Aid workers are unsure of a U.S.-built pier near Gaza
Biden’s border plan works? Here’s how the top immigration official says it’s working: An interview with MPR’s Steve Inskeep
As part of NPR’s We, The Voters 2024 election series, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the person tasked with executing Biden’s vision on immigration, sat for an interview with Morning Edition’s Steve Inskeep.
Earlier this year, Mayorkas was impeached by House Republicans who alleged that his use of parole to allow some migrants into the country was unlawful. The Senate dismissed the charges in about 10 minutes.
Mayorkas: Well, our goal is to eliminate to the fullest extent possible the phenomenon of what is commonly termed “irregular migration.” People placing their lives and their life savings in the hands of smugglers to arrive in between the ports of entry, which is dangerous and also feeds a criminal network. We want them to use lawful pathways to claim relief under the United States law. That is why we have built more lawful pathways in this administration and that’s why we are going to try and get you to go between the ports of entry at the southern border.
Mayorkas: One, the numbers have decreased. The numbers increase and decrease as a result of migration. But the numbers have decreased. We have also removed or returned an historic number of people more this year than I think in any year since 2011.
The Tucson sector of the border is very busy right now, so we talked with the Chief Patrol officer, John Modlin. He said the increase began in 2021, just as the Biden administration was taking office, and that migrants say they believed the laws would be different and that they would be allowed in. I know the administration tried to message differently and told people not to come, but why do you think that didn’t work well?
Source: Is Biden’s border plan working? Here’s how the top immigration official says it is
The Challenge of Selling Misinformation: Is Biden’s Border Plan Working? Here’s How the Top Immigration Official Says It Is
Mayorkas: Absolutely. I won’t have the precise numbers, but I’m going to ballpark it. There were maybe about 560,000 encounters in 2018 and maybe close to a million in 2019.
Mayorkas: Well, remember what we are battling. We are fighting sophisticated organizations that are selling misinformation. It’s a reality that we have to counter, and we seek to do that with accurate information.
Inskeep: I can see how my policy difference could be defined with Republicans, in part, because they want people to come legally. Republicans don’t want a lot of people coming. Is that a fair description?
Inskeep: Or they just feel the asylum seekers specifically are taking advantage of the system. Let’s talk about the asylum-seekers and not other kinds of immigrants who may come here legally.
Mayorkas: I think that when you look at how many people claim and how many succeed, you’ll see that the majority don’t qualify.
Source: Is Biden’s border plan working? Here’s how the top immigration official says it is
The Biden Administration’s Immigration Strategy is Failing: A State-Independent Analysis of a Case Study in the U.S.-Mexico Border
Inskeep: We spoke to Republican Arizona congressman Juan Ciscomani, who was born in Mexico. He says it’s taking too long for legal immigration applications to be processed, while the border is “wide open” for arriving migrants. Some people will get several years before a court hearing if they say “I want asylum” and the law currently allows that.
The bipartisan legislation would have eliminated the years-long process between encounter and final adjudication in our ability to remove that individual. And I would respectfully wish that the congressman had actually supported that bipartisan legislation rather than opposed it. If people really wish to fix the system, they should move ahead with solutions, rather than continue to dwell on the problem and refuse to implement solutions.
The congresswoman makes a valid point that people who are seeking other procedures are taking longer because of the time it takes to allocate resources to the border. There are other reasons for the duration of time being extended. Our legal immigration system has been gutted by the prior administration. This is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. If they had actually written a fee rule to properly resource the agency, the backlogs would not have accumulated as they have.
Editor’s note: Mayorkas referred to a failed bipartisan border that lost Republican support in the Senate after Trump opposed it. The deal made it harder for people to claim asylum, as it allotted $20 billion for border security.
In the newsletter this week I mentioned NPR stories of how the flow of migrants to the U.S.- Mexico border has overwhelmed the federal government’s ability to hear cases. So, is the Biden administration’s immigration strategy working? It’s a question many U.S. voters are weighing as the country nears a rematch between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Biden has faced criticism for both being too soft on immigration and being too harsh on people seeking asylum in the U.S. Former President Trump has vowed to be more aggressive on immigration if he’s elected for a second term.
In the second term, Trump has vowed to crack down on immigrants at the border, as well as migrants who are already living in the country. In his first term, Trump enacted policies that separated thousands of children from their parents and ordered migrant asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases were evaluated.
The Up First Radio Show: Aid workers are doubtful of a U.S.-built pier near Gaza; RFK Jr.’s dead brain worm
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The vessel set sail from Cyprus towards the floating pier built by the US in Gaza. The pier will help address the worsening humanitarian crisis in besieged enclave. Aid groups have questions about what would happen if Israel kept land borders closed.
For a second year in a row, medical school graduates were less likely to apply for residencies in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions, according to new statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges. There has been a decrease in residency interest in these states by doctors who want to practice medicine across the board. The declining interest may affect access to care in some states, according to the AAMC.
The country is making progress in stabilizing it’s leadership two months after gangs orchestrated a coup and took control of the capital. A transitional council is working on appointing a new prime minister, while a multi-national force led by Kenya is expected to deploy in the next couple of weeks.
Source: Aid workers are doubtful of a U.S.-built pier near Gaza; RFK Jr.’s dead brain worm
From TV to Radio: Immigration Issues in “We, The Voters,” Part I: The Tale of Caesar and Asteroids (The World Video Game Hall of Fame)
Thanks for joining “Morning Edition” this week as we explored issues surrounding immigration. The We, The Voters series continues on May 20 with stories about abortion and reproductive rights on “All Things Considered.”
The spirit of Andy Serkis’ Caesar character is still very much in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, even though it is set hundreds of years after the recent Planet of the Apes trilogy.
It is TV. C.J. Sansom’s novel about a crime-solving lawyer in 16th-century England has a strong historical atmosphere and brings Tudor-era England to life.
In Coming Home chronicles the 10 months that basketball star Brittney Griner spent in Russia on drug charges. She tells NPR that she didn’t feel like a human.
Music: Tomorrow, 26 larger-than-life finalists will battle for the top prize at the Eurovision Song Contest. These are the songs with the best chance of success.
The World Video Game Hall of Fame in Rochester, New York, hasducted Asteroids, Myst, Resident Evil, SimCity and Ultima as well as others.
