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The US homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, has a message for migrants that he has been repeating loudly and frequently: “Our border is not open … don’t risk your life and your life savings” to come to the US seeking refuge without invitation.But for millions, hunger, violence and fear ring out louder. Political dysfunction and economic calamity are pushing people from many nations in the western hemisphere in what Joe Biden has called the “largest migration in human history”, exacerbated in Latin America and beyond by the coronavirus pandemic.People with tenacity but few means make a hopeful journey mostly across land towards the US-Mexico border. If they beat the odds to reach American soil they may find harbor – or more heartbreak.Yesi Ortega choked up when talking to the Guardian at a shelter in El Paso, west Texas, earlier this month, as she recounted the odyssey she, her husband Raphael López and their five-year-old son, Matías, had spent six months making.The family had reached a tipping point in their native Venezuela and followed more than 7 million other citizens who have fled the country’s economic collapse and pervasive hunger when their choice came down to food or clothing, Ortega, 24, said.“We had no option. We needed to take the risk,” she said. Like almost a third of this exodus, they first tried nextdoor Colombia, itself unstable and contributing amid the post-pandemic hardship to the latest rise in migration towards the US.Ortega found work in a restaurant kitchen and López labored in a plastics factory in Medellín. But they were paid less, as migrants, the equivalent of $35 a week between them, when a staple such as milk was $3 a liter and the rent was crippling, she said.When they failed to get legal status and couldn’t access the healthcare system or school for Matías, like many others they left Colombia for the US.They survived the slog and danger of walking through the hellish Darién Gap jungle into Panama and trudged through Central America and Mexico, fraught with risk, especially for foreigners migrating on a shoestring.The family didn’t use human smugglers, Ortega said. She recounted how, along the way, they were mugged twice at gunpoint, slept under torrential rains and endured cold nights, leapt on to freight trains when they could, worked temporary jobs and begged for money to buy food, water and bus tickets to relieve the trek whenever possible.Eventually, they reached Ciudad Juárez, across the Mexican border from El Paso. After all that, Matías then broke his right arm while playing. But the family pressed on and went to Door 40 in the towering border barrier to turn themselves in to federal border patrol agents.At first they were separated. Ortega and Matías were taken and held in New Mexico while López, 27, was sent to a detention center 85 miles away in Tornillo, which became known in the Trump administration for holding unaccompanied migrant children in detention camps.They were released after about a week of what they described as cold, uncomfortable conditions and managed to reunite and find a shelter in El Paso. Last week the three traveled to Chicago, where they had a contact address, to await their interview with the immigration authorities in June to find out if they will be allowed to go through the full asylum system in the US – or be deported.The family entered the US before the Title 42 pandemic-related rule was lifted on 11 May, which had blocked many from requesting asylum while allowing some families with young children to do so. After that block ended, the Biden administration nevertheless brought in a “presumption of ineligibility” for asylum for people who simply turn themselves in at the border. This has enraged immigration advocates, who call the new restriction an asylum ban. No matter what, the dice are loaded against Ortega and her family if the authorities conclude they are economic migrants.Around the corner from the shelter, fellow Venezuelan José Ocando, 28, was sleeping on the ground in an alley on a thin mat with some blankets.He had also been living in Colombia, with his wife, but was tracked down by members of a gang who told him his impoverished mother back in Venezuela had a debt outstanding and said they would kill them both if they didn’t pay up.“We left everything from one day to another. There was no time to figure out why these people wanted me to pay a debt I didn’t even know about,” he told the Guardian.They fled and took buses to Monterrey in northern Mexico. There they were within geofencing range to access the US government’s app, CBP One on a smartphone, to request a US asylum appointment.They tried every day for a month but couldn’t get an appointment, Ocando said. So they went to Matamoros, where the Rio Grande infamously claims lives and on 11 May produced scenes of frightened young children, some roped together and with little inflatable rings to stop them from drowning, clinging to their parents on the muddy riverbank as others waited up to their necks in the river, all on the wrong side of razor wire with gun-toting US troops beyond.Ocando and his wife made it across safely, although he was detained and expelled back to Mexico, while his wife was allowed in. She traveled to Utah to join an uncle – as those claiming asylum must give an address to the authorities – and after Ocando traveled the length of the Texas-Mexico border, he was allowed into El Paso.Now he’s found a part-time job carrying blocks on a construction site and is saving for a bus ticket to join his wife as they also await an asylum interview.