NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

A new study
published yesterday by our friends at FWD.us found that more than
two-thirds of undocumented immigrant workers currently serve in
frontline jobs for industries considered essential amid the fight
against COVID-19, Julia Ainsley at NBC News

reports.

"Sixty-nine percent of undocumented immigrant workers have jobs deemed
essential by the Department of Homeland Security, according to the
study, which is based on the 2019 American Community Survey by the
Census Bureau. The study also estimated that nearly one in five
essential workers is an immigrant."

Speaking of new studies,

**Elizabeth Neumann**, a senior advisor to the Forum who served as a
national security expert at the Department of Homeland Security under
the Trump administration, authored a new report to be released today.
The report addresses the dismantling of the U.S. refugee program, the
destabilizing impact of forced displacement, and the need to increase
resettlement and address root causes of displacement. Neumann will join

**Terron Sims**, a veteran and author specializing in national security,
and

**Matthew Soerens**, the U.S. director of church mobilization and
advocacy for World Relief, for a live virtual panel today at noon ET to
discuss the report's findings. Contact Magen Wetmore
for more information about the
event.

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]
.

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**32 CHILDREN**-

** **After U.S. Judge Emmet Sullivan blocked the Trump administration
from expelling unaccompanied migrant children over alleged COVID-19
concerns last month, top U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
officials scrambled - but ultimately failed - to comply with the new
order as 32 migrant children were flown to Guatemala City around the
same time as the judge's order, BuzzFeed News
'
Hamed Aleaziz reports. When asked by colleagues for advice on handling
the children in the wake of the ruling, ICE lawyer Adam Loiacono wrote:
"[Office of the Principal Legal Advisor] strongly recommends that the
T42 [the public health order the judge blocked] unaccompanied minors be
returned on this flight and not deplane in Guatemala." Even so, ICE
claimed personnel on the ground found out about the order "nearly 15
minutes after the children had been handed over to Guatemalan
authorities. ICE officials there obtained contact information for the
adults to whom the children were released in Guatemala."

**2%** - The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it has
finalized an agreement with El Salvador to send asylum seekers at the
U.S.-Mexico border to the Central American country instead of allowing
them to go through the asylum process in the U.S., Nick Miroff reports
for The Washington Post
.
The administration reached similar agreements with Guatemala and
Honduras last year, which have not proved effective. A report

from Refugees International and Human Rights Watch found that "the
United States sent nearly 1,000 asylum seekers [to Guatemala] between
November 2019 and March 2020. Just 2 percent of the migrants who were
returned to Guatemala applied to seek asylum there, with the rest
apparently giving up and going home," Miroff writes.

**'OPEN ITS DOORS'** - After the fall of Saigon in 1975, Loc Van
Le and his wife Kim Hue Nguyen fled Vietnam for the U.S. as refugees,
eventually settling in Oklahoma City and starting their own restaurant,
Jimmy's Egg, which now has more than 60 locations across Oklahoma and
seven other states. In a tribute to Le, who died of complications from
COVID-19 last week, The Oklahoman

Editorial Board highlights his story as "a reminder of the wonderful
contributions refugees have made to this country," adding that "[t]his
country needs to open its doors to more refugees, people like Loc Le who
are longing simply for a chance to escape oppression and flourish in
this great country." Meanwhile, in his latest column for Forbes
,
Stuart Anderson spotlights some of the most inspiring immigrants of 2020
who have been fighting on the frontlines during the pandemic - from
the vaccine makers at Pfizer, BioNTech and Moderna to the selfless
doctors in hospitals across the country to Chef José Andrés and his
team at World Central Kitchen. "From the creative minds of the vaccine
makers to dedicated health care professionals and essential workers, in
the year 2020, immigrants helped Americans to persevere," he writes.

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**LOCAL RESOURCES** - On Tuesday, the Indianapolis Immigrant Welcome
Center announced the launch of the Immigrant Welcome Center Connect
, a database available
in more than 150 languages that will "help the immigrant community and
local organizations in Central Indiana find food, financial, healthcare
and legal resources available," reports Natalia E. Contreras for
the Indianapolis Star
.
According to a news release from the Center, "The calls [to the Center]
indicated that immigrants and refugees were experiencing hardship from
the pandemic at high rates, with 66% self-reporting a loss of income and
38% indicating a decrease in food access, it became clear that a
database of this nature was of critical importance for the community."

**MIGRANT YOUTH, SERBIA EDITION **- In the season finale of "Only in
America
,"
we get a glimpse of the challenges migrant youth face in other parts of
the world. I talked to Irena Abdelalem Abdelmaksoud, a protection
officer who specializes in working with unaccompanied children at Info
Park, a grassroots NGO in Belgrade, Serbia, that has been assisting
refugees in the area since 2015. They provide urgent aid, psychological
support, accommodation, information and other services for refugees
across Belgrade, a major transit hub for refugees making the arduous
journey to the European Union. Thank you to our friends at Church World
Service for their work in the region and to make the introduction.

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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