Your pre-holiday must-read: USA Today’s two-part investigative deep dive (part one and part two) uncovering reports of sexual assaults, poor medical care and dozens of deaths at facilities overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). From data analysis to interviews with detainees, this is a comprehensive look into the way the U.S. is handling immigration detention. It is not pretty.

In other news, the Department of Justice yesterday told a federal judge that it had found more than 2,000 documents it should have released due to lawsuits against the government’s citizenship question — but didn’t at the time due to a “technical error,” tweeted NPR’s Hansi Lo Wang.
Welcome to your Friday edition of Noorani’s Notes.

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RESETTLEMENT IN THE SOUTH – Nearly 100 faith leaders in South Carolina have urged Gov. Henry McMaster (R) to pledge to continue accepting refugees, Rickey Ciapha Dennis Jr. reports for The Post and Courier. As Pastor Daniel Griswold, leader of three united Methodist Churches in Ridgeville, South Carolina, put it: “I think it’s a Christian duty that we welcome the stranger.” Meanwhile in Tennessee, Gov. Bill Lee (R) is receiving overwhelming support from evangelical Christian leaders following his decision to continue accepting refugees, reports Natalie Allison in the Nashville Tennessean [paywall]. Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Public Policy Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, “said Lee acted with ‘wisdom and compassion’ in deciding to continue accepting refugees, and noted that many local congregations have worked with refugee populations for decades.”

UNDERMINING ASYLUM – Lawyers representing 18 migrants have filed an amicus brief with the Supreme Court alleging that border agents are systematically writing incorrect addresses on asylum seekers’ paperwork, thus leaving them no way to get communications about their cases, Julia Ainsley reports at NBC News. “The risk is not only that the U.S. violates its own procedures under due process, but also the risk of sending back asylum seekers to places they could be tortured or killed,” said Karen Tumlin, founder and director of the Justice Action Center.

AFTER THE RAID – Director Rodrigo Reyes’s latest short film, now available on Netflix, investigates “the aftermath of an immigration raid through the lens of a wife and new mother left to fend for herself, a long-time resident trying her best to help in whatever way she can, and a priest tasked with bringing some measure of comfort—and solace—to his fractured community,” writes Nick Schager at The Daily Beast. “It’s a familiar story, one retold over and over again in various corners of 21st-century America, and After the Raid’s spartan aesthetics … cast the material as a microcosm of a far larger trend, and dilemma.”

RACE, IMMIGRATION AND COMMUNITY – “Some of the starkest partisan divides on political values are seen in views about race and immigration,” according to a new report published by Pew Research Center. According to research, “57% [of Americans surveyed] say the growing number of newcomers in the country strengthens American society, while 41% say this threatens traditional American customs and values.” Along these lines, when the Knight Foundation asked me to write an essay about American’s changing perception of community, I wrote that “local leadership — the pastor, the police chief, the local business owner – have the potential to bridge the divide. These are the trusted messengers who can operate within the networks of friends and family that are some of the most trusted places in society.”

SEASON WRAP – For the final Season Two episode of “Only in America,” I chatted with Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals. As he retires from this post, we reflected on the immigration debate, the role of the church, and what leadership looks like in a fast-changing world. Thank you for everything, Leith. While I am skeptical you are going to really retire, you will be missed.
Thanks for reading,
Ali