“It’s been difficult, but I feel safe here,” he told the Guardian.Meanwhile, Fabiola Cometán, 45, also felt protected on US soil after decades of physical abuse by her two former partners, she said.The last straw was receiving a death threat from one of her sisters in their native Peru recently over a debt, going to police and being ignored and then threatened by three men who came to her door demanding the money be paid, she said.Before leaving Lima to join a small group of mostly Venezuelan migrants traveling together for safety overland to the US, she had to decide which of her children to take with her.She thought of the hazards of the Darién and the danger of extortion and sexual assault in Mexico, she said.She sobbed as she said she took her six-year-old son and left her nine-year-old daughter behind with another sister, to protect her from the greater risk of being raped or kidnapped.“My heart broke into pieces, but I had to leave her to come here and find a better opportunity for all of us,” she said.She plans to make her way to New York and go through the asylum process there. Her son, Luis, talked excitedly of going to school and one day seeing snow.
Joanna Walters contributed reporting More
Mexicans “would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback” Steakhouse restaurant if it were not for their nation’s proximity to the US, and their country should be invaded because of the presence of drug cartels there, the US senator John Neely Kennedy said.The Louisiana Republican’s racist remarks drew a strong condemnation from Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, who called Kennedy “a profoundly ignorant man”. Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, urged the 37 million Americans of Mexican descent – along with other Latinos in the US – “not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality” in the future.Kennedy’s rant came on Wednesday during a Senate appropriations subcommittee hearing that in part focused on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s budget. Kennedy told DEA administrator Anne Milgram that she and other members of the Biden White House should pressure López Obrador to let US military and law enforcement officials storm into his country “and stop the cartels”.“Make him a deal he can’t refuse,” Kennedy said, an apparent allusion to the famous line from the classic mobster film The Godfather. Kennedy also said: “Without the people of America, Mexico, figuratively speaking, would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback.”Kennedy’s comments about the US’s neighbor to the south built on prior Republican statements exalting the idea of using the American military to crack down on Mexican cartels. Mexican cartels press most illegal fentanyl into counterfeit pills which are designed to look like Xanax, oxycodone, Percocet and other prescription medications, or they mix it into other drugs, including cocaine and heroin.Many of the 70,000 overdose deaths registered in the US annually involve people who took fentanyl without knowing it.In a response on Thursday to Kennedy, Ebrard said numerous Mexican government officials and citizens have died in the name of stopping fentanyl from crossing into the US. “He doesn’t know that or pretends like he doesn’t,” Ebrard said.Ebrard added that Kennedy should contemplate why people in the US can obtain fentanyl simply by going out to certain streets or logging on to certain websites online. “It’s a fallacy to argue in favor of sending an armed force to Mexico when in the United States you have fentanyl circulating everywhere,” said Ebrard, who has previously noted that it is mostly Americans who are arrested for trafficking fentanyl in the US.Kennedy delivered his tirade against Mexico in a southern American accent that many of his detractors have likened to the voice of Looney Tunes character Foghorn Leghorn. As the Louisiana politics and culture news outlet Gambit reported, it is widely believed that Kennedy maintains the drawl to come off as folksy, despite his holding degrees from the University of Vanderbilt, the University of Virginia and Oxford University in the UK.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionHe is also one of the wealthiest members of the Senate, where Democrats and independents who caucus with them hold a two-seat majority after last year’s midterm elections. Open Secrets estimated that Kennedy’s net worth was more than $12m in 2016, when the former longtime treasurer of Louisiana’s state government first won his Senate seat.Kennedy began his political career as a Democrat before switching his party affiliation to Republican in 2007. More
