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].

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.  

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