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By Csar Rodriguez, LMTonline.com / Laredo Morning Times

Immigrants found in false compartment of flatbed trailer

U.S. Border Patrol agents found 26 individuals inside a false compartment of a flatbed trailer, authorities said.

Early Thursday, a pickup hauling a flatbed arrived at the Interstate 35 checkpoint. A K-9 unit allegedly alerted to possible contraband during an immigration inspection.

Further inspection revealed 26 individuals concealed in a false compartment in the trailer, according to Border Patrol. Agents said the people were immigrants from Mexico who had crossed the border illegally.

Authorities pointed out that none of the individuals were wearing personal protective equipment while concealed in the cramped space under the flatbed trailer.

Trapping 26 people underneath the floor of this trailer created a very dangerous situation, putting the lives of these illegal (immigrants) at risk. Without any social distancing or PPE, these people were completely unprotected from COVID-19 and other infectious diseases. Smugglers continue to demonstrate a total disregard for public safety and the lives of smuggled (immigrants), said Laredo Sector Chief Patrol Agent Matthew Hudak in a statement.

To report suspicious activity such as human and/or drug smuggling, download the USBP Laredo Sector App or contact the Laredo Sector Border Patrol toll free at 1-800-343-1994.

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Immigrants found in false compartment of flatbed trailer - Laredo Morning Times

When Joe Biden assumes the presidency on Jan. 20, he will lead a deeply polarized nation facing historic challenges. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to surge, with more than 11 million U.S. cases and 246,000 deaths, Americans and their elected leaders cant even agree on basic measures to protect public health.

How did we become so divided?

Ian Shapiro, Sterling Professor of Political Science, has examined the origins of political polarization. In his 2018 book, Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself, co-authored with Yale colleague Frances McCall Rosenbluth, Shapiro argues that the transfer of political power to the grassroots has eroded trust in politicians, parties, and democratic institutions, culminating in the rise of divisive, populist politics in the United States and abroad.

Shapiro recently spoke to YaleNews about whats ailing American politics. The interview has been edited and condensed.

How have the last four years affected the countrys political institutions?

Many people are concerned about the damage Trump has inflicted on Americas political institutions. What they are missing is that Trump is a product of bad political institutions. The main infirmity is that the United States has very weak political parties. They are weak because they are subject to control by unrepresentative voters on their fringes and those who fund them.

Whydo voters on the fringes have such influence?

Its due to the role of primaries at the presidential level and the interaction of primaries and safe seats in Congress. Primaries are not new; weve had them since the Progressive era. The basic problem with them today is they are usually marked by very low turnout and the people on the fringes of the parties vote disproportionately in them. The same is true of caucuses. Donald Trump was selected as the Republican presidential candidate in 2016 by less than 5% of the U.S. electorate.

A similar dynamic plays out in Congress. The Tea Partys takeover of the Republican Party after 2009 was driven by candidates who won very low-turnout primaries. Were talking 12% to 15% turnout. This is true of the Democrats, too. In 2016, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading voice of the partys left wing, won her primary against the incumbent Joe Crowley, a moderate Democrat, with an 11% turnout in New Yorks 14th congressional district.

What changed about primaries to make them so polarizing?

Whats changed is the steady increase in safe seats for the both parties in the House and Senate. If a seat is safe for the party, this means that the only election that matters is the primary. Thats what produces polarization: The primary voters are pulling candidates toward the fringes. If you ignore your partys fringe, then youll get knocked off in the primary. It creates incentives to demonize opponents and embrace extreme policies.

People think that politicians respond to voters, but thats an artificial view... Actually, politicians frame issues for voters.

It used to be true that politicians in Congress were more polarized than the electorate. In recent years the electorate has also become more polarized. Frances Rosenbluth and I are examining this dynamic with our research group at theJackson Institute for Global Affairson effective democratic governance. People think that politicians respond to voters, but thats an artificial view of how voter mobilization works. Actually, politicians frame issues for voters.

How does that play out in elections?

