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Tag: Migrants
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Guatemalan president calls on U.S. to invest more to deter migration
Guatemalan president calls on U.S. to invest more to deter migration – CBS News
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U.S. Border Patrol chief calls southern border a
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Washington — In an exclusive interview with CBS News, U.S. Border Patrol chief Jason Owens called the situation at the southern border a “national security threat,” expressing concern about tens of thousands of migrants who have evaded apprehension and entered the country surreptitiously over the past five months.
Owens said Border Patrol is “closing in” on recording one million apprehensions of migrants in between ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2024 fiscal year, which started in October. For the third consecutive year, his agency is on track to record two million apprehensions by the time the fiscal year ends at the end of September, Owens added.
“That number is a large number, but what’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known got-aways,” Owens said in his first exclusive interview as Border Patrol chief, referring to migrants who are detected by cameras and sensors crossing into the U.S. illegally, but not apprehended.
“Why are they risking their lives and crossing in areas where we can’t get to?” Owens asked. “Why are they hiding? What do they have to hide? What are they bringing in? What is their intent? Where are they coming from? We simply don’t know the answers to those questions. Those things for us are what represent the threat to our communities.”
The situation, Owens added, amounts to “a national security threat.”
“Border security is a big piece of national security,” he said. “And if we don’t know who is coming into our country, and we don’t know what their intent is, that is a threat and they’re exploiting a vulnerability that’s on our border right now.”
Still, Owens agreed that the vast majority of migrants coming to the U.S. border are “good people.”
“I think the migrants that we encounter, that are turning themselves in, yes, I think they absolutely are, by and large, good people,” Owens said. “I wish they would choose the right way to come into our country and not start off on the wrong foot by breaking our laws.”
While a “very small amount” of those apprehended at the southern border are serious criminals, such as convicted gang members or sexual offenders, Owens said most migrants are surrendering themselves to Border Patrol agents to escape poverty or violence in their home countries.
“They’re coming across because they’re either fleeing terrible conditions, or they’re economic migrants looking for a better way of life,” he said.
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) statistics show a tiny fraction of migrants processed by Border Patrol have criminal records in the U.S. — or other countries that share information with American officials — and an even smaller percentage have been convicted of serious crimes. Available data and studies also suggest that migrants in the U.S. illegally do not commit crimes at a higher rate than native born Americans.
Still, top law enforcement officials, including FBI director Christopher Wray, have voiced concerns about criminal actors, including potential terrorists, exploiting the unprecedented levels of migration along the U.S. southern border over the past three years.
In both fiscal years 2022 and 2023, Border Patrol reported over two million apprehensions of migrants who crossed the southern border illegally, both all-time highs.
Owens said the extraordinary flow of people into the U.S. is mainly driven by cartels.
Asked if the cartels were setting “the rules of engagement” at the southern border, Owens said, “yes, they absolutely are.”
A career official who has spent more than 25 years in Border Patrol, Owens assumed the top position at the agency in June 2023 following the retirement of Raul Ortiz. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas called Owens a “talented, selfless, and inspiring leader” when his promotion was announced.
In his interview with CBS News at CBP headquarters in Washington, Owens also called for tougher immigration policies to reduce the number of migrants arriving to the southern border.
“I’m talking about jail time. I’m talking about being removed from the country and I’m talking about being banned from being able to come back because you chose to come in the illegal way instead of the established lawful pathways that we set for you,” he said.
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Migrant influencer urges immigrant TikTok followers to ‘invade’ US homes
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(NewsNation) — Amid the United States government’s efforts to manage the migrant influx, a man dubbed the “migrant influencer” is coaching immigrants on how to live in the country by taking advantage of laws protecting squatters.
Identified as Leonel Moreno, the Venezuelan national moved to the U.S. last September and lives in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio, with his partner and infant daughter, the New York Post reported.
Currently, the migrant who goes by @leitooficial_25 online has over half a million TikTok followers, with his likes and reposts garnering millions more interactions.
In his most recent controversial video, which has garnered nearly four million views, Moreno advised followers to avoid being homeless in the U.S. by invading “empty homes and live there.” He claims that under U.S. law, an uninhabited home can be seized, referring to squatting rights.
“As we have more migrants moving into cities, more homelessness, we are going to see more squatting,” said James Burling, a property rights attorney. “They’re talking about all the advantages that you can get from squatting, it’s inevitable that it’s going to increase.”
In previous videos, Moreno bragged about initially coming to the U.S. for vacation but says he now lives off of U.S. taxpayers due to having a child in the country. He refers to his daughter as a “goldmine” and the family’s breadwinner, additionally revealing he awaits Americans’ pension checks every month.
In another video, he urges fellow Venezuelans to pay the fines of a 15-year-old migrant accused of shooting a tourist in New York City’s Times Square earlier this year, warning, “Today it could be him, tomorrow it could be one of you.”
A recent video on squatting by Moreno is gaining attention, as he tells his “comrades” that they can fix up abandoned homes that have deteriorated or are in bad condition and receive credits when the properties are sold.
However, Burling refutes this claim, stating it’s misinformation being spread on social media.
“I think publicity like what we’re seeing in TikTok and viral videos of that nature are going to magnify the idea that squatting is an alternative to not having enough housing,” he said.
NewsNation submitted a request to the Columbus Police Department for any records on Moreno but has not received a response. Additionally, NewsNation spoke with city leaders who reported they hadn’t heard of Moreno or seen a local uptick in squatting.
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3/20: CBS Evening News
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3/20: Prime Time with John Dickerson
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3/19: Prime Time with John Dickerson
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Court order puts Texas law allowing police to arrest migrants who cross illegally back on hold
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A federal appeals court late Tuesday issued an order that again prevents Texas from arresting migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes weeks after a panel on the same court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the law by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction.But by a 2-1 order, a panel of the appeals court lifted that pause ahead of arguments before the court on Wednesday.Texas authorities had not announced any arrests made under the law.Earlier Tuesday a divided Supreme Court had allowed Texas to begin enforcing a law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally as the legal battle over the measure played out.The conservative majority order rejected an emergency application from the Biden administration, which says the law is a clear violation of federal authority that would cause chaos in immigration law.Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had praised the order clearing the way for the law that allows any police officer in Texas to arrest migrants for illegal entry and authorizes judges to order them to leave the U.S.The high court didn’t address whether the law is constitutional. The measure was sent to the appellate court, which made the late Tuesday ruling.It was also unclear where any migrants ordered to leave might go if the law is ultimately allowed. It calls for them to be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens.But Mexico’s government said Tuesday it would not “under any circumstances” accept the return of any migrants to its territory from the state of Texas. Mexico is not required to accept deportations of anyone except Mexican citizens.The Department of Homeland Security said the federal government would also continue the court challenge to the law that will “further complicate” the job of its “already strained” workforce. The agency won’t assist in any efforts to enforce the law known as Senate Bill 4.The Supreme Court’s majority did not write a detailed opinion in the case, as is typical in emergency appeals. But the decision to let the law go into effect drew dissents from liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.“The Court gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos,” Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent joined by Jackson.The law is considered by opponents to be the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court. Critics have also said the Texas law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the law “harmful and unconstitutional” and said it would burden law enforcement while creating confusion. She called on congressional Republicans to settle the issue with a federal border security bill.Texas, for its part, has argued it has a right to take action over what authorities have called an ongoing crisis at the southern border. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement it is “prepared to handle any influx” in the state’s detainee population associated with the state law.Sheriffs’ offices have been preparing for the implementation of Senate Bill 4 since the state’s legislative session last year, said Skylor Hearn, executive director of the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas.The law allows police in counties bordering Mexico to make arrests if they see someone crossing illegally, he said. It could also be enforced elsewhere in Texas if someone is arrested on suspicion of another violation and a fingerprint taken during jail booking links them to a suspected re-entry violation. It likely would not come into play during a routine traffic stop, he said.“I don’t think you will see anything ultimately different,” Hearn said.Arrests for illegal crossings along the southern border hit record highs in December but fell by half in January, a shift attributed to seasonal declines and heightened enforcement. The federal government has not yet released numbers for February.Some Texas officials sounded a cautious note.“A lot of the local police chiefs here, we don’t believe it will survive a constitutional challenge. … We have no training whatsoever to determine whether an individual is here in this country, legally,” said Sheriff Eddie Guerra of Hidalgo County. He serves as president of the Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition representing 31 border counties from Texas to California.Conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested her vote in favor of Texas stemmed from the technicalities of the appeals process rather than agreement with the state on the substance of the law.“So far as I know, this Court has never reviewed the decision of a court of appeals to enter — or not enter — an administrative stay. I would not get into the business. When entered, an administrative stay is supposed to be a short-lived prelude to the main event: a ruling on the motion for a stay pending appeal,” she wrote in a concurring opinion joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.The battle over the Texas immigration law is one of multiple legal disputes between Texas officials and the Biden administration over how far the state can go to patrol the Texas-Mexico border and prevent illegal border crossings.Several Republican governors have backed Gov. Abbott’s efforts, saying the federal government is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration laws.The Supreme Court in 2012 struck down key parts of an Arizona law that would have allowed police to arrest people for federal immigration violations, often referred to by opponents as the “show me your papers” bill. The divided high court found then that the impasse in Washington over immigration reform did not justify state intrusion.___Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Rebecca Santana in Washington, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Chris Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.
A federal appeals court late Tuesday issued an order that again prevents Texas from arresting migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally, hours after the Supreme Court allowed the strict new immigration law to take effect.
The decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals comes weeks after a panel on the same court cleared the way for Texas to enforce the law by putting a pause on a lower judge’s injunction.
But by a 2-1 order, a panel of the appeals court lifted that pause ahead of arguments before the court on Wednesday.
Texas authorities had not announced any arrests made under the law.
Earlier Tuesday a divided Supreme Court had allowed Texas to begin enforcing a law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally as the legal battle over the measure played out.
The conservative majority order rejected an emergency application from the Biden administration, which says the law is a clear violation of federal authority that would cause chaos in immigration law.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had praised the order clearing the way for the law that allows any police officer in Texas to arrest migrants for illegal entry and authorizes judges to order them to leave the U.S.
The high court didn’t address whether the law is constitutional. The measure was sent to the appellate court, which made the late Tuesday ruling.
It was also unclear where any migrants ordered to leave might go if the law is ultimately allowed. It calls for them to be sent to ports of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, even if they are not Mexican citizens.
But Mexico’s government said Tuesday it would not “under any circumstances” accept the return of any migrants to its territory from the state of Texas. Mexico is not required to accept deportations of anyone except Mexican citizens.
The Department of Homeland Security said the federal government would also continue the court challenge to the law that will “further complicate” the job of its “already strained” workforce. The agency won’t assist in any efforts to enforce the law known as Senate Bill 4.
The Supreme Court’s majority did not write a detailed opinion in the case, as is typical in emergency appeals. But the decision to let the law go into effect drew dissents from liberal justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.
“The Court gives a green light to a law that will upend the longstanding federal-state balance of power and sow chaos,” Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent joined by Jackson.
The law is considered by opponents to be the most dramatic attempt by a state to police immigration since an Arizona law more than a decade ago, portions of which were struck down by the Supreme Court. Critics have also said the Texas law could lead to civil rights violations and racial profiling.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the law “harmful and unconstitutional” and said it would burden law enforcement while creating confusion. She called on congressional Republicans to settle the issue with a federal border security bill.
Texas, for its part, has argued it has a right to take action over what authorities have called an ongoing crisis at the southern border. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement it is “prepared to handle any influx” in the state’s detainee population associated with the state law.
Sheriffs’ offices have been preparing for the implementation of Senate Bill 4 since the state’s legislative session last year, said Skylor Hearn, executive director of the Sheriffs’ Association of Texas.
The law allows police in counties bordering Mexico to make arrests if they see someone crossing illegally, he said. It could also be enforced elsewhere in Texas if someone is arrested on suspicion of another violation and a fingerprint taken during jail booking links them to a suspected re-entry violation. It likely would not come into play during a routine traffic stop, he said.
“I don’t think you will see anything ultimately different,” Hearn said.
