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Homeland Security Is Making Plans to Handle a Record Surge of Migrants

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Homeland Security Is Making Plans to Handle a Record Surge of Migrants

WASHINGTON — Crossings on the southwest border have been peaking once more in current weeks, and homeland safety officers are bracing for these numbers to rise a lot larger if the Biden administration decides to carry a public well being order that has restricted immigration throughout the pandemic.

A choice in regards to the order, put in place by the Trump administration two years in the past this month, might come as early as Wednesday, when the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention could determine whether or not to resume it for an additional 60 days.

Homeland safety officers on Tuesday described contingency plans for managing as many as 18,000 encounters a day on the border, whatever the trigger. Working with the Federal Emergency Administration Company, different federal businesses, and state and native officers, the division is ready to have on standby further personnel, transportation and medical help, and short-term services for processing migrants.

The stakes are excessive, from each a humanitarian standpoint and a political one. Democrats don’t want the southwest border to look uncontrolled within the months forward of the midterm elections, which might gas extra Republican assaults on the Biden administration’s border insurance policies.

The administration was caught considerably flat-footed final September when hundreds of migrants crossed the Rio Grande en masse into Del Rio, Texas, and have been compelled to crowd beneath a bridge for days till they may very well be processed by border officers. It’s that sort of scenario that officers are looking for to keep away from.

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There has lengthy been concern that lifting the general public well being order, which provides border officers the authority to rapidly expel migrants, together with these looking for asylum, will open a floodgate of unlawful migration. Some administration officers, beneath strain from immigration advocates, had hoped the order, generally known as Title 42, may very well be lifted when seasonal migration tendencies decreased — however that by no means actually occurred.

Since October, border officers have apprehended 900,000 undocumented migrants on the southwest border, the Homeland Safety Division mentioned on Tuesday. Throughout the 2021 fiscal 12 months, undocumented migrants have been caught a record-breaking 1.7 million occasions. The variety of unlawful crossings went up considerably after President Biden took workplace in contrast with the earlier 12 months, when numbers have been down, partially due to the pandemic.

The Biden administration has defended the continued use of the order, citing the C.D.C.’s evaluation that lifting it could pose a public well being risk throughout the pandemic. Public well being specialists have lengthy mentioned the argument was specious, and the federal government has by no means offered scientific proof that limiting unlawful migration on the southwest border helped curb the unfold of Covid-19.

As an alternative, critics say, the general public well being order has been used as an immigration management device.

Human Rights First, a nationwide advocacy group, just lately launched a report that discovered that expulsions on the southwest border beneath the general public well being order had led to just about 10,000 reviews of violent assaults on migrants, together with kidnapping, torture and rape.

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Julia Neusner, a lawyer with Human Rights First, mentioned if the order was lifted, the group can be sending legal professionals and researchers to the border “to watch whether or not the coverage is definitely ended for asylum seekers of all races and nationalities, and to establish enhancements to verify our system truly welcomes individuals looking for refuge.”

Nonprofit organizations that assist migrants who’re launched into the nation by border officers are additionally getting ready for a rise in crossings.

There have been 1.7 million expulsions beneath the general public well being order. Traci Feit Love, the manager director of Mission Corazon, a nonprofit that helps asylum seekers who cross the border within the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, mentioned this meant a major variety of refugees have been ready exterior america till they might make an asylum declare.

Up to now, Mission Corazon has tapped right into a community of professional bono legal professionals to help its workers attorneys with instances. “We should marshal the sources required to make sure each individual is given the steering and help they deserve,” she mentioned.

On Tuesday, when two homeland safety officers spoke to reporters on background in regards to the preparations for elevated migration, they didn’t point out any issues about migrants spreading Covid-19.

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The administration this week began vaccinating undocumented migrants on the southwest border who usually are not expelled beneath the general public well being order. It has allowed hundreds of migrant youngsters, households and even single adults into the nation, regardless of the order, for humanitarian causes and due to restricted detention capability.

In September, border officers allowed most of the households who arrived in Del Rio to enter the nation to face deportation proceedings for humanitarian causes, however additionally they expelled hundreds on flights again to Haiti, the place political upheaval and violence have led to extraordinarily troublesome residing circumstances.

During the last three months, there was a 300 % improve in undocumented Cubans caught crossing the southwest border, in accordance with inner knowledge shared with The New York Instances. There have additionally been massive numbers of Venezuelans and Nicaraguans arriving.

However america can not put Cubans, Venezuelans or Nicaraguans on flights again to their international locations due to a scarcity of diplomatic relations. One of many homeland safety officers talking on background on Tuesday known as the scenario “problematic,” and mentioned they have been most certainly fleeing oppressive governments.

Because of this, hundreds of undocumented migrants from these international locations have been allowed into the nation, given a monitoring system and instructed to report back to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to complete paperwork in order that they’ll face deportation proceedings, a course of that takes years due to the immigration court docket case backlog.

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One homeland safety official additionally mentioned many migrants had been positioned in “expedited elimination” proceedings, which is a quick observe to deportation for migrants who don’t categorical a worry of returning to their nation. Individually, some asylum-seeking migrants are being routed right into a program the place they wait in Mexico till an immigration decide comes to a decision on their case.

Miriam Jordan contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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As California Burns, ‘Octavia Tried to Tell Us’ Has New Meaning

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In the wake of the devastating fires in Los Angeles, many people are referencing the work of the science fiction writer Octavia Butler. Butler, who grew up in Pasadena, was the daughter of a housekeeper and a father who was a shoeshiner. She went on to become the first science fiction writer to win a MacArthur “genius” award. Her book “Parable of the Sower,” published in 1993, paints a picture of a California ravished by the effects of climate change, income inequality, political divisiveness and centers on a young woman struggling to find faith and the community to build a new future.

The phrase “Octavia tried to tell us,” which began to gain momentum in 2020 during the pandemic, has once again resurfaced, in part because Butler studied science and history so deeply. The accuracy with which she read the shifts in America can, at times, seem eerily prophetic. One entry in “Parable of the Sower,” which is structured as a journal, dated on “February 1, 2025” begins, “We had a fire today.” It goes on to describe how the fear of fires plague Robledo, a fictional town that feels much like Altadena, a haven for the Black middle class for more than 50 years, where Butler lived in the late ’90s.

In 2000, Butler wrote a piece for Essence magazine titled, “A Few Rules for Predicting the Future.” She wrote: “Of course, writing novels about the future doesn’t give me any special ability to foretell the future. But it does encourage me to use our past and present behaviors as guides to the kind of world we seem to be creating. The past, for example, is filled with repeating cycles of strength and weakness, wisdom and stupidity, empire and ashes.”

In one of the last interviews before she died in 2006, Butler spoke to Democracy Now!, an independent news organization, about how she’d been worried about how climate could devastate California . “I wrote the two ‘Parable’ books back in the ’90s,” she said, referring to “Parable of the Sower” and her 1998 follow-up, “Parable of the Talents.” These books, she explained, were about what happens when “we don’t trouble to correct some of the problems we are brewing for ourselves right now. Global warming is one of those problems. And I was aware of it back in the ’80s.” She continued: “A lot of people were seeing it as politics, as something very iffy, as something they could ignore because nothing was going to come of it tomorrow.

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Lynell George, a writer who lives in Los Angeles and the author of a book on Butler and her creative journey, has spent many years studying Butler’s archives at the Huntington Library in Pasadena. In 2022, we asked George to write about how Butler predicted the world we live in. As so many people are turning to her work during this time of tremendous loss, we wanted to share that story with our readers again.

In her piece, “The Visions of Octavia Butler,” George wrote: “In ‘Parable of the Sower,’ Earth is tipping toward climate disaster: A catastrophic drought has led to social upheaval and violent class wars. Butler, a fervent environmentalist, researched the novel by clipping articles, taking notes and monitoring rain and growth in her Southern California neighborhood. She couldn’t help but wonder, she later wrote, what ‘environmental and economic stupidities’ might lead to. She often called herself a pessimist, but threaded into the bleak landscape of her ‘Parable’ novels are strands of glimmering hope — ribbons of blue at the edges of the fictional fiery skies.”

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Donald Trump’s inauguration to be moved indoors because of ‘bitterly cold’ weather

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Parts of Donald Trump’s inauguration will be moved inside the US Capitol because of freezing weather that is forecast for Washington on Monday.

It will be the first time since 1985 — when a severe cold snap hit Ronald Reagan’s second inauguration — that a swearing-in ceremony has been moved indoors.

The president-elect announced the revised plans in a Truth Social post on Friday, saying he had ordered the inauguration address, as well as prayers and speeches, to be delivered inside the Capitol Rotunda as Reagan had done four decades ago.

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“There is an Arctic blast sweeping the Country. I don’t want to see people hurt, or injured, in any way,” Trump wrote.

“It is dangerous conditions for the tens of thousands of Law Enforcement, First Responders, Police K9s and even horses, and hundreds of thousands of supporters that will be outside for many hours on the 20th.”

The National Weather Service said an “enhanced winter storm threat” was in place for Sunday afternoon and evening, and predicted about 2-4 inches of snow would fall, with a “reasonable worst case” scenario of 4-8 inches.

“Bitterly cold wind chills” were expected Monday to Wednesday, the NWS said on Friday, as it forecast temperatures to be “well below freezing” during this period.

The agency is forecasting a high of about -5C at 11am local time on Monday, when the swearing-in ceremony is due to begin, with a wind-chill of -13C that it warned could result in hypothermia or frostbite without appropriate attire.

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Trump said the Capital One Arena — with a capacity of 20,000 — will be opened on Monday for a live viewing of the ceremony, and that he would visit the venue, located about 2km from the Capitol, following his swearing-in.

Other events, including a victory rally at the arena are scheduled for Sunday and inaugural balls set for Monday night, will continue as scheduled, the president-elect said.

Trump encouraged supporters who choose to come to “dress warmly!”

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

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CNN liable for defamation over story on Afghanistan 'black market' rescues

Security contractor Zachary Young alleges CNN defamed him in a November 2021 report, shown above, about Afghans’ fears of exorbitant charges from people offering to get them out of the country after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. CNN says it will defend the report in a trial set to start in a Florida court Monday.

CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR


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CNN via Internet Archive/Screenshot by NPR

A Florida jury has found that CNN defamed a security consultant in presenting a story that suggested he was charging “exorbitant prices” to evacuate people desperate to get out of Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021.

Jurors found the network should pay $5 million to U.S. Navy veteran Zachary Young for lost finances and suffering, and said he was eligible for more in punitive damages. The proceedings turned immediately to expert testimony as both sides presented cases over what punitive damages would be appropriate.

Young sat impassively as the jury’s verdict was read aloud in court.

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The November 2021 story focused on concerns from Afghans that they faced extraordinary costs in a “black market” to secure safe passage for relatives and friends, especially those who had worked with U.S. agencies and organizations and therefore were fearful of the takeover by the Taliban.

Young was the only security contractor named in the piece, however, and a caption warned he offered “no guarantee of safety or success.”

He was not directly accused of operating in a black market in the television or written versions of the story, but the words did appear in the caption in the TV version of the story.

On the witness stand during the trial, CNN editors defended use of the term “black market,” saying it meant operating in unregulated circumstances, such as the chaos of Kabul at that time; Young’s lawyers noted that dictionaries consistently ascribe illegality to the term.

The jury found CNN liable for defamation per se, meaning it had harmed Young by the very words it chose, and for defamation by implication, that is, it had harmed his reputation by the implications that a reasonable reader or viewer might take from the story.

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Young’s lead attorney, Devin Freedman, had argued that CNN willfully damaged Young, costing him millions of dollars and causing irreparable personal harm, and that the network should be punished for it. Toward the very end of his closing arguments, Freedman told the jury they had the rare opportunity to hold the press accountable.

“Media executives around the country are sitting by the phones to see what you do,” Freedman told jurors. “CNN’s executives are waiting in their boardrooms in Georgia to see what you decide. Make the phones ring in Georgia. Send a message.”

After the initial verdict, Judge William S. Henry instructed jurors that they could only find punitive damages against CNN for its actions in the case at hand, not over any other story or issue.

Even so, over the course of the lawsuit, lawyers for Zachary Young acquired internal correspondence showing several editors within CNN held reservations about the solidity of the reporting behind the story.

For example, Fuzz Hogan, a senior director of standards for CNN, acknowledged in testimony under oath that he had approved a “three-quarters true” story. Another editor, Tom Lumley, had said in an internal message that the piece was “80 percent emotion.” On the stand, Lumley said that it still wasn’t his favorite story, but on the grounds of the craft of story-telling involved.

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During the trial, CNN’s lawyers had contended the story’s reporting holds up as fair and true under scrutiny. CNN correspondent Alexander Marquardt had presented viewers with a LinkedIn message from Young saying it would cost $75,000 to evacuate a vehicle with five or six passengers from Kabul to Pakistan. Young said he worked with corporate sponsors, including Bloomberg and Audible, rather than individuals.

On the stand, Young acknowledged that he took a 65% profit margin from the fees he charged, and took inquiries from individuals. He also curtly and coarsely brushed off people inquiring about help who could not afford his fees.

Other groups involving U.S. veterans and non-governmental organizations sought to get Afghans out without such profits, as a former major general testifying on Young’s behalf acknowledged. The retired major general, James V. Young Jr. (not related to Zach Young), said he charged donors for the cost.

CNN’s legal team, led by David Axelrod (the lawyer is not related to the Obama White House official and CNN analyst of the same name) had told jurors they should rely on their own “common sense.”

Axelrod had been able to press Young to concede that some of his claims to potential clients were not borne out by facts; Young had not in fact evacuated people from Afghanistan by air. Nor was he in constant contact with journalists, as claimed.

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In his closing argument, Freedman presented Young as a swashbuckling former CIA operative to explain his curtness in messages to desperate people trying to help people.

On the witness stand, however, Young emerged as emotionally vulnerable himself, weeping during testimony. He recounted that, after the story ran, he became despondent, depressed, alienated from intimacy with his wife, cut off from friends and family members. HIs attorney cited “deep and lasting wounds” from the piece.

The piece was presented initially on CNN’s The Lead With Jake Tapper, and a fuller written version subsequently posted on CNN’s website. A few months later, shortly after Young’s legal team threatened legal actions, a substitute anchor apologized to Young on the air for use of the term “black market” in the story, and said it did not apply to him.

Freedman, Young’s attorney, called the apology insufficient.

“This is what makes this case historic: punitive damages,” Freedman told jurors. “A media company has to face an American jury with the power to punish. That is not a frequent event. Do you believe that CNN should be punished? Do you believe they should send a message to other media companies to avoid this misconduct?”

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This story will be updated after the jury decides on what, if any, punitive damages to award Young.

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