A judge in Hamilton County, Ohio, said he calls U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) if defendants in his courtroom need an interpreter -- jumping to the assumption that they are undocumented, Todd Dykes reports for Cincinnati’s WLWT. “Not everybody agrees with that … But I think it's important,” said Judge Robert Ruehlman in an interview confirming those reports.

Civil rights advocates and law enforcement officials alike say they’re worried about the implications of the practice, which could prevent both documented and undocumented immigrants from coming forward to offer valuable testimony. “My primary concern is that anyone who is a victim or witness to a crime should be able to fully participate in the judicial process to further justice and remove dangerous criminals from our streets,” Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Neil told The Washington Post.

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

TRAVEL BAN 4.0 – President Trump plans to announce an expanded travel ban this week, Jonathan Swan reports for Axios, restricting immigration from seven additional countries: Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Tanzania. Looking at the data, The Atlantic’s Peter Beinart writes: “The travel ban suggests he’s adding a new target, just in time for the 2020 elections: Africans.”

TRAVEL BAN 1.0 – President Trump may be looking to expand the policy, but on the three-year anniversary of his original travel ban, the rule faces fresh legal challenges in a federal appeals court. While the Supreme Court upheld the original ban in 2018, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond will now hear arguments from civil rights organizations who say the Supreme Court ruling did not decide the merits of constitutional claims, Denise Lavoie at the Associated Press reports: “The plaintiffs allege the travel ban violates several constitutional rights, including the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause prohibiting the government from favoring one religion over another.”

ALABAMA – Alabama should follow the lead of Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and continue to allow more refugees to settle in the state, argues Dana Hall McCain of the Alabama Policy Institute in an opinion piece for The News Courier. “Alabama is a very red state largely because Alabama is a very Evangelical Christian state,” McCain writes. “But it’s those same core beliefs about the value of human life and the right to practice our faith as we see fit that should combust the people of Alabama and set fire to a yearning to minister women and children in crisis.”

MIAMI POLICE – Following an investigation by Reveal that we’ve previously referenced in the Notes, the Miami Police Department has changed its policies around how it treats immigrant victims of crime, reports Laura C. Morel. That investigation had found that law enforcement agencies nationwide routinely undermined visa protections for immigrants. Now, Miami police “will vouch for all victims who are cooperative with investigators — a prerequisite for beginning the U visa application process — and will no longer consider whether an arrest was made or a suspect was identified before supporting a visa application.”

HURTING JOBS – Economists continue to warn that President Trump’s immigration crackdown is hurting wages and job growth, AFP reports, making matters worse for American businesses that are already facing a labor shortage and declining birth rate. “Employment for U.S. citizens actually fell by 0.7 percent in communities where authorities deported a half million mainly Hispanic immigrants between 2008 and 2015 … Low-skilled immigrants often ‘complement’ the skills of higher-skilled native-born and legally authorized workers — allowing businesses to thrive and employ more workers overall,” research from the Universities of Colorado and California found.


Thanks for reading,

Ali