This morning, we remember and celebrate the lives of two people.

One, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the daughter of a Jewish immigrant from Russia, who made an indelible mark on American history during her decades of service on the nation’s high court. Raul A. Reyes writes for NBC News how she has been touted by advocates across the country for her record on civil rights and liberties — “long a defender of the legal, civil, and constitutional rights of Latinos and immigrants.”

“In June 2020, she sided with the Court’s majority in DHS. v. Regents of the University of California, finding that the Trump administration had improperly terminated the DACA program … In Arizona v. U.S. (2012), Ginsburg again sided with the majority, this time striking down three provisions in Arizona’s SB1070, the state’s controversial ‘papers, please’ law. In Demore v. Kim (2003), Ginsburg was in minority, arguing against lengthy mandatory immigrant detention. In Zadvydas v. Davis (2001), she joined with the majority in finding that the government could not hold immigrant detainees indefinitely if their home countries refused to accept their repatriation.”

The other is Reverend Robert Graetz, the only white clergyman to support the 1955-56 Montgomery Bus Boycott, who died Sunday. His commitment to justice, as beautifully described by the Montgomery Advertiser’s Brian Lyman, stretched from the early days of the civil rights movement to condemning Alabama’s 2011 anti-immigrant law and speaking out against President Trump’s reaction to the 2017 white nationalist violence in Charlottesville.

While we have certainly crossed a new threshold, as I wrote on Medium last night, it is leaders of the past and leaders of the future that lead me to think our best days are ahead.

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

IMMIGRANT LEGACY – In an opinion piece for The Atlantic, City University of New York journalism professor Peter Beinart explains how the appeal of American universities, and later the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act, led to a wave of new immigrants from around the world. This phenomenon, Beinart writes, made possible the stories of countless children of immigrants, including President Barack Obama and Sen. Kamala Harris — both of whose parents met on U.S. university campuses. Such stories may soon be in shorter supply: “In a second term, Trump might push legislation such as the Secure Campus Act … The effect of these moves on America’s economic dynamism and geopolitical power would likely be profound. But, more intimately, they would also make America’s campuses less able to foster the kind of cosmopolitan, multicultural climates that produced the first Black president and perhaps the first Black (and female) vice president.”

HISTORIC LOWS – Refugee resettlement in the U.S. has hit historic lows, with only 10,200 new refugees settled in the country this year — down from about 30,000 last year and 85,000 during President Obama’s last year in office. “Although it started long before the coronavirus pandemic, the decline has been hastened by a temporary halt in refugee work at several government agencies because of COVID-19, driving down arrivals into the United States,” Dianne Solis reports for the Dallas Morning News [paywall]. “Texas now ranks third for resettlement behind California and Washington, though the state once led the nation and Dallas and its suburbs were major magnets.”

‘CONDITIONAL CITIZENS’ – Novelist and Moroccan-born U.S. citizen Laila Lalami details the precarious reality many Muslim and Arab Americans like herself face today, despite their long history in the U.S., in an essay for The New York Times Magazine adapted from her forthcoming book “Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in America.” Lalami writes that “[o]ver the last three decades, the United States has repeatedly tested the boundaries of citizenship … Each time, Muslim and Arab Americans have teetered on the edge of belonging and unbelonging: They may be citizens, but they are also perpetual suspects, always having to show their allegiance through silence or acquiescence.”

FARMWORKERS VS FIRES – As wildfires across the West Coast rage on, immigrant farmworkers are being forced to choose between their health and their paychecks, The World’s Monica Campbell reports. Weak labor protections and pre-existing health conditions leave these workers deeply vulnerable to the toxic smoke, but many — particularly undocumented workers — have little help available. “They’re having to work outside, in really hard conditions. It’s very frustrating that they’re always the ones that are put in the end, and the last ones that people think of,” said Daisy Bedolla, a farmworker advocate in Oregon.

DAY IN RECOGNITION – Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez yesterday celebrated an annual “Day in Recognition of All Immigrants” with livestreamed Masses in English and Spanish from the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, reports Angelus. The Masses, attended virtually by thousands of Catholics from across the country, are being followed by an “Archdiocesan-wide virtual novena lead up to the World Day of Migrants and Refugees, designated by Pope Francis on September 27.” Archbishop Gomez has called on Catholics in Los Angeles to join the nine days of prayer and reflection.

Thanks for reading,

Ali