California
Illegal border crossings plunge among Cubans, Nicaraguans
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. authorities have seen a 97% decline in illegal border crossings by migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela since Mexico began accepting those expelled under a pandemic-era order, the Biden administration said Wednesday.
The announcement came one day after Texas and 19 other Republican-led states sued to stop widescale humanitarian parole for citizens of those four countries who apply online, fly to the United States and find a financial sponsor.
The administration said Jan. 5 that it would admit up to 30,000 people a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela for two years with authorization to work. At the same time, Mexico agreed to take back the same amount from those countries who enter the U.S. illegally and are expelled under Title 42, which denies them rights to seek asylum, with the stated goal of preventing the spread of COVID-19. Border crossings by migrants from those four nations had risen sharply, with no easy way to quickly return them to their home countries.
“These expanded border enforcement measures are working,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. “It is incomprehensible that some states who stand to benefit from these highly effective enforcement measures are seeking to block them and cause more irregular migration at our southern border.”
U.S. authorities stopped migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela an average of 115 times a day along the Mexican border during a seven-day period that ended Tuesday, down from a daily average of 3,367 during the week that ended Dec. 11.
The Texas-led lawsuit seeks to stop large-scale humanitarian parole for those four countries, which may total 360,000 people a year. It has been assigned to U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton in Corpus Christi, an appointee of Donald Trump who has ruled against President Joe Biden on who to prioritize for deportation.
“This unlawful amnesty program, which will invite hundreds of thousands of aliens into the U.S. every year, will only make this immigration crisis drastically worse,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a news release.
By law, Homeland Security may parole migrants into the United States “only on a case-by-case basis for urgent humanitarian reasons or significant public benefit.”
So far, 1,700 Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians have reached the United States on humanitarian parole under the policy changes announced this month, and thousands more from those three countries have been approved, administration officials told reporters on a conference call on condition of anonymity. The number of Venezuelans was not immediately available.
Roberto Velasco, Mexico Foreign Relations Department’s director of North American affairs, echoed Mayorkas’ comments that the recent changes are a success.
“The measures announced by the United States have begun delivering important results with the twin objectives of opening avenues to regular migration and also considerably reducing risks associated with irregular migration flows,” he wrote Tuesday in Mexico’s Excelsior newspaper.
A surge in Cuban and Nicaraguan arrivals in December led to the highest number of illegal crossings recorded during any month of Biden’s presidency, the administration reported last week. Authorities stopped migrants 251,487 times along the Mexican border in December, up 7% from November and up 40% from the same period a year earlier.
Homeland Security said Wednesday that January numbers were “on track” to be the lowest since February 2021, Biden’s first full month in office.
California
Judge orders release of footage of Pelosi attack
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Footage of the attack on former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband will be released to the public after a judge on Wednesday denied prosecutors’ request to keep it secret.
San Francisco Superior Court Judge Stephen M. Murphy ruled there was no reason to keep the footage secret, especially after prosecutors played it in open court during a preliminary hearing last month, according to Thomas R. Burke, a San Francisco-based lawyer who represented The Associated Press and a host of other news agencies in their attempt to access the evidence.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office handed over the evidence to Murphy on Wednesday following a court hearing. Murphy asked the court clerk’s office to distribute it to the media, which could happen as soon as Thursday.
Paul Pelosi, Nancy Pelosi’s husband, was asleep at the couple’s San Francisco home on Oct. 28 when someone broke in and beat him with a hammer. Prosecutors have charged 42-year-old David DePape in connection with the attack.
During a preliminary hearing last month, prosecutors played portions of Paul Pelosi’s 911 call plus footage from Capitol police surveillance cameras, body cameras worn by the two police officers who arrived at the house, and video from DePape’s interview with police.
But when news organizations asked for copies of that evidence, the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office refused to release it. The attack, which occurred just days before the 2022 midterm elections, prompted intense speculation from the public that fueled the spread of false information.
The district attorney’s office argued releasing the footage publicly would only allow people to manipulate it in their quest to spread false information.
But the news agencies argued it was vital for prosecutors to publicly share their evidence that could debunk any false information swirling on the internet about the attack.
“You don’t eliminate the public right of access just because of concerns about conspiracy theories,” Burke said.
The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office did not respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The news agencies who sought the release of the footage includes The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Press Democrat, CNN, Fox News, CBS, ABC, NBC and KQED, an NPR-member radio station in San Francisco.
DePape pleaded not guilty last month to six charges, including attempted murder. Police have said DePape told them there was “evil in Washington” and he wanted to harm Nancy Pelosi because she was second in line to the presidency. His case is pending.
Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives after the midterm elections. Republicans elected California Republican U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy as the new speaker. Pelosi will remain in Congress, but she stepped down as Democratic leader. She was replaced by Hakeem Jeffries from New York.
