Despite temporary eviction bans in several states, undocumented immigrants with few legal resources are being pushed out of their homes during the pandemic, reports Caitlin Dickerson for The New York Times. Landlords may be taking advantage of the fact that undocumented immigrants are less likely to complain to the authorities because they fear deportation. Jennifer Berger, who heads the social justice division of the Washington state attorney general’s office, said her office has collected 165 complaints of illegal evictions and late fees since the state’s eviction ban went into effect, the majority coming from immigrants. “There’s inherent coercion within the immigrant community because they live in fear of being deported, so they’re afraid to speak out,” Berger said. “My gut instinct is that there are people who have experienced this and certainly didn’t report it.”

Asylum seekers are also being forced to make hard choices amid the pandemic. Those in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention face such a high risk of contracting COVID-19 that some are opting to return to the dangers they faced in their home countries, Laura Gottesdiener reports for Reuters. Jose Munoz, who fled gang threats in El Salvador, requested to return to his home country after COVID-19 cases in his Houston detention facility surpassed 100. Munoz, who has preexisting conditions, felt unable to protect himself from the virus: “I felt like it was more dangerous than back in my country,” he said.

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

DANGEROUS PROTOCOLS – A former Eloy Detention Center corrections officer says inadequate health care protocols at the Arizona immigrant detention facility are contributing to high coronavirus infection rates, reports Daniel Gonzalez for the Arizona Republic. The former officer “described an environment where masks and gloves are rationed, sanitation supplies are watered down and staff are pressured by management to keep working despite COVID-19 symptoms because of staffing shortages caused by so many infected workers out sick.” Those conditions, he said, caused the outbreak to “snowball,” ultimately spreading through the facility and then “spilling into the community and contributing to the infection of a senior correctional officer who died June 14 of possible COVID-19 complications.”

TWO BROTHERS – A heartbreaking New York Times story of two immigrant brothers — only one of whom is protected by Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — highlights the plight of the 66,000 “potentially eligible young people who have been shut out of DACA since it was terminated nearly three years ago.” While the Supreme Court recently upheld DACA for current recipients after the Trump administration attempted to end it, the fate of new applicants remains ambiguous. “Most legal scholars believe that to comply with the court’s decision, the administration must revive DACA, which would mean that new applications would have to be accepted,” Miriam Jordan writes. “Refusal to accept them would incite lawsuits, they said. … But the financial woes of [U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services], which is in the process of furloughing a large share of its work force, could have the effect of preventing new applications in any case.”

SPOUSES AND CHILDREN – The Trump administration’s recent proclamation aimed at preventing foreign workers from entering the U.S. also targeted spouses and children of immigrants, Stuart Anderson writes for Forbes. According to the text of the proclamation, families of immigrant workers are a “threat” — and the administration believes that barring them from entry could encourage workers already living in the U.S. to leave. “Separating high-skilled foreign nationals from their spouses and children as another way to achieve this goal is not only acceptable to administration officials, analysts note, it’s been planned out.”

STABLE SUPPORT – Research from the Public Religion Research Institute shows that despite dramatic changes to federal asylum policies under the Trump administration, Americans have remained supportive of welcoming refugees into the U.S. “Majorities of Americans across various demographics oppose passing a law to prevent refugees entering the United States, including race, age, education, region, and even religious affiliation. … Opinions have remained fairly stable among Americans since the question was first asked [in 2017].” More than 77% of Democrats, 64% of independents, and 42% of Republicans said they would oppose a law preventing refugees from entering the country. This research comes amid the Trump administration’s latest changes to the asylum system and a recent Supreme Court ruling, both of which will make it harder for refugees and asylum seekers to remain in the United States.

CHEATED – In a case that sheds important light on the role of labor recruiters, a group of migrant workers with H-2A agricultural work visas have filed a lawsuit against Four Star Greenhouse, their former employer, and the greenhouse’s labor contractor, Vasquez Citrus & Hauling, for cheating them out of hundreds of hours of wages in Michigan. According to one former employee who is part of the lawsuit, when the workers complained, the recruiter lured them into “being detained by federal immigration agents in a Walmart parking lot, and eventually sent back to Mexico,” Niraj Warikoo reports for the Detroit Free Press.

Thanks for reading,

Ali