TIJUANA, Mexico: A first group of 25 asylum seekers crossed the US border Friday under President Joe Biden’s sweeping immigration reforms, while thousands more waited in Mexico hoping that they, too, would be allowed in.
Under former president Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” program, tens of thousands of non-Mexican asylum seekers — mostly from Central America — were sent back over the border pending the outcome of their applications.
Biden’s administration moved quickly to start dismantling the controversial policy, officially called the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), with a first stage that began on Friday.
A group of 25 migrants crossed the border by bus from the Mexican city of Tijuana accompanied by representatives of UN refugee agency UNHCR, according to an AFP journalist.
A shelter official in San Diego, who asked not to be named, later confirmed that they had arrived at a hotel there, although their final destinations were unknown.
The American Civil Liberties Union welcomed their arrival as “an important step in rebuilding” the US asylum system.
“But thousands are still suffering right now stuck in limbo under this inhumane policy,” ACLU San Diego spokesman Edward Sifuentes said.
“We urge the administration to quicken the process to safely welcome all people who suffered under MPP. For the families who have been forced to live in danger, there is no more time to wait.”
According to the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), there are approximately 25,000 active cases. Mexico says 6,000 remain on its territory.
Candidates are tested for the coronavirus before crossing, a senior DHS official said.
Only those who have begun the process of applying for asylum will be considered for entry.
Tensions were high on the border as migrants waited to see if they would be allowed to cross over.
“Nobody knows anything. There’s tension. Stress is mounting,” Cuban lawyer Joel Fernandez said.
The 52-year-old crossed 11 countries to arrive in January 2020 in a camp in Matamoros across the border from Texas where he is staying with hundreds more migrants.
“I’ve withstood all the tests that God put in front of me on this difficult journey,” he said.
“Now I want the prize: to have my residency, to work, to bring my wife, my children.”
In Tijuana, hundreds of migrants spent the night next to the border fence hoping to be allowed in.
But most recognized that they had not yet initiated an asylum procedure.
“The truth is I don’t have an appointment,” said Haitian migrant Geraldine Nacice, who has family waiting for her in the United States.
“I can’t go back to my country any more. There’s war in Haiti right now,” she said, referring to the political turmoil shaking her country.
The “Remain in Mexico” program was part of Trump’s hard-line plan to fight undocumented immigration, along with the construction of a border wall and a policy which separated children from thousands of migrant families.
After Biden took office on January 20, his administration announced that it would reverse the most controversial measures.
On Thursday, Biden’s Democrats unveiled legislation for his plan to create a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants already living in the United States.
In the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, a 37-year-old who fled domestic abuse in El Salvador with her four children said she was optimistic things would get better under Biden.
The woman, who asked not to be named for safety reasons, had a US court hearing in December 2019.
But the pandemic and Trump’s tough immigration policies mean her asylum case has seen little progress.
Her dream is for her children to have a good education.
“It’s hard to tell your children that everything is going to be fine when you feel like the world is crashing down on you,” she said.
Asylum seekers begin entering US under Biden reforms
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Asylum seekers begin entering US under Biden reforms
Philippines, United States sign military intelligence-sharing deal
- Visiting US Defense Secretary LLoyd Austin and his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, signed the agreement
- The two countries have a mutual defense treaty dating back to 1951
MANILA: The Philippines and the United States signed on Monday a military intelligence-sharing deal in a further deepening of defense ties between the two nations facing common security challenges in the region.
Visiting US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed the agreement with his Philippine counterpart, Gilberto Teodoro, at Manila’s military headquarters where both officials also broke ground for a combined coordination center that will facilitate collaboration between their armed forces.
Called the General Security of Military Information Agreement or GSOMIA, the pact allows both countries to share classified military information securely.
“Not only will this allow the Philippines access to higher capabilities and big-ticket items from the United States, it will also open opportunities to pursue similar agreements with like-minded nations,” said Philippines’ defense ministry spokesperson Arsenio Andolong.
Security engagements between the United States and the Philippines have deepened under President Joe Biden and his Philippine counterpart Ferdinand Marcos Jr, with both leaders keen to counter what they see as China’s aggressive policies in the South China Sea and near Taiwan.
The two countries have a mutual defense treaty dating back to 1951, which could be invoked if either side came under attack, including in the South China Sea.
“I want to start by underscoring our ironclad commitment to the Philippines,” Austin said during the groundbreaking ceremony for the coordination center.
Austin said the coordination center should enable real-time information sharing between the two defense treaty allies and boost interoperability.
It will be a place where our forces can work side by side to respond to regional challenges,” Austin said.
The Philippines has expressed confidence the alliance will remain strong under incoming US president-elect Donald Trump.
Both the Philippines and the United States face increasingly aggressive actions from China in the South China Sea, a conduit for more than $3 trillion in annual ship-borne commerce, which it claims almost entirely as its own.
In 2016 the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague said China’s claims had no legal basis, siding with the Philippines which brought the case.
But China has rejected the ruling, leading to a series of sea and air confrontations with the Philippines that have turned the highly strategic South China Sea into a potential flashpoint between Washington and Beijing.
“The United States’ presence in the Indo Pacific region is essential for maintaining peace and stability in this region,” Teodoro said during the inauguration, echoing previous remarks made by Marcos.
India’s capital shuts schools because of smog
- Authorities hope by keeping children at home via online classes in Indian capital, traffic and pollution will be significantly reduced
- Levels of PM2.5 pollutants, dangerous cancer-causing microparticles, were recorded 57 times WHO’s recommended daily maximum
NEW DELHI: India’s capital New Delhi switched schools to online classes Monday until further notice because of worsening toxic smog, the latest bid to ease the sprawling megacity’s health crisis.
Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — were recorded at 57 times above the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum on Sunday evening.
They stood around 39 times above warning limits at dawn on Monday, with a dense grey and acrid smog smothering the city.
The city is blanketed in acrid smog each year, primarily blamed on stubble burning by farmers in neighboring regions to clear their fields for plowing, as well as factories and traffic fumes.
The restrictions were put in place by city authorities “in an effort to prevent further deterioration” of the air quality.
Authorities hope by keeping children at home, traffic will be significantly reduced.
“Physical classes shall be discontinued for all students, apart from Class 10 and 12,” Chief Minister Atishi, who uses one name, said in a statement late Sunday.
Primary schools were already ordered to cease in-person classes on Thursday, with a raft of further restrictions imposed on Monday, including limiting diesel-powered trucks and construction.
The government urged children and the elderly, as well as those with lung or heart issues “to stay indoors as much as possible.”
Many in the city cannot afford air filters, nor do they have homes they can effectively seal from the misery of foul-smelling air blamed for thousands of premature deaths.
The orders came into force on Monday morning.
New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area, home to more than 30 million people, consistently tops world rankings for air pollution in winter.
Cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds worsen the situation by trapping deadly pollutants each winter, stretching from mid-October until at least January.
India’s Supreme Court last month ruled that clean air was a fundamental human right, ordering both the central government and state-level authorities to take action.
Trial to begin in human smuggling case after freezing deaths of Indian family at Canada-US border
- The family, from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state, is believed to have spent hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions
- The US Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending September 30
FERGUS FALLS, Minnesota: A criminal network stretching from India to Canada made money smuggling families seeking better lives in the United States, including a man who died holding his 3-year-old son in gusting snow and bone-chilling temperatures two years ago, federal prosecutors plan to argue at a trial starting Monday in Minnesota.
Prosecutors have accused Indian national Harshkumar Ramanlal Patel, 29, of running the scheme and Steve Shand, 50, of Florida of waiting in a truck for 11 migrants, including the couple and two children who died after they tried to walk across the border to the US
Prosecutors say Patel recruited Shand at a casino near their homes in Deltona, Florida, just north of Orlando.
Jagdish Patel, 39, died along with his wife, Vaishaliben, who was in her mid-30s, and with their 11-year-old daughter, Vihangi and their 3-year-old son Dharmik. Patel is a common Indian surname and the victims were not related to Harshkumar Patel, who has pleaded not guilty, as has Shand.
The family, from the village of Dingucha in Gujarat state, is believed to have spent hours wandering fields in blizzard conditions as the wind chill reached minus 36 Fahrenheit (minus 38 Celsius). Canadian authorities found the Patels’ frozen bodies on the morning of Jan. 19, 2022. Jagdish Patel was holding Dharmik, who was wrapped in a blanket.
Federal prosecutors say Patel and Shand were part of an operation that scouted clients in India, got them Canadian student visas, arranged transportation and smuggled them into the US, mostly through Washington state or Minnesota.
The US Border Patrol arrested more than 14,000 Indians on the Canadian border in the year ending Sept. 30. By 2022, the Pew Research Center estimates there were more than 725,000 Indians living illegally in the US, behind only Mexicans and El Salvadorans.
Harshkumar Patel’s attorney, Thomas Leinenweber, told The Associated Press that his client came to America to escape poverty and build a better life for himself and now “stands unjustly accused of participating in this horrible crime. He has faith in the justice system of his adopted country and believes that the truth will come out at the trial.” Attorneys for Shand did not return messages.
Court documents filed by prosecutors show Patel was in the US illegally after being refused a US visa at least five times.
Over a five-week period, court documents say, Patel and Shand often communicated about the bitter cold as they smuggled five groups of Indians over a quiet stretch of border. One night in December 2021, Shand messaged Patel that it was “cold as hell” while waiting to pick up one group, the documents say.
“They going to be alive when they get here?” he allegedly wrote.
During the last trip in January, Shand had messaged Patel, saying: “Make sure everyone is dressed for the blizzard conditions, please,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Shand told investigators that Patel paid him about $25,000 for the five trips.
Jagdish Patel grew up in Dingucha. He and family lived with his parents. The couple were schoolteachers, according to local news reports.
Satveer Chaudhary is a Minneapolis-based immigration attorney who has helped migrants exploited by motel owners, many of them Gujaratis. He said smugglers and shady business interests promised many migrants an American dream that doesn’t exist when they arrive.
“The promises of the almighty dollar lead many people to take unwarranted risks with their own dignity, and as we’re finding out here, their own lives,” Chaudary said.
Sri Lanka reappoints Amarasuriya as prime minister
- Dissanayake, whose leftist coalition won 159 seats in the 225-member parliament in general election, also reappointed veteran legislator Vijitha Herath
COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake reappointed Harini Amarasuriya as the prime minister of the Indian Ocean island nation on Monday.
Dissanayake, whose leftist coalition won 159 seats in the 225-member parliament in general election, also reappointed veteran legislator Vijitha Herath to helm the foreign affairs ministry.
Dissanayake did not name a new finance minister during Monday’s swearing-in, signaling that he will keep the key finance portfolio himself as he had done in September after winning the presidential election.
A political outsider in a country dominated by family parties for decades, Dissanayake comfortably won the island’s presidential election in September and named Amarasuriya as prime minister while picking Herath to helm foreign affairs.
But his Marxist-leaning National People’s Power (NPP) coalition had just three seats in parliament, prompting him to dissolve it and seek a fresh mandate in Thursday’s snap election.
The president leaned toward policy continuity as the sweeping mandate in general elections handed Dissanayake the legislative power to push through his plans to fight poverty and graft in the island nation recovering from a financial meltdown.
A nation of 22 million, Sri Lanka was crushed by a 2022 economic crisis triggered by a severe shortage of foreign currency that pushed it into a sovereign default and caused its economy to shrink by 7.3 percent in 2022 and 2.3 percent last year.
While the strong mandate will strengthen political stability in the South Asian country, some uncertainty on policy direction remains due to Dissanayake’s promises to try and tweak terms of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescue program that bailed the country out of its economic crisis, analysts said.
Some Arab Americans who voted for Trump are concerned about his picks for key positions
- The selections have prompted mixed reactions among Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan, which went for Trump along with all six other battleground states
- Beyond promising peace in the Middle East, Trump has offered few concrete details on how he plans to achieve it
LANSING: Just a week after winning a majority of the vote in several of the nation’s largest Arab-majority cities, President-elect Donald Trump has filled top administration posts with staunch Israel supporters, including an ambassador to Israel who has claimed “there is no such thing as Palestinians.”
Meanwhile, the two Trump advisers who led his outreach to Arab Americans have not secured positions in the administration yet.
