Biden won’t extend legal status for Venezuelan immigrants
The Biden administration will not extend the temporary legal status for Venezuelan citizens who were allowed to enter the United States if they had a financial supporter, according to a CBS News report. The Venezuela parole program began in October 2022 and was expanded in January 2023 to include Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. As of August, 530,000 individuals were allowed into the country through the program, including 117,000 Venezuelans.
President Biden started the program hoping it would reduce illegal immigration. It required an application, vetting, and proof of finances from the sponsor. Additionally, the immigrant ultimately had to buy their own commercial plane ticket to get into the country. Those approved were allowed to live and work here for two years.
Department of Homeland Security officials told CBS News they will not extend the status for those who are here, so Venezuelans who arrived when the program first started will soon see their legal status expire. They will receive notices instructing them to apply for another form of legal status or leave the country.
Parolees from Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua didn’t join the program until January 2023, so they have three more months until their legal status expires. The government has not made a decision as to whether it will be extended.
It’s unclear what will happen to Venezuelans who are unable to obtain another form of legal status. Venezuela currently rejects deportees from the United States, so it may be difficult for the federal government to remove them from the country. They will all lose their right to work legally.
Travel agents smuggle migrants to the US, some take charter flights
The State Department enforced visa restrictions on travel agents, accused of smuggling migrants into the United States. It said rogue agencies based in Europe, Africa and the Middle East are preying on vulnerable people by operating services designed to facilitate unauthorized migration.
A State Department spokesman told the Telegraph, “No one should profit from vulnerable migrants — not smugglers, private companies, public officials, nor governments.”
The Biden administration has tried to crack down on charter companies that are allowing migrants to use private planes to make it into the U.S.
Biden’s senior adviser for migration, Blas Nuñez-Neto, said migrants pay as much as $70,000 for their journey, with a big portion of that money going to charter companies.
Nuñez-Neto also said Nicaragua serves as a main launching pad for migrants, with many flying there from their home country, then making their way to the U.S.
Nicaragua President Daniel Ortega hasn’t responded to the allegations of facilitating the migrant smuggling. However, in a recent speech Ortega accused the U.S. of engaging in a war against migrants.
The Biden administration convinced Haiti in late 2023 to impose a total ban on charter flights to Nicaragua. The administration has also revoked visas of multiple charter executives.
The migrant crisis has been at the forefront of the 2024 presidential election. Republicans blame Kamala Harris for what they say is the Biden administration’s inability to get a grip on the situation.
The Department of Homeland Security reported more than 600,000 people illegally entered the U.S. and evaded capture in 2023.
House Republicans investigating fraud in migrant parole program
The House Homeland Security Committee sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas seeking answers about reports of fraud in a migrant parole program. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) paused President Joe Biden’s migrant flights because sponsors were being improperly vetted.
The program allowed 30,000 migrants per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to come into the United States with the support of a financial sponsor. Those allowed in could live and work in the states for two years.
The organization Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR, obtained an internal investigation that found U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services identified thousands of applications with fraudulent information.
The investigation found false Social Security numbers, phone numbers and addresses on the I-34A forms filled out by sponsors. Investigators found that sponsors used 100 addresses on 19,000 applications. Those addresses included warehouses and storage units.
DHS said there were no problems vetting migrants, just sponsors.
DHS told The Associated Press in a statement that the beneficiaries “are thoroughly screened and vetted prior to their arrival to the United States.” The department also said it would “restart application processing as quickly as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”
The Homeland Security Committee is continuing its inquiry into the matter and wants Mayorkas to hand over documents that could shed light on what went wrong.
The committee requested an unredacted copy of the Department of Homeland Security’s internal report that identifies patterns, trends and potential fraud indicators within the program. Additionally, members requested the associated data used to inform the report.
Committee members also said they want all documents and communications within the department and with external contractors regarding the report and the decision to pause the program.
Members want the information by Aug. 27. Since the program was fully introduced in January 2023, approximately 494,000 people have been let into the country.
Thousands of migrants flew into US under new program. Where did they go?
Hundreds of thousands of migrants entered the U.S. under a Biden White House initiative that allows them to bypass the border and fly directly into the U.S. Of those migrants, 80% of them are landing in the Sunshine State.