Arrests for illegal crossings along the southern border hit record highs in December but fell by half in January, a shift attributed to seasonal declines and heightened enforcement. The federal government has not yet released numbers for February.
Some Texas officials sounded a cautious note.
“A lot of the local police chiefs here, we don’t believe it will survive a constitutional challenge. … We have no training whatsoever to determine whether an individual is here in this country, legally,” said Sheriff Eddie Guerra of Hidalgo County. He serves as president of the Southwestern Border Sheriffs’ Coalition representing 31 border counties from Texas to California.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested her vote in favor of Texas stemmed from the technicalities of the appeals process rather than agreement with the state on the substance of the law.
“So far as I know, this Court has never reviewed the decision of a court of appeals to enter — or not enter — an administrative stay. I would not get into the business. When entered, an administrative stay is supposed to be a short-lived prelude to the main event: a ruling on the motion for a stay pending appeal,” she wrote in a concurring opinion joined by fellow conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
The battle over the Texas immigration law is one of multiple legal disputes between Texas officials and the Biden administration over how far the state can go to patrol the Texas-Mexico border and prevent illegal border crossings.
Several Republican governors have backed Gov. Abbott’s efforts, saying the federal government is not doing enough to enforce existing immigration laws.
The Supreme Court in 2012 struck down key parts of an Arizona law that would have allowed police to arrest people for federal immigration violations, often referred to by opponents as the “show me your papers” bill. The divided high court found then that the impasse in Washington over immigration reform did not justify state intrusion.
___
Associated Press writers Mark Sherman and Rebecca Santana in Washington, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Acacia Coronado in Austin, Texas, and Chris Sherman in Mexico City contributed to this report.
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Texas immigration law blocked again, just hours after Supreme Court allowed state to arrest migrants
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Hours after the Supreme Court gave Texas officials permission to jail and prosecute migrants suspected of crossing the U.S. southern border without authorization, an appeals court late Tuesday blocked the state from enforcing its controversial immigration law known as SB4.
In a late-night order, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel dissolved a pause that it issued in early March to suspend a lower court ruling that found SB4 to be unconstitutional.
The order reinstated a ruling from U.S. District Court Judge David Ezra, who concluded in late February that SB4 conflicted with federal immigration laws and the Constitution.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court denied a request from the Justice Department to void the initial 5th Circuit order that had paused Ezra’s ruling. The high court allowed SB4 to take effect for several hours, though it’s unclear whether Texas arrested any migrants under the law during that short time span.
Ezra’s order blocking SB4 will stay in place until the 5th Circuit rules on Texas’ request to allow the law to be enforced while the appeals court considers its legality. A virtual hearing on that question is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
Passed by the Texas legislature last year, SB4 criminalizes unauthorized migration at the state level, making the act of entering the U.S. outside of a port of entry — already a federal offense — into a state crime. It also creates a state felony charge for illegal reentry.
SB4 empowers law enforcement officials in Texas, at the state and local level, to detain and prosecute migrants on these new criminal charges. It also grants state judges the power to require migrants to return to Mexico as an alternative to prosecution.
The Justice Department has said SB4 conflicts with federal law and the Constitution, noting that immigration enforcement, including arrests and deportations, have long been a federal responsibility. It has also argued the measure harms relations with the Mexican government, which has denounced SB4 as “anti-immigrant” and vowed to reject migrants returned by the state of Texas.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has positioned himself as the leading state critic of President Biden’s border policies, has portrayed SB4 as a necessary measure to discourage migrants from crossing the Rio Grande, arguing the federal government has not done enough to deter illegal immigration.
Over the past three years, Texas has mounted the most aggressive state effort yet to challenge the federal government’s power over immigration policy, busing tens of thousands of migrants to major, Democratic-led cities, assembling razor wire and buoys along stretches of the border to deter migrant crossings and filing multiple lawsuits against federal immigration programs.
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3/19: CBS Evening News
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Chicago evicting some migrants from shelters
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3/10: CBS Weekend News
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Biden says he regrets using term
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President Biden said Saturday that he regrets using the term “illegal” during his State of the Union address to describe the suspected killer of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley.
Facing frustration from some in his party for the use of the term to describe people who arrived or are living in the U.S. illegally, Biden expressed remorse, saying he didn’t want to demean any group, and sought to differentiate himself from former President Donald Trump.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart on Saturday, Biden said, “I shouldn’t have used illegal, it’s undocumented.” The term was once common but is far less so today, particularly among Democrats who more fully embraced immigrant rights’ issues during Trump’s presidency.
The moment occurred Thursday night during an exchange in which Biden pressed Republicans in his address to pass a bipartisan border security deal that fell apart after Trump opposed it. U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a stalwart Trump ally, then shouted at the president to say the name of Laken Riley, the Georgia woman killed last month, adding she was killed “by an illegal.”
“By an illegal, that’s right,” Biden responded immediately, before appearing to ask how many people are being killed by “legals.”
The death of Riley, a nursing student, has become a rallying cry for Republicans, a tragedy that they say encompasses the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S-Mexico border amid a record surge of immigrants entering the country. An immigrant from Venezuela who entered the U.S. illegally has been arrested and charged with her murder.
Speaking to Capehart, Biden said, “Look, when I spoke about the difference between Trump and me, one of the things I talked about in the border was his, the way he talks about vermin, the way he talks about these people polluting the blood. I talked about what I’m not going to do. What I won’t do. I’m not going to treat any, any, any of these people with disrespect.”
It appeared to be a shift from a day earlier, when Biden had hesitated when asked by reporters if he regretted using the term, saying, “well I probably,” before pausing and saying “I don’t” and appearing to start saying the word “regret.”
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Texas and federal government clash over how to deter illegal border crossings
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This past week both President Biden and former President Trump visited the southern border in Texas. There’s no denying immigration has become one of the most important and contentious issues in the presidential campaign. And there’s no better example of that than the high stakes fight between the state of Texas and the federal government. Three years ago, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott launched “Operation Lone Star,” deploying thousands of police and soldiers and miles of barriers to deter record numbers of illegal crossings. The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that immigration is the job of the federal government. But rarely has a state so aggressively challenged that authority. In January, Gov. Abbott ordered his state National Guard to block the federal government’s Border Patrol from Shelby Park, a dusty stretch of border along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas. To understand why, you need to see what happened there in December.
We were on the banks of the river before dawn with soldiers from the Texas National Guard… we heard the cries of people before we could see their faces. It wasn’t until we moved closer that we realized how many people had just crossed from Mexico
The soldiers told them it was dangerous to cross here.
“Help us,” they begged. Some of the women cried — “we have children.”
60 Minutes
We heard groans… and found this young man twisting in the wire…. he kept going….
“Stay calm,” they told each other, as families pushed their children through.
Nearly everyone we saw made it across …and into the United States.
Thousands of people a day crossed here in late December — a record for this section of the Texas border. There were so many people… the U.S. Border Patrol had to transform Shelby Park into an open air holding center…
Weeks later once the surge died down, Gov. Abbott ordered his Texas National Guard to block the federal government’s Border Patrol from entering the park without permission. Gov. Abbott argued the federal government had failed to fulfill its obligation to the states — and in that some heard echoes of Texas’ history of rebellion and threats of secession.
Cecilia Vega: I can’t believe, Governor, I’m gonna ask you this question, but I’m– I’m gonna ask you: Do you believe that Texas has the right to secede? Is that what we’re talkin’ about here?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Those are false narratives. What Texas and the United States have the right to do– and that’s to enforce the law.
Cecilia Vega: You heard the argument against what you’re doing out here. Each state can’t control its own border policy. You’re looking at a completely chaotic system. That’s the job of the federal government–
Gov. Greg Abbott: We are not imposing a Texas border policy. Texas, very simply, is enforcing the laws– that– are the policy of the United States Congress.
Cecilia Vega: What gives you the authority to tell the U.S. Border Patrol what to do?
Gov. Greg Abbott: For one, as governor of the state of Texas, I have– the authority to control ingress and egress– to any land in the state of Texas. For another, this land we’re on right now was used by the federal government to further illegal activity, and I wanted to put a stop to it.
60 Minutes
We went behind the guarded gates of Shelby Park in January — shortly after Gov. Abbott had taken control.
Texas Department of Public Safety Lt. Christopher Olivarez showed us where state national guardsmen were installing fresh razor wire barriers along the river.
Cecilia Vega: Help me understand at the heart of this, why Texas has a problem with the Border Patrol coming into process migrants in this park.
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: The issue is trying to prevent another influx, because when Border Patrol is here setting up a processing center, it’s gonna attract, it’s gonna encourage more migrants to cross the river because they know where to go.
It’s one of many spots along the Texas border where coils of sharp wire have been going up ever since Gov. Abbott launched Operation Lone Star in 2021. Since then, thousands of migrants have been arrested and detained on trespassing charges.
State troopers have cracked down on human smuggling rings.
And the state has spent more than $150 million sending migrants on buses to cities like New York and Chicago, turning the trouble at the border into a political and financial headache for Democratic mayors.
Once the site of ballgames and flea markets, Shelby Park is now Gov. Abbott’s model of what the Texas border can be…
Gov. Greg Abbott: Where we are right now, there used to be 3,000 or 4,000 people crossing illegally a day. For the past three days, there’s an average of just three people crossing the border illegally.
Raul Ortiz: You don’t just plant a flag just to plant a flag. It’s gotta be strategic and it’s gotta make sense.
Raul Ortiz served as chief of the U.S. Border Patrol under President Biden and deputy chief under President Trump. He retired last year.
Raul Ortiz: When agencies are making a decision based upon politics or whether they’re gonna get media coverage, hey, we’re gonna put all our personnel in this two-mile stretch. What about the other 200 miles?
60 Minutes
In our interview, Ortiz criticized Gov. Abbott for not cooperating with the Border Patrol and playing politics with immigration. But he also expressed frustration with President Biden.
Raul Ortiz: I’ve never had one conversation with the president. Or the vice president, for that matter. And so I was the chief of the border patrol. I commanded 21,000 people. That’s a problem.
Cecilia Vega: I just saw 50 people today who had just crossed the border illegally. So something’s not working.
Raul Ortiz: We need to make sure that Central America, South America, Mexico, that those regions understand that if you pay a smuggler and you cross in between the ports of entry and you do not have a legitimate claim to some sort of asylum benefit, you’re gonna be sent back.
Cecilia Vega: Do you believe that the White House has sent mixed messages to migrants?
Raul Ortiz: Yeah, most definitely.
We spoke with Ortiz in an area just four miles south of Shelby Park. The ground was littered with wet clothes that migrants had changed out of and left behind after crossing the river.
Cecilia Vega: Does all of this tell you that people are still crossing this river right here?
Raul Ortiz: Oh, yeah, the guides or the smugglers will bring the migrants over. This all very calculated by the cartels that control these areas on the Mexican side.
60 Minutes
About seven miles north of Shelby Park… we came upon this group of migrants who had just crossed the Rio Grande — and were being picked up by the Border Patrol.
This mother and her two sons took buses from El Salvador. She told us the soldiers on the U.S. side of the border weren’t much of a deterrent– she feared the cartels in Mexico more…..
“Sometimes they kidnap you and expect payment,” she said.
Cecilia Vega: The reality is people are still gonna find a way to get in no matter how much manpower you have out here, no much– how much wire you put up—
Gov. Greg Abbott: Disagree completely, because
Cecilia Vega: You do?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Yeah, ’cause– in Texas, anyway– we’re gonna be barricading every area where people are crossing– until we get every area to have like this area is right now.
Cecilia Vega: Texas is going to barricade every area? What do you mean?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Every area where the cartels use as a crossing we intend to be barricading.
Cecilia Vega: Border’s gonna look like a war zone.
Gov. Greg Abbott: It is a war zone.
Over the past three years, the Biden administration has carried out 4 million expulsions and deportations – more than the Trump administration. But it has also allowed a record 3 million people to remain in the country for years while their immigration cases are heard. And the Border Patrol estimates another 1.6 million people have entered the country illegally without getting caught.
This past week, former President Trump visited Shelby Park with Gov. Abbott…
On the same day, President Biden was also at the Texas border in Brownsville.
President Biden says that if Republicans were serious about securing the border they would not have rejected a bipartisan immigration deal in the senate last month after former President Trump opposed it. That deal would have increased funding for the Border Patrol and required the president to expel all migrants crossing illegally during surges like the one at Shelby Park in December.
The latest battle between Texas and Washington concerns a new law Gov. Abbott signed authorizing Texas’ more than 2,700 law enforcement agencies to arrest migrants for illegally crossing the border. Texas judges could then order migrants to return to Mexico or serve time– bypassing the federal immigration system entirely.
Critics of the law say it is so broadly written it fails to define when authorities can stop someone.
We asked Lt. Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety, or “DPS,” about the concern that immigrants and people of color could be subjected to racial profiling.
60 Minutes
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: I can tell you that our troopers are not gonna be stopping cars and checking for immigration status. They’re not.
Cecilia Vega: But this law is not just written for DPS.
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: Right. It’s a Texas law.
Cecilia Vega: The reality is, this is going to be carried out far from the border.
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: Absolutely.
Cecilia Vega: So couldn’t you get caught up in it? You’re Latino. Couldn’t I get caught up in it?
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: That’s not the case. They have to develop probable cause in order to stop a car. You can’t just go interview every single person in that car, ask ’em for immigration status. But of course, yeah, there could be some issues where maybe some other agency outside of a border area– could take that into account.
Cecilia Vega: Does that make you nervous?
Lt. Christopher Olivarez: It’s probable– it’s probable, it’s probable because there’s a lot of agencies here in Texas that operate, right? But I would think that every chief at a police agency would have to implement some type of policy and procedure to actually enforce this new law.
This past week, a federal judge temporarily stopped the new law from taking effect while it’s being challenged in court. The Department of Justice and the American Civil Liberties Union are suing Texas, arguing the law interferes with the federal government’s authority over immigration. But Gov. Abbott argues Texas is being invaded and has the right to defend itself. That idea has resonated with militias and groups opposed to illegal immigration… some joined a convoy last month and descended on the Eagle Pass area.
Cecilia Vega: Everyone, I think, agrees that the immigration system right now is completely broken and there’s a lot of blame to go around. But do you really, truly believe that “invasion” is the right word to be using here?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Invasion is the word that’s used in the United States Constitution, “invasion” or “imminent danger.” I use ’em both. And we are in imminent danger because of what the drug cartels do every single day, because of the known and unknown terrorists who cross every single day.
Cecilia Vega: So, the convoys and militia have heard the language, and they’ve started to come to the point that migrants have had to be relocated from some locations for their own safety. Are you not concerned about violence happening because of language like the word invasion?
Gov. Greg Abbott: There’s no language that would spur violence, but I’ll be clear about this: We don’t want violence of any type.
Cecilia Vega: How does this end?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Oh, it ends very simply, and that’s with a president of the United States who will actually fulfill his oath of office and enforce the laws of the United States of America. And that means denying illegal entry into our country.
Cecilia Vega: Do you want to be Trump’s running mate?
Gov. Greg Abbott: No.
Cecilia Vega: What if he asks you?
Gov. Greg Abbott: Listen, I love being governor of Texas. I can best aid him in my role by being a great governor of Texas.
So far, the governor has committed more than $11 billion to Operation Lone Star. Over the last three years, the percentage of people entering Texas illegally has dropped, while rising in other border states. Abbott’s critics say that has more to do with other factors like crack-downs on migration in parts of Mexico.
There are still more than a million illegal border crossings in Texas every year.
There are also at least a dozen lawsuits being fought between Texas and the federal government over immigration issues. All that infighting worries former Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz….
Raul Ortiz: The National Guardsmen– even, to some degree, the border patrol agents have become pawns in this political game between the two sides.
Cecilia Vega: Who’s winning?
Raul Ortiz: The cartels, the criminal organizations, that’s who’s winnin’ in all of this. They’re sittin’ back reapin’ all the benefits while they watch the state of Texas and Washington D.C. go at it.
Produced by Andy Court. Associate producer, Annabelle Hanflig and Camilo Montoya-Galvez. Broadcast associate, Katie Jahns. Edited by Robert Zimet.
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2/25/2024: 142 Days in Gaza; An American in China
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Boston’s Mass & Cass housing in use as state seeks shelter solution
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BOSTON — Massachusetts’ immigration policies have made it a “magnet state” for new arrivals fleeing into the United States and policymakers ought to consider making the state “less attractive,” Republican Sen. Peter Durant said Sunday, as a rise in immigration is being felt around the country and becomes one of the top issues of the 2024 presidential election year.
Republicans have proposed amending the state’s right-to-shelter law, a policy which — up until late last year — guaranteed qualifying families housing in the state’s shelter system. Lawmakers proposed changing the law to require that families have been in the state for a period of time ranging from a few months to a few years, in order to qualify for a spot in state shelters.
Though the law remains in place and untouched, Healey capped the number of families guaranteed shelter at 7,500 last November, as the emergency housing system buckled under the weight of tens of thousands of new entrants, largely driven by new immigrants leaving war-torn or financially unstable countries.
Durant, a newly-elected Republican senator from Spencer, said on WCVB’s “On the Record” Sunday that the right-to-shelter law is attracting more immigrants into Massachusetts than other states in the country, none of which have the same legal requirement.
“It’s about making Massachusetts less attractive for those crossing the border,” Durant said.
“You cross the border in Texas or New Mexico, wherever you happen to be, you’re greeted by a bunch of NGOs — nongovernmental organizations — that say, ‘Where do you want to go? You can pick a state, say, South Dakota, that doesn’t have any benefits. Or we can send you to Massachusetts where you get free housing, free health care, free food, free education, cash benefits. Where would you like to go?’”
WCVB political reporter and co-host Sharman Sacchetti pointed out that the governor has capped the number of families it will shelter.
“Well, I mean, she said that we’re going to have no more than 7,500 families, yet we just filled up the Melnea Cass arena, and now we’re looking at space in Fort Point. So I don’t think it’s — I don’t think we can trust the governor in some of the things she’s saying,” Durant said.
The state closed the Melnea Cass Recreational Complex in Roxbury for community programming earlier this month to temporarily convert it into an overflow shelter with 100 beds for families placed on a waitlist for more permanent shelter. It was met with mixed reactions from the neighborhood’s residents.
State officials have said they’re looking into the Fort Point area of Boston near the Seaport District for the next overflow shelter.
Converting the Roxbury community center to an overflow housing site was the first time statewide that a building already in use has been tapped for shelter, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu said on another Sunday show, as a guest on @Issue on NBC Boston.
Boston had been doing its own search for space that could be turned into shelter for the growing population of homeless individuals in the city, mainly concentrated around the intersection of Melnea Cass Boulevard and Massachusetts Avenue in the South End.
“We in some ways have already been doing this search ourselves for the last two years as we’ve been primarily addressing Mass and Cass, the type of homelessness that’s often connected to substance use that local municipalities are often uniquely responsible for,” Wu said.
She added that Boston serves the whole state in helping house this population, many of whom come from other parts of the state into the capital for services related to drug use.
“We had identified every single vacant school building, other city building, much of it was put to service to address that larger crisis of individual adult homelessness and substance use as well, we’ve been seeing some major progress there,” the mayor said.
Over the last year and a half, the city opened nearly 200 units of low-threshold housing — spaces that provide counseling and case management services for people with histories of substance use disorder or who are chronically homeless. Wu’s administration propped up these shelters as a housing option for folks living in tents on the street, before clearing the area around Mass and Cass of homeless encampments.
Now, 25% of that previously created low-threshold housing is being used for newly-arrived immigrants through the state-run emergency housing program as the family shelter system has overflowed, Wu said Sunday.
“We’re seeing that impact at all levels,” Wu said.
The mayor added that almost 90 children living in the state’s family shelters have been enrolled in Boston Public Schools. They’ve been connected to schools within walking distance that had empty seats and go to school in cohorts with other children in their same situation.
“They have been getting to school in a walking bus, where everyone kind of holds their hands with their parents and gets to school. There’s been a lot of community support with volunteers and neighbors providing extra clothes for those who might not be prepared for this weather, and other supports for the young people,” she said.
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