The selections have prompted mixed reactions among Arab Americans and Muslims in Michigan, which went for Trump along with all six other battleground states. Some noted Trump’s longstanding support for Israel and said their vote against Vice President Kamala Harris was not necessarily an endorsement of him. Others who openly supported him say he will be the final decisionmaker on policy and hope he will keep his promise of achieving an end to the conflicts in the Middle East.
Albert Abbas, a Lebanese American leader whose brother owns the Dearborn, Michigan, restaurant Trump visited in the campaign’s final days, stood beside the former president during that visit and spoke in support of him.
Now, Abbas says it’s “too early” to judge Trump and that “we all need to take a deep breath, take a step back and let him do the work that he needs to do to to achieve this peace.”
“I just want you to think about what the alternative was,” said Abbas, referring to the current administration’s handling of Israel’s war in Gaza and its invasion of Lebanon. He added, “What did you expect from myself or many members of the community to do?”
Beyond promising peace in the Middle East, Trump has offered few concrete details on how he plans to achieve it. His transition team did not respond to a request for comment.
Throughout the campaign, his surrogates often focused more on criticizing Harris than outlining his agenda. And visuals of the conflict — with tens of thousands of deaths collectively in Gaza and Lebanon — stirred anger among many in Arab and Muslim communities about President Joe Biden and Harris’ backing of Israel.
Amin Hashmi, a Pakistani American in Michigan who voted for Trump, urged him to stay true to his campaign commitments to bring peace.
“I am disappointed but not surprised,” said Hashmi, who urged Trump to “keep the promise you made to the people of Arab descent in Michigan.”
Trump picks what pro-Israel conservatives call a ‘dream team’
Those in the community with concerns have specifically pointed to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, nominated as Trump’s ambassador to Israel. Huckabee has consistently rejected the idea of a Palestinian state in territories seized by Israel, strongly supported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposed a two-state solution, claiming “there really isn’t such a thing” as Palestinians in referring to the descendants of people who lived in Palestine before the establishment of Israel.
While Huckabee has sparked the most concern among community members, other Trump Cabinet picks have strongly spoken in Israel’s favor as it targets Hamas following the militant group’s Oct. 7, 2023, attack in which it killed 1,200 Israelis and took hundreds more as hostage.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, nominated for secretary of state, has opposed a ceasefire in the war, stating that he wants Israel to “destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on.”
Trump’s pick to be his ambassador to the United Nations, New York Rep. Elize Stefanik, led the questioning of university presidents over antisemitism on campuses. She has also opposed funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which oversees aid to Gaza.
The Republican Jewish Coalition, which organized for Trump in Michigan, has been outspoken in its support for many of Trump’s Cabinet picks. Sam Markstein, the group’s political director, described the proposed lineup as a “pro-Israel dream team,” adding that “folks are giddy about the picks.” He praised Trump’s pro-Israel record as “second to nobody.”
“The days of this mealymouthed, trying to have support in both camps of this issue are over,” Markstein said. “The way to secure the region is peace through strength, and that means no daylight between Israel and the United States.”
No roles yet for key figures in Trump’s Arab American outreach
Among the reasons some Arab American voters supported Trump was that they believed his prominent supporters would be key in the next administration.
Massad Boulos, a Lebanese businessman and father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, led efforts to engage the Arab American community, organizing dozens of meetings across Michigan and other areas with large Arab populations. Some sessions also featured Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence, who was well-regarded by those who met with him.
Neither Boulos nor Grenell has been tapped yet for the coming administration, though Grenell was once considered a potential secretary of state before Rubio was selected. Boulos declined to comment and Grenell did not respond to a request for comment.
“Some people expected Trump to be different and thought Massad would play a significant role,” said Osama Siblani, publisher of the Dearborn-based Arab American News, which declined to endorse a candidate in the presidential race.
Siblani himself turned down a suggested meeting with Trump after the non-endorsement announcement.
“But now people are coming to us and saying, ‘Look what you’ve done,’” Siblani said. “We had a choice between someone actively shooting and killing you and someone threatening to do so. We had to punish the person who was shooting and killing us at the time.”
