing the government to reject migrants at the U.S. border without first giving them access to the asylum system, reports Michelle Hackman for The Wall Street Journal. While Trump claims the measure aims to slow the spread of coronavirus, critics have flagged that the administration is using the pandemic as an excuse to enact ever-stricter immigration policies. “The nation’s public health laws should not be used as a pretext for overriding humanitarian laws and treaties that provide lifesaving protections to refugees seeking asylum and unaccompanied children,” more than three dozen public health experts wrote in a letter to the administration this week. As we noted earlier this week, the order comes as the administration prepares to extend and expand the president’s earlier proclamation suspending certain immigration to the U.S.

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

IMPROPER INFLUENCE – The president’s preferred construction firm has secured a $1.3 billion contract to build miles of border wall fencing in Arizona, Nick Miroff reports for The Washington Post. The contract — the largest awarded to date — went to Fisher Sand and Gravel, a firm which counts Steve Bannon as an advisor and which is currently under review by the Defense Department inspector general following Democratic lawmakers’ concerns regarding improper White House influence. “Given the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing investigation into Fisher, the administration should pause construction and contracting decisions until the investigation has concluded favorably…” said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

STAYING TOGETHER – Migrant parents have unanimously rejected an option from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to be separated from their kids, Julia Ainsley reports for NBC News. ICE had given parents an ultimatum: Apply for your children to be released from custody or remain together in detention indefinitely. “Lawyers representing the immigrant families said that ICE would more easily be able to deport adults separated from their children and that the parents feared they would not be reunited with their children if they were separated.” When asked last week, “[n]ot one of the 366 families … agreed to be separated from their children.”

ESSENTIAL BUT VILIFIED – Asian American doctors and nurses are facing racist attacks amid the pandemic even as they are risking their own health to help save lives, writes Tracy Jan for The Washington Post. “I’m risking my own personal health, and then to be vilified just because of what I look like,” said Lucy Li, a resident at Massachusetts General Hospital who was on the receiving end of a racist tirade as she walked to the subway. She worries her patients could have similar prejudices. “I try not to think about that possibility when I’m at work taking care of my patients. But it’s always there, at the very back of my mind.” This week’s episode of “Only in America” will feature a conversation with Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, discussing precisely this issue.

8% – Coronavirus infections for migrants in ICE custody have increased around 800% from a month ago, reports Jeff Gammage for The Philadelphia Inquirer. “More than 1,000 undocumented immigrants detained by ICE now have the coronavirus, as the surge of infections continues to grow with each new round of testing. … About half of the detainees tested by ICE have the virus, even though the enforcement agency has checked only 8% of the 27,908 immigrants it holds in jails and prisons across the country.” (Go ahead and read that last sentence one more time.)

HIV AND COVID-19 – The COVID-19 pandemic is complicating the challenges that HIV-positive immigrants face, report Feven Merid and Hibah Ansari in Documented. “Advocates fear immigrants living with HIV — especially the undocumented — are more vulnerable than ever to succumb to this new danger. Many are afraid of seeking medical care because of their status, and the organizations they relied on to provide testing and counseling, no longer have money to offer their services. … Gustavo Morales, the deputy director of the Latino Commission on AIDS, recalled a client asking bluntly: ‘I survived an epidemic 30 years ago, am I going to die now in this one?’”

RELIEF FUND – The Seattle City Council passed a resolution this week asking the governor and state lawmakers to allocate at least $100 million in emergency relief for undocumented immigrants who have become unemployed due to the pandemic, reports Daniel Beekman for The Seattle Times. “During a public comment session before the council’s vote, several undocumented parents hit hard by coronavirus-related business closures said they have been struggling to feed their children and pay their bills.” Hispanic people in King County, where Seattle is, “have died from COVID-19 at a much higher rate than white people, as have people identifying as Black and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.”

BAD AGREEMENT – A joint report by Refugees International and Human Rights Watch has found that an agreement between the U.S. and Guatemala has neglected to appropriately protect Salvadoran and Honduran asylum seekers. “Given Guatemala’s inability to provide effective protection and the risk that some transferees face the threat of serious harm either in Guatemala or after returning to their home countries, the US violates its obligation to examine their asylum claims by implementing the agreement,” Human Rights Watch reports. In interviews with 30 Hondurans and Salvadorans who were transferred to Guatemala, they described abuse at the U.S.-Mexico border prior to their transfer and dangerous conditions after arriving in Guatemala.

Stay safe, stay healthy,

Ali