NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In its final days,

****the Trump administration is ramping up asylum restrictions that are
set to take effect soon before or after President-elect Joe Biden is
sworn in as a final push to reshape the asylum system, reports Camilo
Montoya-Galvez of CBS News
.

One rule, set to take effect Jan. 19, would bar "non-Mexican migrants,
including unaccompanied children, from applying for U.S. asylum at the
southern border," Montoya-Galvez explains. Another regulation, set to
take effect Jan. 22, would permit officials to block asylum seekers not
only if they show symptoms of a contagious disease, but also if they
traveled from or through countries where a disease is "prevalent or
epidemic." The Trump administration has issued at least 48 policy
changes affecting our immigration system during the COVID-19 pandemic
- which we've been tracking here
.

"These rules, if they are actually implemented, will have a devastating
effect on asylum-seekers and lead the United States to turn away people
seeking refuge back to the very countries that they have fled," said
Eleanor Acer, the refugee protection program director at Human Rights
First.

Welcome to Tuesday'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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**PRIVATE PRISON INDUSTRY** -

****Throughout his candidacy and presidency, President Trump has pushed
for construction of the "big, beautiful wall" at the southern border,
which he is visiting today. Over the course of his term, Trump also
pushed for the "expansion of private prison companies' involvement in
housing detained immigrants at the border," Andy Uhler reports for
Marketplace Morning Report
.
Uhler notes that back in November, The Marshall Project

found that private prison company CoreCivic's portion of revenue from
immigration detention alone "more than doubled between 2014 and 2019."
Under Trump, University of Texas at Austin law professor Denise Gilman
told Marketplace, "the private prison industry just changed its focus to
the federal government and specifically to immigration detention and
began engaging in much heavier lobbying and campaign contributions."
Uhler ends with a look at what's ahead: After campaigning on promises
to end for-profit detention centers, the "stock prices of two of the
country's largest prison companies, Geo Group and CoreCivic, fell
dramatically when it became clear that Biden had won the presidency."

**LASTING TRAUMA**- U.S. officials separated

****Samayra's young son, then seven years old, from his father at the
Texas border under the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy
back in June 2018. The effects of his trauma are still prevalent today,
reports Daniel Gonzalez of the Arizona Republic
.
Samayra and her son's experience underscores how families separated
at the border continue to struggle with "a wide range of mental health
problems that include anxiety, depression, trouble sleeping, guilt, fear
of separation, and changes in behavior." On Friday, President-elect
Biden "vowed that under his administration, the Justice Department and
other investigative agencies will determine who was responsible for the
zero-tolerance family separation policy and whether their conduct was
criminal." As we've outlined

in our immigration priorities for the incoming administration, the White
House should continue to identify separated families and reunite them
when appropriate, as well as implement strict policies that only allow
officials to separate family members crossing the border when a child's
safety is at significant risk.  

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**REFUGEES AND JOBS**- In an op-ed for Newsweek
,
Columbia University professor Michael Doyle and law student Elie Peltz
float an immigration proposal: utilizing labor visas to resettle
refugees, in addition to humanitarian resettlement. "Experts predict
 that
by 2030, the international labor shortage will stand at more than 85
million people, generating $8.5 trillion in lost annual revenues," they
note. "Countries aiming to maintain competitive economies are
increasingly looking beyond their borders to address critical labor
shortages." A reminder that even without access to labor visas, refugees
are an economic success story

in the U.S.

**"HEALTH OF OUR NEIGHBORS"**- Following the vaccination of health
care workers, the U.S. should prioritize vaccine distribution among
undocumented immigrants - particularly essential workers - as well
as those in immigration detention, write Divya Manoharan, Cesar A.
Lopez, Kate Sugarman, Ranit Mishori and Zackary Berger in a Health
Affairs

blog post. They point out that undocumented immigrants account for up to
15% of essential
workers in any given state, and undocumented and detained communities
"make up a large proportion of groups at high risk of contracting
COVID-19." As the blog authors conclude, the pandemic "has made it clear
that our health is tied to the health of our neighbors." FWIW, I think
Congress should move forward with a plan to grant legal status and
citizenship to undocumented workers in the essential workforce.
Implementing such a plan would vaccinate more than 5 million workers
against COVID-19
and deportation.

Thanks for reading,

Ali

 

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