Last month, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that the U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) is unconstitutional due to the danger asylum seekers are likely to face when returned to the U.S. But while the Canadian government reviews the ruling — suspending it for at least the next six months — Lloyd Axworthy, chair of the World Refugee and Migration Council, and Allan Rock, president emeritus and professor of Law at the University of Ottawa, make the case that the next steps are clear and simple.

“First, Canada must immediately stop returning asylum seekers to the U.S. under the STCA. Although the Court suspended the effect of its decision for six months to allow Parliament to respond, it would be unconscionable for Canadian officials to continue sending claimants back in the meantime … Second, Canada should do the right thing and accept the Court’s judgment without appeal,” they outline in an op-ed for the Globe and Mail. “Canada is complicit in the mistreatment of refugees when it closes its door to them and sends them back to America.” For more context, Amelia Cheatham at the Council on Foreign Relations has a helpful backgrounder on Canada’s immigration process and asylum system.

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

“COMPROMISED” – “The coronavirus does not discriminate on the basis of immigration or citizenship status, and in order for our public health response and subsequent recovery to be effective, we must not, either,” writes Dr. Jeffrey Levi, Professor of Health Management & Policy at The George Washington University in an opinion piece for the Arizona Mirror. While immigrant essential workers continue supporting their families and communities each day, the Trump administration’s coronavirus response effectively leaves immigrants out of the recovery — a pattern that could keep the country from bouncing back: “If millions of people are directly or indirectly carved out of our nation’s response, including entire communities based on their immigration or citizenship status, our ability to identify, contain, and defeat the novel coronavirus will be compromised.”

RAUL – Raul Castaneda was sick for two weeks before he died of COVID-19, but he resisted seeking medical care due to his immigration status — despite rules against penalizing undocumented immigrants from seeking health services during the pandemic, Joe Ruff reports for the Catholic Spirit. “I think various of our Latino brothers and sisters would be fearful,” said Sandy Cortez, coordinator of Latino Ministry at St. Odilia in Shoreview, Minnesota, where Castaneda was an active member. “Raul and his family may have heard that he would not be penalized, but to believe it is something with which all undocumented immigrants struggle, and not just because of their personal situation, but because of all the others they may put at risk if they are asked to provide information for contact tracing,” said Anne Attea, coordinator of Latino Ministry at Ascension in Minneapolis.

MARIA – Maria Rocha, one of 2,000 Texas teachers who are Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients, is uncertain what her future will hold as the Trump administration continues its attempts to end the program. But with the school year around the corner, she’s channeling her anxiety into advocacy on behalf of her students, many of whom are immigrants and refugees facing inadequate access to remote learning tools and disproportionate stress from the pandemic. “The steepest challenges for families during COVID-19 — online learning, economic security, and health care — are steeper still for families with mixed or no legal status,” Bekah McNeel writes for The 74 Million. “‘We don’t know what their summer looked like,’ Rocha said. They won’t know whose family members fell ill. Who was read to daily. Who accessed the district’s Digital Learning Playground. Who regularly went without meals.”

JUDGES – The U.S. Federal Labor Relations Authority has ruled that immigration judges are “workers,” not “managers,” and are therefore permitted to form a union. The decision comes after The National Association of Immigration Judges (NAIJ) filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, alleging that the Department of Justice (DOJ) attempted to have the union decertified to prevent members from speaking out about U.S. immigration policy, Charles Davis reports for Business Insider. “DOJ's efforts to decertify the union demonstrates, once again, the structural flaw of having the immigration court housed in a law enforcement agency like DOJ,” said Judge Ashley Tabaddor, president of the NAIJ. “The only lasting solution is the creation of an independent immigration court.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali