More stories

  • in

    Biden Shut the Border to Asylum Seekers. The Question Is Whether the Order Can Be Enforced.

    There are still ways for people to cross the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, particularly without any new resources to help guard the 2,000-mile frontier.As of 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, the U.S. border with Mexico was shut down to nearly all migrants seeking asylum in the United States.The drastic action, the result of an executive order signed by President Biden, was designed to keep the border closed at least through Election Day and defuse one of the president’s biggest vulnerabilities in his campaign against former President Donald J. Trump.The question is how broadly it can be enforced, especially along a 2,000-mile border that does not have nearly the capacity to manage the number of people who want to enter the United States.As of Wednesday morning and into Thursday, the order appeared to be working, although it was still too early to make a real assessment. Migrants in the border towns of Mexicali and Ciudad Juárez were being turned away, and the word was spreading.In Mexicali, Guadalupe Olmos, a 33-year-old mother, said that when she heard about the new policy, she wept, and said it was now pointless to try to enter the United States. Last year, she said, gunmen shot up her car, killing her husband. She and her three children survived and have been trying to get out of Mexico.“It is not going to happen anymore,” Ms. Olmos said. “Yesterday, they told us that this is over.”Before the new restrictions went into effect, migrants would seek out border agents and surrender, knowing that anyone who stepped foot on U.S. soil could ask for asylum. Often, they would be released into the United States to wait, sometimes for years, for their cases to come up.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    San Diego Is Once Again a Top Migrant Entry Point

    Asylum seekers from around the world are trying to enter the United States through California, and immigrant traffic there has reached its highest level in decades.From sunrise to sunset, the U.S. Border Patrol buses arrived every hour at a sunbaked parking lot in San Diego.Dozens of migrants stepped outside each time, many seeming to be confused about what was happening at this trolley hub on a recent weekend. There were no local officials to answer questions. No services. And few ways to reach their next destination in the United States.For the first time in 25 years, the San Diego region has become a top destination for migrants along the southern United States border, surpassing the number of illegal crossings at areas in Arizona and Texas for several weeks this year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.It has been a surprising turn for a border spot that was the focal point of the bitter national debate over immigration decades ago, before falling out of the spotlight as migrant flows shifted eastward. The recent surge in San Diego has been overwhelming enough that a government-funded welcome center exhausted its budget and had to close in February. Since then, the United States Border Patrol has bused migrants to a trolley center and sent them on their way.After being dropped off at the Iris Avenue Transit Center, many of the migrants head to the San Diego International Airport or find shelter provided by churches or nonprofit organizations in the San Diego area.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Elecciones en México: los resultados apuntalan el dominio de Morena

    Con los resultados de las votaciones del domingo, el partido Morena puede llevar y aprobar en el Congreso reformas que implican un cambio sistémico.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]La elección de Claudia Sheinbaum como presidenta de México logró el mayor margen de ventaja en décadas y, aunque todavía se estaban contando los votos el lunes, quedó claro que Morena, el partido de izquierda que actualmente gobierna México, y sus aliados podrían estar en condiciones de cambiar el panorama político del país.Parecen estar a punto de conseguir la mayoría necesaria en el Congreso para promulgar propuestas de cambio de la Constitución que han alarmado a la oposición, incluido el avance de una polémica legislación que podría desmantelar controles cruciales del poder presidencial.Sheinbaum, la primera mujer y la primera persona judía que es elegida para la presidencia, venció a su oponente el domingo por una sorprendente diferencia de 30 puntos porcentuales o más, según los primeros resultados. Se esperaba que ella y Morena ganaran, pero su contundente victoria superó las encuestas previas a las elecciones.“Estamos llevándonos carro completo en estas elecciones”, dijo Mario Delgado, líder del partido Morena, en un discurso pronunciado el domingo.Las elecciones sirvieron como referendo sobre los casi seis años de mandato de Andrés Manuel López Obrador, el actual presidente, reflejando que una sólida mayoría del electorado ha respaldado su gestión al frente del país.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Trump’s Harder Line on Immigration Appears to Resonate With Many Americans

