As an inquiry begins into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s practice of performing unwanted gynecological procedures on detained immigrant women, NPR’s Joel Rose reports that ICE attempted to deport one of the victims, Pauline Binam, before members of Congress intervened to halt it. Binam was set to be sent to Cameroon, “a country she left when she was 2 years old,” Rose reports, adding that “Binam’s lawyer, Vân Huynh, says her client sought treatment for an irregular menstrual cycle and thought she was getting a routine procedure,” but woke up from surgery to learn that an invasive procedure had been performed.

Leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table released a statement yesterday pushing for “full transparency and strong accountability” from the Department of Homeland Security’s investigation, calling the alleged practices “an affront to our pro-life ethic.” Charles Davis at Business Insider reports that “[t]he largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., the Southern Baptist Convention, also weighed in, likening the alleged treatment to abuses meted out ‘by brutal regimes elsewhere in the world.’”

Welcome to Friday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story we should Note? Please send it my way at [email protected].

‘LATINO HOSPITAL HEROES’ – As part of NBC Latino’s excellent Latino Hospital Heroes series in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, Raul A. Reyes profiles Marajazmin “MJ” Martinez, a medical assistant in central California’s San Joaquin Valley who interprets for Spanish-speaking patients. “When you are in need and you find someone who can explain things to you in your language, you feel like you've found yourself, you feel way more connected,” she says, explaining why she finds health care work fulfilling: “It all comes down to helping others, to showing God’s love … being able to leave your little granito moreno [brown grain of sand] on this Earth.”

MIT STUDY – A new study from MIT’s Sloan School of Management found that immigrants are 80% more likely to start a business than native-born Americans, and in turn, these businesses create 42% more jobs than native-born founder firms, Meredith Somers writes in MIT’s Ideas Made to Matter. “The fact that the numbers are what they are, at least should make you worry that if you close the country to immigration and if you make the life of immigrants harder than it needs to be once they’re here, it makes it plausible that this might have negative repercussions on entrepreneurship writ large, and for job creation,” said MIT Sloan professor of management Pierre Azoulay.

MINNESOTA TO TEXAS – Earlier this week, a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel determined that the Trump administration can move forward with the removal of some 300,000 immigrants once their Temporary Protected Status (TPS) expires. Dan Gunderson with MPR News reports that “more than 2,000 immigrants in Minnesota could be deported.” In Texas — home to nearly 45,000 TPS recipients — Honduran TPS holder Gloria Soto tells Reena Diamante of Spectrum News: “I purchased my property, I report taxes, I'm working for a finance (company). I’m doing everything thing that a U.S. citizen is doing, working hard for this country.”

PHILANTHROPY – The Statue of Liberty, from pedestal to torch, was funded by the French government, French schoolchildren and more than 160,000 donors, writes Leslie Lenkowsky in The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The project is “one of the earliest — and least controversial — of the many ways in which American philanthropy has engaged with immigration,” with it playing a critical role in the nation’s support of — and opposition to — immigrants and immigration. Moving forward, Lenkowsky writes, “philanthropy has an important role to play in helping immigrants navigate through American social, economic, and civic life.”
COMBATTING STEREOTYPES – With Hispanic Heritage Month starting earlier this week, Capital Area Michigan Works! CEO Carrie Rosingana writes in an op-ed for the Lansing State Journal about the need for employers to “take an active role in dispelling harmful myths about Hispanic descendants, refugees and immigrants,” noting that stereotypes against Hispanic workers are apparent across industries. “Our state benefits in the many ways immigrants participate in the economy. And frankly, it’s disappointing I have to say this and make a case for it,” Rosingana writes.

HISTORIC SHORTAGE – U.S. cities, the drivers of American economic growth, are facing a “historic shortage” of immigrants that is threatening their financial recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, Felix Salmon writes for Axios. “New York's recovery from the current crisis is going to be based on an influx of not-wealthy creatives and young professionals replacing the older, richer, more established people moving out. … Historically, newcomers to New York and other cities have come from abroad. With intra-American migration slowing, it’s not clear where else the reinforcements will come from.”

COLORADO BUSINESS COALITION – More than 45 local Colorado business groups yesterday launched the Colorado Business Coalition for Immigration Solutions, calling on the state’s congressional delegation to prioritize modernizing U.S. immigration policies, reports the La Junta Tribune-Democrat. “Our businesses navigate this flawed system daily, and directly feel the impact of a system that lacks the capacity to reliably provide individuals a pathway into our workforce; an immediate challenge as we begin the long and hard work of recovery,” an open letter from the group reads.

Thanks for reading,

Ali