Repeated attempts by state officials to prevent a coronavirus outbreak at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center in Otero County, New Mexico, went unheeded, resulting in one of the agency’s biggest outbreaks, Patrick Michels and Laura C. Morel detail in a new investigation for Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting. “ICE continued detainee transfers, despite warnings from [New Mexico Health Secretary Kathy] Kunkel’s staff that such movement could spread the virus,” per the report.

Another deadly outbreak, at a detention facility in Farmville, Virginia, was fueled by the transfer of detainees flown with Homeland Security tactical teams that the Trump administration sought to deploy as Black Lives Matter protests took hold in Washington, D.C, write Antonio Olivo and Nick Miroff for The Washington Post. “The transfers took place over the objections of ICE officials in the Washington field office,” per the story. As Reveal notes, more than 5,000 ICE detainees and 1,000 employees have tested positive for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic; six detainees and at least two guards have died.

Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it my way: [email protected].

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AROUND THE WORLD — The Trump administration’s anti-immigration stance contradicts its own strategic ambitions to counter China’s rise as a global economic superpower, Matthew Yglesias writes in an op-ed for The Washington Post. “The best way to ensure that the United States maintains the upper hand against China is easy: It can welcome more of the tens of millions around the world who’d like to move to our shores — not as an act of charity but as an exertion of national power,” he writes. Meanwhile, countries around the world see immigrants as increasingly essential during COVID-19, Suryatapa Bhattacharya reports for The Wall Street Journal from Japan: “Many of the world’s largest developed economies rely on low-income immigrant workers. Those willing to work at around minimum wage in jobs such as elderly care and agriculture are in high demand.” Even Trump has “kept the door open” to agricultural workers who are keeping the food supply chain afloat.

LASTING EFFECTS — Joe Biden has pledged to roll back the Trump administration’s drastic changes to the U.S. immigration system if he wins the presidential election, but dismantling the extensive changes could prove “easier said than done,” reports John Burnett of NPR. “Because of the intense volume and pace of changes the Trump administration enacted while in office, even if we have a new administration, Trump will continue to have had an impact on immigration for years to come,” says Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. The Trump administration has taken more than 400 executive actions on immigration; the Forum is keeping a running list of the four dozen or so issued during the pandemic.

DEPORTATIONS — ICE has resumed large-scale arrests and deportations after coronavirus put them on pause for a few months, Miriam Jordan reports for The New York Times. “Since mid-July, immigration agents have taken more than 2,000 people into custody from their homes, workplaces and other sites, including a post office, often after staking them out for days,” Jordan writes. But while the Trump administration claims it is deporting criminals, “[u]nder the Trump administration, there has been a steady rise in immigrants detained without a serious record, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.”

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DRAMATIC DROP — Visas for high-skilled foreign workers have dropped dramatically since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to Stef Kight at Axios. “Temporary visas for those with ‘extraordinary’ ability (O visas), specialty job skills (H-1B, H-4, L visas), or who are trade professionals or investors (E, TN, TD visas) fell from 61,000 in January to less than 500 in April,” per the Migration Policy Institute. Economists continue to warn that the plummeting number of high-skilled foreign workers could ultimately slow the country’s post-pandemic recovery.

‘NEGLECT’ — Both political parties are failing to sufficiently engage Latinos this election cycle and risk losing out on a powerful voting bloc in November, Christian Paz writes for The Atlantic. “Stronger and more consistent efforts'' are needed to mobilize Latinos who are disproportionately affected by the coronavirus pandemic and a troubled economy, according to Paz: “Through voting, Latinos can hold Democrats accountable as the party that’s long claimed to speak for their community, and they can reward Republicans who embrace a more inclusive vision of immigrants and nonwhite Americans.”

SISTER CITY ASSISTANCE — As firefighters in Ashland, Oregon, continue to battle the barrage of wildfires threatening their city, they are joined by five volunteer firefighters from their sister city Guanajuato, Mexico, Fiona McCann reports in Portland Monthly. The men were joined by Guanajuato’s mayor, Alejandro Navarro, who said he was “very moved by the terrible impact of the fire on families and their homes.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali