Last week, Chief Mike Tupper of Marshalltown, Iowa, wrote in the Des Moines Register: “In addition to our seniors, our children and people struggling financially, one of our most vulnerable groups of residents is the immigrants and refugees who have chosen to call Marshalltown home.”

This morning’s Marshalltown Times-Republican reports that “[w]ith the help of the Marshall County Community Foundation, the Immigrant Allies Helping Fund was set up to provide small grants to Coalition organizations to help immigrants and refugee families whose need exceeds help they may qualify for.”

Felt like we could all use some good news to start our Monday edition of Noorani’s Notes. Have a story you’d like us to include? Email me at [email protected].

BUNK BEDS – The H-2A visa program for the seasonal agricultural workforce requires employers to provide housing for migrant workers. But with coronavirus raising concerns around social distancing, Richard Read reports for the Los Angeles Times that “[t]he price and availability of apples in grocery stores this fall could come down to a critical question on the farm: whether migrant workers should sleep in bunk beds.” Oregon has banned the use of top bunks in farm worker housing, but the issue has yet to arise on a statewide level in California.

HAITI – A Haitian government panel is advising that the U.S. stop deporting Haitian migrants back to the island until the pandemic subsides, Jacqueline Charles and Monique O. Madan report for the Miami Herald. “The group — made up mostly of doctors and medical experts hand-picked by Haitian President Jovenel Moise to advise him on steps to control the virus spread in Haiti — is also asking for a ban on any returnee who has not been tested for COVID-19. … The recommendations, obtained by the Miami Herald, come hours before an Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation flight is scheduled to depart Alexandria, Louisiana, with another group of deportees to Haiti early Monday and as the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 see double-digit increases, almost daily in Haiti.”

SUPPORTING REFUGEES – Two public health experts from the University of California San Diego, Tala Al-Rousan and Cheryl Anderson, write in an op-ed for The San Diego Union-Tribune about the importance of supporting refugee communities in the U.S. during COVID-19 outbreak, including better data collection. “This pandemic may be an opportunity to experience some of the very same feelings and lived experiences that refugees may be living with constantly: the fear of uncertainty, an interrupted life rhythm, threatened survival and a life of scarcity. ... Now is the time for building trust, empowering community partners and refusing to politicize refugees and other vulnerable groups.”

DIGITAL FIRST RESPONDER – A Punjabi language radio station based in California, Punjabi Radio USA, has become a “lifeline” and “digital first responder” for thousands of Punjabi truck drivers during the pandemic — but across the U.S., media outlets serving specific immigrant communities are facing a financial crisis. Daniela Gerson from the City University of New York's Center for Community Media tells Rupa Shenoy for The World, “They're seeing record traffic. But at the same time that they're seeing record traffic, their contracts are being canceled. And the reason is that media outlets serving immigrants depend on other small immigrant businesses for the most part.” For more on the Punjabi trucking community, listen to my interview with Raman Dhillon, head of the North American Punjabi Trucking Association, on a recent episode of “Only in America.”

ESSENTIAL WORKERS – Dr. Kuber Ghimire, an immigrant and physician working in Greensboro, North Carolina, urges his fellow North Carolinians to embrace their immigrant neighbors on the frontlines of the COVID-19 response in an op-ed for the Greensboro News & Record. “It is not just health care workers who are indispensable; the pandemic has shown us how essential those we used to consider ‘low-skilled’ are. My hospital could not provide the quality care it does without the cleaning staff members who keep our facilities clean and hygienic, delivery people who bring us critical supplies, and the caterers and immigrant food workers who keep us and our patients fed.” Along these lines, Jose A. Del Real at The Washington Post highlights the vulnerability of the immigrant community in one of my favorite cities in the country: Chelsea, Massachusetts.

MOTHER’S DAY GIFT – 27-year-old Francisco Morales surprised his mother yesterday with “the best gift a mother could ever ask for” after being released from immigration custody a day earlier than expected, reports Carlos Ballesteros in the Chicago Sun-Times. “Morales has twice been granted asylum, but government prosecutors appealed both rulings. Immigration authorities were unwilling to release Morales as the appeals made their way through the courts, so his lawyers sued for his freedom in federal court last month. They won.”

Thanks for reading,

Ali