Well, its not as if there were 63 million people in America in 2015 saying, Gee, wouldnt it be great if some candidate would call for building a wall on the border with Mexico? Thats not how people get mobilized. What happened was that a candidate emerged who was telling financially insecure and politically alienated people that their jobs were going to Mexico, immigrants were causing crime, that self-dealing elites were ignoring this, and weve got to do something about it. Angry, vulnerable people then embraced that message. In other words, voters preferences dont fall out of the sky. Voters are mobilized by political entrepreneurs.

Whats the focus of your current research amid this intensifying polarization?

Were studying this as a two-step process. The primaries and caucuses pull the candidates to the extremes, but they want their party to win in the general election. They know that if they move to the center, theyre going to get attacked in the next primary. So instead, they try to move more moderate voters toward the extremes, so that there will be less pressure on them from party leaders to moderate their views once elected. In this way, the polarization of Congress didnt follow the polarization of the population, it preceded it. Think of it as push-polling writ large. Candidates get pulled to the extremes by primary voters and then attempt to mainstream those extremist views to make it easier for their party to win the general election.

At the presidential level, primaries only became important in the 1970s, but a similar dynamic operates. Consider Trump. In 2016, the Republican establishment could not stop him. They had 16 candidates and they would have taken almost any of the others over Trump. But they couldnt prevent his mobilizing primary voters with promises to build his wall for which Mexico would pay, end illusory increases in crime and illegal immigration, restore obsolete mining and manufacturing jobs, and other things he wasnt actually going to be able to do. Our basic problem is that weak parties are vulnerable to hostile takeovers of this sort.

How did all the safe seats develop?

Its a combination of things. Its partly demographic sorting. Urbanization creates blue cities in red states, producing non-diverse constituencies. Partisan gerrymandering compounds this, as parties create safe districts for themselves when they control state legislatures. By the way, we also get bipartisan gerrymandering, where the parties cut deals and carve up the states into safe districts for each. Majority-minority districts have the same effect: The price of increasing minority representation in this way is that districts become more politically homogeneous. The net effect is more safe seats, which make the party primaries all the more important.

The Electoral College has come under criticism from the left for being anti-democratic and facilitating Trumps election. Would the country be better off without it?

It is understandable why people want to abolish the Electoral College. They think it systematically disfavors the Democrats because it empowers predominantly southern, predominantly rural, predominantly Republican states. Hillary Clinton would have won in 2016 if we didnt have the Electoral College. Without it, there would be no issue about Bidens victory, but hes going to win anyway.

Heres the cost of getting rid of the Electoral College: If you think the basic institutional dysfunction in American politics is weak parties in the legislature, strengthening the independent legitimacy of the president would make them even weaker. The direct election of the president would make our system more like Argentinas or Brazils. The president would find it easier to insist that only I have been elected by the American people. This is catnip for populist candidates. It enhances executive power, further weakening parties in the legislature.

How could the nomination of populist candidates be avoided?

Before the 1830s, the congressional parties chose the presidential candidates. It made the U.S. operate more like a parliamentary system because these congressional caucuses would pick candidates who they believed they could run and win with. Americas first populist revolt began when Andrew Jackson attacked this system as a bastion of Eastern elites after it declined to select him in 1824. In the early 1830s it was replaced by party conventions. I would much like to see us return to giving the congressional parties a bigger role in picking presidential candidates. In 2016, there is no way the congressional Republicans would have chosen Donald Trump. They would have gone for Jeb Bush or someone like him.

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Polarization in U.S. politics starts with weak political parties - Yale News

The Modi government has proposed thatemployers will have to pay for migrant workers trip to home, which can be a train (not below Second Class Sleeper), bus or other modes of transport, once a year.

As per the new draft of labour lawspublished by the Union Labour Ministry, the employers can pay a lump sum amount every year to inter-state migrant workers to travel back home. To avail should have worked for that particular establishment for at least six months in the preceding year.

Along with this, the draft also states that the ministry will establish a toll-free helpline number.

With respect to contract labourers, the draft proposesthat a contractor shall fix the wage periods which will not exceed one month. Contractors are bound to pay wages before the end of the seventh day after the day of the wage period. It has to be paid through bank transfer or electronic mode only.

The draft also mandates that companies will have to conduct annual free health check-ups for every worker above the age of 45 years. It also states that a single electronic registration for licensing will be set up by the company.

The barrage of changes was made in light of the migrant crisis which saw lakhs of labourers struggling to get back to their home states during the nationwide coronavirus-induced lockdown.

The government faced criticism from all fronts after it was not able to provide data on how many migrants died or lost their source of income during the exodus where workers were forced to leave factories, business on foot in the absence of food, shelter and income.

The draft rules come under the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Act, 2020, which deals with the safety, health and working conditions of construction workers, miners, inter-states migrant workers, audio-visual workers, journalists, salespersons, contract labourers and workers at the dock.

The ministry has sought objections and suggestions from the public on the draft proposals within 45 days.

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Employers may soon have to pay for migrant worker's trip back home once a year - Deccan Herald

Date Published: 19/11/2020

This year has seen a spectacular increase in the number of irregular migrants attempting to reach EU territory via the Canary Islands by making perilous Atlantic voyages from western Africa, and the migratory crisis has reached boiling point in the islands this week as the latest wave of small boats arriving has led to there simply not being enough room to hold the migrants.

By the end of October at least 400 migrants were known to have died while attempting to sail to the Canaries, but this week attention in the Spanish media has shifted to the problems caused by the numbers of people making the crossing successfully. By 15th November the number of unauthorized arrivals in the islands this year had reached 16,760, eleven times more than in the equivalent period last year and considerably higher than the total for the other Mediterranean coastlines of Spain.

During the first fortnight of this month migrants had been arriving at an average rate of 356 per day, and the total for the month between 15th October and 15th November was more than for the whole of the first nine and a half months of the year. As a result of this influx of unauthorized migrants, and with the figures rising still higher over the weekend, it appears that the overstretched detention centres facilities reached breaking point at the Red Cross temporary detention facility on the quay of Arguinegun in Gran Canaria, which was designed to hold just over 400 people.

In recent weeks Arguinegun has been acting as a temporary home to over 2,000 irregular economic migrants, many of them young men looking for work, crammed into a tiny area with basic food, inadequate sanitation and barely enough room to stretch their legs. Local residents were aware of the seriousness of the situation as the number of people on the quay exceeded the official population, but it did not become clear to the rest of Spain until the police, in what has now been described as an error by the Ministry of the Interior, released 227 migrants without alternative accommodation having been provided, effectively leaving them free to roam the streets. The officers concerned reasoned that the permitted 72 hours for detaining people without a charge being issued had elapsed and that the crowded conditions constituted a health hazard.

The local town hall of Mogn was horrified and put out a statement saying that the National Police had opened the port entrances to let them loose in the streets of the town without any kind of vigilance or anywhere to go. The Mayoress of Mogn, Onalia Bueno, chartered three buses to the Plaza de la Feria, an area close to the Government Delegation itself, various voluntary organisations and the Consulate of Morocco. She also supplied a translator so that the migrants understood what was happening.

"We had to address the situation because we cannot have all these people wandering around the municipality or Gran Canaria without means," said the Mayoress: "These people have the right to decent accommodation," she said.

Space was hurriedly found for 139 of those who were evicted from Arguinegun at a tourist bungalow complex a few kilometres away in Maspalomas, but owners of the apartments and tourism representatives are voicing their concern about the situation: other tourist accommodation has already been called into use for the same purpose, and the owners are keen to keep rooms free as they hope to salvage something from the winter tourist season, although they are also concerned about the humanitarian implications of the situation.

ngel Vctor Torres, the president of the regional government, has denied any knowledge of who gave the order to allow the migrants to leave Arguinegun and requested that at least some of the burden be lightened by the transport of migrants to other regions of Spain, but those who wanted to sail to Huelva on the Spanish mainland have been denied permission to travel due to their having no official paperwork: again a rapid solution was found for their predicament as the Red Cross relocated them to a hotel in southern Tenerife, as they are permitted to travel from island to island.

However, the migrants are unable to leave the islands through their own means as the ferry companies have all said that they will not take anyone across to mainland Spain who does not have a valid passport. Tonight at least 20 migrants ( mainly Algerians and Moroccans, who are economic migrants, not refugees) are sleeping rough by the ferry port and refusing to move elsewhere, protesting that they want to go to Spain, even though they have no legal right to do so.

Further difficulties are caused by the fact that no other region is keen on taking the migrants in, and the Canaries Government has appealed for other areas of Spain to help them relocate the migrants.

In this context, and looking further ahead, Sr Torres has called for the EU to define the migratory model which it hopes to achieve in the long term, while in the meantime he demands stricter measures to deal with what has developed this year from a problem into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Among the steps he hopes for are greater vigilance on the part of coastguards and other authorities, support for the countries of origin of the migrants and the provision of more adequate facilities for those who do succeed in reaching the Canaries, as well as more help in transferring the migrants from the islands.

The regional president expressed optimism that immediate action can be decided upon this Friday, when the Spanish Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, travels to Morocco for a meeting with his counterpart in the north African country.

Sr Torres also points out the Canaries already provide a home for over 2,000 minors who have travelled to the islands unaccompanied by an adult, and that the deportation process for other migrants has been made more complicated by the Covid pandemic. But at the root of his calls for urgent action is the remote, and economically fragile nature of the Canaries, which means that it is just not possible to take in so many people and home them.

This attitude came to the fore on Tuesday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, when most of the migrants who had been released were removed from Arguinegun to the Plaza de La Feria in the island capital: while it is true that a few people insulted them in the streets, far more showed their support and concern by offering them food and water.

Although this gesture shows the genuine sympathy felt by the townspeople for the situation in which the migrants find themselves (recently there have been at least two protests in the town of Mogn against the conditions in which the migrants are living) , but the feeling in the Canaries is that is should not be necessary and that the warnings which have been repeated throughout 2020 by the regional government and groups such as Human Rights Watch have been largely ignored. Since March the Red Cross and other organizations have not only been offering first aid and sustenance to the growing numbers of migrants but have also been ensuring that they are tested for Covid-19, and there have been numerous reports of new arrivals spending up to 24 hours sitting on the quay at Arguinegun before receiving any kind of attention due to the resources available being totally overwhelmed.

Over 70 people currently in the docks in the care of the Cruz Roja are reported to be observing quarantine after testing positive for Covid-19.

The majority of the recent wave of irregular migrants are coming from Algeria and Morocco, and are young men in search of work, so are referred to by the EU as irregular immigrants and are economic migrants, not refugees.

Neither country is an EU member, so although nationals from both countries may legally enter Spain with a valid passport, they are not permitted to cross the border without valid documentation.

As Spain is an EU member, it has to follow EU guidelines on migration and cannot "send the migrants back" without going through a repatriation process which has been impossible to implement due to the covid situation.

In the last few months, most of the migrants who have reached the Spanish mainland have simply been released to continue their journey, which takes some of them into France or Belgium, whilst others join the throngs of migrants attempting to reach the UK. These "sin papeles" are not allowed to work legally in Spain, a situation which opens many up to exploitation as they are forced to work "under the radar illegally" if they stay in Spain.

The Spanish government cannot legalise these irregular migrants and enable them to work without encouraging potentially hundreds of thousands more people looking for a better life who would themselves attempt to get into Spain due to the current economic situation in Morocco and Algeria.

See the rest here:
Migrant Crisis In The Canary Islands As Detention Facilities Spill Over - Murcia Today

Congratulations from Latin American leaders continue to arrive for President-elect Joe Biden, with the notable exceptions of the presidents of Brazil and Mexico. For many people, the incoming Biden Administration brings hopes of a shift in the United States relationship with the region.

Many Latin American migrant rights advocates and analysts hope the incoming Biden Administration will address the migration crisis, which the Trump Administration exacerbated by attacking the asylum process and shutting down the borders.

It opens the possibility of new options, for new changes, Ernesto Paz Aguilar, Hondurass former foreign relations minister during the administration of Carlos Roberto Reina Idiquez (1994-1998) and current advisor to the Libre Party, tells The Progressive.

The new Biden Administration needs to reformulate the policy toward Central America and the Carribean, he says. In the case of Honduras, we hope that the administration will no longer support the government of Juan Orlando Hernndez, and that itll make changes in the issue of migration and a different approach to the war on drugs and against corruption.

As Vice President, Biden made a number of trips to Latin America, especially Central America, with which he expressed special concern. In 2015, during the emergency caused by the arrival of tens of thousands of unaccompanied minors, Biden announced plans for the Alliance for Prosperity, a project intended to invest millions of dollars to combat corruption, improve the rule of law, and promote investments in key infrastructure projects.

The Biden Administration will also face a region that has been devastated by COVID-19, tropical storms, and economic crises. Biden has presented a plan for $4 billion of aid to Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, seeking to resolve the causes of migration and increase investment in the region.

The election of Donald Trump in 2016 marked an abrupt shift from the Obama Administrations multilateral approach to foreign relations with Latin American nations. Trump essentially reversed Obamas policy that marked an end to the Monroe Doctrine, a move which led to outcry from conservatives.

The time of the United States dictating unilaterally, the time where we only talk and dont listen, is over, Biden declared during a 2009 visit to Santiago, Chile.

The Trump Administration re-embraced the Monroe Doctrine as the principal foreign policy toward Latin America. The doctrine, which dates back to the early 1800s, argues that the United States has the right and responsibility to shape the destinies of the Central and South Americas.

This shift emboldened the far rights authoritarian dreams and contributed to the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking to reach the United States.

In Central America, the Trump Administration propped up conservative governments, empowering the far right in Guatemala, and bolstered the illegitimate administration of Juan Orlando Hernndez in Honduras following the 2017 elections. Trumps efforts also led to the moving of the Guatemalan and Honduran embassies in Israel to Jerusalem, and the weakening of anti-corruption efforts in those countries, among many other impacts.

Without the support of the administration of Trump, Juan Orlando Hernndez would not be in power because he was supported in a fraudulent election, Paz Aguilar says. He adds that Honduras was later utilized as a client state in international relations, especially in the relation with [Benjamin] Netanyahu in Israel.

Many Latin American migrant rights advocates and analysts hope the incoming Biden Administration will address the migration crisis, which the Trump Administration exacerbated by attacking the asylum process and shutting down the borders. But doing so will be difficult.

The Trump Administration signed Asylum Cooperation agreements with the governments of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which would send asylum seekers to these three countries to apply for asylum there. Only Guatemala implemented the agreement, and more than 900 Hondurans and Salvadorans were sent there before it was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Analysts in the region, including Paz Aguilar and Marielos Chang, a political science professor at the Universidad Rafael Landvar in Guatemala City, hope the Biden Administration will change or annul the agreement. But the massive deportations are likely to continue.

The deportations will occur with a serious face, like with Trump, or with a smile, like with Biden, Chang tells The Progressive. We have to remember that it was Obama who dramatically increased the number of deportations, only the way he did it was more charismatic.

Biden is also poised to return to the Obama Administrations anti-corruption efforts in Central America.

In Guatemala, the Trump Administration gave a tacit green light for the dissolution of the famed United Nations backed anti-corruption organization, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, known as CICIG. The attacks against CICIG came after attacks from conservatives and elites in Guatemala, which were echoed by conservatives in the United States, including Senators Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, and Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, and The Wall Street Journal. CICIG finally closed its doors in Guatemala on September 3, 2019.

In the months that followed, State Department officials returned to expressing their support for Guatemalas Special Anti-Impunity Prosecutors Bureau, known as FECI. Biden has signaled his intent to escalate anti-corruption efforts in the region. But these efforts will not mean the return of CICIG.

It is completely outside of all possibilities that CICIG returns, Chang says. We have to remember that CICIG was a vision of the government of Guatemala that was accepted by the Guatemalan Congress. We are in a completely different scenario where the government would not ask for it and the Congress will not approve it.

Chang believes that the Biden Administration plans to work directly with the FECI, strengthening Guatemalas capacity to fight corruption.

But some things will remain the same with the entering administration.

Biden expressed concern over Chinese influence in the region and has proposed promoting subsidized investments in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, similar to the Trump Administrations Amrica Crece initiative.

We need to be realistic, I dont think there will be any grand changes, Chang says. The interests of the United States with Guatemala and the region continue to be the same: migration, security, and the economy. This isnt going to change with whoever is President, because interests dont change from night to day.

Read the rest here:
The Other Americans: What Joe Biden's Win Means for Central America - Progressive.org