In an op-ed for The New York Times, Linda Chavez of the Becoming American Initiative writes that Democrats cannot take Hispanic voters for granted in November, pointing to the community’s historic support for GOP presidents, their growing evangelical ranks and their rejection of socialism. She reminds us that an estimated 40% of Hispanic voters supported Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush — and nearly 30% supported President Trump in 2016 despite his anti-immigrant rhetoric.

“The Trump campaign began running Spanish language ads in Florida three weeks before Mr. Biden’s did and has an aggressive campaign with 16 offices focusing on wooing Hispanic voters in Florida, Arizona, Texas and Nevada. If Mr. Biden doesn’t devote more time, money and organization to winning at least as many Hispanic voters as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama did, he may see his hopes of becoming president dashed.”

Welcome to Thursday’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].

HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF – With an investigation underway following a whistleblower complaint describing unwanted hysterectomies performed on detained immigrant women in Georgia, Dona Abbott of Bethany Christian Services reminds us of the United States’ “history of using forced sterilizations to control minority populations,” calling for a transparent investigation “so we can evaluate whether history is repeating itself.” Abbott told CBN News: “A health care crisis certainly would be one of those situations that should promote their release to an ‘alternative to detention’ program.”

660 CHILDREN – In a review of public court records filed by the National Center for Youth Law and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, The Arizona Republic found that 660 immigrant children were held in 26 hotels across the southern U.S. between April 18 and July 31 — 577 of whom were held without their parents, Daniel Gonzalez reports. In Phoenix alone, 124 children were held in 3 hotels across the city. The analysis of data provided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) “found several inconsistencies, including discrepancies in the dates some children were held in hotels and more alarmingly discrepancies in which cities they were held, court records show.” Meanwhile, Luke Barr and Quinn Owen report for ABC News on yesterday’s confirmation hearing for acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf.

EU PROPOSAL – In an effort to better manage the increasing number of migrants arriving in Europe in recent years, the European Union is considering a new proposal to resettle asylum seekers more evenly across the continent. Chico Harlan and Michael Birnbaum report for The Washington Post that “[r]ecent European history is full of dead-on-arrival migration plans, but some analysts said Wednesday that this one comes at a time of slightly increased cooperation … This plan differs from an earlier, failed European attempt — drawn up in the aftermath of the 2015 crisis — that called for countries to host asylum seekers based on a quota system. In this instance, countries can still volunteer to host people.”

‘FINALLY HOME’ – In an essay for Oprah Magazine, award-winning journalist and Venezuelan immigrant Mariana Atencio reflects on what it meant to her to register to vote for the first time as a new U.S. citizen in 2020. “Filling out the voter registration form by hand felt exciting—I’m such a nerd! But I can’t begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment I felt when checking the first box: ‘Are you a citizen of the United States of America?’… Being able to choose my elected officials, it felt like I belonged. Like I had completed this long journey, and I was finally home.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT ENGAGEMENT – The Police Executive Research Forum recently spoke to police chiefs from some of the Massachusetts cities acutely affected by COVID-19 about where they stand now that we’re six months into the pandemic and what measures they have taken to protect their departments and communities from the virus. One of their key takeaways: “It’s important to reach out to immigrant communities with public health guidance and to encourage testing. Immigrants can be harder to reach and may be reticent to engage with any government or government-related entities, including testing centers. To reach these populations, law enforcement agencies should connect with local community leaders.”

VOTE OF CONSCIENCE – We released a trailer yesterday for our upcoming podcast series, “Vote of Conscience,” looking at immigration and civic engagement leading up to November’s election. The trailer also includes bonus content from another great podcast, “A Better Life?” from Feet in 2 Worlds. This clip features a conversation with a couple in Miami recalling their journey from Haiti to Florida in the late 1960s. Thanks for listening, and if you haven’t already, we would appreciate your feedback on our 2-minute listener survey.

Thanks for reading,

Ali