Following a court order calling on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release detained immigrant children, the Trump administration indicated it may opt to separate families by releasing children but continuing to detain their parents, reports Spencer S. Hsu for The Washington Post. In June, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered ICE to release children from three family detention centers by July 17, citing health threats posed by the coronavirus pandemic. But the administration says it has not decided yet how to comply with Gee’s order, saying that “[t]he remedy for a constitutional violation of conditions of confinement is to remedy the violation, not to release the prisoners.” Advocates say that ICE is giving parents “an unacceptable choice of either ‘agreeing … to the trauma of family separation’ to protect their children or staying together at greater risk.”

Meanwhile, President Trump is planning to meet with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in Washington this week to discuss “a long-term strategy to target illegal migration in the region,” writes Anna Giaritelli for The Washington Examiner.

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

GOOD FAITH – Amid reports that the Trump administration is planning to resubmit paperwork to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), a group of evangelical leaders has written a public letter urging the president to reconsider those plans, reports Brett Samuels for The Hill. “We ask you to publicly and consistently urge congressional leaders to urgently pass legislation to create a pathway for those who arrived in the U.S. as children and who meet other necessary and appropriate qualifications to earn permanent legal status and, eventually, citizenship,” write members of the Evangelical Immigration Table. “… we plead with you to work toward a good faith compromise that would both be compassionate to immigrants and respect the rule of law.”

WITHOUT A COUNTRY – In a powerful piece for The New York Times, Miriam Jordan profiles a military wife and mother of two, Rebecca Trimble, who is one of “at least 35,000 people in the United States [who] lack American citizenship because their adoptive parents failed to secure it for them.” Rebecca’s story, first reported by the Alaska Landmine in March, starts in Mexico where she was adopted by an American family as a baby, and grew up believing she was a U.S. citizen — not realizing she wasn’t until after she voted in the 2008 general election. After learning of her status and applying for a green card, this February she received a denial letter informing her she had 33 days to leave the country or face deportation. Since then, Jordan reports, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has denied a request from Rebecca’s lawyer to reopen her case. Her lawyer now plans to “sue the agency in federal court to secure a green card or citizenship for her client.”

NEBRASKA FURLOUGHS – Due to the dire budget situation at USCIS, 1,100 federal immigration workers in Nebraska are readying for furloughs that could last a month or more, Joseph Morton reports for the Omaha World-Herald. The user fees that fund the agency have dropped 50% since March as the agency has restricted applications amid the coronavirus pandemic. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Nebraska) told the World-Herald he would support emergency funding to help the agency, which has notified more than 13,000 employees nationwide of potential furloughs. “They have a vital mission and we can’t afford to have them shut their doors or stop operating for a period of time until the appropriations bills get done,” Bacon said.

CONFRONTING RACISM – The superintendent of the local school district in Storm Lake, Iowa, is speaking out against racism directed towards students, many of whom are immigrants, at local sporting events. Nick Hytrek at the Sioux City Journal reports: “As a white school administrator, [Storm Lake superintendent Stacey] Cole knows she’ll never be able to fully understand how it feels to be a Hispanic or Black teenager and hear a player on an opposing team make a racist comment to her. … What’s important to Cole is that people become aware that it happens. And not let it go when it does. It’s one of the reasons why she took to Twitter on June 15, when someone drove by the Storm Lake softball fans and team while they were playing in Spirit Lake and yelled ‘w*tbacks’ to them before speeding off.”

O CANADA – The CEO of Duolingo, “Pittsburgh’s first billion-dollar startup,” says the Trump administration’s immigration policies could force the company to move jobs to Canada, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “Luis von Ahn, CEO of the language learning company, expressed his concerns on Twitter Monday: ‘I’m proud that @duolingo, the most valuable startup in PA, is seen as an inspiration for Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, if the US policies against (extremely qualified) immigration continue, we’ll be forced to move jobs (and inspiration) to Toronto,’ the CEO said.”

400 FAMILIES – Rufino Fuentes, an immigrant from El Salvador living in Maryland, is using his home to feed 400 needy families three to four days a week while still working a full-time job. Caroline Patrickis for WJLA reports: “He organizes the donations from USDA through his church Iglesia Baptist de Washington. ‘They lost their job, they have no income and large families and that broke my heart … They don’t have the opportunity I have so why not use my free time to help others,’ says Fuentes.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali