A good news story we have been tracking: Refugees living in the Moria Camp in Lesvos, Greece, are supporting churchgoers in South Carolina during the pandemic, Nic Jones at CBS News 19 reports. 

Over the last three and a half years, “close to 300 people” from South Carolina Baptist churches have been taking trips to Lesvos to serve refugees at Moria, said Robbie McAlister, a consultant in ethnic ministry, refugee work and immigration.

Now, in response to COVID-19, the refugees living in Moria decided to help those who have helped them by making masks — so far around 2,000 — and shipping them to churches in South Carolina like River Springs Church in Irmo.

McAlister coordinated the effort with When We Band Together and the Evangelical Immigration Table to receive and distribute masks to churches in South Carolina’s Midlands region. They arrived with a note in the box that reads: “These were handmade by refugee volunteers in Lesvos, Greece. We sent them to you for your safety and health. We are all one people and must protect one another.”

In a piece also published in the Columbia Star, McAlister’s alma mater, Columbia International University, notes that those in Lesvos “have fled desperate situations in Central Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, and live in a camp of over 15,000 people designed to accommodate only 2,500 people.”

The university itself is also receiving masks: “CIU Dean of Student[s] Rick Swift, who received the delivery of the masks, says they will be placed in offices around campus to be used as needed with a posted explanation of who made them.”

Last week I spoke with When We Band Together co-founder Zoe Pappis Schultz, who helped coordinate the delivery of the masks to South Carolina, for “Only in America.” Part two of the conversation, featuring McAlister and local Baptist leader David Lee discussing the response to the masks in South Carolina, will be released tomorrow.

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

HONG KONG – Protesters in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement “are applying for Australia’s protection in growing numbers,” Hannah Ryan reports for The Guardian. A new national security law passed in China “has prompted international conversations about accepting Hong Kong residents to live in other democratic countries. British prime minister Boris Johnson has suggested he is prepared to give nearly 3 million Hong Kong citizens the right to live and work in the UK. His foreign secretary has asked Australia to consider ‘burden-sharing’ if the law leads to a ‘mass exodus’ from Hong Kong.” As a reminder, earlier this month six Republican and one Democratic senator urged Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to welcome Hong Kong refugees to the U.S. Will news of China’s new law rekindle this effort?

DACA HOPE – The more than 650,000 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients who have been living in limbo were jubilant after the Supreme Court provided them with temporary relief earlier this month. But as Allison Pohle in The Wall Street Journal writes, they remain in a state of uncertainty. Pohle profiles seven Dreamers — an aspiring doctor; one who works for a financial firm; one who owns a restaurant; one who wanted to join the Black Lives Matter protests but worried about risking her status; one who started a nonprofit, and her partner who works at it; and one who is married with an American-born son. As Maria Rodriguez, an administrative analysis for a financial company, put it: “I might be naive, but I still have hope that Congress will have a solution.” So do we.

‘SENSITIVE LOCATIONS’ – An immigrant from El Salvador who sought sanctuary in a New Orleans church for eight months to avoid being deported has been granted a special visa, reports Matt Sledge in The Times-Picayune. “In late 2017, [José] Torres learned that his deportation was imminent. So, he decided to become one of a small wave of immigrants in the first year of President Donald Trump’s administration to seek sanctuary inside a church. [U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] treats houses of worship as ‘sensitive locations’ where it doesn't generally conduct targeted enforcement.” The visa, which puts Torres on the path to citizenship, allows for him to remain in the country with his wife and two young U.S. citizen daughters. 

CANADA – Canadians should be quietly thanking the U.S. for its self-destructive immigration policies, writes Yung Wu, CEO of the Toronto-based innovation hub MaRS Discovery District, in an opinion piece for Fortune. “When the U.S. started building walls, Canada’s federal government started breaking them down with a program called the Global Talent Stream, which allows innovative companies to demonstrate the need for specialized skills and fast-track the entry of foreign workers.” Wu writes that Canada has kept the program open and even streamlined it further amid COVID-19, and “[o]penness to foreign talent has helped to reverse Canada’s traditional southbound talent flow and contributed to our tech sector’s rapid growth.” All to say, if the U.S. “won’t value talented immigrants, Canada will.”

COMMISSIONER – Minnesota has appointed its first dedicated immigrant and refugee commissioner, reports Alex Jokich for KSTP. “Anisa Hajimumin is the new assistant commissioner for immigrant and refugee affairs within the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development. She will be the state's first primary specialist for immigrants' issues, working directly with the governor.” As context: Approximately 10% of Minnesota’s population is made up of immigrants. 

Thanks for reading, 

Ali