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Tag: U.S.-Mexico border
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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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Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador talks immigration, cartels, fentanyl crisis
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Immigration, the border and the economy have emerged as key issues in this year’s presidential election and may determine who wins the White House. But the person who could tip the scales for either candidate…is another president. Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, widely known by his initials “AMLO.” Charismatic, and often combative, “AMLO” won a landslide victory in 2018 on the promise to root-out corruption, reduce poverty and violent crime. Now, 70 years old and in the final stretch of his term, we met the president in Mexico City for a candid conversation about his handling of immigration, trade, the fentanyl crisis, and the cartels. And he told us why he thinks…when Donald Trump says he is going to shut down the border or build a wall, he’s bluffing.
Sharyn Alfonsi: President Trump is saying he wants to build a wall again.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): On the campaign.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But you don’t think he’d actually do it?
President López Obrador (in Spanish) No, no..
Sharyn Alfonsi: Because? Because he needs Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because we understood each other very well. We signed an economic, a commercial agreement that has been favorable for both peoples, for both nations. He knows it. And President Biden, the same.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But what about the people that’ll say, “Oh. But the wall works”?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It doesn’t work!
60 Minutes
And President López Obrador says he told that to then-President Trump during a phone call. They were supposed to be discussing the pandemic.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It was an agreement not to speak about the wall because we were not going to agree.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And then you talked about it.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): That was the only time. And I told him, “I am going to send you, Mr. President, some videos of tunnels from Tijuana up to San Diego, that passed right under U.S. Customs.” He stayed quiet, and then he started laughing and told me “I can’t win with you.”
We met President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at Mexico’s National Palace earlier this month. With six months left on his six-year term, López Obrador’s power in Mexico – and influence in the United States – has never been greater. The White House witnessed it – here – last December when a record 250,000 migrants overwhelmed the U.S. southern border with Mexico.
Sharyn Alfonsi: President Biden called you. He sent his Secretary of State. What did they say to you and what did they ask for from you?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): For us to try and contain the flow of migration.
A month later, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol reported the number of migrant crossing dropped by 50 percent.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So what did you do between December and January that changed that number so dramatically?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We were more careful about our southern border. We spoke with the presidents of Central America, with the president of Venezuela and with the president of Cuba. We asked them for help in curbing the flow of migrants. However, that is a short-term solution, not a long-term one.
Mexico also increased patrols at the border, flying some migrants to the southern part of Mexico and deporting others. But by February, the number of migrants crossing into the U.S. began to rise again and the Border Patrol expects a sharp increase in that number this spring.
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: Everybody thinks you have the power in this moment to slow down migration. Do you plan to?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We do and want to continue doing it, but we do want for the root causes to be attended to, for them to be seriously looked at.
With the ear of the White House – President López Obrador proposed his fix- that the United States commit $20 billion a year to poor countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, lift sanctions on Venezuela, end the Cuban embargo and legalize millions of law-abiding Mexicans living in the U.S.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do the things that you said need to be done, then what?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): The flow of migrants… will continue.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics have said what you’re doing, what you’re asking for to help secure the border is diplomatic blackmail. What do you say?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I am speaking frankly, we have to say things as they are, and I always say what I feel. I always say what I think.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If they don’t do those things, will you continue to help to secure the border?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes, because our relationship is very important. It is fundamental.
For much of the last six years, President López Obrador has held a televised 7 a.m. press conference…five days a week. During our visit he was dissecting “fake news.” The briefing lasted more than two hours.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Is it a pulpit or is it a press conference?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It is a circular dialogue, even though my opponents say that I am on a pulpit.
60 Minutes
Time is the only luxury AMLO seems comfortable spending. When he took office, he sold the presidential jet, and his predecessors’ fleet of bulletproof cars in favor of his Volkswagen. He uses his daily briefings to rail against “the elite” and enemies, real and perceived. At times it can feel like a political telenovela. At a briefing last month, the president stunned the audience when he read the cellphone number of a “New York Times” reporter – who was pursuing what he viewed as a critical story of him.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It looks like you were threatening that reporter.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I didn’t do it with the intention of harming her. She, like yourself, are public figures, and I am as well.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But you know this is a dangerous place for reporters. And you know that threats often come in text and phones. When you put her phone number up behind you, you realized what you were doing.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no. No.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Well, what did you think you were doing?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): It’s a form of responding to a libel. Imagine what it means for this reporter to write that the president of Mexico has connections with drug traffickers… And without having any proof. That is a vile slander.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So then why not just say it’s not true?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because libel, when it doesn’t stain, it smears.
