As we highlighted in the Notes yesterday, immigration officials are beginning to deport Mexican nationals seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to Guatemala, expanding a practice that previously sent refugees to Honduras and El Salvador. Now, Mexico is speaking out against the controversial plan, Patrick J. McDonnell and Molly O’Toole report for the Los Angeles Times. “This decision was not consulted with us. It is a decision they made with Guatemala,” said Martha Barcena, the Mexican ambassador to the United States. The Mexican government said it would work to offer “better options” to Mexicans who might be affected.

Mexican asylum seekers fleeing violence at home spoke to Julio-Cesar Chavez and Lizbeth Diaz at Reuters, fearing they’d be even less safe in Guatemala. “Going to Guatemala is like walking straight into the lion’s den,” said Eugenio, who has been waiting in the border city of Ciudad Juarez with his family for four months hoping to present his case to U.S. officials. He said criminals who’d threatened his family in central Mexico could track him to Guatemala.

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

PUBLIC CHARGE RULE – A Manhattan appeals court appeared skeptical yesterday of lifting a pause on President Trump’s plan to target legal immigrants relying on public assistance like food stamps, Medicaid and housing vouchers, Stephen Rex Brown writes at the New York Daily News. The Department of Justice is asking the court to let the administration proceed with those changes to the “public charge” rule. “Has there been a declaration by the president or by anyone that this is an emergency?” asked Judge Guido Calabresi. “That this has to be done immediately?”

MEANING OF WORK – The dignity and salvation of work is often overlooked in the global immigration debate. For Forbes, Danielle Kost writes about a new study being conducted by Harvard Business School’s Reshmaan N. Hussam. “There's a lot of literature that suggests that work means much more than just an income … It gives you a sense of identity, of purpose, of a larger goal. It gives you an opportunity to build a social life.”

“NOT TURNING MY BACK” – Beltrami County, Minnesota, became the first in the state — and one of the few in the country — to vote against resettling refugees, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s Maya Rao and Katie Galioto report. “The vote was largely symbolic — no refugees have been resettled in this county for at least five years.” Meanwhile in Nashville, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) told the Associated Press why he decided the state should continue to resettle refugees: “My wife has worked with a group called Servant Group International that works with Kurdish refugees that live in Nashville. The women group that she works with are mostly women whose husbands were killed because they served as interpreters for American soldiers alongside the American military when we fought in Iraq. And their husbands died as a result of working with Americans. I’m not turning my back on those people.”

STANFORD – Students in a Spanish immersion class at Stanford University are traveling to the border to help Spanish-speaking asylum seekers prepare for their credible fear interviews — interviews with immigration officials that establish whether they suffered persecution at home, writes Melissa de Witte for Stanford News. The students are speaking one-on-one with migrants to help them better communicate their asylum claims. “Everyone has some kind of story that can help them pass the credible fear interview and we need to figure out what that is,” said Stanford senior Lily Foulkes.
BUSINESS FEES – The Trump administration’s 50% fee increase on visa applications for high-skilled professionals, farm and H-2B workers, and new citizens are hitting businesses hard, Stuart Anderson writes at Forbes. The new fees are essentially a tax on businesses aimed at discouraging them from hiring foreign workers. “Given America’s demographic issues, the country’s demand for labor and the increasing importance of high-skilled workers, economists would question the wisdom of the administration’s policies,” Anderson writes.

TARGETING EL PASO – PBS Frontline is out with a new documentary, “Targeting El Paso,” about “how El Paso, Texas became the Trump administration’s immigration policy testing ground, and then the target of a white supremacist.” See it here.

Thanks for reading,

Ali