Biden, Mexican President Warn of ‘Unprecedented’ Migration Flow
U.S. President Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, warned of “unprecedented” pressure from migration in a call Friday that highlighted a major political headache for the White House ahead of November elections. “In view of the unprecedented flows of migrants from throughout the hemisphere to our two countries, the presidents reiterated the need to build stronger tools for managing regional migration surges,” the White House said in a statement after the call between the two presidents. The virtual meeting, just under an hour long, showcased Biden’s attempt to steer the complex relationship onto a more cooperative basis after the tempestuous, at times tense, situation under his predecessor Donald Trump. “The tone of the call was very constructive. This was not a call where President Biden was threatening the Mexican president in any way,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, referring to Trump’s aggressive brinkmanship with Mexico over illegal immigration. The two nations are inextricably tied through trade, culture and the violent narcotics industry. However, looming over everything is the quandary of how to manage both legal and illegal migration. It’s a subject that will feature heavily at the upcoming regional Summit of the Americas in …
Ukrainian Families Fleeing Russian Invasion Arrive in Tijuana Seeking Entry Into US
Thousands of Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country have come to the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana to seek entry into the U.S. on humanitarian grounds. VOA’s Celia Mendoza traveled to Tijuana and filed this first of two reports. Cameras: Ernesto Eslava, Pablo Zamora, Serhiy Lysenko. …
Muslim Students at Princeton University Break Ramadan Fast Together
For many students, living and studying at one of the most prestigious schools in the United States can be stressful and sometimes a little lonely. But some Muslim students at Princeton University can find comfort in their community during the month of Ramadan. VOA’s Nida Samir reports. …
What Is the US-Launched ‘Uniting for Ukraine’ Program?
U.S. President Joe Biden recently announced the Uniting for Ukraine program, which aims to streamline the process for Ukrainians who have fled their country and are seeking safety in the United States. The new program, which took effect Monday, will complement existing legal pathways available to those fleeing Russian aggression due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine crisis, Biden administration officials said. “The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will continue to provide relief to the Ukrainian people, while supporting our European allies who have shouldered so much as the result of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement to reporters on April 21. What is Uniting for Ukraine? The program allows U.S. citizens and residents to sponsor Ukrainian refugees under different immigration statuses. The online portal, open to potential sponsors or organizations, is accepting applications and has received more than 4,000 requests so far, CNN reported. Who qualifies under the program? Ukrainians, or an immediate family member of a Ukrainian citizen. They must have a U.S. sponsor and have been a resident of Ukraine as of February 11. What are the requirements? They must pass security checks — including a …
Harvard Pledges $100 Million to Atone for Role in Slavery
Harvard University is vowing to spend $100 million to research and atone for its extensive ties with slavery, the school’s president announced Tuesday, with plans to identify and support direct descendants of dozens of enslaved people who labored at the Ivy League campus. President Lawrence Bacow announced the funding as Harvard released a new report detailing many ways the college benefited from slavery and perpetrated racial inequality. The report, commissioned by Bacow, found that Harvard’s faculty, staff and leaders enslaved more than 70 Black and Native American people from the school’s founding in 1636 to 1783. For decades after, it added, scholars at Harvard continued to promote concepts that fueled ideas of white supremacy. In a campus message, Bacow said many will find the report “disturbing and shocking,” and he acknowledged that the school “perpetuated practices that were profoundly immoral.” “Consequently, I believe we bear a moral responsibility to do what we can to address the persistent corrosive effects of those historical practices on individuals, on Harvard, and on our society,” he wrote. Alongside its findings, the 130-page report includes recommendations that Bacow endorsed. The university will create a new $100 million fund to carry out the work, which include …
US Supreme Court Weighs ‘Remain in Mexico’ Immigration Dispute
