A must-listen this morning: Cousins Jorge and Ricardo, ages 16 and 13, are among a slew of migrant children caught up in a COVID-19-era “shadow immigration system” in which the Trump administration is sidestepping normal protections for children who might be eligible for asylum and instead keeping them in hotels before expelling them from the country, Joel Rose reports for NPR. “Court documents show many unaccompanied children have been held secretly in hotels for days, sometimes weeks, until they can be put on planes back to the countries they came from,” Rose reports.

The cousins were allowed to call Ricardo’s father but not to say where they were or to be open about conditions at the hotel. While Ricardo Sr. eventually found them and they were released, that case is the exception, not the rule: at least 2,000 unaccompanied children had been expelled through the end of June. “What we’re trying to do, the best we can, is remove all individuals, regardless of whether they’re minors or they’re adults,” Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Mark Morgan says, citing health concerns during the pandemic. But as ProPublica and the Texas Tribune reported last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is expelling children only after they test negative for COVID-19.

Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. As a reminder, we’re taking Fridays off in August, and Ali will be back Monday. If you have a story you’d like us to include, email [email protected].

DEATHS IN THE DESERT — Guatemalan migrant Roberto Primero Luis was the 104th “U.B.C.” — undocumented border crosser — to be found dead in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert in 2019. In a New York Times Magazine feature, James Verini offers Luis’s story as a window into the history, circumstances and U.S. policies that have resulted in “a kind of slow-motion epidemic” of migrant deaths in the desert. Customs and Border Protection counts nearly 8,000 deaths along the Southern border since 1998 — an average of about one death per day for the past 22 years. And, as Verini notes, “the real number is probably much higher.”

DENYING DREAMERS — Although the Supreme Court ruled against the administration’s rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), many major U.S. companies — including Bank of America and Proctor & Gamble — have been refusing to hire Dreamers due to fears about the future of their immigration status, reports Miriam Jordan in the New York Times. Yet while lawsuits against these companies stack up, other employers see the benefits in hiring Dreamers. David MacNeil, an Illinois business owner and Trump supporter, says DACA recipients are among his best employees: “U.S. educated and bilingual, they help us sell American-made goods all over the world. We couldn’t support our export customers without them.”

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM — Muslim immigrants in a Miami detention center are being forced to choose between eating pork — which is against their religious beliefs — or expired halal meat, according to a letter lawyers sent Wednesday to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Erika Williams for Courthouse News Service reports, “According to the letter [to ICE], the immigration detention center serves pre-plated meals that regularly include pork sausage, pork ribs and other dishes containing pork to Muslim detainees, and the alternative halal options at Krome are making detainees sick … the groups argued that forcing Muslim ICE detainees to choose between pork and rotten halal meat violates the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”

RIGHT TO AN EDUCATION — Advocates and volunteers are working to support migrant children awaiting their asylum hearings at the Mexican border as they face unique barriers to education in the age of COVID-19, report Myriam Vidal Valero and Rodrigo Pérez Ortega in the New York Times. Andrea Rincón Cortés, 21, founded International Activist Youth this summer to expand access to virtual learning to these children in need. “Online math, English, reading and art classes take up most of the kids’ days … The virtual classes also include lessons on basic international children’s rights, such as the right to have a safe home, to be protected against violence or to have an education.”

HATE CRIMES — Following an increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans, the New York Police Department this week launched the Asian Hate Crime Task Force to tackle this disturbing trend in New York City. Per Taylor Romine for CNN, “Since March 21, there have been 21 reported anti-Asian hate crimes that have resulted in 17 arrests, according to [Chief of Detectives Rodney Harrison], which he said is higher than normal. Victims have been reluctant to speak with police during investigations, he said, because of language barriers, cultural differences and fear of the police.” The task force includes 25 bilingual Asian American officers.

FURLOUGHS LOOM — Planned furloughs at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the end of the month are still looming, with major potential impacts on families and the future of immigration in the United States. Matthew Soerens, U.S. director of church mobilization and advocacy at World Relief, told Charissa Koh of WORLD magazine, “These dramatic furloughs of most USCIS staff will be one more action to dramatically restrict legal immigration — and it’s hard not to wonder if that’s actually the goal.”

Thanks for reading,

Dan