Just one week after a whistleblower complaint alleged inadequate COVID-19 safety protocols and unwanted hysterectomies on immigrant detainees at the Irwin County Detention Facility in southern Georgia, the House Homeland Security Committee has published a report criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s lack of oversight and medical treatment of detainees at detention centers across the country.

Based on a yearlong investigation, the report “takes aim at private contractors who operate many detention centers, accusing them of particularly egregious lackluster medical care,” Rafael Bernal writes for The Hill. Said Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), chairman of the committee: “Instead of waiving certain standards and prioritizing bed space, ICE should cease doing business with those contractors that are unable to meet basic standards of health and safety.”

The report includes troubling examples of inadequate care: “In one instance described in the findings, an ICE detainee in Louisiana went into anaphylactic shock four times in four months before blood tests were administered that determined the man had a peanut allergy. At a jail in New Mexico, where an inspector made an unannounced visit, the facility was ‘a mess’ and 300 sick calls by detainees had gone unanswered, while immigrants with chronic conditions lacked routine care,” reports Nick Miroff for The Washington Post.

Welcome to Tuesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. We’ll be paying special attention over the next few weeks to how immigration is impacting the election, particularly in swing states. If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to me at [email protected].

HURDLES – As millions of students across the country adjust to remote learning, economic hardships and language barriers will make the transition disproportionately challenging for immigrant students, professors Timothy P. Williams and Avary Carhill-Poza write in The Conversation. “There is a very real danger that the move to remote learning could reinforce the very inequalities immigrant students already encounter in U.S. schools. We argue that remote learning must be calibrated to attend to the needs of those students at the margins.”

FAST-TRACK REGULATIONS – The Trump administration is looking to tighten regulations on visas for skilled foreign workers even further, this time by making it harder for companies to hire workers from abroad, Ted Hesson reports in Reuters. “With just weeks to go until the Nov. 3 election, the White House budget office is reviewing a fast-track regulation that would narrow the definition of a ‘specialty occupation’ eligible for a skilled-worker visa under the H-1B program,” plus a “second fast-track regulation [that] would raise the wages that employers must pay to demonstrate foreign workers will not displace Americans in the same occupation and geographic area.”

AT LAST – After years of waiting and additional delays due to the pandemic, dozens of immigrants in North Texas finally became American citizens last Friday, Imelda García reports for The Dallas Morning News. “Each new citizen has stories of sacrifice and anguish, but this day they pivot toward joy and pride,” García writes. Said Greg Ávila, 43, who moved to the U.S. with his family at 19: “Who doesn’t want to be an American citizen? ... It’s the dream of all Hispanic people and of all immigrants from every country.”

“PRO-LIFE ETHIC” – In an interview with MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace, Elizabeth Neumann, the former assistant secretary of counterterrorism and threat prevention in the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security, explained that she cannot support President Trump in part because of his lack of a “pro-life ethic” when it comes to the treatment of refugees and immigrants. “When I now look at pro-life, I’m looking conception to grave, and that means everything from how you treat people: immigrants and refugees, as well as how you deal with issues around racial injustice … I do not think this president has that pro-life ethic.” What would she say to voters feeling similarly conflicted? “If you’re a Christian, please go read scripture and look at what God calls us to do for our neighbor … In the old testament there are over 92 references to foreigners, and strangers, and sojourners.”

STORIES FROM THE HEARTLAND – A new project from the Forum, Stories from the Heartland, makes the case for a permanent legislative solution for Dreamers with powerful testimonies from DACA recipients as well as community leaders. “I was planted here. I was watered with hope and continue to grow in the light of a better future,” said Karen Benitez-Lopez, who was born in Querétaro, Mexico, and raised in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she’s now lead teacher at the EmBe Spanish Immersion Preschool. “My roots are buried deep in this soil. Dreamers like me are American in every way but paperwork.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali