President Biden is struggling with a Gordian knot on immigration that there’s little he can do to untangle: The nation’s broken system is making it harder than it should be to manage the Afghan refugee crisis — and the Afghan refugee crisis is making it harder to fix the system.

By the numbers: If the military’s task of adding 50,000 spots to bases by mid-September to temporarily house Afghan refugees sounds like a lot, consider that there have been more than 1.2 million undocumented border crossings since last October.

• Meanwhile, pandemic protocols and disruptions have fueled so many backlogs that officials estimate that in the fiscal year closing at the end of this month, 100,000 green cards allotments could go to waste.

The big picture: The crisis around the U.S. withdrawal, fall of the Afghan government and rise of the Taliban is just the latest in a string of migration emergencies that have fallen on President Biden and brought into focus the shortfalls of the system.

• COVID-19, poverty and violence in Central America, an earthquake that rocked Haiti, actions by the Trump administration and in federal courts, and agencies that are understaffed and underfunded have left the administration jumping from one fire to the next.

What they’re saying: “Our resources are indeed stressed,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters on Friday, adding that what they have managed to accomplish for Afghans being brought to the U.S. “speaks to the extraordinary talent and dedication” of agencies’ workforces.

• “The Biden Administration is committed to rebuilding the broken immigration system it inherited after four years of chaos,” a White House spokesperson told Axios, adding that the administration has been “continuing to call on Congress to make long overdue reforms to U.S. immigration laws.“
• ”Asylum and other legal migration pathways should remain available to those seeking protection. But those not seeking protection or who don’t qualify will be returned to their country of origin.”

Details: DHS has taken responsibility for evacuating and welcoming vulnerable Afghans to the U.S. But its agencies are also in charge of enforcing the U.S.-Mexico border, authorizing parolees and other migrants for work in the country, approving temporary visas and running immigrant detention centers.

• The number of migrants and pending applications has only grown since Biden took office.
• The same Department of Health and Human Services agency that has had to scramble to fund and build emergency sites for unaccompanied kids is also charged with funding services for refugees — including resettled Afghans.
• The U.S. has brought in tens of thousands of Afghans using a special mechanism called parole — they join other migrants who have also been paroled into the U.S., including many who illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border.
• Paperwork, including work authorization for Afghans and Central American asylum seekers alike, all flow through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which has long struggled with backlogs and funding shortfalls.
• The long, tedious Special Immigrant Visa process likely contributed to leaving many allies stranded in Afghanistan.

An unknown number of unaccompanied Afghan kids will join the record numbers of migrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border without their parents or guardians. Unaccompanied minors will be placed in shelters overseen by HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters.

• But more than one in five migrant kids have tested positive for COVID-19 in recent weeks, according two government sources familiar with internal data. And HHS has lost contact with one-in-three migrant kids released from shelters.
• As military bases prepare to house tens of thousands of Afghans, one base, Fort Bliss, has already been criticized for holding hundreds of unaccompanied minors in unfit conditions.

The pandemic, with its travel restrictions and consulate closures, already has disrupted the green card process, as the Wall Street Journal has reported.

• Tens of thousands diversity visa lottery winners —including hundreds from Afghanistan — risk losing their one-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Biden has also faced legal roadblocks to keeping his immigrations promises.

• The Supreme Court recently ruled that the administration must restart the Remain in Mexico program and courts have also blocked Biden’s deportation moratorium.
• More than 45 families separated under the Trump administration have been reunified under Biden. But many have arrived in need of housing and other financial assistance.

The bottom line: The administration is working on new regulations to expedite asylum, has sped up the SIV processes, has set up dozens of emergency shelters, has used parole to quickly bring Afghans to the U.S. and has begun offering vaccines to vulnerable migrants.

• But the emergencies keep coming, hitting a system in need of long-term fixes — one neglected by multiple administrations and Congress.

Source: https://www.axios.com/afghanistan-us-immigration-crisis-24ff0c58-acc7-4172-87a6-cf92fcff7972.html

The post Afghanistan feeds U.S. immigration crisis first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

On Monday, ProPublica reported that 19 migrant children in U.S. custody at a Chicago shelter called Heartland Human Care Services had tested positive for coronavirus. On Tuesday, that number had nearly doubled to 37, the organization said, reflecting the reality that the virus transmits quickly and especially between people in close quarters. For already vulnerable unaccompanied migrant children, that means that being taken to a detention center can be a danger to their health — and one that the government may be downplaying.

While coronavirus cases have generally been less serious in children than in adults, these positive tests mark a turning point in the coronavirus outbreak for those in U.S. government custody. The federal government is essentially the legal guardian of children who are placed in custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) when they arrive in the United States with no parent. Letting them get sick is a testament to the conditions of shelters and this administration’s attitude toward immigrants, advocates say.

Research shows transmission is highest in places where individuals are forced to live in close proximity with one another, which is why officials are concerned about those held in jails, detention centers, prisons, and now, shelters for children who are immigrating.

Two employees also tested positive at the shelter, ProPublica reported. The outlet also noted that last week, the ORR had only confirmed six coronavirus cases among minors in U.S. shelters, all of which were reported in New York. “ORR has not provided updated figures, despite repeated requests since Friday,” ProPublica noted.

The Chicago-based Heartland Human Care Services, run by the organization Heartland Alliance, is contracted through the ORR. Heartland Human Care Services operates three shelters in Chicago. The organization told Mic in an email that they have tested all of the children in their care, whom they refer to as “participants,” even those who are asymptomatic. The organization has a total of 69 children in its custody, and of the 37 who have tested positive so far, 28 displayed no symptoms — fever, dry cough — at the time of testing, Heartland said.

“We are operating under the assumption that we will see additional positive diagnoses as we receive results from the other tests that have been administered,” the statement read, “and the steps we are taking to ensure the health and safety of our participants and staff are based on that assumption.”

The organization has stated that children who test positive for COVID-19 are immediately moved into an “isolated environment,” though the statement does not expand on what that means exactly or what kind of medical care the children have received. Workers at the shelter who tested positive were encouraged to stay home to reduce the spread of coronavirus and were also provided additional personal protective equipment, the statement said, such as N95 masks, gowns, and gloves.

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Lydia Holt, a spokesperson for the ORR, told Mic in an email that none of the children who have tested positive while in federal custody have “required” hospitalization. Neither the statement from Heartland Alliance nor from the ORR detailed the severity of the symptoms.

The ORR, run by the Department of Health and Human Services, works with organizations at the state level to temporarily house children seeking to immigrate who are unaccompanied by parents. Heartland Alliance operates three shelters for children up to age 17 who are immigrating; as of March 20, the organization hasn’t accepted any new children into their shelters, a fact it attributes to the Trump administration’s decision to halt immigration and allow border agents to deny asylum requests outright at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Holt wrote in the email to Mic that the ORR has stopped placing children at shelters in states hardest hit by the coronavirus outbreak, such as New York, California, and Washington, out of an “abundance of caution.” A total of 87 children, whom the ORR refers to as “unaccompanied alien children,” have tested positive for COVID-19 while in custody of the federal government, Holt said.

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 mandates that children seeking to immigrate to the United States without their parents must be “promptly placed in the least restrictive setting that is in the best interest of the child.” A majority of the 2,500 children in ORR custody are from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, and as of February, the average stay in a shelter contracted out by the government was 55 days. There has so far been little information offered publicly as to how coronavirus is impacting the resettlement efforts.

Source: https://www.mic.com/p/a-single-chicago-shelter-for-migrant-kids-has-reported-37-cases-of-coronavirus-22811893

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It was unclear if anyone ill came in contact with a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy who was held at the facility in McAllen, Texas, and died Monday, a day after he was diagnosed and transferred to a smaller station. Carlos Hernandez Vasquez was detained for six days, twice as long as generally allowed by U.S. law.

The processing center is a converted warehouse that holds hundreds of parents and children in large, fenced-in pens that gained international attention last year when it held children separated from their parents. The government closed the facility after the flu outbreak, sent in cleaning crews to disinfect the building and plans to reopen it soon.

The 32 sick children and adults have been quarantined at a smaller processing center, according to a U.S. Border Patrol official who spoke with reporters on condition of anonymity because there is an ongoing investigation. Their ages were unknown.

Since December, five children have died after being apprehended by border agents, putting authorities under growing pressure and scrutiny to care for migrant children. Kevin McAleenan, the acting Homeland Security secretary, came under withering criticism Wednesday from a Democratic lawmaker who called the administration’s actions with children “inhumane.”

The Department of Health and Human Services, which cares for unaccompanied migrant children, said Wednesday that a 10-year-old girl from El Salvador died last year after being detained by border authorities in a previously unreported case. The girl died Sept. 29 at an Omaha, Nebraska, hospital of fever and respiratory distress, officials said.

The department began caring for the unidentified girl in March 2018, said spokesman Mark Weber, who described her as “medically fragile,” with a history of congenital heart defects.

With the government running out of space to hold migrants, the Trump administration has been taking dramatic steps to keep up with the influx.

The Defense Department said Wednesday that it will provide temporary housing for at least 7,500 men and women who are taken into custody by immigration officials along the border. It will loan tents to the Department of Homeland Security, which will manage the camps.

The Defense Department will evaluate six potential sites over the next two weeks: Tucson and Yuma in Arizona and Tornillo, Donna, Laredo and Del Rio in Texas. Tornillo, near El Paso, is where unaccompanied children were housed last year.

The Pentagon said military personnel will only erect the tents and won’t be involved in operations.

The 77,000-square foot processing center in McAllen is modeled after a similar facility in Nogales, Arizona, built for an influx of Central Americans in 2014. It has separate pods for boys and girls who came alone and parents with their young children.

Some older children are split from their parents to avoid having them mix with much younger children.

Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, which includes McAllen, is the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. The Border Patrol made 36,681 arrests in the area in April, nearly three of every four coming in family units or as children traveling alone.

Border Patrol agents have averaged 69 trips to the hospital a day since Dec. 22 and about 153,000 hours monitoring detained population at hospitals, the official said.

Authorities have also cleaned other holding facilities in South Texas, including Brownsville, Corpus Christi, Kingsville and highway checkpoints.

Migrants are not being vaccinated at Border Patrol stations, but they may be when hospitalized, the official said. The Border Patrol is offering vaccines to agents working.

From The Associated Press
Posted by Claire Cardona, breaking news producer

Source: https://www.dallasnews.com/news/immigration/2019/05/22/dozens-migrants-test-positive-flu-texas-processing-center-16-year-old-boy-died-held

The post Dozens of migrants test positive for flu at Texas processing center where 16-year-old boy who died was held first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The abortion provider and more than a dozen states object to the new rule because it distinguishes between family planning and abortion.

Several weeks ago, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the finalization of its “Protect Life” rule, which bars abortion providers from receiving family-planning funds under the federal Title X program. The rule prohibits the use of Title X money “to perform, promote, refer for, or support abortion as a method of family planning.”

Even though the statute governing Title X has, for most of the program’s history, stated that “none of the funds appropriated under this title shall be used in programs where abortion is a method of family planning,” that language effectively has been ignored. No longer.

Since the program was established in 1970, it has provided federal funding to Planned Parenthood, which today is the nation’s largest abortion provider. According to the group’s most recent annual report, Planned Parenthood facilities performed more than 332,000 abortions last fiscal year alone, over one-third of the estimated annual abortions in the U.S.

Because of the new Trump-administration rule, abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood now stand to lose Title X funding unless they financially and physically separate their provision of abortion from the rest of their business operations. Planned Parenthood executives rarely acknowledge that the policy only requires separation, and their refusal to do so suggests that they wish to conceal the centrality of abortion to their bottom line.

Predictably, abortion-rights supporters are outraged by this policy, and earlier this week California became the first state to sue the Trump administration over it. Xavier Becerra, the state’s progressive attorney general, said California is suing to “stand up for a woman’s right to make her own health-care decision about her own body” and claimed that the policy will “result in clinics going out of business due to financial strain.”

Twenty additional states and the District of Columbia filed suit in Oregon against the administration on similar grounds. Planned Parenthood, joined by the American Medical Association, the Oregon Medical Association, local Planned Parenthood affiliates, and two individual health-care providers, also filed suit in Oregon.

“The Final Rule would radically alter and decimate the family-planning-assistance program established by Title X . . . with severe and irreparable public health consequences across the United States,” Planned Parenthood’s suit alleges.

Planned Parenthood also asserts that the rule “will politicize the practice of medicine and the delivery of health care” and “will cause patients to lose faith in their providers and the health care system as a whole.”

Near the end of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, the HHS Department introduced a Title X policy that would’ve enforced the distinction between family planning and abortion. When President George H. W. Bush attempted to enact the policy, it faced a legal challenge. Though Bill Clinton was in the Oval Office by the time the case was resolved, and declined to enforce the policy, it was ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in Rust v. Sullivan. It is likely that California and Planned Parenthood’s legal challenges will meet a similar fate.

In an attempt to fundraise off their resistance to the new policy, Planned Parenthood and its most vocal defenders are now characterizing it as a “gag rule,” an assessment that has been echoed by public officials such as Becerra. Abortion-rights supporters say, too, that the rule will result in millions of American women losing access to necessary health care. They conveniently ignore that the federal government won’t reduce overall Title X funding at all but that it will merely redirect it from groups that commit abortions to health-care providers that don’t.

Those who support publicly funded abortion ground their arguments in a common claim: that Planned Parenthood provides health care that women couldn’t obtain anywhere else. This is simply a myth. For one thing, fewer than 500 of the approximately 4,000 Title X service sites in the country are Planned Parenthood facilities. What’s more, the group’s clinics are nationally outnumbered 20 to one by federally qualified health-care centers, which provide a far greater variety of health-care procedures without performing abortions.

The idea that redirecting Title X funding will drastically harm Planned Parenthood’s business is even more of an overstatement. Most of the group’s government funding — half a billion annually — comes in the form of Medicaid reimbursements. Losing Title X grants will remove roughly $60 million from Planned Parenthood’s revenue.

What outrages Planned Parenthood is not the loss of this pittance in federal funding but rather the fact that the federal government has drawn a clear distinction between family planning and abortion. Liberal state governments have rushed to defend the abortion provider not because of the money at stake but because they fear federal policies that clarify the fact that a procedure intended to end a human life isn’t health care.

For Planned Parenthood, losing lucre is an inconvenience. Losing the luster of being a federally sanctioned family-planning provider, on the other hand, is a substantial threat.

The post Planned Parenthood Sues Trump over Title X Funding first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The measure would allow children to stay in detention with parents for an extended period of time. This comes as congressional Republicans scramble to draft legislation to address the same issue, but face challenges mustering the votes.

In signing the measure, Trump said he wants to keep families together while also enforcing border security. He vowed his administration’s “zero tolerance” policy for illegal immigration would continue.

Trump, previewing the measure earlier in the day during a meeting with lawmakers, said the move would “be matched by legislation.” He also said he’s canceling the upcoming congressional picnic, adding: “It didn’t feel exactly right to me.”

The separations stem from the administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which aims to prosecute all illegal border crossers. But because of a 1997 order and related decisions, children cannot be detained for longer than 20 days with the adults.

Sources told Fox News that the executive action by Trump could be seen to run afoul of the 1997 order and would likely draw a lawsuit. But the White House wants to try to take steps to uphold the enforcement of the law, while at the same time lessening the trauma of children being separated from their parents.

In another possible approach, Fox News is told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will recommend to Trump that he throw his support behind developing House legislation or, if that doesn’t pass, a standalone bill to close the “loopholes” regarding family detention. During the order-signing, Nielsen again called on Congress to act.

These measures are being pursued following days of escalating calls from both sides of the political divide for Trump, or Congress, to end the controversial family separation policy.

Rep. Peter King of New York became the latest Republican to join the chorus on Wednesday when he called on Trump to suspend the family separation policy if House immigration legislation does not pass.

Speaking on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” King said that while he agrees with the president’s goals in regards to immigration, the current policy of separating migrant children from parents charged with entering the country illegally is “really terrible for families.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate are struggling to shield the party’s lawmakers from the public outcry over images of children taken from migrant parents and held in cages at the border. But they are running up against Trump’s shifting views on specifics and his determination, according to advisers, not to look soft on his signature immigration issue, the border wall.

“The Democrats do not have a strong policy,” King said on Fox News. “But at the same time we are playing into their hands by allowing this to happen.”

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said that the House will vote Thursday on legislation to allow families to remain together in Homeland Security custody throughout their legal proceedings.

“We do not want children taken away from their parents,” Ryan said. “We can enforce our immigration laws without breaking families apart.”

That followed a closed-door meeting in Washington on Tuesday evening, where Trump told House Republicans he is “1,000 percent” behind their rival immigration bills. But it’s unclear whether any bill has enough support to pass.

Under the administration’s current policy, all unlawful crossings are referred for prosecution — a process that moves adults to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and sends many children to facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the Obama administration, such families were usually referred for civil deportation proceedings, not requiring separation.

More than 2,300 minors were separated from their families at the border from May 5 through June 9, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In the House, GOP leaders scrambled Tuesday to produce a revised version of the broader immigration bill that would keep children in detention longer than now permitted — but with their parents.

The major change unveiled Tuesday would loosen rules that now limit the amount of time minors can be held to 20 days, according to a GOP source familiar with the measure. Instead, the children could be detained indefinitely with their parents.

The revision would also give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to use $7 billion in border technology funding to pay for family detention centers, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and commented only on condition of anonymity.

In a statement late Wednesday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said it has taken “immediate steps” to implement the president’s executive order.

“As specified in the order, families will not be detained together when doing so would pose a risk to the child’s welfare,” the statement read in part. “Additionally, as was the case prior to implementation of the zero tolerance policy on May 5, family units may be separated due to humanitarian, health and safety, or criminal history in addition to illegally crossing the border.”