López Obrador’s bare knuckle brawls with the press are in sharp contrast to the softer approach he’s taken with the drug cartels. He dissolved the federal police and created a National Guard to take over public security and he invested millions to create jobs for young people to escape the grip of the cartels. According to the Mexican government, homicides have dropped almost 20% since he took office. The president calls his approach, “hugs, not bullets.”
Sharyn Alfonsi: How is that working out for Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Very well.
Sharyn Alfonsi: There are still 30,000 homicides in Mexico, and very few of those are prosecuted. So, there’s an idea that there’s still lawlessness in Mexico. Is that fair?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Of course we prosecute them. There is no impunity in Mexico. They all get prosecuted.
Sharyn Alfonsi: It’s a small percent.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): More than before.
60 Minutes
According to México Evalúa, a Mexican think tank, about 5% of the country’s homicides are prosecuted. And a study last year reported cartels have expanded their reach, employing an estimated 175,000 people to extort businesses and traffic migrants and drugs into the U.S.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Can you reach the cartel and say, “Knock it off?”
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no. What you have to do with the criminals is apply the law. But I’m not going to establish contact, communication with a criminal, the President of Mexico.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Are you saying you don’t have to reach out to them or communicate with them?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): No, no, no, no, no, because you cannot negotiate with criminals.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The head of the DEA says cartels are mass producing fentanyl, and the U.S. State Department has said that most of it is coming out of Mexico. Are they wrong?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes. Or rather, they don’t have all the information, because fentanyl is also produced in the United States.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The State Department says most of it’s coming from Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico. And the chemical precursors come from Asia. You know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we have customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But there is drug consumption in Mexico.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): But very little.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So, why the violence, then, in Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Because drug trafficking exists, but not the consumption.
López Obrador says threats by U.S. lawmakers to shut down the border to curb drug trafficking, is little more than saber rattling. That’s because last year, Mexico became America’s top trading partner.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): They could say, “we are going to close the border,” but we mutually need each other.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What would happen to the U.S. if they closed the border?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): You would not be able to buy inexpensive cars if the border is closed. That is, you would have to pay $10,000, $15,000 dollars more for a car. There are factories in Mexico and there are factories in the United States that are fundamental for all the consumers in the United States and all the consumers in Mexico.
Last year, the Mexican economy grew 3% and unemployment hit a record low. But critics says Mexico’s economic growth isn’t because of the president, rather, in spite of him. López Obrador directed billions to signature mega projects like an oil refinery in his home state and a railroad through the Yucatan Jungle…costing an estimated $28 billion.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What about infrastructure? Aren’t there more dire concerns like, you know, clean water, roads, reliable energy, when you’re trying to attract business to Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): We are doing both, fixing the roads and building this train. It will link all the ancient Mayan cities and is going to allow Mexicans and tourists to enjoy a paradise region that is the southeast of Mexico.
López Obrador has spent unapologetically on social programs – doubling the minimum wage, increasing pensions, and scholarships. His approval rating has remained high – upwards of 60% for most of his presidency.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Your critics say that you’re popular because you give people money. What do you say?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I would say they are partly right. Our formula is simple: It is not to allow corruption; not to make for an ostentatious government, for luxuries; and everything we save we allocate to the people.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Do you think that you’ve been able to get rid of the corruption in Mexico?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Completely?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Yes, basically, because corruption in Mexico started from the top down.
But Transparency International reports no improvement in the corruption problems that have plagued Mexico for decades. Huge crowds gathered last month, accusing the president of trying to eliminate the country’s democratic checks and balances. In June, Mexico will have one of largest elections in its history…in addition to the presidency, 20,000 local positions are up for grabs. The cartels have funded and preyed on local candidates. Last month, two mayoral hopefuls were killed within hours of each other, raising fears of a bloody election.