“My plan is to give up,” Fernando Jesús Manzano, 32, from the state of Falcón, Venezuela, said dejectedly as he gazed at the hundreds of fellow migrants waiting to turn themselves in to US migration authorities as Thursday turned into Friday and a new policy era at the US-Mexico border.Manzano arrived at “Door 42”, a gate along the border barrier in El Paso, west Texas, shortly before the expiration of Title 42, a Trump-era rule implemented during the coronavirus pandemic that allowed the US to turn away migrants at its border with Mexico without allowing them to exercise their right to seek asylum.The man was too late. US Customs and Border Protection, as well as Texas national guard soldiers, had already set up concertina wire and were heavily patrolling the area where Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, meets its twin city across the border, El Paso, by the time he arrived.The troops in camouflage, holding their rifles across their bodies in an intimidating stance, were not allowing him or any other migrants to approach the gate to request asylum.The crowd of about 500 people at this one site was neatly organized into two groups: single men in one and families in the other. Separating them were 15 portable restrooms and two large dumpsters where all of their belongings had been discarded.The US authorities expect migrants being processed at the border not to be encumbered by the small pieces of luggage many may have carried for months on dangerous overland trips from Central and South America, through Mexico to the border.“This was my last try. I’ll have to find a job in Juárez to save for a ticket back home, and return defeated,” Manzano said.Manzano, a professional barber, said that two months ago he fled Venezuela, which has been abandoned by more than 7 million of its citizens in the last eight years amid the political and economic crisis of Nicolás Maduro’s regime.He came desperately seeking better opportunities for himself, his wife and two infant children, in contrast to growing poverty in Venezuela where money, he said, was never enough no matter how hard he worked.Frustrated, he fought back tears as he recalled the two times he previously crossed the US border with Mexico in the last month without permission and was expelled back to Mexico by the authorities.The last time, he found a lawyer in the US to help him and was on his way to New York, when agents at a migration checkpoint told him the forms he had filled out were not valid.At the border more people arrived as the night progressed. On the bank of the Rio Grande 30 more people sat quietly, all hoping authorities would let them in last minute.“No pueden entrar [you can’t come in],” a Texas national guard soldier shouted across as he adjusted a coil of the concertina razor wire marking the line between the waiting people and America. At first his action prompted some to believe they would be let in, but then they all listened and sat back down.When the clock struck 10pm local time, midnight on the US east coast, the exact moment Title 42 expired, the atmosphere at the gate in the tall border barrier remained tensely silent.Only sporadically, when small vans arrived at the gate from the US side to pick up migrants who had been allowed through and take them elsewhere for processing, would migrants clap and cheer for a few seconds.But as the night progressed, the cold did too. Temperatures dropped enough for those waiting at the gate to want a second layer of clothing. The most readily available were the sweaters, jackets and blankets in the two dumpsters where migrants had discarded all of their belongings earlier in the evening.Some grabbed the items but shook them repeatedly to get rid of the thick layer of dust and debris covering them before putting them on.“They’re not letting us in, I don’t know why,” said Oscar Adrián Izaguirre Brito, 20, a mechanic from Caracas, Venezuela.Izaguirre Brito arrived at the gate thinking the end of Title 42 meant he would be able to cross to the US that night but was met with disappointment when he arrived.“I’m tired and I want to cry, I can’t keep talking,” Izaguirre Brito said.After describing himself as desperate, he explained that he was the oldest of 10 siblings and that his parents rely on him for support.He’s made multiple attempts at crossing the border, but this was the first time he had planned to turn himself in. The last time he was expelled for going across without permission, he said, was Wednesday night and then, when border patrol agents released him back into Mexico, three armed men robbed him and took his cellphone, he said. His parents still don’t know he’s in Mexico again, he added.Because he has a permit to work in Juárez, Izaguirre Brito will go back to the car repair shop he had been working at before crossing the border last week, trying to save money to buy a new phone. With it, he would be able to try to get one of the very limited appointments for an asylum interview through the US’s CBP One app.Joe Biden’s new hardline border policies, heavily criticized by immigration advocates and progressives, were starting to bite.“If I am given the opportunity, I will take it and take full advantage of it,” Izaguirre Brito said. More
From 4h agoAs the White House press briefing kicked off, homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned migrants against trying to enter the United States after Title 42 ends at midnight tonight.“If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subjected to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on re-entry and potential criminal prosecution,” Mayorkas said.“We are clear-eyed about the challenges we are likely to face in the days and weeks ahead, and we are ready to meet them,” he said, noting that immigration authorities expect “to see large numbers of encounters” and “are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors”.“I want to be very clear: our borders are not open. People who cross our border unlawfully and without a legal basis to remain will be promptly processed and removed,” Mayorkas said.The Biden administration is bracing for the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 and a potential surge of migrants at the southern border. Homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas held a press conference where he warned people against trying to cross into the US, while fending off criticism from both the right and left over how the White House has prepared for this moment.Here’s what else happened today:
A meeting between Joe Biden and the top Republicans and Democrats in Congress aimed at reaching an agreement to raise the debt ceiling was postponed, which could be a good sign for the long-running talks.
E Jean Carroll is considering another lawsuit against Donald Trump over comments he made about her at last night’s CNN town hall. You’ll recall that a jury earlier this week found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation of Carroll, and awarded her $5m. The former president is appealing that verdict.
CNN’s chief executive defended last night’s town hall with Trump in a call with employees.
House Republicans approved a bill to reform the US immigration system in line with conservative priorities. It faces doom in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader, condemned Republican senator Tommy Tuberville for remarks that appeared to defend white nationalists in the military.
A meeting set for Friday between Joe Biden and the top Democrats and Republicans in Congress intended to find an agreement on raising the debt ceiling has been postponed, Reuters reports.The two parties have been at odds for months over finding a way to raise the US government’s legal limit on how much debt it can take on, ahead of a 1 June deadline after which America could default on its obligation and potentially spark an economic crisis.Citing a source familiar with the negotiations, Reuters said the delay in the meeting was a good sign. “Meetings are progressing. Staff is continuing to meet and it wasn’t the right moment to bring it back to principals,” the source said.A White House spokesperson confirmed the delay, saying, “Staff will continue working and the all the principals agreed to meet early next week.”Biden had met with congressional leaders, including Republican House speaker Kevin McCarthy, earlier this week, but there seemed to be little progress made towards an agreement. McCarthy has demanded spending cuts and the enactment of conservative priorities in exchange for the GOP voting to increase the debt limit, which Biden and the Democrats have rejected.Donald Trump has formally appealed a jury’s finding earlier this week that he is civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation of advice columnist E Jean Carroll, Law & Crime reports:The federal jury in New York City ordered him to pay a combined $5m in punitive and compensatory damages, following a trial in which Trump opted not to testify.In a sign of the complexity of US immigration law, the conservative-dominated supreme court this morning issued an unanimous decision that offers a transgender woman from Guatemala a reprieve from deportation. Here’s more about it, from the Associated Press:The US supreme court ruled on Thursday in favor of a transgender Guatemalan woman fighting deportation on the grounds that she would face persecution if returned to her native country.The unanimous decision in favor of Estrella Santos-Zacaria gives her another chance to argue that immigration officials were wrong to reject her bid to remain in the US.Lawyers for Santos-Zacaria, now in her mid-30s, said she first fled to the US after being raped as a young teenager and threatened with death because of her gender identity in a country that has targeted the LGBTQ+ community.But a US immigration judge found she did not make a strong enough case that she would face persecution if sent back to Guatemala.E Jean Carroll, the advice columnist who this week won a $5m civil judgment against Donald Trump for sexually abusing and defaming her, says she may again sue the former president over comments he made at last night’s CNN town hall.In an interview with the New York Times, Carroll described her shock at reading a transcript of Trump’s comments, which included him calling her a “whack job” and saying the sexual assault she said he committed was “fake”.Here’s more from the interview:
Ms. Carroll said on Thursday morning that she had been asleep as Mr. Trump talked about her on the town hall program. She said that her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, had sent her the transcript of his comments, and that she had read only the first paragraph.
