|
BORDER OPPORTUNITY — "While there are no quick fixes to the problems we face, the humanitarian crisis at the border presents an opportunity for political coalition-building like never before," writes Douglas Baker, former special assistant and senior director for border security and transportation security to President George W. Bush (and a member of the Council on National Security and Immigration) in an op-ed for the Washington Examiner. Baker makes the case that recent legislation introduced by Sens. Cornyn (R-Texas) and Sinema (D-Arizona), the Bipartisan Border Solutions Act, is a "good start" for meaningful bipartisan reform. "Families and unaccompanied children seeking asylum at the border do not pose a national security threat to the U.S..," he concludes. "Let’s treat them with the dignity they deserve." TITLE 42 — The Associated Press reports that some 400 migrants expelled from the U.S. are now camped out in a plaza in the dangerous Mexican border city of Reynosa, per the aid group Doctors Without Borders. "In normal times, migrants are returned to Mexico under bilateral agreements that limit deportations to daylight hours and the largest crossings," the AP notes. "But under pandemic authority, Mexicans and citizens of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras can be expelled to Mexico throughout the night and in smaller towns." BuzzFeed News’ Hamed Aleaziz reports that Biden officials "are considering a process to allow some ‘vulnerable’ immigrants to avoid Trump-era border restrictions." BORDER REPAIRS — In South Texas, Border Report's Sandra Sanchez writes that Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez plans to "mobilize county resources to fix the breaches in the levee system" caused by border wall construction — with or without approval from the federal government, per an unnamed source. U.S. Army Corps Engineers officials told Cortez "they are not able to make repairs to the four giant breaks in the earthen border levee unless authorized by the Department of Homeland Security." Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) told Border Report: "It would be a lot easier if [DHS] put forth the effort to get the contractors out there. It’s just a bunch of mud and dirt that needs to fill in those gaps and we need to get it done before hurricane season."
ARIZONA FARMWORKERS — From November through April, thousands of farmworkers living in Mexico — some with guest worker visas, some U.S. citizens or permanent residents who choose to live in Mexico for economic or family reasons — wait hours each day to pass through a congested border crossing on their way to pick produce in Yuma County, Arizona. This past year, Esther Honig writes for The Food and Environment Reporting Network, "the pandemic turned an already difficult commute into a hazardous and potentially deadly endeavor." While the commuters make up around a quarter of the farmworkers supporting Yuma County’s $3 billion agriculture industry, as of April neither the county nor the state had issued mandates or guidelines for protecting farmworkers. "I understand the issue; it’s crystal clear to me, and I do everything in my power that I can," said John Schwamm, the CBP area port director for the crossing. "But the problem is infrastructure." INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS — The National Foundation for American Policy’s Stuart Anderson speaks to Kenneth Reade, director of international student and scholar services at the University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Dan Berger, a partner at Curran, Berger & Kludt; about the challenges international students face in obtaining student visas amid the COVID-19 pandemic in his latest piece for Forbes. While the State Department just issued updated guidance for students in all countries with COVID-19 travel bans, "most countries in the world are now under a travel advisory, meaning travel for a visa appointment is uncertain," Berger explains. "We still do not have clear guidance about how the travel bans apply to the spouses and children of students or more generally for scholars and staff." Thanks for reading, Ali |
