Two million Americans are left out of the CARES Act’s federal pandemic aid because they are married to non-citizens without Social Security numbers. “It represents to me that they don't think that all citizens are equal,” said Clara Discua, an American-born U.S. citizen who is married to a Honduran immigrant. Discua recently finished cancer treatment and is unable to work due to her high-risk status. The exclusion of mixed-status families from stimulus checks “is doubly insulting to her because her U.S.-born son is a National Guard veteran who was disabled during the War in Afghanistan,” reports Tim Padgett for NPR.

A new bill from Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) aims to do away with the exclusion: “I think it's actually illegal. It's unconstitutional. U.S. citizens are all entitled to the same protections,” Sen. Rubio said. Now, Americans must wait and see if the legislation takes hold, but many don’t have time. “I feel very guilty now because I'm the one who's keeping my wife from getting the benefits she needs after surviving cancer,” said Discua’s husband, Roberto.

Clara and Roberto met in Honduras and moved to the U.S. after a street gang killed his brother. Some immigrants have said administration’s rule seems more characteristic of the authoritarian governments they fled.

For more background on this issue, check our fact sheet on mixed-status families.

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

SERVING OTHERS – A story from last week that’s worthy of your time: Cesar Lopez, a U.S. Marine veteran who was born in Mexico and arrived in the U.S. as a child in the 1980s, was deported is 2012 for a 12-year-old marijuana conviction and returned to the U.S. unauthorized. He’s now working to support others like him — deported former U.S. servicemembers, up to 1,000 of which are veterans exiled in Mexico. “While most undocumented immigrants might hover in the shadows of society amid fear of being deported, Lopez is in the open and actively coordinates with elected officials and presidential candidates with hopes of helping bring about change for deported veterans,” reports Ricardo Torres-Cortez for the Las Vegas Sun.

IMMSCHOOLS – Nonprofit ImmSchools is working to help undocumented students and their families navigate the often-confusing K-12 school system, “from following protocol for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, to understanding a student’s right to pursue higher education,” Elizabeth Ruiz reports for Denver7 News. “We’ve heard from many students that are a part of our programs that they’re still hearing from their teachers from their counselor that being undocumented, you really don’t have opportunities to go to college,” said Viridiana Carrizales, co-founder and CEO of the nonprofit. ImmSchools is sending the message to these students that “[y]our education matters, your education is important,” said Francisco, an undocumented student and ImmSchools participant and first-generation college student who is set to attend Texas A&M San Antonio, where he has a full-ride scholarship.

HAVE FAITH – A group of evangelical leaders are urging Ivanka Trump to “use [her] significant influence within the administration” to help end the Trump administration’s suspension of a federal anti-trafficking law that protects unaccompanied minors crossing the border, reports Elana Schor for the Associated Press. The signatories, many of whom are members of the Evangelical Immigration Table, contend that the federal government can ensure public health while also keeping the 2008 anti-trafficking law in place: “We must not allow COVID-19 to serve as a pretext for abandoning our national commitment to standing for vulnerable children and against the scourge of human trafficking,” the letter reads. Ivanka Trump recently said that human trafficking was “gravest of human rights violations.”

COUNTERPRODUCTIVE – President Trump’s ban on foreign-born workers through the end of the year was framed as a way to protect American jobs, but the move will actually have the opposite effect, economics professors Giovanni Peri and Chad Sparber write in an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times. “Research shows that capital and technology adjust quickly to immigration in ways that prevent the decline of wages. Americans and foreign-born workers generally don’t fight over the same jobs — they work in different types of jobs that complement one another.” A U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., will hear a set of cases concerning Trump’s orders on foreign-born workers starting Thursday.

BREAKING BOUNDARIES – Fabiana Pierre-Louis, the daughter of Haitian immigrants, is set to become the first-ever Black woman on the New Jersey Supreme Court bench this week. Her nomination comes at a time of racial reckoning across the nation in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in May, reports Tracey Tully for The New York Times. “I think that what people are seeking is a society where everyone is treated fairly and justly and equally under the law,” Pierre-Louis said. Of her immigrant roots, she added: “It’s part of who I am … It’s part of my identity.”

“POWER AND INFLUENCE” – The Trump administration is using the coronavirus pandemic as a cover for turning away asylum seekers without a hearing, argue Ray Suarez, co-host of NPR’s World Affairs, and Adolfo Flores, immigration reporter for BuzzFeed News, in a conversation for Slate. “The changes in the policies under this administration, they don’t always stick, but there’s always a new one. … Of course, they say that this is because of the pandemic and we need to stop the spread of COVID- 19. But I think that the last few years have shown how much power and influence the executive branch does have in changing or adopting our immigration system,” said Flores.

Thanks for reading,

Ali