The Supreme Court decided against hearing the Trump administration’s appeal challenging a “sanctuary” law in California, reports Adam Liptak in The New York Times. “The California law prohibits state officials from telling federal ones when undocumented immigrants are to be released from state custody and restricts transfers of immigrants in state custody to federal immigration authorities.” Previously, a Ninth Circuit court in San Francisco unanimously ruled against the federal government’s ability to use California’s resources to promote a national immigration agenda. It argued that “when questions of federalism are involved, we must distinguish between expectations and requirements. In this context, the federal government was free to expect as much as it wanted, but it could not require California’s cooperation.”

As David G. Savage reports for the Los Angeles Times, the late Justice Antonin Scalia had previously written a Supreme Court decision that state and local officials are not required to carry out federal enforcement. This doctrine appears to have prevailed: “Even Trump’s two appointees — Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh — refused to hear the administration’s appeal.”

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

MORE SCOTUS – The Supreme Court will hear a case to determine whether immigrants fighting deportation can remain free from detention while waiting for their court date, report Megan Mineiro and Tim Ryan for Courthouse News Service. “The petition to hear the case rises from the Fourth Circuit, where the Richmond, Virginia-based appeals court wrestled with which of two Immigration and Nationality Act provisions apply to the specific group of detainees. The first provision allows for detained immigrants to return to their families if they can prove they pose no danger to the community and are not a flight risk, while the more stringent rule requires mandatory detention.”

VERMONT – Vermont is racing to contain the COVID-19 outbreak that has hit an immigrant community in the small, densely populated city of Winooski, report Wilson Ring and Lisa Rathke for the Associated Press. “Winooski, with a population of about 7,300 in 1.4 square miles of land, describes itself as Vermont’s most diverse community — a place that’s home to many non-English speaking immigrants from across the world. Last year, the city proclaimed June 20 World Refugee Day, while recognizing its long history of welcoming refugees as new Americans.” For immigrants from Bhutan and Nepal, language barriers and a need to work have contributed to the outbreak. “Bhakta Pradhan, who owns the A&A Asian Market in Winooski where a lot of immigrants shop, said he’s worried about the virus but needs to operate the store to pay his bills … ‘He’s concerned about the disease, the outbreak, but at the same time he doesn’t know what to do, how to survive,’” said a family member translating for Bhakta.

VEGAS – In April, Nevada posted the worst unemployment rate in the U.S., but the numbers still excluded a key part of the workforce: undocumented workers who can’t collect the financial support offered to furloughed Nevadans, reports Alexander Tin in CBS News. More than 1 in 10 Nevada workers are undocumented, and many more live in mixed-status families. “For some, private charity — from informal neighborhood food deliveries to assistance doled out by churches and other nonprofits — have filled some of the gap for these families. However, organizations serving these communities have long complained a disproportionately small share of philanthropic giving finds its way to their coffers.”

REFUGEES – Refugees are working on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response around the world, and the International Rescue Committee profiled some of these essential workers. “It’s fundamental to understand that we, as human beings, need to unite and complement each other,” said Dr. Edna Patricia Gomez, a Venezuelan refugee who now works in Colombia. “Refugees always have the capacity to contribute more than people admit.”

QUEBEC – Just as they do in the U.S., immigrants in Canada play a crucial role in the country’s COVID-19 response. Gaëlle Ledan, an asylum seeker who worked as a physician in her native Haiti, told The Washington Post’s Amanda Coletta that as the pandemic worsened, she never considered quitting her job as a nursing assistant at a seniors’ home in Montreal: “You have to give your best and make people’s lives better.” Calls to regularize asylum seekers’ legal status “have been loudest in Quebec, where more than 80 percent of deaths have been linked to long-term-care homes or private seniors’ residences, and more than 1,000 soldiers have been deployed to fill chronic staffing shortages in those facilities.” Quebec is also where large numbers of asylum seekers have arrived from — wait for it — the U.S. “More than 58,200 people have entered the country via such ‘irregular’ border crossings and made asylum claims since the inauguration of President Trump in January 2017.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali