The House Committee on Oversight and Reform yesterday announced that due to new delays, the Census Bureau will not finish its 2020 count until late January when President-elect Biden will be in office.

Janet Adamy in the Wall Street Journal reports, "The delay would prevent President Trump from excluding unauthorized immigrants from the decennial count of the population that redistributes seats in the House of Representatives and votes in the Electoral College. … Several federal courts have found Mr. Trump’s plan violates the 14th Amendment, which prescribes ‘counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed,’ to apportion congressional seats."

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].

BORDER CHALLENGES — President-elect Biden faces another potential crisis at the border when he takes office, write Nick Miroff and Maria Sacchetti for the Washington Post. Biden has promised to override many of President Trump’s immigration executive orders, but with that, he faces a potential rush of immigrants and ensuing chaos at the border. Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Illinois) said, "The good news is what is done by executive order can be undone by executive order. So, we are setting out to get back to a stable, thoughtful system of immigration." In other Durbin news, according to the Chicago Tribune, the senator and longtime champion of immigrants and immigration is seeking the top Democratic spot on the Senate Judiciary Committee. 

LEGAL IMMIGRATION CHALLENGES — We tend to overlook President Trump’s massive cuts to legal immigration. The Washington Post’s Abigail Hauslohner digs into the numbers and writes, "President Trump fundamentally altered the system through which foreign nationals can obtain visas to come to the United States, much of it through policy memos and internal guidance and without the blessing of Congress." In some good news on this front, last night the 9^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Trump administration’s "public charge" rule. CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez writes that the court "concluded that the rule causes financial harm to states and doesn't promote self-sufficiency as the administration has suggested." 

... AND HE'S NOT DONE — President Trump plans to leave office the same way he came in — restricting immigration into the United States, including legal immigration, writes Jeff Jacoby in his latest column for the Boston Globe. In its final weeks, the Trump administration has made the citizenship test more difficult, expanded "discretionary factors" for green card applicants, and proposed additional restrictions on work permits, including H-1B high-skilled worker visas. "It is a popular myth on the right that while Trump strongly opposes foreigners who come to the United States without permission, he welcomes lawful immigrants. … But that’s never been true. Through changes large and small, Trump has pressed from the outset to reduce the number of people permitted to immigrate to America."
ESSENTIAL SOLUTIONS — Yesterday, the Center for American Progress released a report on the contributions of 10.4 million undocumented immigrants during the pandemic, an estimated 5 million of whom are considered essential workers, Nicole Prchal Svajlenka explains. The report found that an estimated 1.7 million undocumented immigrants work in the food supply chain, 236,000 work as health care providers, and 188,000 work in support jobs in health care settings. Along these lines, Politico’s Tucker Doherty reports on the health care industry’s efforts to urge lawmakers to ease visa restrictions and advance stalled legislation that would grant more foreign doctors and nurses permanent residency status. Tim Moore, CEO of the Mississippi Hospital Association, told Doherty, "We’ve got open beds, we’ve got ventilators, we’ve got all the physical aspects. Our issue has been more along the lines of having staff.’" 

WHAT ICE SHOULD BE DOING — With the imminent approval of several COVID-19 vaccines, ICE is playing an important role in protecting Americans from growing financial fraud efforts by criminal groups, reports Nick Miroff for the Washington Post. "During the first phase of the ICE operation this spring, the agency targeted criminals who were trying to ship counterfeit personal protective equipment, such as fake N95 masks, as well as phony tablets of drugs like hydroxychloroquine, an unproven treatment that President Trump has repeatedly promoted. ICE has analyzed more than 700 pandemic-related criminal investigations since April, seizing $27 million in illicit profits and shutting down 70,000 website domains…" This is smart law enforcement.

IMMIGRANT YOUTH — This week on Only in America, I talk to Molly Baldwin, CEO and founder of Roca, and Victoria Ramirez-Morales, who leads Roca’s Central American Youth Initiative, about their work in creating a safer environment for young immigrants to address their trauma and heal. Together, we talk about how their work focuses on disrupting cycles of poverty and helping young immigrants develop skills and access resources to build a better life. Listen to the podcast episode here.

Thanks for reading,

Ali