“It’s just stupid, it’s just disgusting, vile, foul, it wounds people,” Ms. Carroll said in an interview with The New York Times, adding that she had been “insulted by better people.”
Ms. Carroll said she had been infuriated when her longtime stylist told her that her 15-year-old son was talking about what Mr. Trump had said.
“I am upset on the behalf of young men in America,” Ms. Carroll said. “They cannot listen to this balderdash and this old-timey view of women, which is a cave-man view.”
In addition to the case that ended Tuesday, Ms. Carroll has an earlier defamation suit against Mr. Trump that is still pending. Mr. Trump has argued in that case that he cannot be sued because he made those comments in his official capacity as president.
On Thursday, Ms. Kaplan said no decision had been made on whether a new defamation suit would be filed in light of Mr. Trump’s latest comments.
“Everything’s on the table, obviously, and we have to give serious consideration to it,” Ms. Kaplan said. “We have to weigh the various pros and cons and we’ll come to a decision in the next day or so, probably.”
CNN is out with a statement about its town hall with Donald Trump, the target of widespread criticism since its staging in Manchester, New Hampshire, last night.The network defends both its decision to stage the event and the performance of the anchor, Kaitlan Collins, who took the hospital pass that was going one-on-one with Trump in front of a Republican audience:
Kaitlan Collins exemplified what it means to be a world-class journalist.
She asked tough, fair and revealing questions. And she followed up and fact-checked President Trump in real time to arm voters with crucial information about his positions as he enters the 2024 election as the Republican frontrunner.
That is CNN’s role and responsibility: to get answers and hold the powerful to account.
Here’s our report:The Guardian’s Alexandra Villareal has written about what the end of Title 42 will mean for the US’s commitment to being a land of refuge. Here is the top of her analysis:
The right to seek asylum in the United States is in the balance as migrants fleeing violence and instability at home anxiously await a chance at safety – amid a major policy shift at the US’s southern border.
The Title 42 public health order – which has allowed officials to quickly expel migrants without giving them access to asylum for years now – is expected to finally end on 11 May. What does this mean for the US’s historic commitment as a beacon for freedom from persecution?
As government leaders brace for an anticipated uptick in migrants and asylum seekers trying to cross the border, the hardline policies they’re advancing to keep people out may spell potentially deadly consequences for some of the world’s most vulnerable.
In Congress, an immigration and border security package that backs an enforcement-only approach is expected to receive a vote on the Republican-controlled House floor as soon as this week.
If enacted, the proposed legislation would significantly curtail asylum, limit other humanitarian pathways, restart border wall construction, do away with safeguards for migrant kids and otherwise rewrite the US’s laws to be far less welcoming to those in need of protection.
