Lots of great local news today.

A working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in March found that having more immigrant peers in the classroom can improve academic performance for U.S.-born students, reports Asher Lehrer-Small of The 74. Students who had 13% immigrant classmates achieved higher reading and math test scores on average than those who had only 1% exposure, per the study, and "Black and low-income students saw benefits that were twice as large."

While the working paper’s dataset is specific to Florida, it paints a clear picture: "Immigrants can basically create a rising tide that lifts all boats," said David Figlio, the paper’s co-author and a professor of education and economics at Northwestern University.

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].

DEFENSE FUND — On Monday, the Indianapolis City-County Council approved a fiscal ordinance allocating $150,000 to pilot an immigrant legal defense fund, reports Natalia E. Contreras of the Indianapolis Star. The funds will provide immigrants "seeking asylum, pursuing citizenship, or those at risk of deportation with legal information, consultations and representation." Said Lauren Rodriguez, director of the city’s Office of Public Health and Safety: "We want our immigrant neighbors to know that the city, the mayor, the Office of Public Health and Safety, we care."

MONTE VISTA — After trekking through the Arizona desert for five hours with their two young children, Ecuadorians Veronica Asas and Adriana Hernan called for help from U.S. law enforcement, Javier Arce reports for the Arizona Republic. They were soon located by Border Patrol agents, and after a few hours in detention were referred to the Phoenix Welcome Center, where they met volunteers working with Pastor Angel Campos of Monte Vista Christ Church in Phoenix. Since March, the church has assisted more than 300 migrants arriving in Phoenix, almost entirely through volunteer support: "They donate their time and they do it from the heart, because they like to help these people who have suffered a lot to get here," said Pastor Campos. "We were scared, but once the pastor picked us up and told us where he was taking us, we felt relief, joy," Asas said.

BABY ASHLEY — Department of Homeland Security figures indicate that more than 10,000 asylum-seekers have been admitted into the U.S. as the Biden administration winds down Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) or "Remain in Mexico" policy, Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Sean Gallitz report for CBS News. Lazaro, a political dissident from Cuba, was finally allowed to enter the U.S. as an asylee in March after being separated at the southern border in 2019 from his then-pregnant wife, Dayana — and finally met his daughter, Ashley, for the first time. "When I saw the baby and held her — I still can't believe it," Lazaro said. "We hope to push forward in this country. To work and raise the baby. May she grow up loving her country, loving her homeland. She is one more American that we have here."

RESTITUTION — On immigration reform, Ohio Sens. Rob Portman (R) and Sherrod Brown (D) "should model for the rest of the nation that bipartisanship is still possible, because only bipartisan solutions will earn the votes necessary in the U.S. Senate to be passed into law," write Dave Workman, co-founder and president of Elemental Churches; and Dominick Lijoi, a retired U.S. Army Corp of Engineers employee, in an op-ed for The Columbus Dispatch. They point to principles put forward by the Evangelical Immigration Table as a starting point toward "a better solution that would both honor the law and keep families together" (see the Evangelical call for restitution-based immigration reform). "As we reflect on the immigration predicaments in our county, and particularly the plight of approximately 11 million people in the country who reside here unlawfully," they write, "we believe that mercy should be at the heart of whatever we choose to do."

INDIGENOUS MIGRANTS — Puente News Collaborative just launched the first of its three-part series on indigenous Latin Americans who leave home to migrate north, with René Kladzyk and Maria Ramos Pacheco of El Paso Matters collaborating with Veronica Martinez of La Verdad to highlight the complex challenges these communities face. "We know that there is some level of discrimination because they are undocumented in the United States, but they face a double discrimination for being labeled in different ways as Indigenous people," said Monica Lima Aguilar, legal representative at the Attention Center for the Families of Indigenous Migrants (CAFAMI in Spanish).

IRANIAN MUSICIANS — April Peavey of PRI’s The World spoke to Marjan Keypour Greenblatt, a human rights activist from New York who helped to curate "Homanity"
— a new album helping to raise awareness of Iranian musicians who "continually find themselves at risk of censorship, or even jail." Keypour Greenblatt explained that persecution of Iranian musicians "is not a new thing," and the songs are written from artists still living in Iran who otherwise would not have had an opportunity to express their artistry — and humanity.

Thanks for reading,

Ali