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Biden walks stretch of US-Mexico border, amid GOP criticism

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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans try to blame him for the record numbers of migrants crossing into the country.

At his first stop, the president observed as border officers in El Paso demonstrated how they search vehicles for drugs, money and other contraband. Next, he traveled to a dusty street with abandoned buildings and a small playground. Near the street was a metal border fence that separated the U.S. city from Ciudad Juarez. Biden walked slowly along the border wall, initially joined by two Border Patrol agents.

In a sign of the deep tensions over immigration, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, handed Biden a letter upon his arrival in the state that said the “chaos” at the border was a “direct result” of the president’s failure to enforce federal laws. Biden later took the letter out of his jacket pocket during his tour, telling reporters, “I haven’t read it yet.”

Asked what he’s learned by seeing the border firsthand and speaking with the officers who work along it, Biden said: “They need a lot of resources. We’re going to get it for them.”

Immigration for years has been a serious point of conflict, exposing both the dysfunction of the U.S. system as well as the turmoil within migrants’ home countries that has pushed many to flee. Administration officials have tried to counter Republican criticism by saying Congress should work with them to increase border security funding and overhaul immigration policy.

Biden was spending just a few hours in the city, which is currently the biggest corridor for illegal crossings, in large part due to Nicaraguans fleeing repression, crime and poverty in their country. They are among migrants from four countries who are now subject to quick expulsion under new rules enacted by the Biden administration in the past week that drew strong criticism from immigration advocates.

The president also was to visit the El Paso County Migrant Services Center and meet with nonprofits and religious groups that support migrants arriving to the U.S. It was not clear whether he would talk to any migrants.

Biden’s announcement on border security and his visit to the border are aimed in part at quelling the political noise and blunting the impact of upcoming investigations into immigration promised by House Republicans. But any enduring solution will require action by the sharply divided Congress, where multiple efforts to enact sweeping changes have failed in recent years.

From El Paso, Biden was to continue south to Mexico City, where he and the leaders of Mexico and Canada will gather on Monday and Tuesday for a North American leaders summit. Immigration is among the items on the agenda.

In El Paso, where migrants congregate at bus stops and in parks before traveling on, border patrol agents stepped up security before Biden’s visit.

“I think they’re trying to send a message that they’re going to more consistently check people’s documented status, and if you have not been processed they are going to pick you up,” said Ruben Garcia of the Annunciation House aid group in El Paso.

Migrants and asylum-seekers fleeing violence and persecution have increasingly found that protections in the United States are available primarily to those with money or the savvy to find someone to vouch for them financially.

Venezuelan migrant Jose Castillo, who said he traveled without family members for five months from his home on Margarita Island to arrive in El Paso on Dec. 29, said he hoped Biden “will take us into consideration as the human beings we are.”

Castillo was among a group of about 30 migrants who gathered for prayers Sunday morning outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church where many of the newcomers have been camping.

“We have suffered a lot since entering the jungle of the Darien Gap and passing through Mexico. It has all been a battle, battle, battle,” he said. “I know that we are here illegally, but please give us a chance.”

The numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has risen dramatically during Biden’s first two years in office. There were more than 2.38 million stops during the year that ended Sept. 30, the first time the number topped 2 million. The administration has struggled to clamp down on crossings, reluctant to take hard-line measures that would resemble those of former President Donald Trump’s administration.

The policy changes announced this past week are Biden’s biggest move yet to contain illegal border crossings and will turn away tens of thousands of migrants arriving at the border. At the same time, 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti and Venezuela will get the chance to come to the U.S. legally as long as they travel by plane, get a sponsor and pass background checks.

The U.S. will also turn away migrants who do not seek asylum first in a country they traveled through en route to the U.S. Migrants are being asked to complete a form on a phone app so that they they can go to a port of entry at a pre-scheduled date and time.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters aboard Air Force One that the administration is trying to “incentivize a safe and orderly way and cut out the smuggling organizations,” saying the policies are “not a ban at all” but an attempt to protect migrants from the trauma that smuggling can create.

The changes were welcomed by some, particularly leaders in cities where migrants have been massing. But Biden was excoriated by immigrant advocate groups, which accused him of taking measures modeled after those of the former president. Administration officials disputed that characterization.

For all of his international travel over his 50 years in public service, Biden has not spent much time at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The only visit that the White House could point to was Biden’s drive by the border while he was campaigning for president in 2008. He sent Vice President Kamala Harris to El Paso in 2021, but she was criticized for largely bypassing the action, because El Paso wasn’t the center of crossings that it is now.

President Barack Obama made a 2011 trip to El Paso, where he toured border operations and the Paso Del Norte international bridge, but he was later criticized for not going back as tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors crossed into the U.S. from Mexico.

Trump, who made hardening immigration a signature issue, traveled to the border several times. During one visit, he crammed into a small border station to inspect cash and drugs confiscated by agents. During a trip to McAllen, Texas, then the center of a growing crisis, he made one of his most-often repeated claims, that Mexico would pay to build a border wall.

American taxpayers ended up footing the bill after Mexican leaders flatly rejected the idea.

___

Associated Press writers Andres Leighton in El Paso, Texas; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Josh Boak in Washington contributed to this report.

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On eve of Biden’s border visit, migrants fear new rules

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EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Several hundred people marched through the streets of El Paso Saturday afternoon, and when they arrived at a group of migrants huddling outside a church, they sang to them “no estan solos” — “you are not alone.”

Around 300 migrants have taken refuge on sidewalks outside Sacred Heart Church, some of them afraid to seek more formal shelters, advocates say, amid new restrictions meant to crack down on illegal border crossings.

This is the scene that will greet President Joe Biden on his first, politically thorny visit to the southern border Sunday.

The president announced last week that Cubans, Nicaraguans, Haitians and Venezuelans will be expelled to Mexico if they enter the U.S. illegally — an expansion of a pandemic-era immigration policy called Title 42. The new rules will also include offering humanitarian parole for up to 30,000 people a month from those four countries if they apply online and find a financial sponsor.

Biden is scheduled to arrive in El Paso Sunday afternoon before traveling on to Mexico City to meet with North American leaders on Monday and Tuesday.

Dylan Corbett, who runs the nonprofit Hope Border Institute, said the city is experiencing an increasing “climate of fear.”

He said immigration enforcement agencies have already started ratcheting up deportations to Mexico, and he senses a rising level of tension and confusion.

The president’s new policy expands on an existing effort to stop Venezuelans attempting to enter the U.S., which began in October.

Corbett said many Venezuelans have since been left in limbo, putting a strain on local resources. He said expanding those policies to other migrants will only worsen the circumstances for them on the ground.

“It’s a very difficult situation because they can’t go forward and they can’t go back,” he said. People who aren’t processed can’t leave El Paso because of U.S. law enforcement checkpoints; most have traveled thousands of miles from their homelands and refuse to give up and turn around.

“There will be people in need of protection who will be left behind,” Corbett said.

The new restrictions represent a major change to immigration rules that will stand even if the U.S. Supreme Court ends a Trump-era public health law that allows U.S. authorities to turn away asylum-seekers.

El Paso has swiftly become the busiest of the Border Patrol’s nine sectors along the U.S. border with Mexico, occupying the top slots in October and November. Large numbers of Venezuelans began showing up in September, drawn to the relative ease of crossing, robust shelter networks and bus service on both sides of the border, and a major airport to destinations across the United States.

Venezuelans ceased to be a major presence almost overnight after Mexico, under Title 42 authority, agreed on Oct. 12 to accept those who crossed the border illegally into the United States. Nicaraguans have since filled that void. Title 42 restrictions have been applied 2.5 million times to deny migrants a right to seek asylum under U.S. and international law on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

U.S. authorities stopped migrants 53,247 times in November in the El Paso sector, which stretches across 264 miles of desert in West Texas and New Mexico but sees much of its activity in the city of El Paso and suburban Sunland Park, New Mexico. The most recent monthly tally for the sector was more than triple the same period of 2021, with Nicaraguans the top nationality by far, followed by Mexicans, Ecuadoreans, Guatemalans and Cubans.

Many gathered under blankets outside Sacred Heart Church. The church opens its doors at night to families and women, so not all of the hundreds caught in this limbo must sleep outside in the dropping temperatures. Two buses were available for people to warm up and charge their phones. Volunteers come with food and other supplies.

Juan Tovar held a Bible in his hands, his 7-year-old daughter hoisted onto his shoulders. The 32-year-old was a bus driver in Venezuela before he fled with his wife and two daughters because of the political and financial chaos that has consumed their home country.

He has friends in San Antonio prepared to take them in, he said. He’s here to work and provide an education for his daughters, but he’s stuck in El Paso without a permit.

“Everything is in the hands of God,” he said. “We are all humans and we want to stay.”

Another Venezuelan, 22-year-old Jeremy Mejia, overheard and said he had a message he’d like to send to the president.

“President Biden, I ask God to touch your heart so we can stay in this country,” Mejia said. “I ask you to please touch your heart and help us migrants have a better future in the U.S.”

___

Leighton reported from El Paso and Spagat from Yuma, Arizona. AP writer Claire Galofaro contributed to this report from Louisville, Kentucky.

