Before we get started with today’s Notes, some breaking news: The Trump administration filed its “public charge” final rule with the Federal Register this morning. Our initial explainer on the implications of this rule is here. More tomorrow.

On Friday, leadership from Mississippi’s Catholic, Episcopal, United Methodist and Evangelical Lutheran communities issued a joint statement condemning the raids that impacted hundreds of immigrant families, and committed to stand in “solidarity to provide solace, material assistance and strength for the separated and traumatized children, parents and families.”

“Churches were the backbone of the civil rights movement,” Jeff Amy writes for the Associated Press. “Today, as President Donald Trump and Republican allies continue to defend the raids, churches have emerged as the top sources of spiritual and material support to the mostly Mexican and Guatemalan workers targeted by the raids.”

Sarah Fowler reports at the Mississippi Clarion Ledger that marches in response to the raids visibly featured children of mostly Latino immigrants with signs saying: “I will not sit in silence while my parents are taken away” and “I need my Mom and Dad...please!”

Welcome to Monday’s edition of Noorani’s Notes.

Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].


PLAY ON – In a story that brings tears to my eyes each time I read it, The Washington Post’s Maria Sacchetti writes about an El Paso soccer team: “They were raising money for their team, a ragtag band of girls that cared more about playing than winning, that had staved off dissolution because the players loved being together.” The girls were in front of the Walmart raising money for their playoff run when the shooting started. Now, their coach is in the hospital, as are several parents. But, a week later, they decided to play on.
EL PASO REFLECTIONS – Reflecting on the coverage of the El Paso shooting, Politico’s Adrian Carrasquillo points to how the “media’s desire to erase the shooter and his ideology ended up erasing his victims and their community” in the aftermath of a shooting motivated by racism and anti-immigrant sentiment. “While the news media successfully portrayed this shooting as part of a national epidemic of mass killings, we failed to accurately convey how this one was different. The visceral emotions of the Latinos I spoke with should have been—and should still be—front and center.”

EMPLOYERS? – While the Trump administration has ramped up workplace raids of undocumented immigrants, only five companies have been prosecuted for immigration-related violations since 2017, Renae Merle reports at The Washington Post. “It is striking that with all of the emphasis on prosecution of immigration offenses, prosecutions against the most serious corporate offenders has almost vanished under the new administration,” said Brandon Garrett, a professor at Duke University School of Law.

DECERTIFY – The Trump administration has filed a petition with the Federal Labor Relations Authority to decertify the National Association of Immigration Judges, a union of immigration judges that has been critical of Trump’s immigration policies, Christina Goldbaum writes for The New York Times. “The move suggested escalating tensions between overwhelmed immigration judges desperate for greater resources and a Justice Department pushing them to quickly address a backlog of immigration cases.”

STEM SITE VISITS – Under a under a new Trump administration policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can now “question international students and company managers during new site visits underway to investigate students on Optional Practical Training (OPT) in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.” Stuart Anderson breaks down the new rule, and what employers should do, over at Forbes. Feel safer?

AFTERMATH – Following the ICE raids in Mississippi last week, children who have been separated from their parents are facing immense trauma and struggling to return to normalcy. CNN tells their stories: “Meet these children of small towns in Mississippi. They are teenagers and toddlers. And for days, they've been asking questions no one here knows how to answer. How will we pay our rent now? Will I ever see my dad again? Will I be next?”

‘AS IOWAN AS CORNFIELDS’ – Following a wave of Latin American immigration to Iowa that began in the 1990s, Claire Potter at ABC News describes how immigrant families in a rural Iowa town have become “as Iowan as cornfields”: “In 1990, the U.S. Census Bureau reported that only 248 Latinos lived in Marshalltown, but as of 2017, the Census Bureau estimates that approximately 29% of its population is Latino.” As a result, “[w]hile other rural Iowa towns’ populations are shrinking, Marshalltown’s is growing — mostly thanks to immigration.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali