At the state and local level, businesses and elected officials continue to say they need more immigrants and refugees in order to grow their workforces and economies.

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) embraced a Trump executive order giving cities and states the authority to accept refugees, announcing that his state would continue to receive refugees with local jurisdictions’ approval, James MacPherson reports for the Associated Press. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney pointed to “33 businesses that say they will take as many (refugees) as they could.”

Meanwhile, Rep. John Curtis (R-Utah) introduced a bill that would allow states to create their own visa programs to meet local industry needs, reports Benjamin Wood for The Salt Lake Tribune. Under the proposal, immigrant workers could move between states to fill jobs where their skills are most needed. Gov. Gary Herbert offered his support for the bill: “We need high-skilled immigrants working for our tech companies and in our educational institutions, and seasonal workers in our tourism and agricultural industries … We simply don’t have enough workers to fill the jobs.”

Welcome to Wednesday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

BAD FOR BUSINESS – In his latest piece for Fortune, “Why Trump Is Bad for Business,” Geoff Colvin points to the administration’s anti-immigration policies as one of the key reasons for an overall drop in CEO confidence and frustrations across several major sectors. “The whole U.S. technology sector is unimaginable without immigrants,” Colvin writes. “Trump’s immigration crackdown is one reason US. farmers are in crisis … On a larger scale, immigrants are crucial to U.S. economic growth because without them the population will shrink.”

PUBLIC SAFETY – Andy Harvey, the interim police chief of Ennis, Texas, and member of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, writes in a Dallas Morning News op-ed that police departments must move forward without Congress to work with, and on behalf of, immigrant communities for the sake of public safety. “Police departments across the nation continually work to build trust and confidence in every segment of our citizenry, including our immigrant communities,” Harvey writes. “Historically, immigrants have often feared and mistrusted the police. And when people feel safe talking to the police, we all have a better and safer community.”

DISPATCH FROM CANADA – While the U.S. continues to allow fewer and fewer refugees, Canada has stepped into the vacuum to welcome more refugees and offer them a place in the nation’s future, writes Sasha Chanoff, founder and executive director of RefugePoint, for WBUR. The nation has a plan to fill labor shortages by welcoming one million immigrants over the next three years, and ensure that refugees are included. “Displaced people can help enhance our own futures, if we only let them,” Chanoff writes. “If we continue to abandon them, it will be to our economic detriment, as well as to our ongoing shame.”

WORK – As we’ve reported previously, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is doubling the wait period before refugees are able to apply for work permits, making the wait period a full year, Justin Rohrlich reports for Quartz. As Rohrilch points out, “By its own admission, DHS says that the policy change could impact low-wage workers already working in the country and the profits of companies that depend on them. ‘There may also be a reduction in state and local tax revenue.’”


MIGRANTS FROM INDIA, RUSSIA, CHINA – Arizona has seen a rise in immigrants from non-Spanish speaking countries including China, India, Russia and other parts of the former Soviet Union, reports Daniel Gonzalez for the Arizona Republic. The influx has led to a realization among local churches and others who have been assisting migrants that not all are economically disadvantaged — many are instead fleeing religious or political persecution. "We’ve seen families from around the world," said Stanford Prescott, a spokesman for the International Rescue Committee in Arizona.

INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS – International student enrollment in U.S. universities is continuing to plummet, likely as a result of the Trump administration’s immigration restrictions. Enrollment of international students declined by more than 10% between the 2015-2016 and 2018-2019 school years, Stuart Anderson writes at Forbes. Meanwhile, enrollment of international students in other countries, including Canada and Australia, is on the rise.

Thanks for reading,

Ali