With Title 42 set to expire within hours, my colleague Joanna Walters has put together this guide explaining what it is, how it started, why it’s ending and what happens next:As Mayorkas mentioned in the White House briefing, there have been large numbers of people gathering at the southern border. Here are some of the pictures sent to us on the newswires:The Democratic US Senate leader, Chuck Schumer, has condemned as “utterly revolting” remarks in which the Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville appeared to defend white nationalists in the US military.In an interview with the Alabama station WBHM, published on Monday, Tuberville was asked: “Do you believe they should allow white nationalists in the military?”He answered: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”The Senate armed forces committee member added: “We are losing in the military so fast. And why? I can tell you why. Because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda, as Joe Biden’s agenda.”Tuberville is currently attempting to impose his own agenda on the US military, by blocking promotions and appointments in protest of Pentagon rules about abortion access.On Thursday, Schumer said: “Does Senator Tuberville honestly believe that our military is stronger with white nationalists in its ranks? I cannot believe this needs to be said, but white nationalism has no place in our armed forces and no place in any corner of American society, period, full stop, end of story.”Previously, Sherrilyn Ifill, a former president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) legal defense fund, said: “I hope we are not getting so numb that we refrain from demanding that Mr Tuberville’s colleagues in the Senate condemn his remarks.”Schumer added: “I urge Senator Tuberville to think about the destructive spectacle he is creating in the Senate. His actions are dangerous.”Read on …The Biden administration is bracing for the end of the pandemic-era Title 42 and a potential surge of migrants on the southern border. Homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas just concluded a press conference where he warned people against trying to cross into the US, while fending off criticism from both the right and left over how the White House has prepared for this moment.Here’s what else has happened today so far:
Debt ceiling negotiators from the White House and Congress’s leaders are back at the Capitol to break the high-stakes deadlock ahead of a 1 June deadline for a potential default.
CNN’s chief executive defended how last night’s town hall with Donald Trump went in a call with employees.
House Republicans are expected to later today approve a bill to reform the US immigration system in line with conservative priorities. It faces doom in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
Joe Biden campaigned on undoing Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policies, but in recent months, the president has announced new rules for migrants that advocacy groups say are strikingly similar to those of his Republican adversary.Mayorkas was challenged to respond to those claims at the briefing. Here’s what he had to say:
This administration stands markedly different than the prior administration … We have, in fact, a family reunification task force that has now reunified, I think, more than 700 families that were cruelly separated … We have rescinded the public charge rule that punishes individuals who have migrated to the United States just for accessing public resources to which they are entitled. We have granted temporary protected status to quite a number of countries. This president has led the unprecedented expansion of lawful pathways. We stand markedly different than the prior administration. We do not resemble it at all.
He concluded by saying: “We are a nation of immigrants, and we are a nation of laws. And those laws provide that, if one qualifies for humanitarian relief, then one has established the basis to remain in the United States. And if one has not, then one is to be removed. And that is exactly what is going to happen.”Since Joe Biden took office, Republicans have repeatedly accused his administration of “opening” the southern border.Asked about that claim, Mayorkas said that’s not the case.“We removed, returned and expelled 1.4 million people last year,” he said. “Ask those 1.4 million people if they think the border is open. Our apprehension rate at the border is consistent with the average apprehension rate in prior years.”Mayorkas warned that “we could see very crowded border patrol facilities” after Title 42’s end, but declined to say how long that situation could last.“We are working as hard as we can to make sure that that time it takes is as little as possible,” the homeland security secretary said. “This is a challenge, and we’re going to meet this challenge.”Republican administrations in states such as Texas have lately taken to bussing recently arrived migrants to Washington DC, with a new group being dropped off outside Kamala Harris’s residence this morning.Asked about that at the press conference, Mayorkas condemned the practice:
It is a both sad and tragic day when a government official uses migrants as a pawn for political purposes.”
Mayorkas was challenged by a reporter about why the Biden administration didn’t move faster to prepare for Title 42’s end, considering they’ve known it was going to expire for about two years.Here’s what he had to say:
I have said for months and months that the challenge at the border is, and is going to be, very difficult. And we have spoken repeatedly about the fact that that difficulty may actually only increase at this time of transition. It is going to take a period of time for our approach to actually gain traction and show results. And I’ve been very clear about that … The fundamental reason why we have a challenge at our border, and we’ve had this challenge many a time before, is because we are working within the constraints of … a fundamentally broken immigration system. And we also are operating on resources that are far less than those that we need.”