    As the 2024 presidential election ramps up, here is what polls say about public views on the growing number of migrants.Former President Donald J. Trump has described his plans to remove large numbers of unauthorized immigrants from the country if elected to a second term by citing the mass deportations under President Dwight D. Eisenhower in the 1950s.In that initiative, federal agents and law enforcement officers used military techniques such as sweeps, raids and surveillance checkpoints — as well as a blunt form of racial profiling — to round up undocumented workers and load them onto buses and boats. As many as 1.3 million people were expelled, mostly Mexican and Mexican American workers, some of whom were U.S. citizens. Critical to the initiative — named Operation Wetback, for the racial slur — was intense anti-immigrant sentiment. Officials at the time used that sentiment to justify family separations and overcrowded and unsanitary detention conditions — practices that the Trump administration would deploy decades later in its own immigration enforcement.As the 2024 presidential election heats up, some Latino advocacy and immigrant-rights groups are sounding the alarm that Mr. Trump’s tactics could amount to a repetition of a sordid chapter of American history. But recent polling shows that Mr. Trump’s position on immigration appears to be resonating. About half of Americans have said they would support mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a CNN poll conducted by the research firm SSRS in January. Authorities have reported record numbers of migrant apprehensions at the southern border for three straight years, including 2.4 million apprehensions in the fiscal year that ended in September 2023. Although the numbers have dropped sharply in recent months, immigration remains an albatross for President Biden: Even some Democratic mayors have complained that they need help from the federal government to contend with the migrant populations in their cities.Americans’ views on immigration are complex and constantly changing. Here is a snapshot of where public attitudes on immigration stand now.Public support for more immigration has ebbed after rising under Trump.Mr. Trump’s restrictive approach to immigration, both legal and illegal, helped push Americans of various political stripes to support more permissive policies.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Mexicans Go to Polls in Historic Election, as 2 Women Vie to Lead the Country

    The voting is very likely to put a woman in the country’s presidency for the first time ever, showcasing the immense strides that females have made in Mexico’s political scene.Mexicans will vote on Sunday in an election that is groundbreaking on several fronts: it’s set to be the largest race in the country’s history, it’s already among the most violent in recent memory, and it will likely put a woman in the presidency for the first time ever.The two main contenders, who have largely split the electorate between them according to polls, are women. The front-runner is Claudia Sheinbaum, a climate scientist representing the ruling party and its party allies. Her closest competitor is Xóchitl Gálvez, a businesswoman on a ticket that includes a collection of opposition parties.Ms. Sheinbaum has had a double-digit lead in the polls for months, but the opposition has argued those numbers underestimate the true support for their candidate. In an interview, Ms. Gálvez said “there is an anti-system vote,” and if Mexicans turned out in force on Sunday, “we will win.”“She’s in the mind-set where she’s ahead by 30 points,” said Ms. Gálvez, of her rival. “But she’s going to have the surprise of her life.”Xóchitl Gálvez, a businesswoman and former senator, heads a ticket that includes opposition parties from the right, center and left.Lorenzo Hernández/EPA, via ShutterstockThe contest showcases the immense strides in Mexico’s politics made in recent years by women, who weren’t even allowed to vote in the country until 1953. Both the top candidates come with considerable experience; Ms. Gálvez was a senator and Ms. Sheinbaum governed the capital, one of the largest cities in the hemisphere.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Elecciones en México: dos mujeres compiten para gobernar el país

    La votación muy probablemente le otorgará la presidencia del país a una mujer por primera vez en su historia, lo que exhibe inmensos avances de género en la escena política de México.[Estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos ahora]Los mexicanos votarán este domingo en unas elecciones que son pioneras en varios aspectos: será la contienda más numerosa de la historia del país, ya se encuentra entre las más violentas en memoria reciente, y muy probablemente pondrá a una mujer en la presidencia por primera vez en la historia.Según las encuestas, las dos principales candidatas han dividido en gran medida al electorado. La que va en primer lugar es Claudia Sheinbaum, una científica ambiental que representa al partido gobernante y sus aliados. Su rival más cercana es Xóchitl Gálvez, una empresaria apoyada por una coalición de partidos de oposición.Por meses, Sheinbaum ha tenido una ventaja de dos dígitos en las encuestas, pero la oposición ha alegado que esas cifras subestiman el verdadero apoyo que tiene su candidata. En una entrevista, Gálvez afirmó que “hay un voto antisistema”, y que si los mexicanos acuden en gran número a las urnas este domingo, “ganamos”.“Ella está en su lógica de que tiene 30 puntos arriba”, dijo Gálvez, sobre su rival. “Pero pues se va a llevar la sorpresa de su vida”.Xóchitl Gálvez, empresaria y exsenadora, lidera una coalición que incluye partidos de oposición de derecha, centro e izquierda.Lorenzo Hernández/EPA, vía ShutterstockWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

