President Trump announced yesterday that he will restore over $140 million in foreign aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador after reaching new cooperation agreements to directly return Central American asylum seekers back to their countries of origin.

“None of the three agreements has been implemented to date, and [acting Homeland Security secretary Kevin] McAleenan’s imminent departure has raised some doubts about how fast the accords will take effect,” Nick Miroff writes for The Washington Post.

McAleenan is expected to make a formal announcement on the deal today in El Salvador.

Welcome to Thursday’s Edition of Noorani’s Notes.

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REFUGEES – The hostilities in northern Syria are forcing hundreds of thousands of Kurds to flee in a matter of days, Louisa Loveluck and Mustafa Salim report for The Washington Post. Iraq, home to 250,000 refugees, is preparing for an influx of families fleeing war, and more than 1,000 with permission to enter Iraq have already arrived. “Those without [permission] queued for days at the border. Many turned to smugglers, paying exorbitant prices for an hours-long walk through the night.” (Your regular reminder that the administration wants to allow no more than 18,000 refugees to resettle here in fiscal year 2020.)

A DHS “POLITICAL FIGHTER” – Trump is reportedly between immigration hardliners Ken Cuccinelli, Mark Morgan, and Thomas Homan as the next acting Secretary of Homeland Security as he seeks a “new political fighter” heading into next year’s election, Anita Kumar and Ted Hesson report for Politico Pro (paywall). Trump’s move to try to avoid Senate confirmation for the role could lead to legal challenges: “It might be more convenient for the president to have people who are immediately going to do exactly what he wants them to do in the moment, but I don’t think it’s beneficial to our democracy, or transparency or accountability,” said Rebecca Jones at the Project on Government Oversight. As part of what I would call his job interview process, Cuccinelli told the Christian Science Monitor, “I do not think you need an amendment to the Constitution” when it comes to eliminating birthright citizenship, Linda Feldmann reports.

MIGRANT SUICIDE – Cuban migrant Roylan Hernandez Diaz, who was detained after legally seeking asylum in May, died by suicide at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Louisiana on Tuesday, Nomaan Merchant reports in the Associated Press. “Nathalia Dickson, a lawyer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said her clients at Richwood and other immigration jails have complained that they aren’t receiving proper food or medical attention. … Hernandez is the second person to die in ICE custody during the current government fiscal year, which began this month.”

IDENTITY THEFT? – The Supreme Court is considering an appeal to determine whether states can prosecute undocumented immigrants for identity theft if they produce false employment documents, reports The Wall Street Journal’s Brent Kendall. “The justices considered an appeal by the state of Kansas, which obtained convictions against three restaurant workers for using other people’s social security numbers on forms given to their employers. The state Supreme Court threw out the convictions, saying the prosecutions were pre-empted by a provision of federal immigration law that says any information submitted with federal work-authorization forms can’t be used for state law enforcement purposes.” This is an important case to watch.

LED BY FAITH – Tune in to this week’s episode of “Only in America,” where I talk with Eric Costanzo, pastor of the South Tulsa Baptist Church in Oklahoma. Eric is joined by Cesar Quintero, a church member and immigrant from Venezuela, as we discuss the church’s efforts to help immigrants across the state. From a conversation with Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colorado) last year, Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma) makes a cameo to talk about the way his faith has influenced him to advocate for a compassionate approach to immigration.

SURVIVAL AND SUCCESS – When he was a baby, Lual Mayen’s family fled war-torn South Sudan for a Ugandan refugee camp, where he grew up teaching himself graphic design and computer programming. Now, he’s in the process of launching a video game company, including a game where “players adopt the role of a refugee” and must “ensure the character’s survival as the player’s country journeys from a war-torn present into a peaceful existence,” Alex Andrejev writes for The Washington Post. Mayen’s company has partnered with various NGOs to directly benefit refugees. “If you’re going through something hard and you survive, the next thing is, how do you come out of that,” he says. “How do you utilize that opportunity to make your life better?”

Thanks for reading,

Ali