The United States is bracing for the expiration of a pandemic-era border restriction this week, with officials fearing it will spur a surge of migrants and exacerbate an already challenging humanitarian crisis at the southern border.
“No matter how much we are prepared, I don’t think we are going to be prepared enough,” John Martin, deputy director of the Opportunity Center for the Homeless in El Paso, Texas, told CNN on Sunday, days before the lifting of Title 42, a Trump-era policy that allowed the government to quickly turn away certain migrants at the border, originally with the aim of stopping the spread of Covid-19.
“I wanted to emphasize more so than anything else at this point – this is a national issue,” Martin said. “We in El Paso, along with many other communities along the southern border, just happened to be at the front doorstep.”
While first implemented under the Trump administration as a response to the pandemic, Title 42 has been kept in place by the courts and used by the Biden administration to deal with migrants at the border.
That will change Thursday, when the public health emergency – and Title 42 along with it – is set to lapse amid unprecedented mass migration in the Western Hemisphere.
“This is an international issue,” Father Rafael Garcia, a priest who runs a shelter at an El Paso church whose surrounding streets have become a camp for hundreds of migrants. “And we’re just like the neck of the bottle, or funnel.”
US Customs and Border Protection has already seen an uptick in migrants crossing the border with Mexico, with more than 8,000 daily encounters, according to a Homeland Security official – a number that officials predict could reach 10,000 once Title 42 is lifted. There are around 25,000 migrants in custody, the official said, straining processing facilities that are already over capacity.
“I think that there is no question that this is going to be extremely challenging,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Friday in Brownsville, Texas, during a visit to the Rio Grande Valley. “I do not want to understate the severity of the challenge that we expect to encounter.”
But federal officials have long been preparing for the end of Title 42, Mayorkas stressed, saying the government was ready.
“We have a plan. We are executing on that plan.”
Still, in a news conference Monday morning, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott likened the expiration of Title 42 as the laying out of a welcome mat to migrants across the world, signaling to them America’s borders are wide open.
The driver in a deadly crash that killed 8 people in Brownsville, Texas, has been charged with manslaughter, police said Monday.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers and health care providers to stop using and throw out certain lots of recalled SD Biosensor, Inc. Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Tests, distributed by Roche Diagnostics. The FDA has significant concerns of bacterial contamination in the Pilot COVID-19 At-Home Test liquid solution, provided in the test kit. Direct contact with the contaminated liquid solution may pose safety concerns and the bacterial contamination could impact the performance of the test.
As he begins his campaign for reelection, President Biden faces substantial and multiple challenges, according to a Washington Post-ABC News survey. His overall approval ratings have slipped to a new low, more Americans than not doubt his mental acuity, and his support against leading Republican challengers is far shakier than at this point four years ago.
The Biden administration is about to shift how migration is handled at the U.S. borders because — once again — Americans have no meaningful immigration legislation from Congress.
A gunman stepped out of a silver sedan and started shooting people at a Dallas-area outlet mall Saturday, killing eight and wounding seven others — three critically — before being killed by a police officer who happened to be nearby, authorities said.
Max Verstappen struck back in the 2023 title race by beating Red Bull team mate Sergio Perez to victory during Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, recovering from ninth on the grid and passing the pole-sitter in the closing stages of an intriguing, strategic race.
Former President Trump
In the first coronation in the country in 70 years, a lavish ceremony comprising 2,300 guests including more than 100 heads of state, Charles III has been crowned King of the United Kingdom. The event marked the culmination of plans that were set in motion last September upon the passing of King Charles’ mother, Queen Elizabeth II. During the seven decades of her reign, emerging post-colonial nations grew in self-confidence, and some challenged the idea of the Commonwealth, while at home, the traditional public deference to the monarchy faded, requiring the members of the royal family to reposition themselves as good Samaritans working towards the greater good of British society. King Charles, in his prior avatar as the Prince of Wales, was quick to embrace the successive waves of change, particularly when it came to climate change and the environment. As a passionate supporter of sustainable ecosystems and architecture, he has advocated for organically maintained parks and natural reserves in the U.K. Under the aegis of the Prince’s Trust, which operates under a royal charter to help disadvantaged youth in the U.K., more than a million young people had benefited by 2020.
More than 20 million people in the United Kingdom tuned in to watch King Charles III’s coronation on Saturday, but the ceremony attracted far fewer British viewers than his mother’s funeral last year.