International
No increase in border crossings after end of Title 42, say U.S. and Mexico
May 12 |
detected a substantial increase in migrant crossings across the common border in the first hours since the lifting of Title 42, the hot deportation policy approved by then-President Donald Trump in 2020.
On the Mexican side, Foreign Affairs Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. stated that the flow of migrants has dropped after a record low due to the end of the Title 42 ban, which expired at midnight Thursday. He added that there have been no confrontations or violence on the border with the United States in recent hours.
According to Ebrad, “the flow is going down today, at least up to this hour we have not had confrontations, situations of violence at the border,” he pointed out during President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s regular press conference.
From the United States, the Undersecretary of Homeland Security, Blas Núñez-Neto, admitted however in a press conference that it is still too early to offer official figures and assured that the authorities remain attentive to any event occurring on the border.
“We can affirm that we have not seen any substantial increase in migration this morning,” explained the official, who nevertheless said that detention figures in the area remain “high.”
At midnight last night, the U.S. stopped applying Title 42, which allowed for the hot removal of undocumented migrants without the possibility of requesting asylum, after the end of the health emergency due to Covid-19, but instituted other restrictions at the border and began deporting through another regulation known as Title 8.
Nunez-Neto warned that from now on all those who cross the border without regular immigration status “will not be eligible for asylum,” will be removed from the country quickly and may be banned from entering the United States for five years.
However, Mexico announced just this morning that it will not allow more than 1,000 non-Mexican migrants a day to return to its territory.
Ebrard reiterated that “as it was done” even when Title 42 was in effect, which only “received one thousand migrants per day”, this figure will continue. He even assured that the highest number received in a month was 16,000 migrants.
“Mexico has let them know that in no case could it receive more than a thousand people a day, we do not have the capacity nor would we accept it. That is in effect since Title 42.”
At least 24,000 border patrol agents are guarding the area, in addition to the 1,500 soldiers that the Pentagon will be deploying in a staggered manner over the next few days.
International
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
Former Colombian President Álvaro Uribe on Monday requested that the Supreme Court restore his freedom while he appeals the historic 12-year house arrest sentence he received for bribery and procedural fraud.
Uribe, the most prominent figure of Colombia’s right wing, was convicted last week by a lower court for attempting to bribe paramilitary members into denying his ties to the violent anti-guerrilla squads.
Since Friday, the 73-year-old has been under house arrest at his residence in Rionegro, about 30 km from Medellín. The judge justified the measure by citing a risk of flight.
However, Uribe’s defense team rejected that argument and formally petitioned the court to immediately lift the detention order, claiming it lacks legal basis.
Uribe, a dominant force in Colombian politics for decades, is now the first former president in the country’s history to be convicted and placed under arrest, found guilty of witness tampering and obstruction of justice to prevent links to paramilitary groups.
He has repeatedly denounced the trial as politically motivated, blaming pressure from the leftist government currently in power.
His political party, Centro Democrático, has called for nationwide protests on August 7 in support of Uribe, who remains popular for his hardline stance against guerrilla groups.
Uribe has until August 13 to submit his written appeal. The case will then move to the Bogotá High Court, which has until October 16 to uphold, overturn, or dismiss the sentence. If the deadline passes without a decision, the case will be archived.
International
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
The poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean is currently engulfed in a deep political crisis and a wave of violence driven by armed groups — a situation that an international security mission led by Kenya is attempting to stabilize.
Due to the worsening security conditions, the U.S. government has suspended all official movements of embassy personnel outside the compound in Port-au-Prince, the U.S. State Department announced Monday in a security alert posted on social media platform X.
“There are intense gunfights in the Tabarre neighborhood, near the U.S. Embassy,” the alert reads, urging the public to avoid the area.
Tabarre is a municipality located near Port-au-Prince International Airport, northeast of the Haitian capital.
According to a July report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at least 3,141 people were killed in Haitibetween January 1 and June 30 of this year.
International
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
The Israeli military announced on Sunday that 136 boxes of food aid were airdropped into Gaza by the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt, Germany, and Belgium.
“In recent hours, six countries conducted air drops of 136 aid packages containing food for residents in the southern and northern Gaza Strip,” read the statement, which added that the operation was coordinated by COGAT, the Israeli defense body overseeing civil affairs in the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Israeli military emphasized that they will “continue working to improve the humanitarian response alongside the international community” and reiterated their stance to “refute false allegations of deliberate famine in Gaza.”
The announcement comes as UN agencies warn Gaza faces an imminent risk of famine. More than one in three residents go days without eating, and other nutrition indicators have dropped to their worst levels since the conflict began.
The agencies also noted the difficulty of “collecting reliable data in current conditions, as Gaza’s health systems —already devastated by nearly three years of conflict— are collapsing.”
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry reported on Sunday that hospitals in the enclave recorded six deaths from hunger and malnutrition on Saturday, all of them adults.
Uribe requests freedom amid appeal of historic bribery conviction
U.S. Embassy staff restricted as gunfire erupts near compound in Port-au-Prince
Israel says 136 food aid boxes airdropped into Gaza by six nations
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