NOORANI'S NOTES

 

 

In many cities across the country - some larger, some smaller
- more than 10% of the essential workforce is composed of
undocumented immigrants, according to data
 newly
released by FWD.us.  

In Columbus, Ohio, for example, about one in eight essential workers
is an undocumented immigrant, including Temporary Protected Status and
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals recipients, reports Danae King
of The Columbus Dispatch
. That
translates to some 20,000 essential workers.   

Among the other eight cities where at least 10% of the essential
worker population is undocumented are Houston,
Orlando and Tampa, according to FWD's data. Nationwide,
69% of undocumented workers are frontline essential workers who must
work onsite. 

"Undocumented workers make up a significant portion of the essential
workers that have helped us through this COVID-19 pandemic, and they
often perform the difficult, unseen jobs that we rely upon as
a community," said Sarah Ingles, board president of the Central Ohio
Worker Center. "They raise families, they pay taxes and they contribute
to our economy and our society." 

Welcome to Wednesday's edition of Noorani's Notes. I'm
your guest host today, Dan Gordon. If you have a story to share from
your own community, please send it to me
at [email protected]
. 

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**COURT ORDER** - U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton has indefinitely
halted the Biden administration's 100-day pause on most
deportations just as an earlier ruling was set to expire, reports
Nomaan Merchant of the Associated Press
. Texas
had argued that "the moratorium violated federal law and risked
imposing additional costs on the state." At the same time, "Tipton's
ruling did not require deportations to resume at their previous pace.
Even without a moratorium, immigration agencies have wide latitude in
enforcing removals and processing cases." The Biden
administration released interim enforcement guidance last week, as
the Los Angeles Times
 reported.       

MCALLEN - City leaders in McAllen, Texas, are working to address
an increase in asylum-seekers taking shelter there. Today leaders
will speak with federal health officials regarding the release of
asylum seekers who are currently waiting in Mexico under
the so-called Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), reports Berenice
Garcia of The Monitor
. But
the city already is responding to asylum-seekers who were never placed
in the MPP program, as McAllen Mayor Jim Darling notes, and the city
wants to make sure it is reimbursed for the resources it is devoting.
Separately, city officials "are in the process of starting to
issue photo identification cards to the migrants who need them" so
they can board flights, reports Sandra Sanchez of Border Report
. Officials
are working to link temporary IDs to Department of Homeland Security
documents that allow migrants to travel "with the promise that they will
appear at any and all upcoming U.S. immigration hearings in whatever
city they are living."  

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MAINE COMPACT - Maine business and higher education leaders have
launched the Maine Compact on Immigration
, a bipartisan effort "to promote
immigration policies that will strengthen our economy and communities,
attract and retain global talent, and bring new entrepreneurs,
businesses, and workers to our nation and state." The 82 signatories
have sent the compact to Maine's congressional delegation to
encourage immigration reform, reports Hannah Dineen of News Center
MAINE
. The
need in Maine is real: The state projects that 65,000 workers will
retire by 2029 and will require 75,000 new workers in that window in
order to thrive. "We wouldn't even get close to 75,000 without the
immigrant community," says Maine State Chamber of Commerce President
Dana Connors. This reality is an on-the-ground example of how
immigration can stem demographic decline, as we've noted recently
.       

**LIMITED CAPACITY** - The Department of Health and Human
Services' child-shelter network, which temporarily houses migrant
children, "has reduced its capacity by 40%" amid the
pandemic, reports Michelle Hackman of The Wall Street Journal
. On
Friday, shelters were already 93% full. "The risk, when HHS shelters get
full, is that children get backed up in border-patrol stations, where
they are housed in stark cells -with just a bench and a toilet -
that are designed to hold single adults for a few hours rather than
children for days," explains Hackman. Advocates such as
Jennifer Podkul, vice president for policy and advocacy at Kids in Need
of Defense, say emergency shelters may be necessary in the short term:
"It's certainly not ideal. But for now, it's better than having kids
remain in [Border Patrol] custody." Meanwhile, confusion and
frustration are rising along the border as the Biden administration
tries to untangle "an interlocking web" of border policies it
inherited from its predecessor, writes The New York Times
'
Zolan Kanno-Youngs.  

**ART AT ICE** - A new art exhibit in Bakersfield, California,
"Voices in the Shadow" will primarily feature art by detainees at the
nearby Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center, reports Sam Morgen
of Bakersfield News
.
"There's a real opportunity to begin to have a different kind of
conversation," said organizer and artist Elizabeth Spavento. "When
you're fighting to just have your basic needs met, whether that's
access to fresh food or more than an [hour's] worth of outside air
a day, there are ways to do that more
humanely." Organizers want viewers "to ask questions about what it
means for an immigrant detention center to be present in
their community." 

Thanks for reading,  

Dan 

 

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