  • in

    Las mujeres de México están alzando la voz. ¿Las escuchará una mujer presidenta?

    [Ahora también estamos en WhatsApp. Empieza a seguirnos]Mi madre nació en 1943, en un país donde no se le permitía votar. El gobierno mexicano no le otorgó a las mujeres el derecho a votar en las elecciones nacionales —o el derecho a ocupar cargos públicos a nivel nacional— hasta el 17 de octubre de 1953. Hoy, casi 71 años después, por primera vez dos mujeres encabezan la contienda electoral para ser la próxima presidenta de México: Claudia Sheinbaum, la puntera en las encuestas, y Xóchitl Gálvez. No es una hazaña menor para un país con una larga y compleja relación con el machismo, y donde cada día mueren asesinadas un promedio de 10 mujeres o niñas.Y, sin embargo, este logro a menudo se ha sentido como algo secundario en estas históricas elecciones. Sheinbaum, una científica que se presenta en la candidatura del partido gobernante, Morena, y Gálvez, una empresaria que representa a una coalición de partidos convertidos en oposición, han aludido a los logros del feminismo y su influencia en la vida pública mexicana. Pero han sido cautas respecto a detenerse demasiado en los temas de los derechos de las mujeres en sus campañas, abordando muy superficialmente el aborto y los derechos reproductivos, por lo que podría parecer cierta deferencia a los votantes conservadores. Ninguna ha presentado un plan de gobierno sólido para atender a las mujeres que las han llevado adonde están hoy.Porque, mientras México se sumía en su pesadilla de violencia generalizada, desde la guerra contra el narcotráfico respaldada por Estados Unidos, pasando por el gobierno de Felipe Calderón y hasta el sexenio del presidente saliente, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, han sido las mujeres —su incansable trabajo, su rabia infinita y su dolor cada vez más profundo— quienes le han dado a este país una brújula moral. Las movilizaciones de las mujeres han cobrado más fuerza y estruendo ante la indiferencia y la represión del gobierno; han constituido la única oposición seria contra el statu quo y han convertido las cuestiones de los derechos de las mujeres y la justicia de género en temas centrales de cualquier debate sobre nuestro futuro en común.Para ser justos, a los hombres que han aspirado a la presidencia tampoco se les ha exigido históricamente que presenten sus planes para las mujeres. Rara vez se les pregunta al respecto. Sin embargo, las mujeres constituyen algo más de la mitad del electorado mexicano, por lo que es imperativo que Sheinbaum y Gálvez hablen de sus puntos de vista y sus posturas sobre asuntos que afectarán los cuerpos, la seguridad y la vida cotidiana de las mujeres; no porque sean mujeres, sino porque son candidatas a la presidencia que luchan por representarnos a todos y todas en el más alto cargo político del país.Casi con toda seguridad, el 2 de junio una mujer recibirá el mandato de gobernarnos a todos. Será la presidenta de unos votantes profundamente preocupados por la inseguridad y la corrupción. La política de seguridad del gobierno actual —conocida como “Abrazos, no balazos”— no ha conseguido reducir la violencia desatada por la fallida y mal llamada guerra contra las drogas, hecho que se pone dolorosamente de manifiesto con el creciente número de desapariciones y los altos índices de violencia de género. Una impactante cifra de colectivos de víctimas, compuestos en su mayoría por madres, esposas, hermanas e hijas de personas desaparecidas, recorren el país con escaso o nulo presupuesto o apoyo institucionales, en ocasiones desenterrando ellas mismas los restos de sus seres queridos.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More