VACCINES — A new report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) finds that refugees and migrants continue to face barriers to equitable COVID-19 vaccine access, reports Teresa Welsh of Devex. Ninety percent of IFRC societies surveyed said that limited information or awareness about how to get vaccinated prevented refugees and migrants from receiving shots, while 67% cited language barriers. Administrative barriers such as legal documentation, difficult or time-consuming registration processes, and limited appointment times are also preventing these populations from accessing vaccines. A reminder that health care inequities make all of us less safe: "If we don’t reach everyone in the community or provide access to everyone in the community to vaccines, then we have the risk of further mutations of the virus, and the protection for the rest of the population through vaccines not being as effective," said Ezekiel Simperingham, global migration and displacement lead at IFRC. 

COURTS — The Justice Department has officially dropped its opposition to reviving a union for immigration judges, per the Associated Press. The announcement comes after the Trump administration stripped the union of its authority and imposed measures on judges that included completing 700 cases a year. In other legal news, on Tuesday the Supreme court ruled that the government can "indefinitely detain certain immigrants who say they will face persecution or torture if they are deported to their native countries," AP’s Mark Sherman reports. Said Justice Stephen Breyer in his dissent: "[W]hy would Congress want to deny a bond hearing to individuals who reasonably fear persecution or torture, and who, as a result, face proceedings that may last for many months or years...? I can find no satisfactory answer to this question." 

HEATWAVE — Migrant farmworkers have always faced tough working conditions, but this year’s historic heat wave in the Pacific Northwest makes the work extra challenging, Lauren Kaori Gurley reports for VICE. Adequate shade, breaks, water, and workload guidelines are not guaranteed since "[a]gricultural workers—with the exception of those in a few states—are also exempt from union rights and child labor laws." But the extreme weather also means workers are scrambling to harvest crops before they die in the heat, Gurley notes. "A lot of people who don’t feel well keep working so as not to lose money for lunch or rent," said a cherry picker in Yakima County, Washington, where temperatures have recently exceeded 100 degrees for three days straight. "People endure a lot to finish. They give more than they are able to."