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Biden expands Title 42 expulsions while opening legal path for some migrants

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Washington — President Biden on Thursday announced a revamped migration management strategy that pairs increased expulsions with expanded opportunities for migrants to enter the country legally, in an attempt to reduce record levels of unlawful crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The multi-pronged effort, which one official dubbed a “carrots and sticks” strategy, will allow migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti with U.S.-based financial sponsors to enter the country legally through a program modeled after Biden administration policies that have offered a safe haven to displaced Ukrainians and Venezuleans. 

After passing background checks, eligible migrants from these crisis-stricken countries would be allowed to enter the U.S. under the humanitarian parole authority, which allows beneficiaries to live and work in the U.S. legally on a temporary basis.

This expanded legal pathway, which would be capped at 30,000 admissions each month, would be paired with a deterrence measure designed to discourage illegal entries along the southern border. Migrants from Nicaragua, Cuba and Haiti would face immediate expulsion to Mexico under the Title 42 pandemic-era measure if they cross the U.S. border illegally. Officials said Mexico had consented to 30,000 monthly returns.

For over two years, the Mexican government only accepted the return of its citizens and migrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador expelled from the U.S. under Title 42, a public health law that was first invoked by the Trump administration in early 2020. But in October, the Biden administration convinced Mexico to accept Venezuelan migrants as part of a deal in which the U.S. committed to allowing up to 24,000 Venezuelans to enter the country legally under the parole authority.

President Biden speaks about U.S.-Mexico border security and enforcement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Jan. 5, 2023.

KEVIN LAMARQUE / REUTERS


The dual policies for Venezuelan migrants led to a dramatic drop in the number of Venezuelans entering U.S. border custody, and Biden administration officials pledged to “build on” on the strategy’s success.  

The Biden administration announced additional border-related measures on Thursday, including a proposed regulation that would disqualify migrants from asylum if they crossed the U.S. border illegally after failing to ask for protection in a third country, like Mexico. If enacted, the proposal would allow U.S. border officials to rapidly deport migrants subject to the restriction, even after Title 42 is lifted.

Officials also said they would expand the use of a process known as expedited removal to quickly deport migrants who are not processed under Title 42. The policy, dating back to the 1990s, allows the U.S. to deport migrants without a court hearing if they do not seek asylum or fail to establish credible fear of persecution.

The Department of Homeland Security said it would increase processing of vulnerable asylum-seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border by allowing those migrants to request appointments to enter the country legally at ports of entry through a mobile app. The process will initially allow migrants determined to be vulnerable to request exemptions to the Title 42 and will remain in place after the measure is lifted. Migrants processed at ports of entry would be allowed to work in the U.S. legally.

The expansion of Title 42 to include migrants from Cuba and Nicaragua will be a seismic shift in U.S. policy, as the vast majority of the tens of thousands of Cubans and Nicaraguans processed along the southern border over the past year have been released and allowed to seek asylum because their home countries severely limit U.S. deportations.

Mass exoduses from Cuba and Nicaragua have contributed to record levels of U.S. border apprehensions in the past year. In recent months, arrivals from these countries have surpassed the number of Guatemalan, Honduran and Salvadoran migrants entering U.S. border custody, an unprecedented demographic change. 

The new effort would also represent a dramatic and unprecedented expansion of the parole authority, which the Biden administration has already used to resettle tens of thousands of refugees from Afghanistan and Ukraine.

U.S. law allows immigration officials to use the parole authority to admit immigrants who otherwise don’t have legal permission, such as a visa, to enter the U.S., if their entry is deemed to be justified on humanitarian or public interest grounds.

The humanitarian crisis along the southern border has become a political liability for Mr. Biden, who has been accused by Republicans of ignoring the issue. They’ve also argued the record border arrivals reported over the past two years stem from the Biden administration’s decision to reverse some Trump-era policies, including a program that required certain migrants to wait for their asylum hearings in Mexico.

An aerial view of the Mexican and American flags fly over an international bridge as immigrants line up next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum on Dec. 22, 2022, in El Paso, Texas.

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In fiscal year 2022, U.S. Border Patrol agents stopped migrants 2.2 million times along the southern border, an all-time high that surpassed the record set the previous year, federal figures show. More than 1 million of those encounters resulted in migrants being expelled from the U.S. under Title 42.

While it revoked some of the Trump administration’s asylum restrictions, the Biden administration maintained Title 42 for over a year, defending the Trump-era argument that the policy was needed to control the spread of COVID-19.

In April 2022, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it would stop authorizing Title 42 due to improving pandemic conditions, including higher vaccination rates. But a group of Republican-led states convinced a federal judge in Louisiana to block the rule’s termination on procedural grounds. 

Then, on Nov. 15, another federal judge declared Title 42 unlawful, saying the CDC had not properly explained the policy’s public health rationale or considered its impact on asylum-seekers. At the request of the Biden administration, the judge gave border officials 5 weeks, until Dec. 21, to end Title 42.

Nineteen Republican-led states asked several courts to delay Title 42’s rescission indefinitely, warning that chaos would ensue otherwise. After their request was denied by lower courts, the states asked the Supreme Court to intervene.

On Dec. 27, the Supreme Court said it would suspend the lower court order that found Title 42 to be illegal until it decided whether the Republican-led states should be allowed to intervene in the case, likely postponing the policy’s termination for months.

Camilo Montoya-Galvez

Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.

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More migrants dropped outside vice president’s home in freezing weather on Christmas Eve

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CNN
 — 

Several busloads of migrants were dropped off in front of Vice President Kamala Harris’ residence in Washington, DC, on Christmas Eve in 18 degree weather late Saturday.

An initial two busloads were taken to local shelters, according to an administration official. More buses arrived outside the vice president’s residence later Saturday evening. A CNN team saw migrants being dropped off, with some migrants wearing only T-shirts in the freezing weather. They were given blankets and put on another bus that went to a local church.

Tatiana Laborde, managing director of SAMU First Response, said her group was prepared for Saturday night’s arrivals. Busloads of migrants have been arriving in Washington weekly since April.

“The DC community has been welcoming buses from Texas anytime they’ve come since April,” she said. “Christmas Eve and freezing cold weather is no different. We are always here welcoming folks with open arms.”

It’s not clear who is responsible for sending the migrants to the Naval Observatory, though CNN reported earlier this year that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had sent buses of migrants north, including to a location outside Harris’ home.

Abbott is one of at least three Republican governors who have taken credit for busing or flying migrants north this year to protest the Biden administration’s immigration policies. He previously confirmed in September that his state had sent the buses to Harris’ residence at that time.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

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Mike Lee, Title 42 drama holds up omnibus passage

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An effort led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to maintain Title 42 is threatening efforts to pass a sweeping government funding bill before a shutdown deadline later this week.

Congressional negotiators on both sides say the biggest holdup is ongoing negotiations to decide what the voting threshold would be to pass the amendment.

Lee’s amendment to the bipartisan deal would cut funding for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s office unless the Biden administration reinstates the border control policy known as Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allows for migrants to be quickly expelled at the border without asylum processing.

The administration may not be able to fully reinstate the policy, as its permanence is currently under review by the Supreme Court, after having been found illegal by a federal judge.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), chair of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, took aim at the push, while raising concerns about its chances of passing a Democratic-led House.  

“We have a difference of opinion on immigration policy. We’re not going to solve that in this budget,” he told reporters late Wednesday. “And to let that disagreement take down aid to Ukraine to keep people alive during a cold winter, especially tonight, is pretty unthinkable.”

The hold-up scuttled tentative hopes the Senate would be able to vote on the government funding bill overnight, though late Wednesday Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said he thought the chamber may be able to move forward on the bill Thursday morning.

“There’s been some progress made. … I wouldn’t say breakthrough yet,” he said.

Title 42 was due to end Wednesday, but a group of GOP-led states successfully got Chief Justice John Roberts to delay that sunset on Monday.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration, which had appealed the federal judge’s order to end Title 42, asked Roberts to go ahead with ending the policy, which was based on an expired public health order issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Title 42 was originally put in place in 2020 by the Trump administration under the guise of pandemic public health protections, but subsequent reports have revealed that the CDC was pressured politically to issue the public health order by then-White House advisor Stephen Miller.

Under the policy, many migrants who arrive at the border can be summarily expelled without being screened for asylum claims.

U.S. officials have carried out around 2.5 million expulsions under the policy, nearly two million of which have been carried out by the Biden administration.

While Title 42 allowed for speedy expulsions, the regular border protocol known as Title 8 allows for expedited removals of certain migrants, and also allows for border officials to refer migrants for criminal prosecution for repeat illegal entries.

The Biden administration had staunchly implemented and defended Title 42 until Tuesday, when it asked Roberts to lift his stay, but Republicans have nonetheless consistently used the policy to attack the administration.

A Senate Democratic aide said conversations are still ongoing with Republicans, while claiming Lee’s “goal is to kill” the omnibus amid speculation such an amendment couldn’t pass the House.

Lee’s latest push comes as Republicans have once again pulled attention to the border, and as Lee and a group of Senate Republicans look to sidetrack the long term budget deal.

GOP backers behind the push say the delay is necessary to allow the incoming GOP-led House more sway in government funding talks. However, there are many Republicans in the Senate who are pushing instead for Congress to pass an omnibus before year’s end, citing concerns about funding for areas like defense. 

Updated at 10:58 p.m.

