The Trump administration said yesterday that it will reinstate its “public charge” wealth test for green card applications, following orders from the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals overturning a court-sanctioned suspension of the practice during the early months of the pandemic, Camilo Montoya-Galvez reports for CBS News. The “public charge” rule, which initially went into effect in 2019, “gives officials more power to deny permanent residency to applicants the government deems rely or could rely on public benefits like food stamps or housing vouchers” and was blocked this summer “by a federal judge who found it was hampering efforts to contain the [COVID-19] virus.” According to its website, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) plans to apply the 2019 rule to “all applications and petitions postmarked or submitted electronically on or after Feb. 24, 2020, including pending applications and petitions.”

The Forum put together a full breakdown of the rule when it was issued in 2019. As we’ve noted time and again, the rule is particularly dangerous during a pandemic because it could discourage immigrants from seeking health care and other government support, making them more susceptible to spreading the virus in their families and communities.

Welcome to Wednesday’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].

ARCANE – A group of lawmakers in Green Bay, Wisconsin, are pushing to eliminate a long-standing state regulation that requires police officers to be U.S. citizens, arguing that it bars otherwise qualified immigrants from serving, Doug Schneider reports for the Green Bay Press-Gazette. The move would help those like Jose Del Rio, a DACA recipient “who has lived in Green Bay for 19 years and works in the city Police Department as an animal-control intern — but cannot be an officer.” To put a finer point on it: You don’t have to be a citizen to serve our nation in the armed forces, but you have to be a citizen to serve and protect Green Bay. Back in 2017, a report from the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force concluded that hiring lawful permanent residents, or LPRs, “both broadens the pool of qualified applicants for policing jobs and helps fill important force needs in support of new and existing community policing initiatives.”
TEXAS HISPANIC VOTE – Immigration is a critical issue for Hispanic communities in battleground states, writes Jason Villalba, president of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, in an op-ed for The Dallas Morning News: “With or without documents, we are Americans. Now, as our numbers grow, particularly in states such as Texas, Florida, California, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico, our political voice is being heard.” Villalba believes the candidate who is able to win the hearts and minds of “hardworking and America-loving” Hispanics in swing states will be the next president. “If Trump is able to cut into Hispanic support as polls in both Texas and Florida currently show, he will win both states. But if Biden is able to engage and win support from Hispanics in a meaningful way in Texas, Florida and Arizona, he has several wide-open paths to the Oval Office.”

PRISON PIPELINE – After serving 22 years in prison and helping to battle California wildfires as an incarcerated firefighter in 2018 and 2019, Kao Saelee is now being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and facing deportation to Laos, a country his family fled as refugees when he was two years old, Sam Levin reports in The Guardian. “His transfer from state prison to immigration jail was in line with a controversial practice that California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has defended,” Levin writes, noting that while the practice is not required by law, California has sent hundreds of people to ICE upon the end of their prison sentences this year.

“UNACCEPTABLE” – Mexico’s Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the country is formally interviewing at least six women who may have been subject to improper hysterectomies and other procedures at an ICE detention center in Georgia, Reuters reports. Ebrard called the practices described in a whistleblower complaint last week “unacceptable” and said Mexico would take action if improper procedures were confirmed. “This has to be cleared up,” he said at a news conference yesterday. “If it is confirmed it would be a major issue and not only punished but other measures would be taken.”

LISTENING – Too many progressives write off rural voters as anti-immigrant — but the folks at People’s Action don’t buy that argument. They’ve launched a campaign based on the idea of “deep canvassing” to better understand rural America, an approach “estimated to be 102 times more effective than classic presidential campaign persuasion tactics,” Rolling Stone’s Andy Kroll writes. People’s Action recently launched a new podcast, “To See Each Other,” hosted by director George Goehl. Their second episode, “Learning How to Listen,” is indeed worth the listen.

Thanks for reading,

Ali