The program is meant to serve as a safer pathway into the country, according to the Biden administration. However, critics of the program argue that it’s adding to the overwhelmed immigration system, and they question its legality.
The migrant is responsible for airfare expenses but once in the U.S., they can apply for work. After two years, there are a number of options that would allow them to remain in the U.S.
The program has been around since January of last year, and more than 400,000 migrants have taken advantage of it.
The Homeland Security House Committee wanted to know where these migrants are flying into and subpoenaed the Department of Homeland Security for the data.
The committee was provided with numbers from January to August of 2023, showing U.S. destinations for 200,000 of the migrants.
The other 200,000 migrants who utilized the program in the following months are not included in this data set.
Eighty percent of the migrants flew to Florida. Miami had more than 90,000 migrants fly into the city. Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, and Tampa saw 161,562 migrants travel through their airports. New York saw 14,827, Houston had 7,923, and Los Angeles had 3,271 migrants fly into their cities.
“It’s a secret in the sense, yes, we know the program is going on, we’re suing, we think it’s illegal, but, they’re not coordinating with state government at all,” DeSantis said. “If they throw six people on a commercial flight, there’s no acknowledgement at all to state or local authorities. That’s a fact.”
According to DHS, the migrants flying over are considered “inadmissible,” meaning they are “not permitted by law to enter the U.S.”
“What they’re essentially saying is that the laws passed by Congress have said that these people are inadmissible, and so they created a program to try to get around those laws,” Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, said. “The thing is, they don’t have the authority to create such a program. By their own admission, they’re breaking the law.”
The White House released a statement in response.
“This is a lawful process that cuts out smugglers seeking to take advantage of vulnerable individuals considering migrating and that has successfully decreased irregular migration from these countries. To say this process is “secret” is laughably false.”
This program initiative by the Biden White House is capped to 30,000 migrants a month. There are already millions of migrants on a waiting list who have applied.
A new Gallup poll released on Tuesday, April 30, shows immigration is still the No. 1 issue for American voters.
Some voters believe programs like the CHNV program can be a solution and give some slack to a strained immigration system by allowing certain migrants who qualify to bypass it. Other voters believe it’s incentivizing more immigration when cities are already overwhelmed.
Tropical forest loss dropped 9 percent last year, but growing threats remain
Global Forest Watch recently reported a complex situation for tropical forests worldwide, revealing both advancements and ongoing challenges in forest conservation. In 2023, the world lost approximately 9.2 million acres of tropical old-growth forests, an area exceeding the size of Maryland.
Despite this, the rate of forest loss has decreased by 9% compared to 2022, signaling some progress in preserving these critical ecosystems important for carbon storage and biodiversity.
Mikaela Weisse, director of Global Forest Watch, noted significant reductions in primary forest loss in Brazil and Colombia, with decreases of 36% and 49%, respectively.
However, she highlighted that these positive trends were overshadowed by increased deforestation and forest fires in countries like Bolivia, Nicaragua and Laos, impacting the overall progress in tropical forest conservation.
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“This year we found really significant decreases in primary forest loss in Brazil and in Colombia, but unfortunately those decreases weren’t enough to actually reduce the overall rate of forest loss in the tropics,” Weisse said. “The decreases were counteracted by increases instead in countries like Bolivia, Nicaragua and Laos.”
Weisse also pointed out that Bolivia faces unique challenges with forest fires and agricultural expansion — often promoted by the government — posing significant threats to forest conservation efforts.
Fires and deforestation are identified as the main drivers of forest loss, critical to the global carbon capture cycle. From 2001 to 2021, forests managed by Indigenous peoples in the Amazon have been notably effective as carbon sinks, removing approximately 370 million tons of CO2 from the atmosphere annually. That is equivalent to the United Kingdom’s yearly fossil fuel emissions.
Over the past 40 to 50 years, nearly 17% of the Amazon rainforest has been converted, primarily into agricultural land. Experts warn that surpassing a 20% deforestation threshold could drastically alter the Amazon, transforming it into savanna-like terrain and potentially releasing about 99 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere — more than double the annual global emissions from fossil fuels.
Additionally, researchers have expressed concern that the global community is unlikely to meet the 2030 goal of halting and reversing forest loss due to deforestation, a commitment made by over 145 countries and territories in 2021.
Michigan asks residents to help house, settle migrants
Michigan is encouraging residents to welcome migrants into their homes to help integrate them into society. Michigan, like many other states, is experiencing an influx of migrants traveling north from the southern border as they await asylum claims.
Shelters in Detroit are over capacity, leading to migrant transfers, which send migrants to hotels or other shelters with room. The city is directly asking residents to help ease the influx.
Michigan’s Labor and Economic Opportunity Department explained how residents can help through a sponsorship program called “Welcome Corp.”
Sponsors would be asked to pick migrant families up from the airport, secure a place for the migrants to stay temporarily, enroll migrant children in a local school and help adults with employment opportunities. Volunteers must commit for at least 90 days.
The U.S. State Department launched the Welcome Corp in 2023. There are partnerships across Minnesota, Massachusetts and New York. The migrants that families sponsor come from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua or Venezuela.
“I’m confident if you join the Welcome Corp, you won’t just change the lives of the refugees you help, you’ll change your own lives as well,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said of the group.
Residents are not required to help house migrants, however, similar requests are getting more common across the U.S. as crossings at the southern border increase.
“Expanded refugee resettlement pathways empower more Michiganders to support our state’s growing refugee population and build a more welcoming and inclusive Michigan for all,” Poppy Hernandez, Michigan’s chief equity and inclusion officer, said after news of the state’s volunteer request.
Nicaragua’s Catholic president is persecuting members of his own religion
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega is persecuting members of his own religion. Ortega is Catholic, however it is the official position of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom that Nicaragua’s government “has taken harsher measures against Catholic-affiliated organizations such as shutting down charities and expelling their workers, stripping universities of funding and legal status, shutting down news media, and eliminating non-governmental organizations.”
Ortega’s actions are being monitored by many groups, including the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in Congress, co-chaired by Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.
“He has so far departed from basic decency,” Smith said in an interview with Straight Arrow News.
Smith compared Ortega to Chinese President Xi Jingping and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
“There’s just a malevolence there, a hatred of people,” Smith said.
Ortega’s regime has shut down at least 26 private universities and 54 news outlets.
In August, a Nicaraguan court ordered Ortega’s government to take control of the Jesuit-run Central American University (CAU). The judges ruled that the school was a center for terrorism.
Ortega briefly attended CAU before joining the junta. His children also attended the university.
“Everything is imposed. It’s a perfect dictatorship. It’s a perfect tyranny,” Ortega said of the church in a televised speech. “If they are going to be democratic, let them start with Catholics voting for the pope, for cardinals, for bishops.”
Ortega also said he doesn’t feel represented in the church as a Catholic and as a Christian.
On Feb. 10, 2023, Bishop Rolando Alvarez was sentenced to 26 years in prison for criticizing religious freedom conditions in the country. He declined to be exiled to the United States. Smith asked Ortega to let him meet with Bishop Alvarez in person so he can perform a welfare check.
If the meeting happens, it wouldn’t be Smith’s first time in the country. Smith met with Ortega in 1984 along with other members of Congress including former Reps. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and Tony Hall, D-Ohio.
The delegation raised human rights concerns, specifically about torture. The group then had a suspicious experience after Ortega served them tea.
“The three of us that drank it got deathly sick. So I’m sure he drugged it or did something. You know, for two weeks, I was doubled over, as were my colleagues,” Smith said.
The State Department says the Ortega regime has allowed corruption and impunity to reign. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on the state-owned mining company after it said Ortega stole the 2021 election. But Smith wants more.
“Shut him down.” Smith said. “No economic trade, nothing. How else you reach a guy that is destroying his own people?”
CBP: Migrant encounters between ports of entry declined by 42% in January
Illegal immigration dropped 42% in January compared to December. According to new numbers from CBP, Border Patrol agents encountered 128,410 migrants in between official ports of entry compared to 221,675 the month before.
Breaking it down by demographic, 108,573 were single adults, 38,087 were family units, and 9,393 were unaccompanied children. As per deportation proceedings, 64,499 immigrants were processed under Title 42, while 91,775 were processed under Title 8.
Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller attributed the decrease to President Biden’s immigrant parole program that began Jan. 5. Under the program, the United States will welcome 30,000 individuals per month to live and work in the United States for two years. If they try to cross illegally, they will not be eligible for the new legal pathway. The program applies to people from Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and Haiti.
“The January monthly operational update clearly illustrates that new border enforcement measures are working, with the lowest level of Border Patrol encounters between Ports of Entry since February of 2021,” Miller said in a statement. “Those trends have continued into February, with average encounters of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans plummeting.”
In a Fox News interview, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, D, said she blames the federal government for the immigration crisis.
“This is an issue that the can has been kicked down the road for decades by both parties in Washington,” Hobbs said. “Solving our immigration crisis could help with the economy, help with inflation. We need real solutions.”
Gov. Hobbs also explained why she is expanding an Arizona scholarship program for low income students to provide support and in-state tuition for “Dreamers,” or people whose parents brought them into the United States illegally as children.
“We’re talking about many students who probably came when they were infants, before they had any control over the decision. And who went to Arizona schools their whole life. This is the only country that they know,” Hobbs said.
In the November midterm elections, Arizona voters approved a ballot measure to allow all students, regardless of immigration status, to receive financial aid and in-state tuition.
Morning rundown: Pence classified docs; Biden sued by 20 states
Classified documents were found at the home of former Vice President Mike Pence; President Joe Biden has been sued over his migrant sponsorship plan; and Pope Francis criticized laws criminalizing homosexuality. These stories and more highlight the morning rundown for Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023.
Earthquake hits California coast
A 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of California early Wednesday morning, according to the U.S. Geological survey. Aftershocks of 2.6 and 3.5 magnitude were felt in the area.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said no tsunami threat was associated with the quake. The Los Angeles Fire Department added there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Washington mass shooting
Three people were killed in a shooting at a convenience store in Yakima, Washington, early Tuesday. The gunman died after an hours-long manhunt. The shooting comes follows several shootings in California in recent days.
“You wouldn’t know this threat was coming. And that makes people uncomfortable,” Yakima Police Chief Matt Murray said Tuesday. “I think that’s why America is uncomfortable right now with a lot of these crazy incidents that are occurring. And here we are in little Yakima, right on the heels of California dealing with much the same thing.”
Classified documents found in Mike Pence’s home
A lawyer for former Vice President Pence announced Tuesday that documents were found in Pence’s home. The lawyer said “a small number of documents … were inadvertently boxed and transported” to Pence’s home following his time as vice president. Those documents were taken into FBI custody last Thursday.
Microsoft has recovered all of its cloud services after suffering a networking outage early Wednesday morning. The outage affected the company’s cloud platform Azure along with services such as Teams and Outlook.
Walmart workers to get pay raises
Walmart said its workers will get a pay raise next month. The company announced Tuesday it will be increasing its starting wages to between $14 and $19 an hour. That’s up from the current $12 to $18 an hour. The move is expected to increase average pay from $17.00 to $17.50.
“As you continue to focus on your customers, we’re focused on investing in you – our store associates – through higher wages and new opportunities to gain the skills to serve tomorrow’s customers and grow a career with Walmart,” Walmart President and CEO John Furner said in a note to all U.S. associates.
States sue Biden over migrant sponsorship plan
Twenty states filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration over a plan to allow up to 30,000 migrants from four countries to enter the U.S. legally each month if they have American sponsors. Those countries are Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
The Department of Homeland Security, under the false pretense of preventing aliens from unlawfully crossing the border between the ports of entry, has effectively created a new visa program without the formalities of legislation from Congress,” the states wrote in the complaint. “The Department’s parole power is exceptionally limited, having been curtailed by Congress multiple times, and can be used ‘only on a case-by-
case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.’”
Pope Francis comments on homosexuality
In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Pope Francis denounced laws that criminalize homosexuality as “unjust.” He said “being homosexual isn’t a crime” and God loves all his children just as they are.
“What happens is that they are cultures, cultures in a state and in bishops from that place, if they are good bishops, they are part of the culture and some have their minds still in that culture,” Pope Francis said Tuesday. “These bishops have to have a process of conversion.”
According to the Human Dignity Trust, some 67 countries or jurisdictions worldwide criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activity. Eleven of those countries can or do impose the death penalty.