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Two migrant buses arrived in New York City, with several more expected in the next few days

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CNN
 — 

As New York continues to grapple with a growing influx of asylum-seekers, two buses carrying migrants arrived in the city Sunday, with at least 10 to 15 more buses expected over the next few days, according to an email from Mayor Eric Adam’s office obtained by CNN.

The email sent Sunday to New York City Council members and staff warned the city’s shelter system is already at capacity as an increase in migrant arrivals is expected over the next few days.

The surge is expected as a Trump-era public health border policy known as Title 42 is set to end Wednesday. Invoked at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, Title 42 allowed officials to turn away migrants encountered at the southern border.

“Please be advised that due to the lifting of Title 42 later this week, the City is expecting a higher amount of asylum-seekers buses beginning today, with 2 buses today and 10-15 more expected in the next few days,” the email reads.

Fabien Levy, Adams’ press secretary, confirmed buses arrived in the city Sunday, but declined to say how many migrants were on board or what was specifically expected this week. He did say, “We’ve been told it’s going to ramp up this week.”

A district court struck down Title 42 last month and a federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by several Republican-led states to keep it in place.

New York should expect more than 1,000 additional asylum-seekers to arrive every week, the mayor said Sunday.

Since spring, thousands of asylum-seekers have been bused to the city from the southern border, often at the direction of officials – including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott – who have been critical of federal border policies.

More than 31,000 migrants have gone through the city’s migrant intake center as of December 14, and at least 21,400 are currently in the city’s homeless shelters or at four hotels operating as humanitarian emergency relief centers. The city has also opened 60 emergency shelter sites.

New York has been dealing with the crush of asylum-seekers for months, and the increase since the last budget adoption has driven a “historic surge” in the number of people living in city shelters, according to the city Comptroller’s Annual State of the City’s Economy and Finances report, released Thursday.

In October, Adams declared a state of emergency to what he called a “man-made humanitarian crisis,” saying the crowds seeking asylum were arriving faster than the city could accommodate them.

Adams has urged state and federal officials to help pay for the costs the city is facing as more migrants continue to arrive. Already, the city has spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars, he said.

New York is hoping to receive $3 billion from the federal government through 2026 to help handle the flood of migrants, according to the comptroller’s report.

The report adds the federal government has not confirmed it will support New York with the annual $1 billion, but the money is needed for services to support arriving migrants and those already in shelters who need permanent housing.

Denver, Colorado, is also struggling to provide shelter for a growing number of migrant arrivals.

Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock declared a state of emergency Thursday in response to the surge of migrants arriving from the southern border.

“With hundreds of new migrants now in Denver, and several hundred arriving in just the past few days alone, the city’s efforts to shelter them is under severe pressure due to limited space and staffing,” the mayor’s office said in a written statement.

On Sunday, 90 migrants arrived in Denver overnight, according to data released by the City and County of Denver.

Denver city services have served around 984 migrants since Dec. 9, the data shows, with 358 people sheltered in city emergency migrant shelters and another 157 people at partner emergency shelters.

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El Paso mayor declares state of emergency in response to migrant surge

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CNN
 — 

El Paso, Texas, Mayor Oscar Leeser declared a state of emergency on Saturday evening following a surge of migrants who have recently arrived in the community and he says are living in unsafe conditions.

The mayor, who had previously declined to issue a state of emergency, said “hundreds” of migrants are on the streets in unsafe conditions while temperatures are beginning to drop, and things could get much worse when a Trump-era border policy is lifted Wednesday, which federal officials expect will lead to an increase in migrant arrivals.

“We know that the influx on Wednesday will be incredible,” the mayor said in a news conference, adding later some officials have estimated the number of arriving migrants could more than double after December 21.

Considering all those factors, “we felt it was a proper time today to call a state of emergency,” he added.

Earlier this week, a senior Border Patrol official said more than 2,400 migrants crossed into the US near El Paso daily over the weekend, describing the number as a “major surge in illegal crossings” in the area.

While those numbers climb and the region’s resources are already severely strained, Wednesday will also mark the court-ordered end of Title 42, a policy which has, since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, allowed officials to turn away migrants encountered at the southern border.

The deadline has federal officials bracing for a further increase in border crossings.

El Paso’s mayor said he previously did not call an emergency because local leaders and other partners had been able to respond to the arrivals, but, he added, it is no longer the case.

“I said from the beginning, that I would call it when I felt that either our asylum-seekers, or our community, was not safe,” Leeser said Saturday. “I really believe that today our asylum-seekers are not safe as we have hundreds and hundreds on the streets and that’s not the way we want to treat people.”

The declaration will allow local leaders to request additional resources from the state like personnel shelters and transportation, the city said in a news release.

An Emergency Operations Center will also be activated and emergency management plans will be put in place to help “protect the health, safety and welfare of the migrants and our community.”

