US Border Agency Chief Faces Challenges from Within and Outside

One agent protested that he didn’t join the Border Patrol to look after children in custody. Another asked why a policy to make asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for court hearings wasn’t being used more. And one turned his back on the senior officials who had come to listen.

Unsurprisingly for anyone who’s been tracking migration along the United States’ southern border, the recent showdown happened in Yuma, Arizona, where encounters with migrants illegally crossing into the country from Mexico jumped more than 20-fold in December from a year earlier.

Discontent among the ranks is only one of the challenges Chris Magnus faces as the new leader of the United States’ largest law enforcement agency. Magnus, who was sworn in this month as commissioner of the Border Patrol’s parent agency, Customs and Border Protection, also faces persistent allegations that his agency is mistreating migrants, failing to recruit more women and is at the mercy of a broken asylum system.

Magnus might seem like an unconventional pick. When he was the police chief in Tucson, Arizona, he rejected federal grants to collaborate on border security with the agency he now leads and kept a distance from Border Patrol leaders in a region where thousands of agents are assigned.

In his first interview as commissioner, Magnus acknowledged morale problems and outlined some initial steps meant to fix them. He had no simple answer to address migration flows.

“There have always been periods of migrant surges into this country for different reasons, at different times,” he said last week. “But I don’t think anybody disputes that the numbers are high right now and that we have to work as many different strategies as possible to deal with those high numbers.”

Magnus noted the growing number of migrants who from countries outside of Mexico and Central America, a trend that has been especially strong in Yuma.

Under a public health order known as Title 42 that was designed to limit spread of COVID-19, Mexico takes back migrants from the U.S. who are from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador and are denied a chance to seek asylum. Other nationalities are eligible for expulsion, but the U.S. often won’t fly them home due to the expense or strained diplomatic relations with their home countries. Instead, they are often quickly released in the U.S. to pursue asylum.

FILE – Migrants released by the Border Patrol with notices to appear in court, Feb. 5, 2022, in Somerton, Ariz., wait for COVID-19 testing at a Regional Center for Border Health warehouse.

“There’s a lot of frustration,” said Rafael Rivera, president of the National Border Patrol Council Local 2595, a union that represents agents in the patrol’s Yuma sector, which has seen a huge increase in such migrants. “They feel like there’s no consequences, that we have an open border.”

In December, U.S. officials stopped Venezuelans at the border nearly 25,000 times, which was more than double September’s count and more than a hundred times the roughly 200 they made in December 2020. Venezuelans trailed only Mexicans in the number stopped at the U.S. border in December.

In the Yuma sector, which stretches from California’s Imperial Sand Dunes to western Arizona’s desert and rocky mountain ranges, Venezuelans were stopped nearly 10 times more than Mexicans in December. Colombians, Indians, Cubans and Haitians also outnumbered Mexicans.

Mexico began requiring visas for Venezuelans on Jan. 21, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas noted during his contentious Jan. 26 meeting with Yuma agents, according to a recording leaked to the website Townhall, which publishes conservative viewpoints. He said the U.S. was pressing Mexico to accept more nationalities under Title 42 authority and to increase immigration enforcement within its own borders.

Magnus, who reports to Mayorkas, told the AP that migration flows are “increasingly complex” and that the U.S. was “doing our best to build and take advantage of relationships with these different countries that migrants are coming from.”

Although President Joe Biden faces many of the same challenges as his predecessors, Donald Trump visited the border often, spent massively on enforcement and got an early endorsement from the agents’ union in 2016.

As a Biden appointee and an outsider who had a chilly relationship with Border Patrol leaders in Tucson, Magnus might struggle winning over agents.

FILE – A Border Patrol agent fills out paperwork for migrants who surrendered in Yuma, Ariz., Feb. 5, 2022, after crossing the border illegally from Los Algodones, Mexico.

Roy Villareal, chief of the Border Patrol’s Tucson sector from early 2019 until late 2020, said he sought an introductory meeting with Magnus, who was then Tucson’s police chief, but that he never heard back, calling their lack of interaction “a telling sign.” Villareal could recall speaking to Magnus only three times during their overlapping tenures — each one a courtesy call from Magnus to inform him that Tucson police were about to arrest one of his agents.

“He’s the wrong person for the Border Patrol,” said Villareal, who retired after 32 years in the agency. “His knowledge and understanding of border enforcement just isn’t there. … Agents will challenge him.”

