1 minute ago / 3:58pm EDT
El Paso official: ‘We are as prepared as we can be’
El Paso County’s immigration processing center expanded operations in preparation for the Title 42 closing Thursday evening.
Starting tomorrow, the Immigrant Support Services Center will be able to handle 800 people a day who recently crossed the border, up from 650 today, Irene Valenzuela, executive director of the El Paso County Department of Community Services, told NBC News. Told. Thursday.
The purpose is for immigrants to go through immigration procedures, arrive at the center and make travel arrangements to continue their journey. Since October, the service center has handled about 34,000 people, about 400 of whom are in need of temporary protection in El Paso, she said.
Valenzuela hopes that increasing admissions to up to 800 people a day, or more if needed, could ease the pressure on non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that protect migrants. said. Up to 3,300 people are staying in areas outside local churches and homeless shelters in recent weeks as shelter services have reached capacity.
The county is still gearing up for the potential for thousands more visitors to El Paso after Title 42 is lifted. “We have systems in place to prepare our communities for immigrants,” Valenzuela said. “An unexpected flood of data can break any system.”
“We are preparing as much as we can and we will see how all these new rules and policies affect it,” she said.
11 minutes ago / 3:48pm EDT
NYCLU sues two counties trying to block immigration
The civil rights nonprofit New York Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against Rockland and Orange counties for trying to block immigrants from wanting to move out of New York City.
The lawsuit comes after Rockland County won a lawsuit against the city for trying to set up temporary shelters for hundreds of immigrants in a hotel outside the city limits.
Rockland County issued a temporary restraining order against the city late Tuesday, and Orange County Chief Executive Stephen Neuhaus issued an executive order Wednesday instructing all hotels and motels not to accept immigrants or asylum seekers. bottom.
Amy Belcher, director of immigration rights litigation at the NYCLU, said the orders “flatly” violate constitutional provisions.
“Immigrants have the right to travel and reside anywhere in New York without xenophobia, harassment or discrimination,” Belcher said in a statement. “People are not political pawns.”
These two counties lie just north of the New Jersey-New York state border.
5 minutes ago / 3:55pm EDT
San Antonio Charity Preparing Rooms
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio’s Catholic Charity is gearing up for the arrival of people from the border as Title 42 is expected to end at midnight. Antonio Fernandez, the group’s chairman and CEO, said the charity had increased capacity and had hotels open Thursday afternoon in case the shelter, which held about 650 people, was full. said he had secured a room for
Fernandez has overseen the protection of many through various immigration events, including helping families separated under the Trump administration and helping Afghan refugees and recent immigrant groups. Fernandez, an immigrant herself, said she had heard too many stories of the suffering and loss of those who left their home countries to come to the United States.
“They ask me, ‘When can I work?’ I am asking,” he said. Fernandez said while he can help Afghan refugees find jobs and housing, he cannot do the same for recent asylum seekers who have to wait for their applications to be processed before they can work.
10 minutes ago / 3:50pm EDT
scenery from the border
2 hours ago / 2:25pm EDT
Hispanic caucus chair calls Republican border bill a ‘stunt’
Rep. Nanette Barragan (D-California), chair of the Hispanic congressional group, further criticized her Democratic colleagues for a House GOP bill to address immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“This bill is the adoption of a failed Trump-era policy that seeks to criminalize the right to apply for asylum,” Barragan said at a press conference.
Barragan said the bill, which would hire and train 22,000 border agents and force the homeland security secretary to resume construction of the border wall, was a “political stunt.”
“This bill is sorely lacking in who we are as a nation and who we are, not just unconstitutionally, but as part of a political stunt,” she said. rice field. “It’s anti-immigrant. It’s anti-Latino. It’s anti-American. It’s a humanitarian, comprehensive immigration reform that expands legal avenues for immigration, protects dreamers, and addresses the root causes of immigration. the time has come.”
2 hours ago / 1:40 PM EDT
Florida sues US over immigration liberation plan
The state of Florida is suing the United States over the Biden administration’s plan to begin releasing some immigrants into the country without a trial date or the ability to track them, according to court filings.
Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody filed an emergency motion on Thursday seeking a temporary injunction to stop the implementation of the policy, but the order is “substantial” in addition to another injunction blocked by a federal judge earlier this year. , she claims.
The defendants in this case are United States Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mallorcas and Director of Border Patrol Raul Ortiz. Authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
U.S. District Judge T. Kent Wetherell II gave the defendants until 4:00 p.m.
NBC News first reported the plans on Wednesday. The new policy releases some immigrants on “parole” and notifies them to appear at Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but does not enroll them in the program.
2 hours ago / 2:25pm EDT
A man spent 10 days at a checkpoint begging the US not to forget him
Juarez, Mexico — Jesús Miguel Loela Mendoza, 26, wears flip flops and socks and travels more than two hours round trip, holding food and wipes while he and others wait. “The only things I’m wearing are the ones that are left,” he said in order to enter.At Border Crossing 42 for a chance of being admitted into the United States
A U.S. border official said at Checkpoint 40, “I’ll let you through.” But after waiting six days, he moved to another checkpoint, where he camped.
Noticias Telemundo
“We hold our hearts,” he said, getting emotional at times, and that being deported to Venezuela would be “fatal.”he sold his house, car and motorcycle to go to the US
“We want to do things right … we want to intervene legally,” he said, calling on President Biden and officials in charge to help, hoping the U.S. “remembers us.”
3 hours ago / 12:59 PM EDT
New York City struggles to find space and support
New York City is struggling to find spaces for asylum seekers and is asking neighboring counties to help with refugee housing before Title 42 ends and the influx increases, city officials say. announced Thursday.
Manuel Castro, New York City’s Immigration Commissioner, said, “Without provision of emergency evacuation space outside the city, it is no longer possible to physically accommodate people requesting emergency evacuation.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said the city receives an average of 500 new arrivals each day, and thousands more could arrive once Title 42 is lifted.
The request has been met with pushback from leaders in several surrounding counties. Orange County Commissioner Stephen Neuhaus said in a statement that Adams was a “chaotic disaster” and that law enforcement had not been notified that the immigrant bus would arrive on Thursday.
Adams, meanwhile, has temporarily suspended part of the city’s “Right to Evacuation” provision, which requires newly arrived families to be placed in shelters under an executive order. The mayor said it was a “difficult decision” but the right one.
More than 60,800 asylum seekers have visited New York City since last spring, according to the government, and more than 37,500 are now under the city’s protection.
1 hour ago / 2:43 PM EDT
More than 11,000 people were arrested on Wednesday
US Customs and Border Protection arrested more than 11,000 immigrants on Wednesday, maintaining a record number for Tuesday, two DHS officials told NBC News.
Homeland Security officials had expected 10,000 arrests per day earlier this week. On Wednesday, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said the demise of Title 42 could become even more problematic if the number increases from 13,000 to 14,000 a day.