The city added teams have already been deployed in the downtown area who are helping migrants arrange transportation and offering them shelter.

Speaking with CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Saturday morning, before the mayor’s news conference, one El Paso official said the city’s resources were already strained, and he worried what the lifting of Title 42 on Wednesday would mean.

About “a few hundred” migrants daily have recently been getting released on the city’s streets, said Mario D’Agostino, El Paso’s deputy city manager.

“As Title 42 goes away, how’s that going to add to it?” D’Agostino said.

Many of the migrants who are coming into El Paso are not looking to stay, he said, but the city’s infrastructure was struggling to support the crowds pouring in and trickling out.

“We do have a moderate-sized airport, we have a couple of smaller bus terminals, but that’s not enough to keep up with normal holiday traffic,” D’Agostino said.

Now on top of that traffic, hundreds of migrants are looking to leave the city daily. “We don’t have the infrastructure – the flights out of El Paso, the buses out of El Paso – to keep up with this flow.”

During the evening news conference D’Agostino said the declaration will allow city officials to tap in to larger sheltering operations, work with nonprofit organizations who are looking to assist, and help provide them with appropriate facilities, among other things.

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El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser declares state of emergency ahead of Title 42 lifting

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The mayor of El Paso declared a state of emergency Saturday ahead of Wednesday’s deadline to lift a COVID-era policy that is expected to result in more than 6,000 migrants crossing the border a day into an already overwhelmed city where hundreds are already sleeping on the streets.

“Our asylum seekers are not safe,” said El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser at a specially called press conference to announce the emergency measures. “We have hundreds and hundreds on the street and that’s not the way we treat our people.”

Temperatures have dipped into the 20s in the city, he said, and migrants who have been released into the city are sleeping on downtown streets.

“I want to make sure that people are treated with dignity,” Leeser said, adding that he made the decision to call a state of emergency after a conference call with federal, state and municipal officials. The city government is working with local non-profits that are helping newly arrived migrants travel to other parts of the country where many have family.

Temperatures in the city have dipped into the 20s.
James Keivom
Title 42 allowed border authorities to turn back almost all apprehended migrants to Mexico.
James Keivom


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Migrants who have been released into El Paso are sleeping on the streets.
James Keivom
More than 1,500 migrants have already been crossing the border into the Texas city daily.
James Keivom


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“We all talked about what was best for our community,” he said, adding that more than 1,500 migrants have been crossing the border daily into the city ahead of the Dec. 21 lifting of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that saw migrants sent back into Mexico.

The sober press conference was in sharp contrast to the one called on Thursday. Leeser walked off with the microphone to avoid answering questions after he was challenged about not calling a state of emergency to cope with the migrant influx. At the time, he said that the federal government had promised the beleaguered city $6 million to help it cope with the crisis.

El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser did not rule out using a military base to house some of the migrants.
James Keivom

“We were able to get the funding without having to [declare an emergency],” Leeser claimed Thursday.

On Saturday, Leeser did not rule out using a nearby military base to house some of the migrants, and that the city was cooperating with state and federal authorities to address the situation.

“This is bigger than El Paso,” said Leeser. “Everyday the situation changes. We have to adapt to different things day in and day out.”

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Title 42: Appeals court rejects bid by GOP-led states to keep Trump-era border policy in force

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CNN
 — 

A federal appeals court on Friday rejected a bid by several Republican-led states to keep the so-called Title 42 rule in force, after a district court struck the controversial Trump-era border policy down.

The new ruling from the DC Circuit US Court of Appeals sets the stage for the case to go to the Supreme Court. The Biden administration is set to stop enforcing Title 42 – which allows for the expulsion of migrants at the US-Mexico border – on Wednesday.

The Republican-led states previously indicated that if the appeals court ruled against them, they’d seek the intervention of the Supreme Court.

In the new order, the DC Circuit denied the states’ request to intervene in the case and dismissed as moot the states’ request that it put the lower court’s ruling on hold.

The unsigned order was handed down by a circuit panel made up of an Obama appointee, a Trump appointee and a Biden appointee.

They wrote that the “inordinate and unexplained untimeliness” of the states’ request to get involved in the case “weighs decisively against intervention.”

The case is a lawsuit the American Civil Liberties Union, representing several migrants brought In January 2021 challenging the program. The appeals court noted on Friday that the Republican-led states had long known that their interest in keeping the policy in force would diverge from the Biden administration’s approach to the case.

The appeals court wrote that “more than eight months ago, the federal government issued an order terminating the Title 42 policy.”

“Yet these long-known-about differing interests in preserving Title 42—a decision of indisputable consequence—are the only reasons the States now provide for wanting to intervene for the first time on appeal,” the DC Circuit said. “Nowhere in their papers do they explain why they waited eight to fourteen months to move to intervene.”

