Stephen Miller’s trajectory from a high school student in Santa Monica, California, to an influential anti-immigrant hawk in the Donald Trump White House traces larger public policy changes and forces at play in recent decades, Jason DeParle writes in the New York Times: “The forces that pushed the Republican Party to the right also shaped Mr. Miller. Born in 1985, he grew up in a post-Cold War world where the acceptance of refugees was no longer seen as part of America’s resistance to a hostile foreign power. Rapid ethnic change was shaping his world.”

(DeParle is out with a new book this week, "A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration in the 21st Century." He joins the Migration Policy Institute for a conversation tomorrow.)

Meanwhile, the subhead on Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey's piece in the Washington Post rings true: “With unswerving loyalty, Stephen Miller has singular control of an issue central to the presidency.” While other advisers have come and gone, Miroff and Dawsey write, “Two and a half years into Trump’s term, Miller’s power in the White House is at its peak, according to top administration officials.”

From California, where I’ll be waking up early every day this week to pick up the good work of the team, welcome to the Monday edition of Noorani’s Notes.

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

BAKE SALES — Every Monday needs to start with news like this. “For the second year in a row, Luci Hylen, 11, set up shop to help families impacted by immigration separation policies,” reports Ashley Graham for East Lansing’s WLNS News. Last year’s proceeds, just under $3,000, went to the Texas-based organization RAICES. This year, Luci’s support is going closer to home to help the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center.

VANISHING WORKERS — The recent raids in Mississippi, which resulted in 680 workers being taken away by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have put poultry workers in Hall County, Georgia, on edge. Hundreds “walked away from their jobs Thursday, in response to rumors of ICE raids on local processing plants — raids that didn’t happen,” reports the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

VANISHING HEALTH — Another consequence of Trump’s “public charge” rule is people’s health, according to doctors and public health experts. Sophia Tareen reports in the Associated Press that some advocates are already seeing the fallout: “Diabetics skipping regular checkups. Young asthmatics not getting preventive care. A surge in expensive emergency room visits.” The new rule is also misguided, argues Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham. As our population ages, our pool of younger workers to care for them is not keeping pace. Immigrants often do that vital work, which pays very low wages — half of direct-care workers count on public assistance. “So, there’s a portrait of the people who stand between us and catastrophe as America ages," Abraham writes. "It is also a portrait of the very people the Trump administration is trying to keep out.”

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN — After reporting on a gruesome attack and murder in Jalapa, Guatemala, Azam Ahmed in the New York Times writes about the impacts of the Trump administration’s attempt to stop asylum claims rooted in domestic violence. It’s not just that 100,000 people are killed almost every year in Latin America, but that “violence against women, and domestic violence in particular, is a powerful and often overlooked factor in the migration crisis.”

$200 MILLION — A review of 38 legal claims shows that numerous migrant children allegedly have been harmed while in government custody, “including several who say their young children were sexually, physically or emotionally abused in federally funded foster care,” per an ongoing joint investigation between the Associated Press and PBS’ FRONTLINE. Indeed ,with more than 3,000 migrant children taken from their parents at the border during recent years, there may be “more than $200 million in damages from parents who said their children were harmed while in government custody.”

'IMMIGRATION MAKES AMERICA GREAT' — ICYMI: last week in Vox, Matthew Yglesias wrote about how Trump’s vision of America runs counter to the more inclusive vision George Washington and other founding fathers espoused. If we hadn’t welcomed newcomers from around the world, “our cities would be smaller, our global influence would be reduced, and many fewer of the world’s cutting-edge companies would be based here. We would suffer, as small countries tend to, from our talented and ambitious young people seeking their fortunes in bigger places abroad. With many fewer people, it wouldn’t be the great nation it is today.” Worth the read.

Thanks for reading,
Ali