After net immigration fell to its lowest levels since the 1980s under the Trump administration, there’s "little doubt" that the Biden administration will welcome more immigrants than its predecessor — a shift that will not only help us emerge from an economic crisis, but presents a "historic opportunity" to reestablish our image and legacy as a welcoming nation.

In an op-ed for The New York Times, Jorge Ramos lays out the challenges that President-elect Biden will face — from asylum seekers stuck in border camps to the millions of undocumented immigrants living and working in the U.S. — and the opportunities it has to build a better immigration approach.

"Yes, there will be more immigrants in the United States with Mr. Biden in the White House," Ramos concludes. "That’s the United States I recognize and admire, the one that allowed me to become a citizen — and the one that almost disappeared during the Trump administration. Now what I want above all else is for the immigrants who come after me to have the same opportunities and freedoms I’ve had."

Welcome to Friday’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].

H-1B RULE ADVANCES — The Trump administration posted a final rule on Thursday, to be formally published today, that would establish new rules for "high-skilled" H-1B visas, Ethan Baron at Mercury News reports. The new rule would make the process wage-based rather than lottery-based, a change that Stuart Anderson at Forbes points out will put startup companies, public schools, international students, younger IT professionals, and health professionals working in rural areas at a disadvantage. However, the changes may not last long: Baron notes that the Biden administration has said it will "halt or delay all regulations issued by the Trump administration in its waning days."

IMMIGRANTS COUNT — Anomalies in census data are further delaying census counts, making it unlikely that President Trump will be able to follow through on his plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from census apportionment, report Brittany Renee Mayes and Tara Bahrampour of The Washington Post. The "historically unprecedented" plan "sparked a flurry of lawsuits, and three federal courts ruled that it was illegal." Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former staff director of the House census oversight subcommittee, notes that Trump "could still try to pressure the [Census B]ureau to rush the process, skip steps that would help ensure accurate results, and give [Commerce] Secretary [Wilbur] Ross what essentially is incomplete data for apportionment before he leaves office on January 20."

LAST-DITCH CHANGES — With less than two weeks left in office, the Trump administration is making last-ditch attempts to effectively end asylum and close the country’s doors to those seeking safety at the U.S.-Mexico border. According to internal documents obtained by BuzzFeed News, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has issued a new policy directive making it harder for children to seek asylum by requiring ICE officers to individually review whether an immigrant child is unaccompanied each time they encounter the child — a change that "could lead to making some children ineligible to have their asylum claims initially heard and processed by an asylum officer at United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)," Hamed Aleaziz reports. While the Biden administration has pledged to reverse many of Trump’s harmful immigration policies in its early days, the web of policies enacted by the Trump administration to dismantle asylum could take much longer, perhaps years, to untangle.  

"THIS IS WHAT MY PARENTS RAN AWAY FROM" — After fleeing wars and coups in their home countries, many immigrants saw worrying similarities here in the U.S. on Wednesday, Hibah Ansari and Joey Peters report in the Sahan Journal. Speaking with immigrant community leaders in Minnesota, Ansari and Peters heard stories of both dismay and optimism. "For those of us who saw what happened in our original country, we never thought it would be possible in the United States of America," Habon Abdulle, executive director of Ayada Leads, shared. State Rep. Tou Xiong, whose family came to the U.S. from Laos, added that "[this] is what my parents ran away from. This is not what America is supposed to be." Still, some of those Ansari and Peters spoke to remain hopeful: "I’m still confident that the resiliency of the American democratic institutions and the democratic apparatus is going to withstand this," said Wynfred Russell, a Brooklyn Park City Council member.

‘I LOVE THE CAPITOL’ — Joining the staff cleaning up the Capitol after Wednesday’s riots was Rep. Andy Kim (D-New Jersey), Mike Catalini writes for the Associated Press. Kim, the son of Korean immigrant parents, became the first Asian American to represent New Jersey in Congress after he was elected in 2018. "When you see something you love that’s broken, you want to fix it," Kim said. "I love the Capitol. I’m honored to be there … What else could I do?"

Thanks for reading,

Ali