U.S. Supreme Court justices on Tuesday considered whether to let President Joe Biden rescind a hardline immigration policy begun under his predecessor Donald Trump that forced tens of thousands of migrants to stay in Mexico to await U.S. hearings on their asylum claims. The justices heard nearly two hours of oral arguments in a Biden administration appeal of a lower court ruling that reinstated Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy after the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri sued to maintain the program. Biden suspended the policy, which changed longstanding U.S. practice, shortly after taking office last year. Some of the conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority on the court, questioned the extent of the administration’s discretion to release migrants into the United States, but also Texas’s use of the courts to constrain the U.S. government in an area over which typically there is broad federal authority. Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts said the Biden administration’s view of the law seems to have “no limit” on the number of people who can be released. Roberts also told Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone that it seemed a “bit much” for Texas to “substitute itself” for the federal government to determine the …
US Supreme Court Weighs Policy for Migrants to Wait in Mexico
When a woman gashed her leg in mountains inhabited by snakes and scorpions, she told Joel Úbeda to take her 5-year-old daughter. Úbeda refused to let the mother die, despite the advice of their smuggler and another migrant in a group of seven and helped carry her to safety by shining a mirror in sunlight to flag a U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopter near San Diego. The motorcycle mechanic, who used his house in Nicaragua as collateral for a $6,500 smuggling fee, says the worst day of his life was yet to come. Arrested after the encounter with U.S. agents, Úbeda learned two days later that he could not pursue asylum in the United States while living with a cousin in Miami. Instead, he would have to wait in the Mexican border city of Tijuana for hearings in U.S. immigration court under a Trump-era policy that will be argued Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court. President Joe Biden halted the “Remain in Mexico” policy his first day in office. A judge forced him to reinstate it in December, but barely 3,000 migrants were enrolled by the end of March, making little impact during a period when authorities stopped migrants …
Struggling Marymount California University to Close
Marymount California University, a half-century-old private Catholic institution, will close this summer, its board of trustees announced. The liberal arts school located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles has been struggling in recent years due to declining enrollment, rising costs and the coronavirus pandemic, the university said in a statement Friday. “This decision was not made lightly. But we felt the most compassionate thing to do was to give everyone time to make plans. Our focus now will be to help our students, faculty and staff,” said Brian Marcotte, the university’s president. Marymount California has 500 full-time students and 140 full-time staff, The university said classes will conclude with the end of the summer term in August. In the meantime, Marymount California will work on transitioning students to other colleges and universities for the fall semester and find new work for faculty and staff. Only a small number of employees will remain after classes end to manage the closure. The school was founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary in 1968 as Marymount Palos Verdes College, a two-year institution. The name was changed to Marymount California University in 2013 as four-year undergraduate degrees and …
US, Cuba Talk About Accepting More Deportees
U.S. and Cuban officials met in Washington this week to discuss a record number of Cubans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and to determine whether Cuba is willing to start accepting Cuban deportees. State Department spokesperson Ned Price told reporters the goal of the conversation was to promote safe and legal migration between the two countries, and to address the issue of returns and repatriation of citizens. U.S. officials released no further details. Cuba’s foreign ministry released a statement reiterating Cuban concerns over U.S. measures that impede legal and orderly migration and insisting that the U.S. honor a commitment to issue 20,000 annual visas for Cubans to emigrate to the United States. That process was halted under the Trump administration. Cuban officials said they emphasized there is no justification for the continued interruption of the visa service. Last month, the State Department said it would begin processing some visas for Cubans in Havana and start reducing the backlog created by a four-year hiatus. Cuba has a history of not accepting people returned or deported from the United States, but Maria Cristina Garcia, migration analyst and professor at Cornell University, says the policy has shown a little flexibility over the years. …
US Begins Phasing Out COVID-driven Asylum Restrictions
The Biden administration said Friday it has begun phasing out use of a pandemic-related rule that allows migrants to be expelled without an opportunity to seek asylum as 22 states fight in court to preserve the policy. U.S. authorities have processed more single adults from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador in recent weeks under immigration laws, which include a right to seek asylum, said Blas Nuñez-Neto, acting assistant Homeland Security secretary for border and immigration policy. The pandemic-related rule is set to expire May 23. Nuñez-Neto’s statement was part of a filing in federal court in Lafayette, Louisiana, where Louisiana, Arizona and Missouri sued this month to keep the rule. Eighteen other states later joined, and Thursday, the states asked a judge to stop what they called the “premature implementation” of the end of the rule. Nuñez-Neto said applying non-health related immigration laws was “not novel” during the pandemic and that increasing use of them on single adults from Central American countries will help prepare for the May 23 expiration. About 14% of single adults from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were processed under immigration laws during a seven-day period ending Thursday, Nuñez-Neto said. That’s up from only 5% in …
Mask Mandates Return to US College Campuses as Cases Rise
The final weeks of the college school year have been disrupted yet again by COVID-19 as universities bring back mask mandates, switch to online classes and scale back large gatherings in response to upticks in coronavirus infections. Colleges in Washington, D.C., New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Texas have reimposed a range of virus measures, with Howard University moving to remote learning amid a surge in cases in the nation’s capital. This is the third straight academic year that has been upended by COVID-19, meaning soon-to-be seniors have yet to experience a normal college year. “I feel like last summer it was everyone was like, ‘Oh, this is it. We’re nearing the tail end,’” recalled Nina Heller, a junior at American University in Washington D.C., where administrators brought back a mask mandate about a month after lifting it. “And then that didn’t quite happen, and now we’re here at summer again, and there’s kind of no end.” Mandates were shed widely in the wake of spring break as case numbers dropped following a winter surge fueled by the omicron variant. But several Northeast cities have seen a rise in cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, as the BA.2 subvariant of …
Poll Finds More Americans Highly Concerned About Illegal Immigration
A Gallup poll released Tuesday shows that Americans’ worry over unauthorized immigration is near a two-decade high ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, with Republicans and Democrats increasingly polarized on the issue. From March 1-18, Gallup surveyed 1,017 people living in all U.S. states and the District of Columbia. Forty-one percent said they worry “a great deal” about illegal immigration – the highest proportion since 2007, when 45% of respondents said they were concerned “a great deal” about the issue. About 60% said they worry at least “a fair amount” about illegal immigration. According to the Gallup polling, Democrats and Republicans have been moving in opposite directions when it comes to opinions on immigration. Since 2006, Democrats have grown less concerned about illegal immigration. Only 18% of people polled last month said they are concerned “a great deal” about the issue while 44% said they are “not at all” concerned. The reverse is true for Republicans, with 68% saying they are “a great deal” concerned about illegal immigration. Although that figure is down from 76% in 2021, it is up considerably from 29% in 2001. “Only 5% of Republicans are not concerned at all. … overall percentage worried either a …
Azerbaijani Student Held in Russian Captivity in Mariupol, Ukraine Describes Torture
A 20-year-old Azerbaijani university student is describing near-daily beatings during his time as a prisoner of Russian forces near Mariupol, Ukraine last month. Huseyn Abdullayev, who was studying at Mariupol State University when Russia invaded Ukraine, tells VOA Azerbaijani he was held from March 17 until April 12 after Russian military personnel kidnapped him at a military post west of Mariupol in Berdyansk. Abdullayev said that after he was taken, “They tied my hands and covered my head with my jacket so that I could not see anything. Then they threw me in a truck and took me to prison. They spoke Russian.” Abdullayev said he was tortured while in captivity and accused of being a Ukrainian soldier. “They used electric shock (baton), and then I was beaten. They were Russians, and there were Azerbaijanis and Chechens among them. First, they used electric shock, then beat me with a wooden board and trampled my feet. I was beaten almost every day. They asked me whether I am not a student but a Ukrainian soldier.” Abdullayev said that he was released after Chechen commanders pardoned him for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. “We were eight people. I was the only …
Prayer, Worship Comfort Unaccompanied Migrant Teens in Shelters
On all but three Sunday afternoons since last Easter, Bob Guerra — a Catholic deacon — has carefully packed his favorite crucifix, a Spanish-language Bible, hundreds of Communion wafers secured in Ziploc bags and other liturgical items into a plastic storage box. Then he lugs it a few miles to Fort Bliss, an Army base in the desert on the outskirts of El Paso, where he helps celebrate Mass for hundreds of migrant teens held at a vast tent shelter. That shelter and similar facilities across the southwest were set up by the Biden administration and its predecessors to deal with the number of minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without parents or guardians. For the faithful young people they hold, the clergy and volunteers who visit bring comfort and healing through the sacraments. “They’re praying with such devotion you can see the tears rolling down their eyes,” Guerra says of the acts of faith he witnesses every Sunday from the teens after they receive Communion and kneel before a little cross. On Easter Sunday, he plans to give them their own miniature crosses and cookies baked by local nuns. Among the teens praying fervently at Fort Bliss during last year’s …
US Arrests 210,000 Migrants at Mexico Border in March, Rivaling Record Highs
U.S. border authorities arrested 210,000 migrants attempting to cross the border with Mexico in March, the highest monthly total in two decades and underscoring challenges in the coming months for U.S. President Joe Biden. The March total is a 24% increase from the same month a year earlier, when 169,000 migrants were picked up at the border, the start of a rise in migration that left thousands unaccompanied children stuck in crowded border patrol stations for days while they awaited placement in overwhelmed government-run shelters. Biden, a Democrat who took office in January 2021, pledged to reverse many of the hardline immigration policies of his Republican predecessor, former President Donald Trump, but has struggled both operationally and politically with high numbers of attempted crossings. Republicans, who hope to gain control of the U.S. Congress in November 8 midterm elections, say Biden’s rollback of Trump-era policies has encouraged more illegal immigration. Biden officials have cautioned that migration could rise further after U.S. health officials said they will end a pandemic-era border order by May 23. The order, known as Title 42, allows asylum seekers and other migrants to be rapidly expelled to Mexico to prevent the spread of COVID-19. While more …
Texas Halts Truck Inspections That Caused Border Gridlock
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday repealed his traffic-clogging immigration order that backed up commercial trucks at the U.S.-Mexico border, after a week of intensifying backlash and fears of deepening economic losses. The Republican governor dropped his new rules that had required all commercial trucks from Mexico to undergo extra inspections to curb the flow of migrants and drugs and ratcheted up a fight with the Biden administration over immigration policy. Some truckers reported waiting more than 30 hours to cross. Others blocked one of the world’s busiest trade bridges in protest. Abbott, who is up for reelection in November and has made the border his top issue, fully lifted the inspections after reaching agreements with neighboring Mexican states that he says outline new commitments to border security. The last one was signed with the governor of Tamaulipas, who earlier this week said the inspections were overzealous and created havoc. On Friday, he joined Abbott and said they were ready to work together. When Abbott first ordered the inspections, he did not say lifting them was conditional on such arrangements with Mexico. Pressure was building on Abbott to retreat as gridlock on the border worsened. The American Trucking Association called …
Reporter’s Notebook: Amid Laughter and Tears, Ukrainians Wait at Mexico-US Border
It is more than 10,000 kilometers from Medyka, the Polish border city that is a first stop for many Ukrainian refugees, to Tijuana, Mexico, where more than 1,700 Ukrainians are waiting for a chance to cross into the United States. “They’re arriving as tourists,” says Enrique Lucero Vásquez, the municipal director of migrant care in Tijuana, with whom I spoke in a sports complex that has been repurposed to receive the Ukrainian families. About 400 people are already housed at the center, where they spend one to two nights before being escorted to the border crossing and admitted by the U.S. Border Patrol. In 2018 I was in this same place, in an even more congested courtyard, but instead of Ukrainians it was packed with Central American migrants who had journeyed north in a series of caravans. The process this time is as different as the circumstances that led the people to flee their homelands. As in Medyka — where I reported before coming to Tijuana — many of the refugees are separated from husbands, parents or children. I remember the pain in the face of Yulia Usik, a mother of children aged 4 and 5, when we spoke at …
Texas Governor Sends First Migrant Buses to US Capital
Migrants from Nicaragua, Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba arrived in Washington on Wednesday after Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, promised to send them to the nation’s capital after they cleared their federal immigration inspection at the border. His office said this was “part of Governor Abbott’s response to the Biden administration’s decision to end Title 42 expulsions,” referring to the pandemic-era emergency health order that allowed immigration authorities to quickly expel migrants at the border, even those seeking asylum. The bus departed Tuesday from Del Rio, Texas, and was expected to drop about 35 migrants off at the U.S. Capitol. According to reports, the first bus arrived a few blocks away. “By busing migrants to Washington, D.C., the Biden administration will be able to more immediately meet the needs of the people they are allowing to cross our border. Texas should not have to bear the burden of the Biden administration’s failure to secure our border,” the governor told reporters during a press conference. After the announcement, the governor’s office clarified to reporters that the program was completely voluntary and that migrants traveled to Washington only after U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) had legally processed them at the U.S.-Mexico …
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