NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In a victory for hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S.
as children, U.S. District Court Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis ordered the
Trump administration on Friday to fully reinstate the Deferred Action
for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and begin accepting new
applications, opening up the program to up to as many as 300,000 new
applicants.

But Miriam Jordan and Michael D. Shear at The New York Times
 remind
us that DACA's future remains uncertain until a permanent legislative
solution is passed by Congress: "In a separate challenge, a federal
judge in Texas could rule later this month in favor of conservative
state officials who are hoping to dismantle DACA. And if
[President-elect] Biden issues a new executive order after he becomes
president, Texas or other conservative states might sue to block it."

Welcome to Monday'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]
. 

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**HUNGRY**-

****One of the Trump administration's furthest reaching changes to
immigration policy was the "public charge
"
rule, which "effectively created a wealth test for immigrants
 seeking
permanent residency by rendering inadmissible applicants deemed likely
to use a broad range of safety net programs," The New York Times'

Zolan Kanno-Youngs writes. Even though Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals
ruled against the policy last week, its effects are lasting and
profound: "Researchers for Ideas42, a nonprofit research
organization, estimated that 260,000 children nationwide
 were
removed by their parents from nutrition and health care programs after
the announcement of the rule."

**CONTACT**-

****Many of us are fortunate to be working from home, protected from
most workplace and social transmission of COVID-19. But as Markian
Hawryluk of Kaiser Health News writes in CNN
,
"[g]rocery stores, restaurants and many other businesses remained open
only because their Hispanic workers continued to come to work." So, with
Hispanic and Latino residents accounting for 24% of the nation's
COVID-19 deaths but only 17% of the population, reliable contact tracing
is even more critical. Pointing to one Colorado community, Hawryluk
writes that "public health officials, like those in Telluride and the
surrounding county, are leaning on trusted voices such as [registered
nurse Ximena] Rebolledo León from within those immigrant communities to
track and contain the virus, and to help vulnerable people access the
care and resources they need."

**PITTSBURGH**-

****President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to increase the country's
refugee admissions ceiling to 125,000 early in his administration. But
the Trump administration's cuts to resettlement - this fiscal
year's ceiling is a historic low of 15,000 - has weakened
resettlement infrastructure across the country. The Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette's

Peter Smith spoke to local resettlement agencies, reporting that
"[b]ecause of the cuts, many of the private, local agencies that provide
refugee services have reduced their staffs in recent years or even
eliminated their resettlement programs." Yinka Aganga-Williams,
executive director of resettlement organization AJAPO (Acculturation for
Justice, Access and Peace Outreach), told Smith: "We have hope that if
the new administration increases the numbers, AJAPO will also experience
an increase in the numbers of refugees that will arrive Pittsburgh under
its auspices."

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**BREXIT REMOVAL**- The United Kingdom is drawing condemnation for
moving to expedite the removal of asylum seekers in the country ahead of
their exit from the European Union. "Lawyers acting for those scheduled
to be deported on this week's flights say they haven't been properly
screened to identify serious vulnerabilities or asked two key questions:
'Why have you come to the UK'? and 'Please outline your journey to
the UK,'" reports Mark Townsend for The Guardian
. "Under
cover of Covid and the rush for Brexit, the government are subjecting
survivors of trafficking and torture to brutal treatment," said Sarah
Teather, director of the Jesuit Refugee Service UK.

**WALL VS WILDLIFE** - While much of the discussion around the Trump
administration's border wall focuses on the source of its funding
,
the project also raises major environmental concerns. In a piece
for CBS This Morning
,
Michelle Miller explores how border wall construction in Arizona's
Sierra Madre mountains is threatening local wildlife. "While the wall is
intended to stop people, it also stops migrating animals.
[Conservationist Jose Manuel] Perez said it is the "biggest corridor"
for big mammals like mountain lions and jaguars." Said Perez of the
region's wildlife: "They don't recognize any boundaries. They've been
here forever." 

**PFIZER'S FOUNDERS** - As Pfizer's historic COVID-19 vaccine
nears approval in the U.S., Stuart Anderson tells the story of the
company's immigrant founder, Charles Pfizer, who immigrated here from
Germany in 1849. Writing for Forbes
,
Anderson notes that "Charles Pfizer founded his company with another
immigrant, his cousin, Charles Erhart. The business started in a
building in Brooklyn that served as both a manufacturing plant and a
location for research and development." Historian William H. Stevenson
notes: "Through careful planning and hard work, Pfizer founded a company
that became one of the largest manufacturers of fine chemicals in the
United States."

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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