Others consider Magnus a good fit.

“He is very respected among his colleagues,” said Gil Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief whose focus on use of force rankled some agents when he held Magnus’ job from 2014 to 2017. “Chris’ background on holding people accountable is pretty extensive.”

Magnus, 61, was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan, where he served stints as an emergency dispatcher, paramedic, sheriff’s deputy and police captain. He was police chief in Fargo, North Dakota, and Richmond, California, before he took the job in Tucson in January 2016. In that latest role, he took orders from elected leaders in the liberal city of more than 500,000 people.

In Tucson, Magnus created a program to steer people away from drugs, worked with nonprofits helping homeless people and overhauled the department’s use-of-force policy. He openly criticized Trump policies for making migrants more reluctant to share information about crimes with police.

CBP critics in Tucson give Magnus mixed reviews. Vicki Gaubeca, of the Southern Border Communities Coalition, said he championed “some very progressive policies,” but that the Border Patrol needs a visionary who will change what she calls a deep-seated “culture of impunity.”

FILE – A Mexican smuggler guides a Haitian family across the Morelos Dam over the Colorado River from Los Algodones, Mexico, on Feb. 4, 2022, to Yuma, Ariz., on the other side.

In his final weeks as police chief, Magnus called for the firing of an off-duty officer who shot and killed a suspected shoplifter in a motorized wheelchair, saying it was “a clear violation of department policy.” The officer left the department last month.

And in 2020, Magnus offered to resign over an in-custody death that the department failed to make public for two months, but the city manager asked him to stay.

One longstanding issue Magnus faces is allegations of agents using excessive force. Agents have been involved in an increasing number of use-of-force incidents and there have been more fatalities involving Border Patrol agents, though the number of encounters surged at an even higher rate.

Magnus said the use of force is a “very serious concern” and that he believes the overwhelming majority of agents act responsibly. He also defended specialized teams that collect evidence in incidents that might involve agents’ excessive use of force. Democratic congressional leaders have expressed serious concerns about the Critical Incident Teams, which some activists allege are shadowy cover-up operations.

“This is really not unusual in most police agencies,” Magnus told the AP. “There’s absolutely no reason why trained investigators in the field can’t be gathering this kind of critical evidence.”

Afghan Refugees Navigate Legal, Cultural Challenges in Unfamiliar Land

The man dubbed a leader of newly arriving Afghan refugees in Wausau, Wisconsin, was profiled in the local media as a U.S. ally and someone who had been persecuted by the Taliban in Afghanistan. He had plans to open a restaurant to give his new community a taste of Afghan cuisine.

But less than two months after settling into a rented apartment with his wife and six children, the refugee was arrested on charges of sexual assault in the fourth degree.

The unidentified victim, according to Wausau police department, was a woman who was helping the family’s resettlement.

Although he has been released on a signature bond, the 40-year-old has not spoken about the criminal charge against him and did not respond to VOA questions. As with all defendants in U.S. courts, he is presumed innocent until convicted.

Tens of thousands of Afghans have been evacuated to the U.S. since the collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government last August because of fears they could be targeted by the Taliban.

Aid agencies say many of the newly arrived refugees face primarily housing and employment challenges as they resettle in communities across the U.S.

Some also experience cultural shock as they navigate through the intricacies of life in America.

“[We are] aware that there are cases of Afghan evacuees allegedly committing acts of interpersonal violence,” Emily Gilkinson told VOA. She is a spokeswoman for the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC), which has helped the resettlement of some 6,000 Afghan refugees in Wisconsin and other states.

Three aid agencies involved in the resettlement of Afghan refugees in the U.S. said they have no records of such incidents. VOA found public reports of four Afghan refugees allegedly arrested on violence and sexual assault charges since September 2021.

Mohammad Attaie and his wife Deena, newly arrived from Afghanistan, get assistance from medical translator Jahannaz Afshar making a doctor’s appointment at the Valley Health Center TB/Refugee Program in San Jose, California on Dec. 9, 2021.

Cultural education

Resettlement programs are funded by the U.S. government and one key requirement is cultural orientation.

“We provide robust cultural orientation classes to newly arrived refugees,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS).

Classes take 30 to 60 minutes and deal with health care, employment, personal finance, transportation, safety, education and other topics.

“The curriculum and process of delivering cultural orientation is something that ECDC continues to improve in order to better prepare newcomers for success in American society,” said Gilkinson.