Mayorkas had some choice words for Congress, which he blamed for not changing immigration law to better react to the latest trends in immigration.“Our current situation is the outcome of Congress leaving a broken, outdated immigration system in place for over two decades, despite unanimous agreement that we desperately need legislative reform,” Mayorkas said. “It is also the result of Congress’s decision not to provide us with the resources we need and that we requested.”“We … yet again, call on Congress to pass desperately needed immigration reform,” he concluded.There are plenty of ideas for immigration reform in Congress – in fact, the House will probably pass a measure to do that later today. What’s lacking is enough common ground between Democrats and Republicans, and even within the parties, to get a bill through Congress.As the White House press briefing kicked off, homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned migrants against trying to enter the United States after Title 42 ends at midnight tonight.“If anyone arrives at our southern border after midnight tonight, they will be presumed ineligible for asylum and subjected to steeper consequences for unlawful entry, including a minimum five-year ban on re-entry and potential criminal prosecution,” Mayorkas said.“We are clear-eyed about the challenges we are likely to face in the days and weeks ahead, and we are ready to meet them,” he said, noting that immigration authorities expect “to see large numbers of encounters” and “are already seeing high numbers of encounters in certain sectors”.“I want to be very clear: our borders are not open. People who cross our border unlawfully and without a legal basis to remain will be promptly processed and removed,” Mayorkas said.The White House press briefing should be getting under way any minute now.This blog will follow it live as homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks. Or, you can watch it as it happens at the livestream above. More
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to soon announce his bid for US president, failed to make a favourable impression on UK power players during an international trade mission this […] More
Taiwan’s president will visit diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize next week while also making stopovers in the United States, as it aims to shore up ties in Latin America.Tsai Ing-wen will depart Taiwan on 29 March for the 10-day trip, stopping in New York and Los Angeles while en route to and from the Central American countries, the island’s ministry said on Tuesday.Belize and Guatemala are two of just 14 countries that officially recognise Taiwan over China, and Tsai’s trip comes after Honduras said earlier this month that it would be switching recognition to Beijing.China views self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, to be retaken one day – by force if necessary. Under its “One China” principle, no country may maintain official diplomatic relations with both China and Taiwan.During her trip, President Tsai will meet her Guatemalan counterpart Alejandro Giammattei and Belize’s prime minister Johnny Briceño, the foreign ministry said.Asked if Tsai would meet US House speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles, deputy foreign minister Alexander Yui said only that her “transit itinerary is being arranged appropriately with the US side”.McCarthy said earlier this month that he would see Tsai in his home state of California.On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin reiterated his country’s opposition to Tsai meeting with US officials.“We firmly oppose any form of official exchanges between the US and Taiwan,” he told a press briefing in Beijing. “China has made solemn representations to the US in this regard.”In Washington, state department spokesman Vedant Patel downplayed the significance of Tsai’s transit and said it was normal for Taiwanese dignitaries to meet members of Congress or hold public events while on US stopovers.“Transits are taken out of consideration for the safety and comfort and convenience and dignity of the passenger and are consistent with our One China policy, which also remains unchanged,” Patel told reporters.Washington is one of Taiwan’s key global allies and its largest arms supplier, despite itself switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in 1979.In August of last year, a visit by McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan drew condemnation from China, which conducted massive military drills around the island in response.McCarthy has vowed also to visit Taiwan but the stopover could give him an opportunity to sidestep a potentially explosive trip.Tsai’s trip comes at a critical time for Taiwan, after the Honduran president, Xiomara Castro, said last week that her country would establish “official relations” with China.Latin America has been a key diplomatic battleground for China and Taiwan since the two split in 1949 after a civil war.Honduras’s move – which would result in the severing of longstanding official ties with Taiwan – followed negotiations between it and China on building a hydroelectric dam in the country.It continues a trend in the region, with Nicaragua, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica all switching diplomatic recognition to Beijing in recent years. More
Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email The White House had nothing to say Sunday morning after former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was caught making a rude and dismissive remark about the US during discussions The former […] More
