In a new ruling, U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte has temporarily blocked President Trump’s executive order allowing states and local jurisdictions to refuse resettlement of refugees, report NBC’s Daniella Silva and Laura Strickler.

“Messitte wrote in a 31-page decision that if the order were implemented, ‘many refugees may find themselves at least in limbo, denied services congressionally intended to help them effectively integrate into new homes.’”

Meanwhile, in an op-ed for in Florida Today, Rev. Joel Tooley of the First Church of the Nazarene in Melbourne, Florida, is urging Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to continue to welcome refugee resettlement in the state.

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


BETWEEN A WALL AND A HARD PLACE – It’s a new season and a new look for our “Only in America” podcast. This week, for the first installment of our “Between a Wall and a Hard Place” series, I chat with Jason De León, a MacArthur Genius Fellow and author of The Land of Open Graves. ⁠⁠Jason has explored the human consequences of deterrence policies through an in-depth anthropological study of crossings through the Sonoran desert — and how deterrence has failed to turn away border-crossers for two decades. ⁠He told me about the journeys of people who unsuccessfully made dozens of attempts to cross the border, and the objects and bodies left behind.⁠

ACCESS TO COUNSEL – In San Diego, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw has ruled that “asylum seekers who have expressed fear about being returned to Mexico to await their U.S. immigration proceedings must be allowed access to attorneys to argue their cases,” Kristina Davis reports for the San Diego Union-Tribune. The judge wrote in his ruling: “Given the stakes of a non-refoulement interview — the return to a country in which one may face persecution and torture — and the interview’s fact-intensive nature, it is undeniable that access to counsel is important.”

EMERGENCY VOTE – Senate Democrats are planning their next vote to try to end the Trump administration’s national emergency declaration, which has diverted Defense Department spending for wall construction on the southern border, Niels Lesniewski reports in Roll Call. “Under the 1976 National Emergencies Act, Congress can vote every six months to terminate a presidential emergency declaration … Lawmakers can vote again starting Feb. 15, 2020 to terminate the border emergency.”

CHALLENGED IN OREGON – Two Oregon attorneys, Tess Hellgren and Kelsey Provo, penned an op-ed for The Oregonian explaining their lawsuit against the Trump administration’s proclamation mandating health insurance for visa applicants. “Ironically, most of the proclamation’s list of ‘approved’ health insurance options are neither legally nor practically available to immigrants.”

ICE SUBPOENAS – Earlier this week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued subpoenas to Denver police for information on four migrants the agency is seeking to deport, representing the latest showdown between the Trump administration and cities with so-called “sanctuary” policies. Ryan Luby, a spokesman for the city attorney’s office, told Colleen Long at the Associated Press: “The subpoenas were not issued by a court of law and not signed by a judge. … Denver does not comply with subpoenas unless they are Court-ordered or unless they are primarily related to a criminal investigation. Our immigration ordinance fully complies with federal law.”

CAMBODIAN DEPORTATIONS – A group of 25 Cambodian refugees ¬— who have spent most of their lives here after coming to the U.S. as part of a longstanding agreement to take in Vietnam War refugees — were deported earlier this week. Charles Dunst in the Washington Monthly reports: “Rights groups are critical of these removals, because almost all of those targeted for deportation came to the United States as refugees and will now be separated from their families who remain there.”

OKC – Kansas City is home to approximately 135,000 immigrants — about 7% of the overall population, report Laura Ziegler and Dan Margolies for KCUR. In their State of Kansas City segment, they layout the immigrant community’s contributions, issues to watch and key players. The kicker: “Over the last decade and a half, the metro's immigrant population has increased 300%, which is more than seven times the metro's population growth overall.”


Thanks for reading,

Ali