Nebraska
Immigration policy fought over by Biden and Trump in Atlanta debate • Nebraska Examiner
Immigration occupies center stage in the 2024 presidential campaign and also was a major focus during the first presidential debate Thursday night between President Joe Biden and the presumptive GOP nominee, Donald J. Trump.
Immigration is a top issue for voters and for Trump, while the Biden administration has struggled to deal with the largest number of migrant encounters at the southern border in 20 years.
Biden during the 90-minute debate at CNN in Atlanta defended his administration’s handling of immigration and blamed Trump for tanking a bipartisan U.S. Senate border security deal.
Biden also pointed to that deal as a reason he should be reelected, because the White House was able to forge the agreement in the first place.
“We worked very hard to get a bipartisan agreement,” Biden said.
Immigration crackdown
Senate Republicans rejected the bipartisan border security deal earlier this year, siding with their House colleagues and Trump. The agreement would have significantly overhauled U.S. immigration law by creating a temporary procedure to shut down the border during active times and raising the bar for asylum claims.
Trump in the debate argued that Biden did not need legislation to enact policy changes at the southern border because “I didn’t have legislation, I said close the border.”
In early June, Biden made the most drastic crackdown on immigration of his administration, issuing an executive order that instituted a partial ban on asylum proceedings at the southern border.
Trump called that action “insignificant.”
The debate came the day after U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas gave a briefing from Tucson, Arizona, about a decline in migrant encounters following Biden’s executive order.
He said the Tucson sector has “seen a more than 45 percent drop in U.S. Border Patrol encounters since the president took action, and repatriations of encountered individuals in Tucson have increased by nearly 150 percent.”
“Across the entire southern border, Border Patrol encounters have dropped by over 40 percent,” Mayorkas said.
‘Remain in Mexico’ policy
Trump cited his prior policies that he felt were successful and criticized Biden for rolling them back, such as one that required migrants to remain in Mexico while they awaited their asylum cases.
Biden slammed Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy that separated parents from their children in efforts to deter unauthorized immigrants at the border.
“When he was president he was … separating babies from their mothers and putting them in cages,” Biden said.
And, without citing evidence, Trump blamed immigrants for crime, calling it “migrant crime.”
Overall violent crime in the country is down by 15%, according to recent FBI statistics, and researchers have found that immigrants are less likely to commit crimes than U.S. citizens.
Trump brought up the death of a Georgia nursing student, Laken Riley, and blamed Biden’s immigration policies.
“All he does is make our country unsafe,” Trump said.
In late February, Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta University, was reported missing by her roommate when she did not return home after a run on the campus of the University of Georgia at Athens.
Local police found her body and shortly afterward arrested a 26-year-old man from Venezuela for her murder — an immigrant previously arrested in Georgia on a shoplifting charge who entered the country without authorization in 2022, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. U.S. House Republicans in reaction passed the Laken Riley Act.
Mass deportations
Trump was asked by debate moderators how he would carry out mass deportations, but he did not go into detail.
He has repeatedly claimed he would carry out a mass deportation campaign of undocumented immigrants by utilizing local law enforcement, the National Guard and potentially the U.S. military. He’s done so on the campaign trail and during a lengthy interview with Time Magazine.
“We have to get a lot of these people out and we got to get them out fast because they’re destroying our country,” Trump said during the debate.
Nebraska
$22,000 2by2 winning ticket sold in Grand Island
GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (KSNB) – A Grand Island lottery player is holding a winning ticket worth $22,000, according to the Nebraska Lottery.
Officials said one ticket purchased for the Monday, June 22 2by2 drawing matched all four winning numbers to claim the game’s top prize.
The Nebraska Lottery confirmed the ticket was sold at Hy-Vee Fast & Fresh, 118 Wilmar Ave. in Grand Island.
The winning numbers for the June 22 drawing were Red 10 and 18, and White 17 and 23.
Nebraska Lottery officials noted winning lottery tickets expire 180 days after the drawing, and prizes of $20,000 or more must be claimed in person at Nebraska Lottery headquarters in Lincoln. More information on claiming prizes is available at nelottery.com or by calling 800-587-5200.
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Nebraska
‘No room for error’: UNMC reflects as quarantine ends for hantavirus cruise ship passengers
After 42 days in quarantine, the last of the hantavirus cruise ship passengers have gone home.
Leaders at the University of Nebraska Medical Center said the experience offered lessons for the next quarantine unit activation and “showed what Nebraska is all about.”
