MEXICO CITY (AP) — Authorities in western Mexico have told families of eight missing youths that among the human remains found in dozens of bags in a gorge on the outskirts of Guadalajara were some that preliminarily appeared to match characteristics of some of the missing young people.
The Jalisco state prosecutor’s office said in a statement late Thursday that the recovery of remains in the gorge continues, as does the identification.
The bags were found this week below a forest overlook, the state prosecutor’s office said. Firefighters and civil defense worked with a helicopter to recover remains from the gorge and planned to continue during the coming days.
The bags were found this week below a forest overlook, the state prosecutor’s office said.
ULISES RUIZ via Getty Images
Authorities had been looking for eight young people who had been reported missing last week when they found the site, but it was still unknown if they were among the remains found.
The state prosecutor’s office said it investigated the site after receiving a report of possible body parts there.
There are more than 110,000 missing people in Mexico, and Jalisco is the state with the highest number, at 15,000, according to federal government data.
There are also thousands of unidentified remains in morgues and cemeteries.
Authorities in the U.S. and Mexico have asked the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern over a deadly fungal outbreak, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official said Friday. The request comes after recruiters lured hundreds of patients from multiple countries and 24 U.S. states to two facilities in Mexico for cosmetic operations that may have exposed them to the fungus.
The CDC is currently monitoring the condition of 195 people across the U.S. who got surgeries involving epidural anesthesia at the now-shuttered River Side Surgical Center and Clinica K-3 in Mexico.
Fourteen are “suspected” and 11 are “probable” cases of fungal meningitis — infections of the brain or spinal cord — based on their symptoms or test results. Two of these patients have died. Six potential cases have been ruled out since the CDC’s last update on Wednesday.
Most reported headaches before their infections worsened, progressing to symptoms like fever, vomiting, neck pain, and blurred vision. Meningitis can quickly become life-threatening once symptoms begin, the CDC warns.
Recent test results from authorities in Mexico have sparked concern of a repeat from another deadly outbreak that was linked to surgeries elsewhere in Mexico earlier this year. In that outbreak, nearly half of all patients diagnosed with meningitis died.
A WHO committee would have to be convened first before an international emergency is declared by the agency’s director-general. While countries must notify WHO of all potential emergencies, not all end up reaching that stage.
“[We] are notified of hundreds of events every day and assess each one,” WHO spokesperson Margaret Ann Haris said in an email.
She declined to confirm whether such a notification had occurred from the U.S., saying communications with member states are confidential.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not provide an answer to a request for comment.
Authorities have urged Americans who had surgeries involving epidural anesthesia at either of these clinics since January to go immediately to the emergency room or an urgent care facility, even if they do not currently think they have symptoms.
People from 24 states as far north as Alaska were potentially exposed during surgeries at one of the two clinics, according to a list provided by Mexican authorities to the CDC. The vast majority — 178 — are residents of Texas.
Most patients with symptoms have been female so far, although one probable male case has also been identified with symptoms of meningitis.
One of the two patients who died was also an organ donor, with five different recipients around the country earlier this year who could be at risk.
“All have been notified, and are under evaluation, and we were working with transplant centers and other partners to properly manage these patients who had these organs transplanted into their bodies,” the CDC’s Dallas Smith told a webinar Friday hosted by the Mycoses Study Group.
The consortium has been working with the CDC on guidance for doctors treating patients who may have been infected by the procedures.
“Because patients in Mexico, the United States, Canada, and Colombia were on the exposed list, we wanted to make sure these countries were aware, and provide such situational awareness, through a public health emergency of international concern,” said Smith.
“Worried about a high mortality rate”
Investigators now believe that the two facilities, located near Mexico’s border with Texas, had drawn patients from across the Americas for surgical procedures.
“There’s these agents that act as recruiters in the U.S. for patients, they link U.S. patients to these clinics to receive certain care, and certain procedures like cosmetic procedures,” Smith said.
From in-depth interviews with a handful of patients, officials believe many had sought operations like liposuction, breast augmentation or Brazilian butt lifts.
Authorities have not yet confirmed the cause of the outbreak. Results from U.S. patients so far have been inconclusive for tracking down the fungus.
However, testing in Mexico has yielded positive results for a fungus known as Fusarium solani in samples of spinal cord fluid. This same kind of fungus was seen in a deadly outbreak that started late last year in the Mexican state of Durango which was also linked to surgeries.
“We are not sure if these two outbreaks are linked, but the fact that the same organism is most likely causing this fungal meningitis makes us worried about a high mortality rate. So that’s why it’s so important to get patients in early, even if they’re asymptomatic,” said Smith.
Medications used during anesthesia in the current outbreak may have been contaminated, Smith said, either in the epidural itself or in other medications that are added in conjunction during the surgeries like morphine.
“There’s a shortage currently in Mexico, and there could be potential for a black market that could have contaminated medicine,” said Smith.
Another theory is that there were lapses in infection control practices to prevent contamination during surgery, which is currently blamed for the other outbreak.
“The outbreak that we’re experiencing now is pretty similar, and it has the capacity to have this high mortality rate, and just devastate families and communities,” Smith said.
Jane Fraser, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc., during an interview for an episode of “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations” at the Economic Club of Washington in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, March 22, 2023.
Valerie Plesch | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Citigroup said Wednesday it plans to pursue an initial public offering of its Mexico business Banamex, scuttling a 16 month effort to find a strategic buyer for the unit.
The bank expects to complete the separation in the second half of 2024, with a public offering likely to follow in 2025, Citigroup said in a release. It hasn’t yet decided on a listing destination, but a dual listing in Mexico and the U.S. is possible, a source familiar with the plans told CNBC.
Citigroup shares fell 3.4% in early trading.
“After careful consideration, we concluded the optimal path to maximizing the value of Banamex for our shareholders and advancing our goal to simplify our firm is to pivot from our dual path approach to focus solely on an IPO of the business,” CEO Jane Fraser said in the release.
Fraser has been overhauling the third biggest U.S. bank by assets since taking over in March 2021. One of her first moves as CEO was to announce a dramatic reduction in the bank’s global footprint; plans to sell or IPO Banamex were disclosed in January 2022. Recent media reports said a sale was nearing completion at around a $7 billion valuation.
The sales effort was complicated by demands from Mexico’s president that any deal would protect workers and the bank’s holdings of Mexican artwork, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Citigroup bought Banamex for $12.5 billion in 2001, making it the only major U.S. lender with a large presence in Mexico. But as with many of its overseas retail units, the business lost market share to locally-owned competitors.
It has 38,000 employees and 1,300 branches, with more than 12 million retail clients and about 10 million pension customers, according to Citigroup.
Banamex will still be reported under Citigroup’s results until ownership falls beneath 50%, the New York-based bank said. Citigroup will keep its institutional and private banking operations in Mexico, the bank said.
A silver lining of the bank’s pivot is that it will allow the firm to resume a “modest” level of share buybacks this quarter; it had held off on repurchases because a sale was expected to impact the bank’s capital levels.
Mexico on Sunday raised the alert level for the Popocatépetl volcano to “yellow phase 3“, which is just below the “red” alarm level.
Hundreds of tremors have been registered in the region in the last week, officials said. The volcano has been spewing smoke and ash.
The parameters for “yellow phase 3” are low to intermediate explosive eruptive activity, mild to moderate explosions that can hurl rock fragments, and light to moderate ash falling in surrounding towns and more distant cities, the National Center for Disaster Prevention said. The expulsion of magma is also possible.
Popocatépetl, located in the states of Morelos, Puebla and Mexico, is about 45 miles southwest of Mexico City. About 25 million people live in a 60-mile radius of the volcano.
The National Coordination for Civil Protection (CNPC) advised people in the region to cover their noses and mouths with handkerchiefs or face masks. The department also advised closing windows and staying inside as much as possible.
The Popocatepetl Volcano spews ash and smoke as seen from Puebal, state of Puebla, Mexico, on May 18, 2023.
JOSE CASTANARES/AFP via Getty Images
Civil Defense Coordinator Laura Velázquez said CNPC personnel went to Puebla to check on evacuation routes and coordinate with local governments.
Some schools in Puebla and in the state of Mexico were closed for in-person classes on Monday.
Mexico City’s Benito Juárez International Airport was temporarily closed on Saturday because of volcanic ash. Felipe Angeles airport, located north of Mexico City, was also briefly shut down. According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), volcanic ash contamination on aircrafts “can lead to failure of critical navigational and operational instruments.”
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico also issued an advisory, warning people not to travel within a 7.5 mile radius of the volcano.
Popocatépetl became active again in 1994 after about 70 years of dormancy, according to the USGS.
Authorities say they are investigating an apparent gunfight at an off-road vehicle rally in Mexico’s Baja California state that left 10 people dead and another 10 wounded.
Videos posted on social media showed heavy shooting at the rally in an area of Ensenada and at least three bodies lying on the ground.
The shooting, which took place early Saturday afternoon, provoked an intense mobilization of units of the army, navy, and state and local police.
Members of the army and police secure the perimeter at the site of a long-gun attack on a group of amateur rally drivers in Ensenada, Mexico, near the U.S. border, on May 20, 2023
JOATAM DE BASADE / AFP via Getty Images
Baja California officials say gunmen in one vehicle opened fire on people and vehicles at the rally. State prosecutor Ricardo Iván Carpio said vehicle was found to have “perforations from gunshots and traces of blood inside.”
The state prosecutor’s office said there was evidence of crossfire, suggesting it was a confrontation between members of organized crime groups.
Baja California, across the border from California, is experiencing intense cartel activity.
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — “Torture” is how New Mexico’s top prosecutor describes the treatment a 38-year-old developmentally disabled woman endured before her death at the hands of her caregivers, who he said were paid thousands of dollars a month through a special program meant to offer an alternative to institutional care.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez detailed the woman’s injuries during a news conference Thursday, saying she died weeks after being found in the back of a van as the caregivers tried to take her to Mexico so her wounds could be treated.
“The abuse and neglect that she endured was horrific and the injuries she sustained are among the worst I have seen in my career as a prosecutor,” Torrez said. “This was torture. There’s really no other word for it.”
Three people were arrested and charged Wednesday with abuse and neglect following an investigation that began with the stop at the U.S.-Mexico border in late February.
The case spurred a statewide review of New Mexico’s entire developmentally disabled waiver system. Social workers spent weeks conducting individual wellness checks on thousands of developmentally disabled people who receive care through the federally-funded waiver program.
More allegations of possible abuse and neglect were turned up, and the state Health Department canceled contracts with four providers in the Albuquerque area.
Today we announced charges against three individuals charged with the abuse and neglect of a 38 y/o woman with developmental disabilities. “The abuse she endured was horrific. The injuries she sustained are among the worst I have seen in my career.” said #NMAG Torrez. pic.twitter.com/HTrH2yvZlh
— NM Attorney General (@NewMexicoOAG) May 18, 2023
An affidavit filed by the Attorney General’s Office details the abuse that resulted in the charges filed Wednesday against Angelita Rene Chacon, 52, and Patricia Hurtado, 42, both of Rio Rancho. They face counts of abuse or neglect of a resident resulting in death, false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment.
Luz Scott, 53, of Clovis, an acquaintance of the women, has been charged with false imprisonment and conspiracy to commit false imprisonment.
Messages seeking comment from Daniel Lindsey, an attorney listed for Scott, were not immediately returned. Court records didn’t indicate whether Chacon and Hurtado had lawyers yet.
The women were scheduled to make their first court appearances Friday.
According to the attorney general’s office, Chacon and Hurtado contracted with At Home Advocacy and three other contractors to provide supplemental care for the victim. They were receiving about $5,000 a month under the waiver program to care for her.
Prosecutors say a preliminary review of available business records indicate that At Home Advocacy received nearly $250,000 to coordinate care and support for the victim in the three years before her death.
Records show the company last visited the home on Jan. 25, one month before the victim was found at the port of entry in El Paso.
According to court records, a supervisor with At Home Advocacy told FBI agents the company conducted monthly wellness visits at Chacon’s home but that “body checks” were not conducted during those visits and that no injuries were seen.
Authorities said the woman who died was severely dehydrated and drugged when she was found in the van. She also had numerous open wounds, bedsores with exposed bone and bruises and lacerations on various parts of her body.
They also described marks consistent with being restrained for a prolonged period of time.
FILE – This file photograph show Raúl Torrez speaking to Native American leaders during a candidates forum in Albuquerque, N.M., Oct. 14, 2022.
Unable to speak when discovered by federal agents at the border crossing, she was transported to University Medical Center in El Paso, Texas, where she died on April 7. The Associated Press generally does not name people who have been abused.
Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and top health officials had warned that any caregivers who mistreat and abuse developmentally disabled or otherwise vulnerable people would be held accountable.
Republican legislative leaders also requested that the federal government investigate, saying an independent inquiry would ensure transparency and might prevent such cases in the future.
Both Torrez and Raul Bujanda, FBI Albuquerque agent in charge, called the case “a wake-up call” about the treatment of developmentally disabled people in New Mexico.
The woman who died “could easily have been our loved one,” Bujanda said. “You expect, you demand that your loved one is taken care of in such a way that … the only thing you’ll ever worry about is making to time to go and see them.”
Torrez urged the governor and lawmakers to overhaul protocols at the state Department of Health. His suggestions included increased staff and training, mandatory inspections every 90 days and new civil and criminal penalties for companies and providers.
He tallied 12 “auditors” for more than 6,000 sites statewide and faulted administrators and the Legislature for relying on care providers to self-report problems.
“That’s one of the fundamental problems that has arisen in this case,” Torrez said, suggesting that lucrative contracts with the state provide no incentive for providers to police themselves.
State Health Secretary Patrick Allen said Thursday that an independent investigation is ongoing to identify any systemic flaws that would allow for abuse or neglect to go unchecked. He also said the agency will continue to refer any other cases of suspected abuse and neglect to law enforcement.
“Persons with disabilities often rely on others for their day-to-day living. They literally entrust their caregivers with their lives,” Allen said, adding that when their care is covered by a state program “everyone is accountable, and we must ensure their health and safety needs are met.”
Associated Press writers Ken Ritter in Las Vegas and Walter Berry in Phoenix contributed to this report.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — A Texas man pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to purchasing a gun for a Mexican drug cartel that was linked to the deadly kidnapping of four Americans.
Roberto Lugardo Moreno Jr., 42, of Harlingen, Texas, appeared before a federal judge in Brownsville and entered his guilty plea to charges of straw purchasing and smuggling a firearm.
Lugardo Moreno bought a multi-caliber AR-style pistol at a pawn shop in 2019 and lied on a form stating he was the buyer when he purchased it for a Gulf Cartel member in Mexico, according to a federal complaint.
“All too often, firearms are trafficked into Mexico where they end up in the hands of criminals who use them to murder, rob and extort innocent people,” U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani said in a statement. “This case is a textbook example of the dangers involved when criminals transport weapons into Mexico.”
Sentencing was scheduled for August.
A public defender appointed for Lugardo Moreno did not respond to a call and email request for comment.
The kidnapping occurred in Matamoros, Mexico, which is located just across the border from Brownsville.
The serial number of a firearm Lugardo Moreno purchased in October 2019 matched that of a gun recovered by authorities that was linked to the March 3 kidnappings, according to the federal complaint. Lugardo Moreno said he didn’t apply for a license to export the firearm from the U.S. to Mexico and knew it would be illegally exported, according to the complaint.
Moreno told authorities that he received $100 for the purchase of the guns.
Four friends who were traveling to Mexico in March so one member of the party could have cosmetic surgery were caught up in a drug cartel shootout in Matamoros. After a vehicle crashed into their van, men in tactical vests with rifles arrived in another vehicle and surrounded them.
Shaeed Woodard and Zindell Brown appeared to have been killed immediately, and their bodies were loaded into a truck with the two survivors, Eric Williams and Latavia McGee. The bodies and the two living friends were found days later in a shack.
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — State and federal health officials are warning U.S. residents to cancel planned surgeries in a Mexico border city after five people from Texas who got procedures there came back and developed suspected cases of fungal meningitis. One of them died, officials said.
The five people who became ill traveled to Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, for surgical procedures that included the use of an epidural, an anesthetic injected near the spinal column, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Tuesday. Four remain hospitalized, and one of them later died.
Those who became ill range in age from 30 to 50 years old, the department said.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a travel advisory Tuesday for U.S. residents seeking medical care in Matamoros.
Meningitis is the swelling of the protective covering of the brain and spinal cord and should be treated urgently. Symptoms include fever, headache, a stiff neck, nausea, vomiting, confusion and sensitivity to light. Cases of meningitis can be caused by viruses, bacteria, trauma or fungi.
Fungal meningitis, like in the Texas cases, is not transmitted person to person, health officials say. It could be accidentally introduced during a medical or surgical procedure.
U.S. and Mexican authorities are attempting to find the source of the infection, whether the cases are linked and if there are other cases, the Texas health department said.
The CDC urged anyone who had an epidural injection of anesthetic in that region after Jan. 1, 2023, to watch for symptoms of meningitis symptoms and consider consulting a doctor.
Patients in the Texas cases began showing symptoms three days to six weeks after surgery in Matamoros.
People leaving the U.S. for prescription drugs, dental procedures, surgeries and other medical treatment — also known as medical tourism — is common, experts say. Besides Mexico, other common destinations include Canada, India and Thailand.
Mexico issued its first non-binary passport Wednesday in honor of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, which takes place annually on May 17.
The passport was issued in Naucalpan, a municipality north of Mexico City, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard confirmed on Twitter. Ebrard called the occasion “a great leap for the freedom and dignity of people.”
The passport was given to Ociel Baena, Mexico’s Foreign Ministry said. The ceremony was attended by representatives from the Foreign Ministry and by various other officials, including Salma Luévano Luna, one of Mexico’s first trans federal legislators.
Primer pasaporte no-binario de México entregado hoy en Naucalpan, un gran salto por la libertad y dignidad de las personas pic.twitter.com/NCZAPS7nt4
“Within the framework of #DiaContraLaLGTBIfobia, we endorse our support for sexual diversity. All rights must be guaranteed for all identities. No more hate speech; diversity enriches and flourishes,” the Foreign Ministry wrote on Twitter about the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia.
Ministry staffers commemorated the day in more than 40 countries and U.S. states with flags and signs, according to a video on the ministry’s TikTok page.
More than a dozen countries allow for non-binary documents at the national level, Human Rights Watch said in February. The U.S. State Department started providing an “X” (or unspecified) gender option on identity documents in April 2022.
The State Department first previewed the change after Dana Zzyym, an intersex and nonbinary resident of Colorado, filed a federal lawsuit in 2016. The activist and U.S. Navy veteran sued after years of lobbying the State Department to offer an “X” gender marker option on U.S. passport applications. Zzyym, who was recognized by Lambda Legal in their lawsuit, received the first passport of its kind in October 2021.
Mexico will start issuing non-binary passports at its consulates and embassies in the U.S., Canada, and the rest of the world in July, the ministry said.
Goalkeeper Santiago Ramírez scored an absurd long-range goal to cap off a wild semifinal between his Atlético Morelia team and Celaya in Mexico’s Liga de Expansión.
Trailing 2-1 in the second leg and 3-2 on aggregate, Celaya threw everything forward in a desperate attempt to find an equalizer in stoppage time.
That included goalkeeper Allison Revuelta, who for a brief moment looked as though he had made himself the hero by getting on the end of a cross with his head.
However, he ended up inadvertently assisting Ramírez for his near length-of-the-pitch goal as his soft headed effort dropped kindly into his opposite number’s hands.
With Revuelta and the rest of his teammates attempting to run back to their unguarded goal, Ramírez let fly with a booming kick out of his hands that sent the ball into the opposition net, bouncing just twice in the penalty area on the way.
The goal sparked wild scenes in the away end and in the dugout, as it secured Morelia’s place in the final of the Clausura – the tournament in the second half of the league season – with a 4-2 aggregate victory.
It was a fitting end to a chaotic game that featured five red cards – two for Celaya and three for Morelia – and four goals.
Morelia will play the first leg of the final against CD Tapatío on Wednesday, with the winner going on to play Atlante – the winner of the season-opening Apertura tournament – in the Champion of Champions final.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The U.S.-Mexico border was relatively calm as the U.S. ended its pandemic-era immigration restrictions and migrants adapted to new asylum rules and legal pathways meant to discourage illegal crossings.
A full day after the rules known as Title 42 were lifted, migrants and government officials on Friday were still assessing the effects of new regulations adopted by President Joe Biden’s administration in hope of stabilizing the Southwest border region and undercutting smugglers who charge migrants to get there.
Migrants are now essentially barred from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they did not first apply online or seek protection in the countries they traveled through. Families allowed in as their immigration cases progress will face curfews and GPS monitoring. Those expelled can now be barred from reentry for five years and face possible criminal prosecution.
Across the river from El Paso, Texas, in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, many migrants watched their cellphones in hopes of getting a coveted appointment to seek entry. The official app to register to enter the United States underwent changes this week, as it offers appointments for migrants to enter through land crossings.
Many migrants in northern Mexico resigned themselves to waiting for an appointment rather than approaching the border without authorization.
“I hope it’s a little better and that the appointments are streamlined a little more,” said Yeremy Depablos, 21, a Venezuelan traveling with seven cousins who has been waiting in Ciudad Juárez for a month. Fearing deportation, Depablos did not want to cross illegally. “We have to do it the legal way.”
The U.S. Homeland Security Department said it has not witnessed any substantial increase in immigration.
But in southern Mexico, migrants including children still flocked to railways at Huehuetoca on Friday, desperate to clamor aboard freight trains heading north toward the U.S.
The legal pathways touted by the Biden administration consist of a program that permits up to 30,000 people a month from Haiti, Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela to enter if they apply online with a financial sponsor and enter through an airport.
About 100 processing centers are opening in Guatemala, Colombia and elsewhere for migrants to apply to go to the U.S., Spain or Canada. Up to 1,000 can enter daily through land crossings with Mexico if they secure an appointment on the app.
If it works, the system could fundamentally alter how migrants come to the southern border. But Biden, who is running for reelection, faces withering criticism from migrant advocates, who say he’s abandoning more humanitarian methods, and from Republicans, who claim he’s soft on border security. Two legal challenges already loom over the new asylum restrictions.
Title 42 was initiated in March 2020 and allowed border officials to quickly deport asylum seekers on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19. But with the national emergency officially over, the restrictions have ended.
While Title 42 prevented many from seeking asylum, it carried no legal consequences for expulsion like those under the new rules.
The Rev. Daniel Mora said most of the migrants took heed of flyers distributed by U.S. immigration authorities offering a “last chance” to submit to processing and left. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said that 1,800 migrants turned themselves over to Customs and Border Protection on Thursday.
Melissa López, executive director for Diocesan Migrant and Refugee Services at El Paso, said many migrants have been willing to follow the legal pathway created by the federal government, but there are fears about deportation and possible criminal penalties for crossing the border illegally.
Border holding facilities in the U.S. were already far beyond capacity in the run-up to Title 42’s expiration.
In Florida, a federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump has temporarily halted the administration’s plans to release people into the U.S.
Customs and Border Protection said it would comply, but called it a “harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding” at migrant processing and detention facilities.
A court date has been scheduled on whether to extend the ruling.
Migrant-rights groups also sued the Biden administration on allegations that its new policy is no different than one adopted by Trump — and rejected by the same court.
The Biden administration says its policy is different, arguing that it’s not an outright ban but imposes a higher burden of proof to get asylum and that it pairs restrictions with newly opened legal pathways.
At the Chaparral port of entry in Tijuana on Friday, a few migrants approached U.S. authorities after not being able to access the appointment app. One of them, a Salvadoran man named Jairo, said he was fleeing death threats back home.
“We are truly afraid,” said Jairo who was traveling with his partner and their 3-year-old son and declined to share his last name. “We can’t remain any longer in Mexico and we can’t go back to Guatemala or El Salvador. If the U.S. can’t take us, we hope they can direct us to another country that can.”
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Gonzalez reported from Brownsville, Texas; Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Rebecca Santana in Washington; Gisela Salomon in Miami; Christopher Sherman in Mexico City; Gerardo Carrillo in Matamoros, Mexico; Maria Verza in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico; Julie Watson in Tijuana; Morgan Lee in Santa Fe, New Mexico; and Suman Naishadham in Tijuana, Mexico contributed to this report.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The mother of a 17-year-old boy who died this week in U.S. immigration custody demanded answers from American officials Friday, saying her son had no known illnesses and had not shown any signs of being sick before his death.
The teenager was identified as Ángel Eduardo Maradiaga Espinoza, according to a tweet from Honduran foreign relations minister Enrique Reina. Maradiaga was detained at a facility in Safety Harbor, Florida, Reina said, and died Wednesday. His death underscored concerns about a strained immigration system as the Biden administration manages the end of asylum restrictions known as Title 42.
His mother, Norma Saraí Espinoza Maradiaga, told The Associated Press in a phone interview that her son “wanted to live the American Dream.”
Ángel Eduardo left his hometown of Olanchito, Honduras, on April 25, his mother said. He crossed the U.S.-Mexico border some days later and on May 5 was referred to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which operates longer-term facilities for children who cross the border without a parent.
That same day, he spoke to his mother for the last time, she said Friday.
“He told me he was in a shelter and not to worry because he was in the best hands,” she said. “We only spoke two minutes, I told him goodbye and wished him the best.”
This week, someone who identified himself only as one of her son’s friends at the shelter called her to say that when he had awakened for breakfast, Ángel Eduardo didn’t respond and was dead.
His mother then called a person in the U.S. who was supposed to have received Ángel Eduardo, asking for help verifying the information. Hours later, that person called her back saying it was true that her son was dead.
“I want to clear up my son’s real cause of death,” she said. He didn’t suffer from any illnesses and hadn’t been sick as far as she knew.
“No one tells me anything. The anguish is killing me,” she said. “They say they are awaiting the autopsy results and don’t give me any other answer.”
No cause of death was immediately available nor were circumstances of any illness or medical treatment.
HHS said in a statement Friday that it “is deeply saddened by this tragic loss and our heart goes out to the family, with whom we are in touch.” A review of health care records was underway, as was an investigation by a medical examiner, the department said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the news “devastating” and referred questions about the investigation to HHS.
The asylum restrictions under Title 42 expired Thursday, with President Joe Biden’s administration announcing new curbs on border crossers that went into effect Friday. Tens of thousands of people tried to cross the U.S.-Mexico border in the weeks before the expiration of Title 42, under which U.S. officials expelled many people but allowed exemptions for others, including minors crossing the border unaccompanied by a parent.
This was the first known death of an immigrant child in custody during the Biden administration. At least six immigrant children died in U.S. custody during the administration of former President Donald Trump, during which the U.S. at times detained thousands of children above the system’s capacity.
HHS operates long-term facilities to hold children who cross the border without a parent until they can be placed with a sponsor. HHS facilities generally have beds and facilities as well as schooling and other activities for minors, unlike Border Patrol stations and detention sites in which detainees sometimes sleep on the floor in cells.
Advocates who oppose the detention of immigrant children say HHS facilities are not suited to hold minors for weeks or months, as sometimes happens.
More than 8,600 children are currently in HHS custody. That number may rise sharply in the coming weeks amid the shift in border policies as well as sharply rising trends of migration across the Western Hemisphere and the traditional spike in crossings during spring and summer.
Ángel Eduardo had studied until eighth grade before leaving school to work. Most recently he had been working as a mechanic’s assistant. He had been a standout soccer player in Olanchito in northern Honduras since he was 7 years old, his mother said.
The teenager had hopes of reuniting with his father, who left Honduras for the U.S. years ago, and earning money to support her and two younger siblings still in Honduras, his mother said.
He had migrated with his mother’s approval and financial support from his father in the United States, she said.
“Since he was 10 years old he wanted to live the American Dream to see his father and have a better life,” she said. “His idea was to help me. He told me that when he was in the United States he was going to change my life.”
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Merchant reported from Washington. AP White House Correspondent Zeke Miller and AP writers Colleen Long in Washington and Christopher Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.
Since 2020, nearly 30 states have used a Bluetooth system developed by Apple and Google to track the spread of Covid infections and send push alerts to any smartphone user who came in close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus.
On Thursday, the organization said “the majority of states” stopped using the exposure notification system after the Biden administration ended the public health emergency on May 11.
APHL added it will no longer support the system, which aimed to helpmillions of Americans trace their exposures and make decisions about isolating and testing for the virus.
In a joint statement, Apple and Google did not address states’ decisions to stop using the system.
The tech giants told CNBC the system helped public health departments fight Covid in a way that preserves privacy, referring to how it tracks infections without collecting the location or identity of users.
“These systems were timed to shut down on the same date that the nation’s COVID-19 State of Emergency ends,” the California Department of Public Health said in a statement late Thursday.
Several states used the system to create apps that smartphone users could download, such as CA Notify and WA Notify.
States also provided exposure notifications through a built-in feature on Apple and Google’s operating systems.
For that method, state health departments had to submit a configuration file with their contact information and Covid guidance to Apple and Google. The two tech companies would use the file to set up a feature on phones that users could activate to receive notifications.
On Friday, some Apple users who opted in for that feature received push alerts informing them that their iPhones “will no longer log nearby devices and you won’t be notified of possible exposures.”
One Apple user shared in a Twitter post that their alert said, “Your Health Authority Turned Off Exposure Notifications.”
But not all Apple and Google users in states that stopped using the exposure notification system have received similar alerts, as of Friday afternoon.
Neither Apple or Google addressed why some users received alerts while others did not.
There is no clear tally of how many Americans activated the exposure notification feature on their phones or downloaded apps over the past three years.
Virginia estimates that more than 3 million users have downloaded the state’s app or used the notification feature since those tools launched in 2020.
New Mexico said the “majority” of residents activated the notification feature on their phones. More than 1.5 million alerts were sent to users who may have been exposed to Covid, according to the state.
Washington said the state generated more than 2.5 million exposure alerts through its app or the notification feature.
Researchers in Washington found that the state’s notification tools saved an estimated 30 to 120 lives and likely prevented about 6,000 Covid cases during the first four months after they launched in November 2020.
Despite these benefits, some Americans have been skeptical of the Covid exposure notification tools.
A 2021 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office said that the public expressed concerns about privacy. The report said the public may not trust both local governments and technology companies to handle sensitive health information.
State decisions to end Covid exposure notifications are part of a broader shift in how the country responds to the pandemic.
Health departments last year loosened Covid restrictions like masking and social distancing as more Americans got vaccinated and boosted against the virus.
That culminated in the end of the public health emergency, which phased out much of the funding and flexibility that helped expand Covid testing, insurance coverage and access to care during the pandemic.
Still, more than 1,000 Americans are still dying each week from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The U.S. is expected to see an influx of migrants with the pandemic-era policy known as Title 42 set to expire on Thursday. However, the Biden administration Wednesday announced a policy that would ban asylum-seekers from receiving U.S. protection if they fail to request refugee status in another country, like Mexico, first. Manuel Bojorquez has the details.
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A son of notorious drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and three other members of the Sinaloa cartel have been sanctioned by the U.S. government, officials announced Tuesday.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 36, is one of El Chapo’s 12 children and the fourth member of Los Chapitos, the nickname given to the sons of El Chapo who allegedly run a powerful faction of his drug empire.
Joaquin Guzman Lopez
U.S. Treasury Department
On Tuesday, he was marked as “designated” by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). A person or entity listed as “designated” has their assets blocked, and U.S. persons are “generally prohibited from dealing with them,” OFAC says. People who deal with them may face sanctions themselves.
The other three sanctioned members of the cartel include Raymundo Perez Uribe, Saul Paez Lopez and Mario Esteban Ogazon Sedano. Uribe allegedly leads a supplier network used by the cartel to obtain chemicals used to make drugs; Lopez is allegedly involved in coordinating drug shipments for members of Los Chapitos; and Sedano allegedly purchases chemicals used to make drugs and operates illegal laboratories on the behalf of the cartel.
A Mexican company, Sumilab, S.A. de C.V., was also designated by OFAC, for its “involvement in providing and shipping precursor chemicals for and to” cartel members and associates.
All four individuals and the company were designated for “having engaged in, or attempted to engage in, activities or transactions that have materially contributed to, or pose a significant risk of materially contributing to, the international proliferation of illicit drugs or their means of production.”
“Today’s action continues to disrupt key nodes of the global illicit fentanyl enterprise, including the producers, suppliers, and transporters,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson in the OFAC news release. “Treasury, in close coordination with the Government of Mexico and U.S. law enforcement, will continue to leverage our authorities to isolate and disrupt Los Chapitos and the Sinaloa Cartel’s operations at every juncture.”
These are not the first charges faced by Lopez, who works closely with Los Chapitos and has responsibilities including “overseeing many aspects of the Los Chapitos drug trafficking empire,” OFAC said.
Lopez was first indicted on federal drug trafficking charges in 2018 and has multiple charges since then. The other three members of Los Chapitos have also been indicted on U.S. federal drug trafficking charges in one or more jurisdictions. Last month, three members of Los Chapitos were hit with multiple charges in the U.S., including fentanyl trafficking, weapons trafficking, money laundering and witness retaliation. They have denied the charges.
The Sinoloa cartel is responsible for a significant portion of illicit fentanyl trafficked into the United States, and has operated since the 1980s. The organization increased its power and influence in the early 2000s, and has since become one of the largest drug trafficking operations in Mexico, OFAC said. The cartel also traffics heroin and methamphetamine in multi-ton quantities, the agency said.
El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses.
In January, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.
El Paso, Texas — The Biden administration has finalized a sweeping restriction on asylum that it plans to use to ramp up swift deportations of migrants who cross the U.S.-Mexico border after the Title 42 pandemic-era emergency policy sunsets on Thursday, according to internal documents obtained by CBS News.
Hundreds of U.S. asylum officers were trained on how to enforce the restriction on Tuesday and the regulation is expected to be published on Wednesday, less than 48 hours before Title 42 is set to expire, according to people familiar with the effort who requested anonymity to discuss internal plans.
The regulation, which is expected to be challenged in federal court, will be a dramatic shift in asylum policy, disqualifying migrants from U.S. protection if they fail to request refugee status in another country, such as Mexico, on their journey to the southern border.
Migrant people cross through the banks of the Rio Grande to be processed by the Border Patrol El Paso Sector, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico on May 9, 2023.
HERIKA MARTINEZ/AFP via Getty Images
The rule also represents a major pivot by President Biden, a Democrat who campaigned on restoring access to the U.S. asylum system after numerous Trump administration rules made it more difficult for migrants to secure refuge on American soil. In fact, the regulation that will be published Wednesday resembles a Trump-era policy struck down in federal court that Mr. Biden decried in 2020.
If upheld, the Biden administration’s rule will cement a growing bipartisan rejection of the asylum laws that Congress enacted in 1980 to conform with international treaties designed to prevent nations from turning away refugees to places where they could be persecuted, as the U.S. did to some Jews fleeing Nazi Germany.
The years-in-the-making shift has intensified recently, as historically high levels of migrant arrivals have further strained a massively backlogged asylum system, overwhelmed border communities and created a political liability for Mr. Biden ahead of his re-election bid.
Under the rule, migrants who cross the southern border without authorization will be presumed to be ineligible for asylum if they can’t prove they previously requested protection in a third country. In practice, it will disqualify most non-Mexican migrants who enter the U.S. between ports of entry from asylum.
Migrants who secure an appointment to enter the U.S. under a mobile app-powered system will not be barred from asylum under the policy. The rule will also not apply to unaccompanied children.
According to internal training documents, only migrants with “exceptionally compelling circumstances” will be able to overcome the rule’s asylum bar. Those include migrants with an “acute medical emergency,” those who face an “imminent and extreme threat” in Mexico and victims of “a severe form of human trafficking.”
In order to avoid being deported and banished from the U.S. for five years, those who don’t qualify for any exemption will need to pass interviews with heightened standards designed to lead to more rejections than traditional “credible fear” interviews, according to the training materials.
The restriction is the centerpiece of the Biden administration’s attempt to blunt a potentially historic increase in the number of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border when the Title 42 expulsions are discontinued at midnight on Thursday. Unauthorized border arrivals have already spiked, with Border Patrol averaging more than 8,700 daily migrant apprehensions during a three-day period this past week, an increase from the 5,200 average in March.
While Title 42 allowed U.S. border officials to cite public health concerns to expel hundreds of thousands of migrants without hearing their asylum claims, the new rule is, in many ways, a tougher policy. Because migrants expelled under Title 42 did not face immigration or criminal penalties, the measure encouraged some to make repeated border crossing attempts.
But those who can’t prove they are eligible for an exemption to the rule finalized this week will face swift deportation to Mexico or their home country — as well as a five-year banishment from the U.S. — under a process known as expedited removal. If they try to re-enter the U.S. after being deported, they could face criminal prosecution and jail time, the Biden administration has warned.
Hundreds of Venezuelan migrants try to cross the border by foot from Mexico to United States on April 25, 2023 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. About 4,000 people left Chiapas city on Apr. 23 to reach United States.
David Peinado/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Biden administration officials have said the asylum restriction was not their first or second “preference,” but have justified the move by citing the record levels of migrant apprehensions reported by U.S. border agents over the past two years. Without the rule, the administration has said, the number of migrants crossing the southern border each day could soar to 13,000 after Title 42’s end.
The administration has also argued the rule will encourage migrants to enter the country legally, including through a phone app that lets asylum-seekers in Mexico request U.S. entry, and a sponsorship initiative that allows up to 30,000 Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans with American sponsors to fly to the U.S. each month.
While the partial asylum ban has garnered support from some centrist Democrats, it has been strongly repudiated by advocates, progressives and former Biden officials, who argue the policy ignores U.S. asylum law, under which migrants on American soil have a right to request refuge, regardless of how they entered the country.
“It is a profound shift for a Democratic president to implement a new ban on asylum-seekers,” said Andrea Flores, who served as a White House border official during the first year of the Biden administration. “It’s evidence that the past decade of far-right attacks on Black and brown asylum seekers have significantly weakened the Democratic Party’s commitment to providing refuge to people fleeing persecution and torture.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which convinced federal courts to block the Trump administration’s “transit ban” on asylum, has pledged to also file a lawsuit against the Biden administration’s rule.
“We will sue as we did under Trump,” Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s top immigration lawyer, told CBS News Tuesday. “The core illegality is the same.”
During one of the 2020 presidential debates, Mr. Biden denounced former President Donald Trump for being “the first president in the history of the United States” to declare that “anybody seeking asylum has to do it in another country.”
But soon after Mr. Biden took office, his administration considered doing just that amid a rise in border crossings. The regulation, however, was rejected in 2021 amid opposition from some appointees and a determination by the top White House lawyer that the measure could have been struck down in court.
The Biden administration has strongly denied that the regulation finalized this week is similar to the Trump-era asylum ban, arguing that its approach is different because its restriction has broader exemptions and is being paired with expanded channels for migrants to enter the U.S. with legal permission.
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Tears flowed amid heartfelt embraces as Mexican families were allowed brief reunions at the border Saturday with relatives who migrated to the United States.
As a mariachi band played the popular song “Las Mañanitas,” about 150 families passed over the Rio Grande to meet with loved ones they had not seen for years.
Margarita Piña could not hide her emotion as she waited to greet her son, whom she hadn’t seen since he left home two years ago in the middle of the pandemic to seek a better future in the U.S.
“It’s very hard because we don’t know what they’re suffering over there,” Piña said.
Knowing their meeting would be limited to only five minutes, Piña said she would take advantage of the limited time to tell him “that we still love you very much.”
It was the 10th edition of the “Hugs, not walls” event, which was organized by humanitarian groups near the Casa de Adobe Museum in the border city of Ciudad Juárez, which sprawls across the border from El Paso, Texas.
Unlike at earlier reunions, a strong guard of U.S. officers was present at the event, which came just days before Washington will lift Title 42 asylum rules imposed for the pandemic that allowed the U.S. to expel more than 2.8 million migrants since March 2020.
The end to the provision Thursday is expected to encourage a surge of migrants toward the border, and U.S. authorities have beefed up security, including stringing barbed wire fencing. The government has said 1,500 troops will be sent to El Paso, in addition to 2,500 National Guardsmen already at the border.
“We have never had a border as militarized as today,” said Fernando García, head of the Network in Defense of the Rights of Migrants.
“There is a war against migrants, refugees, against us border crossers,” he added.
Sons of former Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán have denied accusations made by U.S. prosecutors last month, saying in a letter that they have no involvement in the production and trafficking of the potent synthetic opioid fentanyl.
The letter was provided to The Associated Press by José Refugio Rodríguez, a lawyer for the Guzmán family. Despite not being signed, Rodríguez said he could confirm that the letter was from Guzmán’s sons.
The Mexican government did not explicitly confirm the letter’s authenticity, but President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday it had been analyzed by the country’s security council.
The sons of Guzmán said “we have never produced, manufactured or commercialized fentanyl nor any of its derivatives,” the letter said. “We are victims of persecution and have been made into scapegoats.”
Milenio Television first reported the letter Wednesday.
U.S. prosecutors detailed in court documents last month how the Sinaloa cartel had become the largest exporter of fentanyl to the United States, resulting in tens of thousands of overdose deaths. Guzmán is serving a life sentence in the United States for drug trafficking.
Guzmán’s sons are known collectively as the “Chapitos”. Iván Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar are the lead defendants among 23 associates charged in a New York indictment. Ovidio Guzmán López, alias “the Mouse,” who allegedly pushed the cartel into fentanyl, is charged in another indictment in the same district. Mexico arrested him in January and the U.S. government has requested extradition. Joaquín Guzmán López is charged in the Northern District of Illinois.
U.S. prosecutors say the “Chapitos” have tried to concentrate power through violence, including torturing Mexican federal agents and feeding rivals to their pet tigers.
The sons deny that too, saying they are not the leaders of the Sinaloa cartel and do not even have tigers. They describe a loose federation of independent drug producers and manufacturers in the state of Sinaloa, many of whom appropriate their name for their own advantage.
But according to a U.S. indictment unsealed last month, the “Chapitos” and their cartel associates have also used corkscrews, electrocution and hot chiles to torture their rivals.
The indictment goes on to allege that El Chapo’s sons used waterboarding to torture members of rival drug cartels as well as associates who refused to pay debts. Federal officials said that the Chapitos also tested the potency of the fentanyl they allegedly produced on their prisoners.
Mexico arrested Ovidio Guzmán in January and has seized some fentanyl laboratories, but López Obrador has repeatedly denied that Mexico produces the drug and accused U.S. authorities of spying and espionage after the indictments were unsealed.
El Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel’s founder, is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado after being convicted in 2019 on charges including drug trafficking, money laundering and weapons-related offenses.
In January, El Chapo sent an “SOS” message to Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, alleging that he has been subjected to “psychological torment” in prison.
