Two Honduran migrants, Michael Rodriguez and Douglas Oviedo, are building their own migrant-run shelter in Tijuana to help others awaiting U.S. immigration court hearings in Mexico, reports Gustavo Solis reports in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Dubbed, ‘Casa Hogar del Puente,’ this will be the city’s only migrant-run shelter specifically for women and children asylum seekers enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols program, more commonly known as Remain in Mexico. … With the help of American donations, volunteer construction labor, and a rent-free location in the outskirts of Tijuana, they plan to open Casa Hogar del Puente on Saturday.”

From the stories I have heard in rural Honduras over the last 24 hours, shelters like this are desperately needed.

Welcome to Friday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

EASY PREY – Central American asylum seekers awaiting U.S. immigration court hearings in Mexico border towns are increasingly becoming targets for kidnapping by cartels seeking ransoms from American relatives, Patrick J. McDonnell writes in the Los Angeles Times. “Extortion-minded mobs view vulnerable migrants as walking ATMs. They are easy prey, lacking family ties in Mexico and known to have U.S. relatives with access to dollars. Mob halcones — hawks, or lookouts — watch bus stations and other strategic spots, eyeing potential quarry.” Yesterday I was told that the walk a migrant makes to the bus station is the most dangerous walk they make.

DIRECT THREAT – Three MassGeneral Hospital pediatricians are speaking out in The Boston Globe against a myriad of Trump administration policies that are posing a “direct threat” to children. “Their health and safety must not be wielded as cudgels in pursuit of a political agenda, nor can we accept their traumatization as collateral damage. Their well-being is crucial to our future; a more humane immigration policy must be administered now.”

HUMANITARIAN – A new lawsuit was filed in Boston federal court Thursday, challenging the Trump administration’s decision to end the medical “deferred action” program for immigrants seeking treatment of serious illnesses. “The civil rights groups argue the decision to end the decades-old humanitarian relief policy was done without the advance public notice and justification required by law before changing a substantial federal government regulation. It also argues the move was ‘driven by racial and ethnic animus’ and a desire to limit non-European immigration and therefore in violation of the Constitution,” Philip Marcelo writes for the Associated Press.

REFUGEES IN AKRON – Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to lower the number of refugees accepted into the U.S., Akron, Ohio, continues to welcome a growing refugee population, reports Amanda Garrett in the Akron Beacon Journal. “Elected leaders in Akron and Summit County crave an ongoing influx of immigrants and refugees, both because the newcomers help stem ongoing population loss and because they bring new ideas, energy and economic power. Between 2007 and 2013, Akron's total population dropped by 1%. That loss would have been twice as big without a nearly 31% increase in foreign-born residents, according to a 2017 joint report by the city of Akron and Summit County.”

THE FUTURE OF WARFARE – The xxxxxx’s Benjamin Parker laments the Trump administration’s sacrificing of “facilities to keep our military safe, trained, and effective” to fund construction of the border wall. “The Fire/Crash/Rescue Station at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida is no more, because who needs rescuing from a crashed or flaming airplane? ... The military construction budget was gutted to build 175 miles of wall and fencing along the border with Mexico, which is about 2,000 miles long.” Parker’s list of projects impacted by the decision includes Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, which will not get a new cyber operations facility – “because the future of warfare probably has nothing to do with computers and everything to do with walls.”

IMMIGRATION RESEARCH – A recent research paper from the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University explores the effects of the Immigration Act of 1990 and the implementation of the 1999 Temporary Protected Status program on the stock prices of firms likely to be affected by immigration. Written by Benjamin M. Blau and Jesse Baker, the report finds that “allowing increased immigration to the U.S. has significant positive implications in financial markets,” and that industries which attract immigrants – such as agriculture, constructing, and manufacturing – “all benefitted in response to increases in immigration.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali