Built to Fail



	Following a vote by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, any cooperation between the county and federal authorities when transferring inmates to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody without a judicial warrant is now permanently prohibited, ABC7 Los Angeles reports. ICE will now need to present a warrant in order to detain an individual being released from jail.

	“It is the right time to end this jail-to-deportation pipeline,'' Supervisor Hilda Solis said. “We have a moral and constitutional obligation to stop transferring people to ICE custody during this pandemic and long after it is over,” she added, noting the rise in COVID-19-related deaths among immigrants in ICE custody. 

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

	
	TOFU – When I go to Los Angeles, I love to stay in Koreatown and always try to stop in for a meal at BCD Tofu House. This week, The Wall Street Journal’s James R. Hagerty writes about the incredible rise of the restaurant chain founded by Korean immigrant Hee Sook Lee, who died of ovarian cancer in July. Lee, who was dedicated to “[making] Korean food accessible and mainstream,” built a chain of 13 restaurants across the country. “During the pandemic, her restaurant has delivered free meals to hospital workers in New York and low-income seniors in Los Angeles.”

	CHILDREN STILL DETAINED – ICE continues to detain unaccompanied migrant children in hotels for days — and sometimes weeks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, report Catherine E. Shoichet and Geneva Sands for CNN. Immigrant and civil rights advocates are sounding the alarm on potential violations of the children’s rights: “No one has eyes on these children. … If there’s no one who has the ability to bear witness and document what's happening, no mechanism for enforcing the rights of these detained children, there is incredible room for abuse and/or neglect,” said Neha Desai of the National Center for Youth Law. More than 570 unaccompanied minors have been detained in hotels since the pandemic began, and while it has come under criticism before, ICE continues the practice in Arizona, Texas and Louisiana. 

	HOWEVER – The government is reportedly pulling back on quickly returning migrant children to their home countries, per Michelle Hackman and Alicia Caldwell at The Wall Street Journal. “About 30 minors a day were handed over to migrant shelters run by the Department of Health and Human Services in recent weeks … compared with about six a day a month ago.” An important detail: In multiple instances where lawyers have inquired about a minor in the process of being quickly sent back to their home country, Hackman and Caldwell report that the government “again moved them to [U.S. Department of Health and Human Services] shelters,” which attorneys say “has made it hard to challenge the broader practice.”

	
	300,000 – Immigration services startup Boundless reports that nearly 300,000 eligible applicants will not become U.S. citizens in time to vote in the November election. According to an analysis of Homeland Security data reported by The Washington Post’s Catherine Rampell earlier this week , U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has only interviewed 91,000 of the 381,000 naturalization applicants who “could have normally expected to vote in November.” Yet “[b]ecause there is typically a two-month time lag between the naturalization interview and the oath of citizenship, the 290,000 immigrants who were not interviewed by the end of August have little chance of becoming citizens in time to meet most states’ voter registration deadlines in October.”

	BUILT TO FAIL – An engineering report set to be filed in federal court this week found that the three-mile border fence built along the Rio Grande by a private company is bound to fail absent intervention, Jeremy Schwartz and Perla Trevizo report for The Texas Tribune and ProPublica. The report adds to a growing consensus about the structure’s flaws: “Experts have said the fence will face a never-ending battle with erosion given its proximity to the water and the sandy, silty material of the banks.” This comes as fundraisers for the nonprofit We Build the Wall, which raised $25 million for the fence, face corruption charges.  

	‘WIN FOR EVERYONE’ – A new study from UCLA’s Latino Policy & Politics Initiative highlights the positive impact that immigrants with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) have on local communities, and recommends granting them permanent residence. “At a time when immigrants have played a key role in maintaining the economy as essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is important to understand what is at stake when protections for immigrants like Temporary Protected Status are taken away,” said Sonja Diaz, founding director of the initiative. The study’s author, UCLA sociology professor Cecilia Menjívar, notes that granting permanent residence to TPS holders would be “a win for everyone.”

	Thanks for reading,

	Ali