Even if Republicans manage to pass an immigration bill through the House, which is a tall order, the fight is all but certain to fizzle in the Senate.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader from New York, is adamant that Trump can end the family separations on his own and that legislation is not needed.

Without Democratic support, Republicans cannot muster the 60 votes needed to move forward on legislation.

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

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The post Trump weighs executive action on family separation first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The action under consideration would allow children to stay in detention with parents for an extended period of time. This comes as congressional Republicans scramble to draft legislation to address the same issue, but face challenges mustering the votes.

The separations stem from the administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which aims to prosecute all illegal border crossers. But because of a 1997 order and related decisions, children cannot be detained for longer than 20 days with the adults.

Sources told Fox News that such an executive action by Trump could be seen to run afoul of the 1997 order and would likely draw a lawsuit. But the White House wants to try to take steps to uphold the enforcement of the law, while at the same time lessening the trauma of children being separated from their parents.

The executive action would follow days of escalating calls from both sides of the political divide for Trump, or Congress, to end the controversial family separation policy.

Rep. Peter King of New York became the latest Republican to join the chorus on Wednesday when he called on Trump to suspend the family separation policy if House immigration legislation does not pass.

Speaking on Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom,” King said that while he agrees with the president’s goals in regards to immigration, the current policy of separating migrant children from parents charged with entering the country illegally is “really terrible for families.”

Republicans in both the House and Senate are struggling to shield the party’s lawmakers from the public outcry over images of children taken from migrant parents and held in cages at the border. But they are running up against Trump’s shifting views on specifics and his determination, according to advisers, not to look soft on his signature immigration issue, the border wall.

“The Democrats do not have a strong policy,” King said on Fox News. “But at the same time we are playing into their hands by allowing this to happen.”

During a closed-door meeting in Washington on Tuesday evening, Trump told House Republicans he is “1,000 percent” behind their rival immigration bills, but this did little to assuage concern that that will be enough to push any legislation through the divided GOP majority.

Some lawmakers say Trump could simply reverse the administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and keep families together.

Under the administration’s current policy, all unlawful crossings are referred for prosecution — a process that moves adults to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and sends many children to facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services. Under the Obama administration, such families were usually referred for civil deportation proceedings, not requiring separation.

More than 2,300 minors were separated from their families at the border from May 5 through June 9, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In the House, GOP leaders scrambled Tuesday to produce a revised version of the broader immigration bill that would keep children in detention longer than now permitted — but with their parents.

The major change unveiled Tuesday would loosen rules that now limit the amount of time minors can be held to 20 days, according to a GOP source familiar with the measure. Instead, the children could be detained indefinitely with their parents.

The revision would also give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to use $7 billion in border technology funding to pay for family detention centers, said the person, who was not authorized to discuss the matter by name and commented only on condition of anonymity.

Even if Republicans manage to pass an immigration bill through the House, which is a tall order, the fight is all but certain to fizzle in the Senate.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader from New York, is adamant that Trump can end the family separations on his own and that legislation is not needed.

Without Democratic support, Republicans cannot muster the 60 votes needed to move forward on legislation.

Democratic reticence and their opposition to a border wall have come under intense scrutiny from Trump, who has blamed the party for the failure of Congress to pass immigration reform.

“It’s the Democrats fault, they won’t give us the votes needed to pass good immigration legislation,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “They want open borders, which breeds horrible crime. Republicans want security. But I am working on something – it never ends!”

On the Senate side, Republicans are rallying behind a different approach. Theirs is narrow legislation proposed by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would allow detained families to stay together in custody while expediting their hearings and possible deportation proceedings.

Cruz’s bill would double the number of federal immigration judges, authorize new temporary shelters to house migrant families and limit the processing of asylum cases to no more than 14 days — a goal immigrant advocates say would be difficult to meet.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters he’s reaching out to Democrats for bipartisan backing.

The discord over the family separation spilled into the streets as protesters clashed with law enforcement in Philadelphia and other cities on Tuesday — and Democratic lawmakers accosted senior administration officials and even the president himself over the policy.

As Trump walked out of the session in the Capitol basement, he was confronted by about a half-dozen House Democrats, who yelled, “Stop separating our families!”

Later in the day, protesters heckled Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen as she ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Washington, chanting “Shame!” and “End family separation!”

A department spokesman tweeted that during a work dinner, the secretary and her staff heard from a small group of protesters who “share her concern with our current immigration laws.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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