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]. 

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."

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