The ACLU attorney representing the migrants praised the court’s decision.

“The states are clearly and wrongly trying to use Title 42 to restrict asylum and not for the law’s intended public health purposes,” the attorney, Lee Gelernt, told CNN in an email. “Many of these states were vigorously opposed to past COVID restrictions but suddenly believe there is a need for restrictions when it comes to migrants fleeing danger.”

White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said after the ruling that the administration has a “robust effort underway” for managing the border following the policy’s expected lifting next week.

“To be clear: the lifting of the Title 42 public health order does not mean the border is open. Anyone who suggests otherwise is doing the work of smugglers spreading misinformation to make a quick buck off of vulnerable migrants,” Hasan said in a statement. “We will continue to fully enforce our immigration laws and work to expand legal pathways for migration while discouraging disorderly and unsafe migration. We have a robust effort underway to manage the border in a safe, orderly, and humane way when Title 42 lifts as required by court order.”

The White House also urged Republicans in Congress to agree to more border funding and work on comprehensive immigration reform. The Biden administration has asked Congress for more than $3 billion as it prepares for the end of Title 42 to help shore up resources for border management and technology.

The administration’s handling of Title 42, which the Trump administration put in place during the Covid-19 pandemic, has been the target of litigation from both supporters and opponents of the program.

Last month, US District Judge Emmet Sullivan struck down the program. But Sullivan put his ruling on hold for five weeks so that the Biden administration would have time to prepare for the policy’s wind down. The administration has also appealed the ruling, arguing that the program was lawful, even if federal public health authorities have determined it is no longer necessary.

As the December 21 deadline for Sullivan’s ruling to go into effect approaches, officials have been preparing for a surge of migrants. More than 1 million migrants have been expelled under the rule, which is a public health authority the Trump administration began using at start of the Covid-19 pandemic to expel migrants before they went through the asylum application process.

Republican-led states, in their attempts to intervene in the case, allege that allowing the policy to terminate would “cause an enormous disaster at the border.”

They have argued that the “greatly increased number of migrants that such a termination will occasion will necessarily increase the States’ law enforcement, education, and healthcare costs.”

The Biden administration opposed the states’ attempt to intervene and their request to keep the policy in place, calling the requests untimely and unjustified.

“The States could have sought to intervene after the CDC acted to terminate the Title 42 orders in April 2022,” the administration wrote.

The migrants who challenged the program in the case also opposed the states’ request, writing in a court filing that the states were “transparently interested in Title 42 as a restriction on immigration and asylum” rather than as a public health measure.

The Biden administration tried to wind down the Title 42 program in 2021, but a coalition of mostly GOP-led states – in a separate case filed in Louisiana – successfully sued to block the Department of Homeland Security from ending enforcement.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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World

Taiwan’s military has a problem: As China fears grow, recruitment pool shrinks

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Taipei, Taiwan
CNN
 — 

Taiwan has noticed a hole in its defense plans that is steadily getting bigger. And it’s not one easily plugged by boosting the budget or buying more weapons.

The island democracy of 23.5 million is facing an increasing challenge in recruiting enough young men to meet its military targets and its Interior Ministry has suggested the problem is – at least in part – due to its stubbornly low birth rate.

Taiwan’s population fell for the first time in 2020, according to the ministry, which warned earlier this year that the 2022 military intake would be the lowest in a decade and that a continued drop in the youth population would pose a “huge challenge” for the future.

That’s bad news at a time when Taiwan is trying to bolster its forces to deter any potential invasion by China, whose ruling Communist Party has been making increasingly belligerent noises about its determination to “reunify” with the self-governed island – which it has never controlled – by force if necessary.

And the outlook has darkened further with the release of a new report by Taiwan’s National Development Council projecting that by 2035 the island can expect roughly 20,000 fewer births per year than the 153,820 it recorded in 2021. By 2035, Taiwan will also overtake South Korea as the jurisdiction with the world’s lowest birth rate, the report added.

Such projections are feeding into a debate over whether the government should increase the period of mandatory military service that eligible young men must serve. Currently, the island has a professional military force made up of 162,000 (as of June this year) – 7,000 fewer than the target, according to a report by the Legislative Yuan. In addition to that number, all eligible men must serve four months of training as reservists.

Changing the mandatory service requirement would be a major U-turn for Taiwan, which had previously been trying to cut down on conscription and shortened the mandatory service from 12 months as recently as 2018. But on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Minister of National Defence Chiu Kuo-cheng said such plans would be made public before the end of the year.

That news has met with opposition among some young students in Taiwan, who have voiced their frustrations on PTT, Taiwan’s version of Reddit, even if there is support for the move among the wider public.

