This morning I have an op-ed in the Boston Globe: “In recent months — as the country has been transfixed on the high-stakes drama of the impeachment inquiry — the very fabric of our nation has become altered. Not because of new witness testimony or details pertaining to Ukraine, but because of dramatic new steps the Trump administration has taken to fundamentally change our immigration system.”

I wish I could be less dramatic, but profound changes are being made that will undermine the prosperity and well-being of the American worker and their family.

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

MORE COULD BE DONE – After being detained on May 19, 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez became the sixth child to die in U.S. custody in the last year. A top-notch team of ProPublica reporters “obtained video that documents the 16-year-old’s last hours, and it shows that Border Patrol agents and health care workers at the Weslaco holding facility missed increasingly obvious signs that his condition was perilous.” John Sanders, the acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection who resigned soon after the incident, “recently faulted unprepared agencies and an unresponsive Congress for a tragedy that he said was both predictable and preventable. The deaths of Carlos and other children under his watch continue to haunt him. ‘I believe the U.S. government could have done more,’ he said.”

“BECAUSE I BELIEVE IN GOD” – Rocio Rebollar Gomez, the mother of Army Officer Gibram Cruz, works as an Uber driver, small business owner and caretaker of her 81-year-old mother. This week, she was ordered to “self-deport” to Mexico in 30 days after the government refused to grant her discretionary protections for relatives of military service members, reports Gustavo Solis in the San Diego Union-Tribune. “Through hard work, she was able to save enough money for a down payment on a house and credits most of her success to her faith. ‘I’m not going to pack because I believe in God and I know that God is going to help me,’ she said.”

REPORT FROM THE BORDER – Approximately 55,000 people have been sent back to Mexico as their asylum cases wind through the system. Julián Aguilar at The Texas Tribune details a new report from Human Rights First which indicates that Mexico remains unsafe for those awaiting asylum: “There have been at least 636 reports of crimes like rape, kidnapping, torture and other crimes since January, when the administration’s Migrant Protection Protocols [also known as ‘Remain in Mexico’] was implemented.” Of those, “130 children have been kidnapped or victims of attempted kidnappings.”

ARE WE SAFER YET? – There are approximately 71 million people forcibly displaced across the globe, and the U.S. says it will only admit 18,000 refugees in fiscal year 2020. Mark Grey, a professor at the U.S. Army War College, writes in War Room that “the failure of the United States to lead the world in refugee resettlement exacerbates both short- and long-term security challenges.” Grey offers four reasons why a strong refugee program is important to national security, ranging from our moral leadership to our military needs.

QUADRUPLE – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) opened about four times the number of workplace investigations in the year ending Sept. 30 compared with the period at the end of the Obama administration, Michelle Hackman writes for The Wall Street Journal. Yet we’re seeing fewer probes into gangs, weapons, and financial crimes — i.e. the bad guys. According to Matthew Allen, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official, “In the end, the numbers are the numbers … If you look at any police agency, they end up reflecting the priority of their administration. We’re no different.”

PUBLIC CHARGE – Last night, a divided federal appeals court lifted several injunctions that had blocked the Trump administration from restricting immigrants from using government programs like food stamps and Medicaid, Josh Gerstein reports for Politico Pro [paywall]. However, since the rule was also blocked by courts in Maryland and New York City, the policy remains on hold. Judge Jay Bybee of the 9th Circuit Court wrote: “It matters not to me as a judge whether Congress embraces or disapproves of the administration’s actions, but it is time for a feckless Congress to come to the table and grapple with these issues.”
Thanks for reading,

Ali