Refugees around the world anxiously await the announcement of the Trump administration’s annual target number of refugees, due by October 1, but Harvest Prude at WORLD Magazine reports that the number could be as low as zero.

To illustrate the crisis, Prude shares the story of Arooj Nirmal, a Pakistani Christian. While Arooj lives in Spokane, Washington, her husband is living in a refugee camp in Sri Lanka located near churches that were bombed on Easter Sunday earlier this year. “The U.S. refugee resettlement program represents her only hope of reuniting with her husband, whose name she did not disclose for fear he would face retaliation for his faith.”

Between the personal stories I heard yesterday in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and the numbers of families applying for asylum that the U.S. is pushing south, it is clear the Trump administration’s asylum policies are creating a humanitarian crisis instead of solving one.

Thank you to our colleagues at the Center for Democracy in the Americas for organizing an incredible trip.
Welcome to Friday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.

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

BRAIN DRAIN – Visas issued to foreign students dropped by 42% between 2015 and 2018, signaling that new immigration policies could be discouraging foreign students from enrolling in U.S. colleges and universities, Andres Oppenheimer writes in an opinion piece for the Miami Herald. This could result in a huge intellectual and economical loss, as foreign students are estimated to add around $39 billion a year to the U.S. economy, and support over 455,000 jobs nationwide.

VINDICTIVE – In 2009, Mexican immigrant Igancio Lanuza was granted permanent resident status after authorities discovered that a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyer forged legal documentation to try and deport him. Now, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) says the federal government is not liable for the lawyer’s actions and is attempting to collect $100,000 in legal fees from Lanuza, Gene Johnson in the Associated Press reports. The DOJ attorney said that Lanuza is responsible for the fees based on the “frivolous” nature of his claim. Forging evidence to deport someone doesn’t seem terribly frivolous.

IT’S HOT OUT THERE – Changing weather patterns could drive up to 1.5 billion people to migrate in the next 30 years — but under international law, there are no countries obligated to accept them, writes Izzie Ramirez in VICE. While the world’s poorest and smallest nations are the least likely to contribute to climate change, they will be the first to be forced to migrate. Climate change is referred to as a “threat multiplier” by the U.S. Department of Defense, but is not listed as a reason for migrants to be granted asylum.

MIGRANT WOMEN – Lawmakers from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) are demanding that migrant women be provided with adequate amounts of menstrual products following reports of unsanitary detention conditions, Alanna Vagianos reports for the Huffington Post. In a letter sent to the Department of Homeland Security, Democratic Reps. Raul Ruiz, Linda Sánchez and CHC chair Joaquin Castro urged the administration to investigate reports of unsanitary conditions; one which noted that girls were “not offered showers or a change of clothes, even when one girl visibly bled through her pants.” Lawmakers also pointed out that a lack of feminine hygiene products can lead to health issues including a higher risk of urinary tract infections and toxic shock syndrome.
ABOUT THOSE LIKES – Immigrants applying for benefits including citizenship through naturalization, asylum and changes to permanent residence through marriage may have to provide their social media history to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Daniel Shoer Roth reports in the Miami Herald. “DHS officials already use some information publicly available on social media to determine an applicants’ eligibility for an immigration benefit, but until now the agency had not asked immigrants directly for their social media information in the application process.” Keep in mind that the administration tried to block Ismail Ajjawi, a 17-year-old Palestinian student who lives in Lebanon, from beginning classes at Harvard University because of his friends’ activity on his social media platforms. Only a national outcry stopped the administration’s actions and allowed Ismail to begin classes.
Thanks for reading,

Ali