A poll by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation in March this year found that most Taiwanese agreed with a proposal to lengthen the service period. It found that 75.9% of respondents thought it reasonable to extend it to a year; only 17.8% were opposed.

Many experts argue there is simply no other option.

Su Tzu-yun, a director of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that before 2016, the pool of men eligible to join the military – either as career soldiers or as reservists – was about 110,000. Since then, he said, the number had declined every year and the pool would likely be as low as 74,000 by 2025.

And within the next decade, Su said, the number of young adults available for recruitment by the Taiwanese military could drop by as much as a third.

“This is a national security issue for us,” he said. “The population pool is decreasing, so we are actively considering whether to resume conscription to meet our military needs.

“We are now facing an increasing threat (from China), and we need to have more firepower and manpower.”

Taiwan’s low birth rate – 0.98 – is far below the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, but it is no outlier in East Asia.

In November, South Korea broke its own world record when its birth rate dropped to 0.79, while Japan’s fell to 1.3 and mainland China hit 1.15.

Even so, experts say the trend poses a unique problem for Taiwan’s military, given the relative size of the island and the threats it faces.

China has been making increasingly aggressive noises toward the island since August, when then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi controversially visited Taipei. Not long after she landed in Taiwan, Beijing also launched a series of unprecedented military exercises around the island.

Since then, the temperature has remained high – particularly as Chinese leader Xi Jinping told a key Communist Party meeting in October that “reunification” was inevitable and that he reserves the option of taking “all measures necessary.”

Chang Yan-ting, a former deputy commander of Taiwan’s air force, said that while low birth rates were common across East Asia, “the situation in Taiwan is very different” as the island was facing “more and more pressure (from China) and the situation will become more acute.”

“The United States has military bases in Japan and South Korea, while Singapore does not face an acute military threat from its neighbors. Taiwan faces the greatest threat and declining birth rate will make the situation even more serious,” he added.

Roy Lee, a deputy executive director at Taiwan’s Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research, agreed that the security threats facing Taiwan were greater than those in the rest of the region.

“The situation is more challenging for Taiwan, because our population base is smaller than other countries facing similar problems,” he added.

Taiwan’s population is 23.5 million, compared to South Korea’s 52 million, Japan’s 126 million and China’s 1.4 billion.

Besides the shrinking recruitment pool, the decline in the youth population could also threaten the long-term performance of Taiwan’s economy – which is itself a pillar of the island’s defense.

Taiwan is the world’s 21st largest economy, according to the London-based Centre for Economics and Business Research, and had a GDP of $668.51 billion last year.

Much of its economic heft comes from its leading role in the supply of semiconductor chips, which play an indispensable role in everything from smartphones to computers.

Taiwan’s homegrown semiconductor giant TSMC is perceived as being so valuable to the global economy – as well as to China – that it is sometimes referred to as forming part of a “silicon shield” against a potential military invasion by Beijing, as its presence would give a strong incentive to the West to intervene.

Lee noted that population levels are closely intertwined with gross domestic product, a broad measure of economic activity. A population decline of 200,000 people could result in a 0.4% decline in GDP, all else being equal, he said.

“It is very difficult to increase GDP by 0.4%, and would require a lot of effort. So the fact that a declining population can take away that much growth is big,” he said.

Taiwan’s government has brought in a series of measures aimed at encouraging people to have babies, but with limited success.

It pays parents a monthly stipend of 5,000 Taiwan dollars (US$161) for their first baby, and a higher amount for each additional one.

Since last year, pregnant women have been eligible for seven days of leave for obstetrics checks prior to giving birth.

Outside the military, in the wider economy, the island has been encouraging migrant workers to fill job vacancies.

Statistics from the National Development Council showed that about 670,000 migrant workers were in Taiwan at the end of last year – comprising about 3% of the population.

Most of the migrant workers are employed in the manufacturing sector, the council said, the vast majority of them from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Lee said in the long term the Taiwanese government would likely have to reform its immigration policies to bring in more migrant workers.

Still, there are those who say Taiwan’s low birth rate is no reason to panic, just yet.

Alice Cheng, an associate professor in sociology at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, cautioned against reading too much into population trends as they were affected by so many factors.

She pointed out that just a few decades ago, many demographers were warning of food shortages caused by a population explosion.

And even if the low birth rate endured, that might be no bad thing if it were a reflection of an improvement in women’s rights, she said.

“The educational expansion that took place in the 70s and 80s in East Asia dramatically changed women’s status. It really pushed women out of their homes because they had knowledge, education and career prospects,” she said.

“The next thing you see globally is that once women’s education level improved, fertility rates started declining.”

“All these East Asian countries are really scratching their head and trying to think about policies and interventions to boost fertility rates,” she added.

“But if that’s something that really, (women) don’t want, can you push them to do that?”

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