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): I can travel throughout the entire country without problem. There is no region that I cannot go and visit.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The number of government officials and candidates murdered rose from 94 in 2018 to 355 last year. You don’t view that as a threat to you, obviously, but do you view it as a threat to democracy?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation) No. There are some specific instances. There is no state repression.
Sharyn Alfonsi: But if a candidate’s afraid to run because they may be assassinated, isn’t that a threat to democracy?
President López Obrador (in Spanish/English translation): Generally, they all participate, there are many candidates, from all the parties.
His hand-picked successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, has a commanding lead in the polls, and could become Mexico’s first female president. López Obrador told us when he leaves office, he will retire from politics and write books. But what he does next at the border –or doesn’t do – could shape the next chapter of the United States.
Produced by Michael Karzis. Associate producer, Katie Kerbstat Jacobson. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Daniel J. Glucksman
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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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With deadline looming, Senate races to approve $1.2 trillion government spending package
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With deadline looming, Senate races to approve $1.2 trillion government spending package – CBS News
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3/10: CBS Weekend News
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3/10: CBS Weekend News – CBS News
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Did Katie Britt Misrepresent the Sex-Trafficking Story in Her SOTU Response?
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Alabama senator Katie Britt’s official GOP response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union address on Thursday night has been widely criticized, primarily for how wholly bizarre it was, but also for the lurid stories Britt included in an attempt to illustrate why he has been a terrible nation-destroying president. A key anecdote Britt featured to that end was about a young woman she met during a January 2023 trip to the U.S. southern border who had been a victim of rape and sex trafficking as a teenager. She used the story as example of Biden’s failed border policies, clearly suggesting the woman had suffered these crimes inside the U.S. and as a direct result of the president’s failure to secure the southern border. Here is that section, from the transcript of the speech released by Britt’s office:
[R]ight now, the American dream has turned into a nightmare for so many families. The true unvarnished state of our union begins and ends with this. Our families are hurting. Our country can do better.
And you don’t have to look any further than the crisis at our southern border to see it. President Biden inherited the most secure border of all-time. But minutes after taking office, he suspended all deportations, halted construction of the border wall, and announced a plan to give amnesty to millions.
We know that President Biden didn’t just create this border crisis. He invited it with 94 executive actions in his first 100 days.
When I first took office, I did something different. I traveled to the Del Rio sector of Texas, where I spoke to a woman who shared her story with me. She had been sex trafficked by the cartels starting at age 12. She told me not just that she was raped every day, but how many times a day she was raped.
The cartels put her on a mattress in a shoe-box of a room, and they sent men through that door, over and over again, for hours and hours on-end.
We wouldn’t be OK with this happening in a third-world country. This is the United States of America, and it’s past time we start acting like it.
President Biden’s border crisis is a disgrace. It’s despicable. And it’s almost entirely preventable.
On Friday, former Associated Press reporter Jonathan Katz highlighted several details which, at best, call Britt’s framing of the woman’s story into question. In both a Bluesky thread and a TikTok video, the independent journalist said that he tried to confirm the details Britt shared, noting that during her trip to the border in January 2023, Britt and two other GOP senators, Marsha Blackburn and Cindy Hyde-Smith, held a roundtable press conference with a Mexican congresswoman, a Fox News contributor, and a Mexican sex-trafficking survivor named Karla Jacinto Romero.
In 2004, Romero was forced into sex slavery in Mexico when she was 12 years old, and after she escaped her pimp four years later, bravely dedicated her life to activism against slavery and sex trafficking. Since then, she has repeatedly recounted the horrific details of her experience, including in testimony before Congress in 2015, and again with Britt, Blackburn, and Hyde-Smith in 2023.
As Katz pointed out, Britt clearly cited the sex trafficking victim’s experience as a consequence of President Biden’s border policies, but if in fact the story she referred to was Romero’s, those crimes happened in Mexico at a time when George W. Bush was president. In addition Britt framed the story as having happened amid the current border crisis, in the border region, right before she began citing alleged migrant-perpetrated violence inside the U.S.
Both Politico Playbook and AL.com columnist Kyle Whitmire reached out to Britt’s office for comment regarding Katz’s investigation, and Britt spokesperson Sean Ross sent a statement in reply insisting that “the story Senator Britt told was 100% correct. There are more innocent victims of that kind of disgusting, brutal trafficking by the cartels than ever before right now.” The statement further claims that the Biden administration’s policies “have empowered the cartels and acted as a magnet to a historic level or migrants making the dangerous journey to our border. Along that journey, children, women, and men are being subjected to gut-wrenching, heartbreaking horrors in our own backyard.”
The Britt spokesperson hasn’t yet confirmed whether or not Romero was the victim Britt spoke with, but in a video about the January 2023 border visit produced by Senator Blackburn’s office, Britt referenced what appeared to be Romero’s account, while footage of her and Romero appeared. In those remarks, Britt argued that the U.S. needed to do more to prevent such crime:
If we, as leaders of the greatest nation in the world, are not fighting to protect the most vulnerable, we are not doing our job.
That’s not the argument Britt made in her State of the Union response on Thursday. If she was in fact referencing Romero’s story, Britt made up a totally false context in her speech in order to suggest Biden was to blame for something that happened two decades ago.
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Sen. Katie Britt delivers Republican rebuttal to State of the Union address
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Sen. Katie Britt delivers Republican rebuttal to State of the Union address – CBS News
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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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2/29: CBS Evening News
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What to expect from Biden and Trump’s competing border trips
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Schumer, McConnell suggest progress being made to avoid shutdown
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Aid group stepping in to help at U.S.-Mexico border
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Mayorkas is first cabinet member to be impeached since 1876
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House to vote on Alejandro Mayorkas impeachment again after failed first attempt
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Washington — The House on Tuesday is expected to vote for a second time in a week to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas after Republican leaders suffered an embarrassing defeat in their first effort.
Mayorkas narrowly survived last week’s vote after a small group of Republicans, who said President Biden’s border chief did not commit impeachable offenses for his handling of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis, voted with all Democrats to sink it.
Republicans vowed they would try again once House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who had been undergoing cancer treatment, returned to Washington. The Louisiana Republican will be back at work this week, giving them another vote that is expected to tip the scale in their favor, barring any absences.
The vote comes the same day as a special election in New York’s third congressional district to replace former GOP Rep. George Santos, which could further narrow the House’s Republican majority. The possibility of Democrats picking up the swing seat puts pressure on Republicans to move quickly with another vote.
In a statement Tuesday, the Department of Homeland Security said the impeachment push was “pointless,” “unconstitutional” and “baseless.”
The impeachment case against Mayorkas
Republicans assert Mayorkas should be charged with high crimes and misdemeanors for not enforcing immigration laws. They’ve focused much of their arguments on the failure to detain all migrants while they await court proceedings.
Mayorkas and Democrats have contended that it’s a matter of policy differences, arguing that Republicans are using impeachment to score political points during an election year. They say it’s up to Congress to fix the “broken” immigration system and allocate more resources to border security.
Legal experts on both sides of the aisle have also criticized the effort, saying Mayorkas’ actions fail to meet the threshold for impeachment.
Last month, Republicans unveiled two articles of impeachment against Mayorkas after speeding through impeachment proceedings.
The first impeachment article accuses Mayorkas of releasing migrants into the U.S. who should have been detained. The second article alleges he lied to lawmakers about whether the southern border was secure when he previously testified that his department had “operational control” of the border, and accuses Mayorkas of obstructing congressional oversight of his department.
The Department of Homeland Security has said Congress has never given the executive branch the resources and personnel needed to detain every migrant as required by federal immigration law. It also denied Mayorkas lied to lawmakers, pointing to how the department uses “operational control” internally.
“The problems with our broken and outdated immigration system are not new,” Mayorkas wrote last month in a letter to Rep. Mark Green of Tennessee, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. “We need a legislative solution and only Congress can provide it.”
Mayorkas also said the push to impeach him had not shaken him.
“I assure you that your false accusations do not rattle me and do not divert me from the law enforcement and broader public service mission to which I have devoted most of my career and to which I remain devoted,” he previously wrote in a letter to the committee.
Republican leaders went ahead with last week’s nail-biter of a floor vote amid uncertainty about whether they had enough support to impeach Mayorkas.
It looked like the vote was going to succeed, with three GOP defections, until Rep. Al Green was unexpectedly wheeled onto the floor in his hospital scrubs after intestinal surgery. The Texas Democrat tied the vote at 215-215, defeating the resolution.
A fourth Republican also switched his vote at the last minute to give GOP leaders the opportunity to bring up the vote again, making the final vote 214 in favor to 216 against.
Scalise was the only lawmaker absent from the vote.
One of the Republican lawmakers who broke with his party, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, said in a Wall Street Journal piece last week that the GOP is setting “a dangerous new precedent that would be used against future Republican administrations.” Gallagher announced days after the impeachment vote that he would not seek reelection.
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Border bill negotiators say deal could help Trump—Will MAGA listen?
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Negotiators of the newly released bipartisan Senate border deal insist their bill would benefit former President Donald Trump should he retake the White House, but Trump and his supporters have remained unmoved.
Upon release of the border deal’s text on Sunday, the agreement was met with swift opposition. Trump called the deal “horrendous” on Truth Social, and House Speaker Mike Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the bill would be “dead on arrival” in the House, as he insisted that President Joe Biden has the authority to end the crisis now.
But during his presidency, Trump lamented the limitations on his power, criticizing the “endemic abuse of the asylum system” in a 2018 address and saying “the only way to ensure the endurance of our nation as a sovereign country is for Congress to overcome open borders obstruction.”
With the border averaging around 262,000 monthly crossings over the last three months and U.S. immigration courts facing a backlog of over 3 million, the issue remains pertinent. The bill’s negotiators, independent Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, say it would provide future presidents a greater ability to avoid such issues in the future.
“The last three presidents have all indicated very clearly, so that’s [Barack] Obama, Trump and Biden, have all said numerous times that we have to make changes to asylum policy so that we can stop the exploitation that’s currently occurring,” Sinema said in response to a question from Newsweek. “Our bill does that.”
Senators James Lankford and Kyrsten Sinema speak at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Government Operations and Border Management on September 6, 2023, in Washington, D.C. As the panel’s…
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
As stipulated in the bill, if the border begins facing a seven-day average of 5,000 illegal daily crossings, an expulsion authority is triggered that prevents individuals who crossed illegally from making asylum claims by directing immigration officials to only hear claims made at ports of entry.
Under the current system, those who cross illegally can seek asylum once detained by border patrol. They are then allowed to stay in the U.S. while their claims are reviewed.
These claims are part of the 3 million-case backlog. Because those seeking asylum may wait in the U.S. while their case is reviewed, some migrants are incentivized to cross illegally and claim asylum so they can spend time building a life in the U.S. while their case makes its way through the backlog.
Under the border deal, the threshold to claim asylum would also be raised and asylum officers would be deployed to screen certain claims, lightening the workload of immigration judges. Proponents of the bill say this would alleviate the backlog and curb incentives for migrants to make false asylum claims.
“The change in the asylum law has been long needed and long discussed. That change is very significant,” Lankford told Newsweek. “That is a much faster process; then we’re not dealing with a 10-year backlog anymore, and that is a very significant shift.”
In addition to the asylum provisions, the bill—which Lankford and Sinema negotiated with Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut—would provide $20 billion to hire new border agents, asylum officers and invest in technology. It would also add thousands more family- and employment-based visas, among other actions outlined in the 370-page bill.
The border agreement has received support from the National Border Patrol Council, the union representing border patrol, as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Newsweek reached out to the Trump campaign via email for comment Monday night.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
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Senators unveil bipartisan bill to overhaul immigration system
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Chinese migrants are the fastest growing group crossing from Mexico into U.S. at southern border
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The number of migrants arriving at the southern border is unprecedented. Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded two-and-a-half million instances of detaining or turning away people attempting to cross into the United States from Mexico.
So what’s the fastest growing group among them? Chinese migrants. Yes, you heard that right…Chinese. We saw large groups, including many from the middle class, come through a 4-foot gap at the end of a border fence 60 miles east of San Diego.
The illegal entryway is a new route for those hoping to live in America.
Just after sunrise, we saw the first group of migrants make their way from Mexico…through a gap between the 30 foot steel border fence and rocks.
Ducking under a bit of razor wire and into the United States.
We were surprised to see the number of people coming through from China…nearly 7,000 miles away.
Our cameras, and at one point this armed Border Patrol agent standing 25 feet away…. did not deter them.
60 Minutes
This man, a college graduate, told us he hoped to find work in Los angeles. He said his trip from China took 40 days.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What countries did you go through?
College grad: Thailand, Morocco, Ecuador … Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica …Nicaragua.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Jeez.
Thirty minutes later, a smuggler’s SUV raced along the border fence and dropped another group at the same spot. And 30 minutes after that…. another group.
Over four days, we witnessed nearly 600 migrants – adults and children- pass through this hole and onto U.S. soil…unchecked. We saw people from India, Vietnam and Afghanistan. Many of the Chinese migrants who came through will end up asking for political asylum.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Did you travel by yourself or with family or friends?
Migrant no. 2: Eh No. Just me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Just you.
Migrant no. 2: Yeah.
The gap is a global destination…littered with travel documents from around the world.
60 Minutes
With the help of a translator, we learned a little about the Chinese migrants coming through.
We also met a banker and small business owners.
Some of the migrants made a grueling journey through Central America with dusty backpacks…but we noticed middle class migrants from China arriving with rolling bags. They told us they took flights all the way to Mexico.
Some flew from China to Ecuador, because it doesn’t require a visa for Chinese nationals. Then, took flights to Tijuana, Mexico.
The migrants told us they connected with smugglers, or what they call snake heads, in Tijuana.
And they each paid them about $400 for the hour-long drive that ended here…at the gap…
Sharyn Alfonsi: Why did you decide to come to the United States?
Female migrant/Translator speaking English: Oh, it’s hard to live there … hard to find jobs.
Sharyn Alfonsi: What did you do? Did you work in China?
Female migrant/Translator speaking English: She worked in the factory but now it’s hard to work in the factory.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Was this– trip expensive?
Female migrant /Translator speaking English: Yeah.
She said it was…and that she sold her house to cover the $14,000 cost of her trip to the U.S.
60 Minutes
Last year, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 37,000 Chinese citizens were apprehended crossing illegally from Mexico into the U.S.…that’s 50 times more than two years earlier.
Many of the migrants told us they made the journey to escape China’s increasingly repressive political climate and sluggish economy.
This 37-year-old woman said China’s COVID lockdown destroyed her child care business. She left her two young children with family at home.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And why did you decide to come to the United States?
37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Many reasons.
Sharyn Alfonsi: For work or?
37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Not … not entirely.
Sharyn Alfonsi: OK. What– what reasons?
37-year-old female migrant/translator speaking English: Freedom.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Freedom.
We wondered how all of these migrants…knew about this particular entryway into California.
The answer was in their hands.
Translator: TikTok, TikTok.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Oh you learned on TikTok.
TikTok is a social media platform created in China. The posts we found had step-by-step instructions for hiring smugglers and detailed directions to that hole we visited.
We were struck by just how orderly and routine it all seemed. The migrants walked about a half mile down a dirt road and waited in line for U.S. Border Patrol to arrive so they could surrender.
The land they are waiting on is owned by 75-year-old Jerry Shuster, a retiree.
Sharyn Alfonsi: The whole world seems to know there’s a way in. And it’s on your property.
60 Minutes
Jerry Shuster: They’re all doing this. They’re all doing this. when they come over here, they come with the suitcases. They come prepared with the computers just like they got off on a Norwegian cruise ship yesterday.
Shuster owns 17 acres…just north of the border fence and a quarter mile outside of Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Population 540.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You’re an immigrant yourself.
Jerry Shuster: Yes.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Where did you come from?
Jerry Shuster: I come from Yugoslavia. And I left Yugoslavia, I went to Austria. I stayed there eight month. And I knock on this door. I didn’t bust the door down to come over here.
Sharyn Alfonsi: You came through the front door.
Jerry Shuster: I came through the front door.
Sharyn Alfonsi: And what do you think about this?
Jerry Shuster: They– they don’t care. They– they– they– they come through the hole like they’re comin’ to their own country over here. And nobody do nothin’ about it.
Shuster says it all started in May. He went to investigate some smoke coming from his property and found migrants burning trees to stay warm.
Today, his property looks like a messy moonscape…littered with the trash and tents migrants have left behind.
60 Minutes
Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you ever just yelled, “Get outta here?”
Jerry Shuster: Well, they say—I uh – it was, like, four month ago, there was eight guys start– knocking my trees and start burning my– my– my trees on the other side. So I told ’em, “Please, don’t do that. Please don’t do–” and they start surrounding me. I went home, and I got my gun, and I shoot in the air. They arrest me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: They arrested you?
Jerry Shuster: Yeah, they arrest me.
Sharyn Alfonsi: On your property?
Jerry Shuster: Yeah, on my property. Yeah, just because. I ask ’em not to burn the trees, not to knock the fences. And they– they arrested me. They put me in a police car. I’m just protecting my own land.
Shuster wasn’t charged – but his gun was confiscated.
Sharyn Alfonsi: If you had to guess, how many migrants do you think you’ve seen come through here?
Jerry Shuster: Maybe 3,000—a week.
Sharyn Alfonsi: 3,000 a week?
Jerry Shuster: I would say that, yes. Because this is ongoing deal.
About two hours after these migrants arrived, we saw the Border Patrol pull up, broadcasting recorded instructions in Mandarin.
The migrants were driven to a detention facility near San Diego…where they are given background checks. Some are interviewed. Typically – within 72 hours – they are released into the United States and can begin the process of filing an asylum claim.
Jacqueline Arellano has volunteered on the border for eight years offering humanitarian aid to migrants.
Jacqueline Arellano: So I’m a– native Spanish speaker. I have been able to rely on being bilingual in doing this work for the duration that I have been doing it. And in this past year, I mean, there’s been times that I’ve come to the sites and not spoken to a single Spanish speaker.
She relies on translation apps to communicate with Chinese migrants.
Sharyn Alfonsi: These people want to be picked up by border patrol. Why isn’t this happening at a port of entry?
Jacqueline Arellano: That would definitely be the ideal situation. And people would much prefer to do so. It would definitely be much safer and more efficient. Unfortunately, there are barriers to people being able to seek asylum at a port of entry.
One barrier is the phone app called “CBP One”.
Asylum seekers are supposed to use the app to make an appointment to enter the U.S. through a legal border crossing…
As we saw last spring in Juarez, Mexico…the system is glitchy…
Volunteers who work with migrants told us there is still a three to four month wait to secure an appointment at a border crossing.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So is this a shortcut?
Jacqueline Arellano: It’s really, like, the only one that they have. I don’t even know that they would consider it a shortcut.
For years, millions of Chinese entered the U.S. with a visa that allowed them to visit, work or study. But in the last few years, those visas have been increasingly difficult to secure as tensions between the two countries have grown.
In 2016, the U.S. granted 2.2 million temporary visas to Chinese nationals. In 2022, it was just 160,000.
Tammy Lin is an immigration attorney and has worked with clients from China for nearly two decades.
Sharyn Alfonsi: if someone’s not granted asylum here, will China then say, “Okay, yes, we’ll take them back”?
Tammy Lin: I haven’t seen that happen, really. I– I think– even back to 2008– a lot of the Chinese nationals that had failed asylum cases weren’t able to get passports– to be put on the plane to be sent back. So we can’t send you back.
Based on our review of data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement – there are at least 36,000 Chinese who have been ordered by U.S. courts to leave the country. But China is notorious for not taking back its citizens and the U.S. can’t force China to accept them.
Sharyn Alfonsi: So, then, what happens if they have a failed claim but they can’t go back to China?
Tammy Lin: That’s a very good question. They’re stuck in this limbo.
According to the Department of Justice, last year 55% of Chinese migrants were granted asylum. compared to 14% for every other nationality.
With the odds in their favor, and a phone to guide them, there’s little to discourage more Chinese migrants from coming through the gap near Jerry Shuster’s place.
Sharyn Alfonsi: Have you said to anybody, “Hey, there’s this giant hole. They’re comin’ through. How ’bout patching that up?”
Jerry Shuster: They know that thing is there. And– we– we all been tellin’ ’em, “Hey, when this thing gonna quit over here? you gotta call Washington D.C.” That’s what they say.
So, we did. U.S. Customs and Border Protection told us their agents don’t have authority to stop people from coming through gaps like this one and can only arrest them after they’ve entered illegally.
As for closing that gap, they said it is on their priority list. But would require money from Congress.
Produced by Guy Campanile. Associate Producer, Lucy Hatcher. Broadcast associate, Erin DuCharme. Edited by Craig Crawford.
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