NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

"Senate leadership announced a bipartisan deal on an approximately $900
billion economic relief package late Sunday afternoon that would deliver
emergency aid to a faltering economy and a nation besieged by
surging coronavirus cases," Jeff Stein and Mike DeBonis report for
The Washington Post
.
In a welcome change, this round of stimulus checks will "allow U.S.
citizens who are in households that also include non-citizens to receive
the payments," write Naomi Jagoda, Niv Elis and Alexander Bolton for
The Hill
.

In the original stimulus package passed back in April, millions of
Americans were excluded from relief simply because their spouse had an
Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) rather than a Social
Security number - a caveat that disproportionately impacted immigrants
and their families. Leaders of the Evangelical Immigration Table
 sent
a letter
 to
Congress on Friday stating that "no Americans should be penalized
because they have gotten married," noting that had these Americans
"chosen to cohabitate unmarried with or even divorce [a partner with an
ITIN], they would have qualified, which creates a penalty against
marriage that should not be the public policy of the United States
government." 

Welcome to Monday's edition of Noorani's Notes. To close out the
year, I wrote on Medium
about Lord Alfred
Dubs, unaccompanied minors around the world and the voters who are
watching.

If you have a story to share from your own community, please send it to
me at [email protected]
.

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**CONSEQUENTIAL SHIFT**- A New York Times

analysis of voting patterns in 28,000 precincts across more than 20 U.S.
cities - including 5,700 "in which the combined population of Latinos
and people of Asian descent was 65 percent or more" - reveals that
areas with the greatest Latino and Asian populations saw "a surge in
turnout and a shift to the right, often a sizable one," Weiyi Cai
and Ford Fessenden report. President-elect Biden still defeated
President Trump in nearly all of these areas, but as Cai and Fessenden
point out, "in a divided American electorate, any shift can be
consequential. Already the shift appears to have changed outcomes in a
number of congressional races
."

**VACCINE FEARS** - Surgeon General Jerome Adams is encouraging
undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to get vaccinated for COVID-19 when
shots are available, arguing that for the sake of public health,
immigration status should not be a barrier to the vaccine, John Bowden
reports for The Hill
.
Adams emphasized in an interview Sunday with CBS's "Face the Nation
"
that no information gathered from patients during vaccination could be
used against them, and no one should be denied a shot based on their
immigration status. However, as Marco della Cava, Daniel Gonzalez and
Rebecca Plevin note for USA Today
,
"after years of isolationist and punitive immigration policies
 from
the Trump administration, many immigrants - whose physical and fiscal
health has, along with many people of color, been disproportionately
hurt by the pandemic - might be unwilling to come forward and get
vaccinated."

**NEW LEAF** - In President-elect Biden's first call
 with
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, the two "noted a
shared desire to address the root causes of migration" in Central
America and southern Mexico and discussed "working together on a new
approach to regional migration that offers alternatives to undertaking
the dangerous journey to the United States." Said President López
Obrador on Twitter
: "We
reaffirmed our commitment to working together for the well-being of our
peoples and nations." Per Axios'
 Rebecca
Falconer, the positive report "represents a key part of the
president-elect's plans to overhaul President Trump's aggressive border
policy." But, as Biden's team notes, it will "take time and resources
to implement those commitments effectively."

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**VACCINE HEROES** - "If COVID-19 vaccines bring an end to the
pandemic, America has immigrants to thank," Joel Rose writes for NPR
,
noting the significant contributions immigrants have made to the fight
against the virus. Rose points to people like Katalin Karikó, a
Hungarian immigrant and senior vice president at BioNTech who pioneered
the use of messenger RNA technology - which is now the basis for the
Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. "Karikó is one of several foreign-born
scientists and entrepreneurs involved in the covid vaccine breakthrough,
including Moderna's Canadian co-founder, Patrick Rossi, and French
CEO, Stéphane Bancel," David C. Adams writes for Univision
.

**WELCOME CHANGE** - Officials behind the Common Application, a form
used by around 1 million students to apply for multiple colleges at the
same time, "found students who had to answer questions about citizenship
and immigration status were often less likely to finish their
application," Chris Quintana reports for USA Today
,
noting that while college applications have generally increased in
recent years, "submissions among students who are undocumented declined
16% from 2016 to 2020." The findings have led to revisions for the 2021
form in hopes of preventing students from "selecting themselves out of
the process" because of "questions they feel are putting themselves and
their family in jeopardy," said Common Application CEO Jenny Rickard.
However, as Academic Success Program Executive Director Sara Urquidez
points out, these changes won't fix the systemic issues undocumented
students face or fully solve the issue: "Just because you take it off
the Common App doesn't mean that the college still doesn't need it
and use it in a way. ... So how are they going to find a way and a
solution that doesn't put more burden on a student and family?"

**FORCED OUT** - A beloved Spanish teacher at the Friends Select
School in Philadelphia may be forced to return to Chile at the end of
the month after 16 years of living, working, and paying taxes in the
U.S. because of revised Trump administration "wage prevalence" laws that
are likely to price many immigrants out of their jobs, reports Jeff
Gammage for the Philadelphia Inquirer
.
While fighting to stay in the country, Francoise Thenoux could be left
in limbo when her H-1B visa expires at the end of the month, leaving her
jobless and forcing her to abandon her heartbroken students at Friends
Select School. "I love it there," she said of the school. "That's one
of the reasons I want to stay. ... I feel Americanized, part of the
grassroots movement that is making this country a more equitable place."

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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