Federal Judge Dolly Gee of California has agreed to extend the deadline — previously set for today — for releasing migrant children from federal family detention, report Priscilla Alvarez and Geneva Sands for CNN. The Trump administration requested more time for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release the children currently detained across three facilities, who Gee said must be released to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The new deadline is July 27.

As we noted yesterday, reports are circulating that the administration may release children without allowing their parents to leave with them. “It’s possible the agency will try to once again separate families by releasing children without their parents. It’s also possible ICE will simply try to deport the families altogether. Neither option is acceptable,” Dona Abbott and Tawnya Brown from Bethany Christian Services write in an op-ed for The Christian Post.

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

SHAKY GROUND – Since the Supreme Court ruled against the Trump administration’s attempt to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) last month, the president has refused to restore the program to its full capacity. “In the wake of the court’s ruling in June, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency — which administers DACA — is still rejecting first-time applications, or is confirming receipt of the new applications but then not acting on them, according to lawyers,” reports Molly O’Toole for the Los Angeles Times. The halted restart puts the administration on “shaky legal ground,” with its inaction potentially violating the court’s decision. “According to historians, a president defying the court has little precedent. Only a few cases come close. … when the court sided with Native Americans in Georgia against white settlers who tried to kick them off their lands, President Andrew Jackson — infamous in his ruthless treatment of Native Americans — showed no eagerness to threaten the state into compliance, according to the historical record. But he ultimately acknowledged the court’s authority.

EXPELLED – Unpublished government data obtained by CBS News shows the U.S. is turning away hundreds of migrant children traveling without their parents, transferring just 61 children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border to government shelters last month, reports Camilo Montoya-Galvez. “Despite laws that protect unaccompanied and underage migrants from speedy deportations, [U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)] transferred only 61 of them — or fewer than 4% of total arrests last month — to the Office of Refugee of Resettlement, which Congress charged with caring for these children.” The rest were expelled by border authorities, “who have been citing an unprecedented public health directive to rapidly remove most unauthorized migrants from U.S. soil.” In June, acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan told Congress that more than 2,000 unaccompanied children had been expelled: “More minors have been swiftly removed from the southwestern border since, but CBP has repeatedly declined to say how many, citing ongoing litigation.”  

MANA – In 2016, Mana fled violence from her husband in Iran after he discovered her budding interest in Christianity, eventually settling in Ohio as part of the U.S. refugee resettlement program. But her luck wasn’t just in making it to the U.S. — it was in her timing, Harvest Prude writes for WORLD Magazine. “Part of that blessing is the timing of her arrival in 2016. Each year since then, the Trump administration has dramatically cut back the number of accepted refugees, dropping it to the lowest recorded level in 2019.” The administration set the refugee cap at just 18,000 in 2020 — down from 95,000 in 1980. The numbers are particularly dire for those fleeing religious persecution: “In 2015, the United States accepted 1,734 Christians from Iran; in 2020 it will accept an estimated 50 Iranian Christians. This year the United States has admitted 5 Christians from Syria so far,” Mindy Belz also notes in WORLD. Despite the disheartening numbers, Mana “still holds out hope that she will be able to bring her oldest son to the United States someday.”

DISENFRANCHISED – While more than 100,000 immigrants who had their naturalization paused in March due to the pandemic are finally on track to take the Oath of Allegiance and become U.S. citizens by the end of this month, Boundless estimates that more than 300,000 others who should be obtaining citizenship by Election Day are still being impacted by the ongoing freeze on interviews. “In a normal year, everyone passing their naturalization interview during the five months between April and August would have reasonably expected to take the oath and become a U.S. citizen within the next two months, in time for most states’ voter registration deadlines in October,” Boundless reports. “This is an effort to keep them from voting in the fall elections,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) told Lissandra Villa at TIME.

EXCEPTIONS – The State Department has provided an update on exceptions to the administration’s Presidential Proclamation 10052 (our analysis here), which extends an order limiting entry of immigrant visa applicants, writes Yalexa Matos for The National Law Review: “Some travelers and visa applicants who are affected by the Proclamation may qualify for an exception if the purpose of their travel to the United States is for humanitarian reasons, public health response, or national security. Other exceptions include: (1) applicants who are subject to aging out of their current immigrant visa classification; (2) certain H and J visa applicants who are traveling to the United Sates to work in support of a critical U.S. foreign policy; and (3) dependents of applicants who are excepted from, or not subject to, the Proclamations.” Plus, “[a]lso excepted is travel by an au pair that prevents a U.S. citizen, LPR or other nonimmigrant in lawful status from becoming a public health charge.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali