Biden, Trump Offer Remedies for College Woes
While student debt and the affordability of a college education as a youth voter issue has been overshadowed by COVID and race events, it remains a top concern for many.“I’ve been paying whatever the minimum is for well over a decade,” said Victor Varadi, senior program manager at Disney/ABC, to VOA. Now 47, he has been paying down more than $50,000 in student loans for his undergraduate and master’s degree studies since 2006. The interest rate on those loans have been between 5% and 7%, he said.Varadi is among the student debtors who owe $1.5 trillion to lending institutions, more than all credit card debt in the U.S., according to Brookings Institution in an October report.A third of that debt is owned by only 6% of borrowers. On the other end, 18% of borrowers owe less than $5,000 in student debt, according to the Brookings Institution last November.“Clearly, solving the college debt problem involves not only making higher education more affordable, but also ensuring that students are on a sustainable path to pay off their debts,” stated McKinsey and Company, a management consulting firm, on its website.In the spring, before the COVID-19 pandemic caused a widespread closure of college campuses, …
Feds Wrongly Tell Some New US Citizens They Missed Chance to Vote
Federal immigration officials have acknowledged that they erroneously told some new U.S. citizens in Massachusetts that they could not vote in next week’s election because they had missed the state’s voter registration deadline.U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees the citizenship process, said Thursday that officials at some recent naturalization ceremonies mistakenly told new citizens they were ineligible to vote because the October 24 registration deadline had passed.State law, however, allows new citizens to register until 4 p.m. the day before an election if they became citizens after the deadline.Agency spokesman Daniel Hetlage said in a written statement that the error was based on information from a state website. The agency has contacted all new citizens who may have received incorrect information, he said.”The state has since updated its webpage and we at USCIS are not aware of this happening anywhere else,” Hetlage said.In a statement to GBH News, which first reported the story, the immigration agency said it was contacting 409 new citizens who had received incorrect information at 36 ceremonies Monday and Tuesday.Debra O’Malley, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts secretary of state, said the elections website did not previously include details on registration for new citizens. The issue …
What’s Happening at Trump’s Border Wall?
President Donald Trump promised to build a southern border wall when he campaigned four years ago, and he spoke about it again during the last presidential debate of 2020. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has this update on the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.Camera: Spike Johnson, Christian von PreysingProducer: Elizabeth Lee …
America’s Youth Mull Potential High Court Changes Over Abortion
A possible challenge to Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States in 1973, has young people considering how it might impact their lives.Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge from Indiana who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday evening, has previously disagreed with the decision, as well as the Affordable Care Act, which provides many women with free or low-cost contraception. Among 18- to 29-year-old Americans, 70% support abortion rights, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. Among all ages, 60% of Americans support legalized abortions. “I am scared, because a threat to Roe v. Wade means a threat to women’s rights over their own body,” Zoe Tishaev, a freshman at Duke University in North Carolina, told VOA. “It means a threat to the rights of women to make choices. For me, it is a direct threat to my autonomy to make choices.” By comparison, 55% of Americans 65 and older support legal abortion.Kristi Hamrick, spokesperson for Students for Life of America, said in an email to VOA that she believes Roe v. Wade needs to be “reviewed, reversed and returned to the states.” “A flawed understanding of someone else’s humanity may …
Trump Administration Sets Record Low Limit for New US Refugees
The Trump administration has slashed the number of refugees it will allow to resettle in the United States in the coming year, capping the number at 15,000, a record low in the history of the country’s modern refugee program. President Donald Trump finalized his plan in a memo overnight and said the ceiling for fiscal 2021, which started this month, includes 6,000 unused placements from last year “that might have been used if not for the COVID-19 pandemic.” The Republican president, seeking re-election on Nov. 3, has taken a hard line toward legal and illegal immigration, including sharply curbing refugee admissions every year since taking office in 2017. In his statement, Trump said any new refugees this year should be placed by the U.S. State Department in parts of the country open to hosting them. “Newly admitted refugees should be placed, to the maximum extent possible, in States and localities that have clearly expressed their willingness to receive refugees” and “resettled in communities that are eager and equipped to support their successful integration into American society and the labor force,” Trump said. Critics say that Trump has abandoned a longstanding U.S. role as a safe haven for persecuted people and …
Young People Mull Court Changes Over Abortion
A possible challenge to Roe v. Wade, a Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion in the United States in 1973, has young people considering how it might impact their lives.Justice Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative judge from Indiana who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court Monday evening, has previously disagreed with the decision, as well as the Affordable Care Act, which provides many women with free or low-cost contraception. Among 18- to 29-year-old Americans, 70% support abortion rights, according to a 2019 Pew Research Center study. Among all ages, 60% of Americans support legalized abortions. “I am scared, because a threat to Roe v. Wade means a threat to women’s rights over their own body,” Zoe Tishaev, a freshman at Duke University in North Carolina, told VOA. “It means a threat to the rights of women to make choices. For me, it is a direct threat to my autonomy to make choices.” By comparison, 55% of Americans 65 and older support legal abortion.Kristi Hamrick, spokesperson for Students for Life of America, said in an email to VOA that she believes Roe v. Wade needs to be “reviewed, reversed and returned to the states.” “A flawed understanding of someone else’s humanity may …
Thai Protest Leader: ‘Our Demands Are Supremely Clear’
On Monday, the Thai parliament will open a special session called after protests swelling since August moved Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to declare a weeklong state of emergency in the Bangkok area.Police say they are prepared to handle flare-ups during the session from protesters demanding Prayuth’s resignation and reform of the monarchy. Prayuth has described the special session as a step toward finding a “middle-of-the-road path.”Unlike past anti-government protests in Thailand that saw two political interests battling each other to assume power, the current movement is led by school and college students pushing for systemic changes. Their movement has evolved with a group of loosely aligned leaders who organize online.FILE – Student leader Tattep Ruangprapaikitseree speaks during a Thai anti-government mass protest, on the 47th anniversary of the 1973 student uprising, in Bangkok, Oct. 14, 2020.One of the leaders is Tattep “Ford” Ruangprapaikitseree, whose father drives for Grab, southeast Asia’s Uber, and whose mother died in 2014. Tattep became interested in politics when pro-establishment protesters mounted a massive street campaign in 2013-14 to oust then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a sister of the self-exiled former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted by a military coup in 2006.FILE – Thai protest leader …
How Trump Administration Dramatically Reshaped US Immigration Policy
The Trump administration has issued more than 400 executive actions that dramatically reshaped America’s immigration system. Some of those executive actions are coming under scrutiny ahead of the November 3 presidential election.Family separation A firestorm has erupted over reports that the U.S. government lost track of the parents of 545 migrant children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under a now-defunct Trump administration policy of “zero tolerance” for illegal border crossers.Parents of 545 Children Separated at Border Can’t Be Found About two-thirds of parents of those 545 children are believed to be in their countries of origin, the ACLU says Immigrant advocates said they do not know where the children are now or why the parents sent back to their countries of origin cannot be found.”[The children] are no longer in [Department of Homeland Security] custody, no longer in [Health and Human Services] custody, no longer in the government’s custody,” said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union’s immigrant rights project. “They were sponsored out. And that could mean [the children are with] a relative who — maybe — they were lucky enough to know. It could be a very distant relative they didn’t know. But it could also mean …
US Immigration Initiatives Draw Scrutiny
The Trump administration has issued more than 400 executive actions that dramatically reshaped America’s immigration system. Some of those executive actions are coming under scrutiny ahead of the November 3 presidential election.Family separation A firestorm has erupted over reports that the U.S. government lost track of the parents of 545 migrant children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under a now-defunct Trump administration policy of “zero tolerance” for illegal border crossers.Parents of 545 Children Separated at Border Can’t Be Found About two-thirds of parents of those 545 children are believed to be in their countries of origin, the ACLU says Immigrant advocates said they do not know where the children are now or why the parents sent back to their countries of origin cannot be found.”[The children] are no longer in [Department of Homeland Security] custody, no longer in [Health and Human Services] custody, no longer in the government’s custody,” said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union’s immigrant rights project. “They were sponsored out. And that could mean [the children are with] a relative who — maybe — they were lucky enough to know. It could be a very distant relative they didn’t know. But it could also mean …
Harvard Sees Steep Decline in Revenue
Harvard University lost $10 million in operating expenses at the end of the fiscal year in September, compared with a $308 million surplus last year.Revenue declined $138 million, mostly in the final quarter of the fiscal year that ended the last day of June 2020, according to the University’s Annual Financial Report. Refunds costlyThe biggest toll was from refunding student room and board fees — $32 million — when students were sent home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.Total student revenue decreased by 11% to $1.1 billion.Harvard also lost revenue from its lucrative executive education programs in which the university earned $500 million in revenue, or 9% of its profit. Executive programs include short- and long-term leadership and business programs in the school’s vaunted business school.“The loss would have been far greater without the implementation of immediate cost control efforts, including cuts in discretionary spending, a freeze in new hires and raises, no bonuses or overtime work, voluntary salary cuts by senior leadership, and reduced capital spending,” Vice President for Finance Thomas J. Hollister and Treasurer Paul J. Finnegan wrote in the report.Salary and hiring freezeIn April, the university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, instituted a salary and hiring freeze and other belt-tightening measures …
Scammers Scare Students Into Giving Up Personal Information
The call comes late at night, waking up a student with an angry voice that issues a threat about the student’s visa status.Your visa is out of compliance, the aggressive caller says, and instructs the student to send thousands of dollars to an account that he says belongs to “U.S. Immigration and Customs Services.”When the student says she or he has to call home — which can be many time zones away for many international students — the caller warns that if there is any delay, the student will be deported.The threat is a scam designed to make the unsuspecting student part with his or her money, say school administrators.“It’s a pretty serious situation,” said Senem Bakar, director of international student and scholar services at American University in Washington.Senem Bakar, director of international student and scholar services at American University in Washington.International students are not familiar “with our police and how things work. And so they sometimes will fall victim to these kinds of calls,” said Masume Assaf, director of international student and scholar advising at Pennsylvania State University.Scams also come in what look like official — but cleverly disguised – letters that would make it appear as if the …
Thai Parliament Recalled Amid Ongoing Protests
Thailand will recall its Parliament from recess to discuss ongoing pro-democracy protests in the country, the cabinet announced Tuesday.Lawmakers are expected to meet for a non-voting session October 26 to October 27, a move that embattled Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said he approved. Protests, largely led by students, have called for Prayuth’s resignation and several other changes to Thailand’s constitution.Protest leaders called for a day of rest Tuesday after six straight days of demonstrations, despite a ban on gatherings of more than four people.The Thai government also ordered the closing Tuesday of Voice TV, a network partly owned by the family of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Voice TV is one of four media outlets under investigation by the government for their coverage of the protest movement.FCC Thai, a press club of local and foreign journalists in Thailand, said in a statement Sunday it was “deeply concerned” about the investigation of news outlets in relation to the protests.Further to this morning’s developments, please find our statement on the police investigation of Thai media outlets below:#Journalismisnotacrime#saveสื่อเสรีpic.twitter.com/qAOM1wFuLY — FCCThai (@FCCThai) October 19, 2020The protesters also have called for changes to the monarchy — a seemingly untouchable institution in Thailand, where insulting royalty …
Foreign Students Could Buoy Cash-strapped US Universities
International students might be a boon for many colleges and universities to offset losses during the coronavirus pandemic, say experts. “U.S. education is an extremely valuable service export, roughly equivalent to total exports of wheat, corn, coal, and natural gas,” according to the FILE- People walk on the Stanford University campus beneath Hoover Tower in Stanford, Calif., March 14, 2019.In April, when the infection continued to shutter campuses nationwide, then-University of California President Janet Napolitano pleaded for funding assistance in a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom. “I am bringing to your attention these significant, unanticipated costs to UC in many areas from health to student housing, which for March 2020 alone totaled $558 million,” wrote Napolitano. “As you consider the 2020-2021 State budget, providing funding for UC to cover some of our COVID-19 response costs will help UC provide students the education they were promised, treat our employees with fairness, and provide our communities with compassionate care.” Smaller, liberal arts colleges have experienced financial challenges for years, and experts have predicted a decline in their number since before COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. MacMurray College in Jacksonville, Illinois, for example, with a student enrollment of 550 students, and 25% ethnic diversity, …
Parents of 545 Children Separated at Border Can’t Be Found
Court-appointed lawyers said Tuesday that they have been unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated at the U.S. border with Mexico early in the Trump administration. The children were separated between July 1, 2017, and June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents. Children from that period are difficult to find because the government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers have searched for them and their parents by going door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras. More than 2,700 children were separated from their parents in June 2018 when U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered an end to the practice under a “zero-tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute every adult who entered the country illegally from Mexico. The administration sparked an international outcry when parents couldn’t find their children. While those families were reunited under court order, authorities later discovered that up to 1,556 children were separated under the policy going back to the summer of 2017, including hundreds during an initial run at family separation in El Paso, Texas, from July to November 2017 that was not publicly disclosed at the time. The American Civil Liberties Union, …
Supreme Court to Review 2 Cases Involving Trump Border Policy
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases involving Trump administration policies at the U.S.-Mexico border: one about a policy that makes asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings and a second about the administration’s use of money to fund the border wall. The justices’ decision to hear the cases continues its practice of reviewing lower court rulings that have found President Donald Trump’s immigration policies illegal over the past four years. Most notably, the high court reviewed and upheld Trump’s travel ban on visitors from some largely Muslim countries. In June, the court kept in place legal protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The justices will not hear either new case until 2021, and the outcome of the presidential election could make the cases go away, or at least reduce their significance. If Democrat Joe Biden wins the White House, he has pledged to end “Migrant Protection Protocols,” which Trump considers a cornerstone policy on immigration. In the border wall case, much of the money has already been spent and wall constructed. It is unclear what could be done about that wall that has already been built if the administration loses, but it could conceivably be torn down. Biden has said …
High Court to Review Two Cases Involving Trump Border Policy
The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear two cases involving Trump administration policies at the U.S.-Mexico border: one about a policy that makes asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings and a second about the administration’s use of money to fund the border wall. The justices’ decision to hear the cases continues its practice of reviewing lower court rulings that have found President Donald Trump’s immigration policies illegal over the past four years. Most notably, the high court reviewed and upheld Trump’s travel ban on visitors from some largely Muslim countries. In June, the court kept in place legal protections for immigrants who came to the U.S. as children. The justices will not hear either new case until 2021, and the outcome of the presidential election could make the cases go away, or at least reduce their significance. If Democrat Joe Biden wins the White House, he has pledged to end “Migrant Protection Protocols,” which Trump considers a cornerstone policy on immigration. In the border wall case, much of the money has already been spent and wall constructed. It is unclear what could be done about that wall that has already been built if the administration loses, but it could conceivably be torn down. Biden has said …
Chinese Company Offers Coronavirus Vaccine to Students
A Chinese drug developer is offering an experimental coronavirus vaccine to students going abroad in a strategy that health experts say raises safety and ethical concerns. China National Biotech Group has two vaccine candidates out of five from Chinese developers that are in the final stages of clinical trials. They are part of a global race to develop a vaccine that, if they are successful, offers the fledgling Chinese industry the potential for prestige and worldwide sales. CNBG’s vaccine has been given to medical workers and employees of Chinese companies being sent abroad under an emergency authorization for people in high-risk categories. Now, CNBG said it will provide the vaccine for free to Chinese students who study abroad. More than 168,000 people signed up to receive the vaccine via an online survey, and more than 91,000 are being considered, CNBG said on its website. That page had been removed by Tuesday. A student who is due to go to Britain said she signed up via the online link after classmates said they received the vaccine. The student, who would give only her English name, Sally, said she started to hear in September that the vaccine was available to people like her. She said other students said …
US Supreme Court to Review Legality of Trump’s ‘Remain in Mexico’ Asylum Policy
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide the legality of one of President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies that has forced tens of thousands of migrants along the southern border to wait in Mexico, rather than entering the United States, while their asylum claims are processed. The justices will hear a Trump administration appeal of a 2019 lower court ruling that found the policy likely violated federal immigration law. The program, called Migrant Protection Protocols, remains in effect because the Supreme Court in March put the lower court’s decision to block the policy on hold while the legal battle continues. The Republican president has said the “remain in Mexico” policy, which took effect in January 2019, has reduced the flow of migrants from Central America into the United States. Restricting both illegal and legal immigration has been a central theme of Trump’s presidency. He has sought to reduce asylum claims through a series of policy and rule changes. Immigration advocacy groups and 11 individual asylum seekers who fled violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras were returned to Mexico after entering the United States filed suit to challenge the legality of the policy. The “remain in Mexico” policy, …
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