“It’s a long activation period, and over those six weeks, there’s really no room for error,” said Dr. Michael Wadman, chair of the National Quarantine Unit.
Eighteen American passengers from a cruise ship that saw a hantavirus outbreak arrived at UNMC on May 11. Their quarantine in Omaha was part of a nationally coordinated effort to assess, contain and treat any potential infections.
Late last week, UNMC was down to six of the original 18 passengers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention requested that passengers remain in quarantine through May 31. But symptoms of hantavirus can take up to 42 days to appear, so all passengers were “strongly encouraged” to stay through June 21.
Hantavirus is an illness typically tied to rodents, but it may have passed from human to human aboard the MV Hondius cruise ship, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. Three ship passengers died from the disease.
Wadman said the quarantine unit aims to “constantly improve,” so UNMC leaders listened closely to the needs and experiences of those under quarantine.
“None of us can say we know what it’s like, and we want that feedback, so that we can do better every time we activate,” Wadman said. “The people in Nebraska also stepped up.”
Local restaurants delivered food. Nearby schools sent cards. Omaha Steaks grilled out in the parking lot, and online support rolled in.
Lessons learned in Nebraska will be shared with other regional treatment centers, said Angela Vasa, director of isolation and quarantine for special pathogens at Nebraska Medicine. That includes mental wellness forums for those in quarantine and improved day-to-day operations.
With the hantavirus quarantine coming to a close, Vasa said UNMC is keeping a close eye on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. No cases have been reported in the United States.
“At this time, we don’t have an official request or an active request to accept any individuals exposed to Ebola virus disease or Bundibugyo virus,” Vasa said, “but our team is ready, and we maintain that readiness through our training, our drills, and so should the need arise, our team would be able to respond in in response to that request.”
Nebraska
Nebraska’s medical marijuana regulations are set to expire before commission’s next opportunity to renew them
One year since the Nebraska Medical Cannabis Commission’s first meeting, delays continue to plague the program, including county restrictions for licensed growers who hope to operate.
More immediately, the commission is up against a deadline: on July 15, its temporary regulations governing licensed growers will expire. Without a vote to renew the regulations, the regulations giving growers the authority to proceed will lapse. The commission’s next meeting isn’t until July 20.
Chair Lorelle Meuting said commissioners expect Attorney General Mike Hilgers to have approved permanent regulations and for Gov. Jim Pillen to have signed off on them by July 15. Both Pillen and Hilgers have openly opposed the medical marijuana program. Crista Eggers, executive director of Nebraskans for Medical Marijauana, worries about what consequences growers could face should the regulations lapse.
“I think there could be legal ramifications,” Eggers said. “Litigation could obviously come at that point if these [temporary regulations] expire and [permanent regulations] are not signed into law.”
Commissioners also approved a motion to begin accepting applications for manufacturers and to hire Jarrod Boitnott as legal counsel. The commission is also soliciting applications for a commission director.
Since the commission’s May meeting, only one of the four licensed growers, cultivation company MahaMoto, held and passed an inspection of their property. The others have rescheduled their inspections.
Kent Rogert, representing KRL Med LLC., said the company is just six work hours short of being ready for the inspection. But it had to reschedule the inspection after the Washington County zoning administration banned them from their property, arguing that growing cannabis is not considered agriculture and the project can’t be permitted. As the company appeals the decision, Rogert said it will have to postpone the growing season.
“Their ordinance is broad but we’re trying to do this with honey instead of vinegar,” Rogert said, adding that he believes the grower fits well within the county’s definition of agriculture. “We remain cautiously optimistic that we can get something done, but the days are ticking away pretty fast.”
Washington County’s Zoning Administrator Ryan Sullivan was not immediately available for comment. The county’s sheriff, Mike Robinson, opposed medical marijuana bills in the Nebraska Legislature last year.
“Today’s meeting made one thing clear, the people and patients of Nebraska deserve more than delay, confusion and dysfunction currently happening under [Republican] Attorney General Mike Hilgers,” Jocelyn Brasher, the Democratic candidate for attorney general, said after observing the meeting. “As Attorney General, I will uphold the will of the people and respect NE voters on medical cannabis.”
Hilgers’ office did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
Advocates who hope to be part of the medical marijuana program scolded the commission in public comment, saying continual delays in starting the program have led to patients suffering. Melanie Knight said until the program is ready, patients are forced to turn to opiates for pain medication.
“By not pushing this through and doing what the people of Nebraska have told you to do, you’re actually creating more of an opioid crisis,” Knight said.
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