One Afghan refugee in Wisconsin who asked to remain anonymous said his cultural orientation classes were short and mostly dealt with hypothetical situations.

“I think practical learning can be more important. Some of us will need cultural advising even after we settle in our new homes,” he said.

Resettlement agencies say they will continue to assist refugees in finding jobs and learning the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in their new life in the U.S.

FILE – Afghan refugees walk alongside temporary housing in Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix- Lakehurst in Trenton, N.J., Dec. 2, 2021.

Hate crimes

Refugees and aid agencies applaud what they call a generous influx of support for the newly arrived Afghans from individuals and groups all over the country.

“I’ve never seen as generous and kind people as the Americans,” said Attaullah Rahmani, an Afghan refugee.

But the Afghan refugees are arriving in the U.S. at a time when the FBI is reporting a surge of racially inspired hate crimes, especially against people of Asian origin.

Although there is no aggregated data about instances of hate crimes involving Afghan refugees, there are isolated reports.

In late January, the FBI started investigating an alleged hate crime incident involving two Afghan refugees in Owensboro, Kentucky, local media reported.

In another incident, stickers with the message “Afghan refugee hunting permit” were seen at a university campus in Michigan last year.

Two refugees who spent about two months at Ford Dix in New Jersey as their resettlement cases were processed said they received lectures on racial and religious sensitivities in the U.S.

“They showed us signs which represent white supremacy and said we should avoid those people,” Ahmad Mohib, one of the refugees told VOA.

FILE – Afghan refugees board a bus taking them to a processing center upon their arrival at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, Sept. 1, 2021.

Domestic violence

Isolated incidents of domestic violence were first reported in refugee processing centers at U.S. military bases.

Afghanistan ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which prohibits and criminalizes gender-based violence, in 2003. In 2009, Afghanistan also enacted a law on elimination of violence against women. However, human rights organization say violence against Afghan women remains prevalent and the Afghan justice system often fails female victims.

“Domestic violence happens in every community,” said Naheed Samadi Bahram, U.S. director for Women for Afghan Women, a nongovernmental organization advocating for the rights of Afghan women and girls. She told VOA that interpersonal relations among the refugees are particularly strained because of the traumas they have experienced.

Other resettlement agencies have also tracked extreme stress and trauma among the Afghan refugees.

“The impact of losing the only home you’ve ever known, of leaving family behind, cannot be overstated,” said LIRS’s Vignarajah.

Bahram said her organization has offered awareness to some refugees about the consequences of domestic violence here in the U.S., which is different than how it’s dealt with in Afghanistan.

“Our main problem is language,” said Tamana Kohistani, who resettled in Virginia with her husband and three children in December. “Not knowing English here is like we don’t know anything and we can’t say anything as well.”

The challenges of sustainable food: moving forward together

Moving forward together is one of the keys to progress towards a more sustainable diet. This is what the nutritionist Noelia López points out in “At ease with the Earth”

How is the food system? Who are its protagonists? What role does the consumer play?

The podcast “At ease with the Earth” answers these and other questions in this new chapter in which the Nestlé Spain nutritionist Noelia López talks with Henar Fernández, coordinator of this space.

Feeding ourselves sustainably is the great challenge of the future and we all have to move forward together to achieve it.

Knowing the food system for a sustainable diet

The nutritionist states that “in order to approach a more sustainable diet, it is important to know the different actors that are part of the food system, since it is the only way to actively participate in the change” that must be carried out.

“Surely many of our listeners think of large companies when we talk about the food system, but they are only part of it. The food system includes production, transport, all sales establishments, consumers, the impact on the environment of production and consumption or health”, lists Noelia López.

The key is balance

For the expert, “the key is the balance from each of these parts and perspectives to find a balanced balance between what we produce and what we consume.”

“This balance cannot be achieved overnight, but the closer we get to it, the closer we will be to curbing climate change, biodiversity loss or food waste,” he adds.

The FAO describes sustainable diets as a healthy, nutritionally adequate, accessible, safe for all and culturally acceptable eating pattern, “all with a low environmental impact”, recalls the nutritionist.

Some examples as an objective that Noelia introduces in her analysis from the consumer’s perspective are menu planning and the habit of responsible purchasing that avoids food waste.

move forward together

“The secret is to work on the goals towards healthy eating and move forward together,” he summarizes.

From the food industry, he continues, “we have to work to offer consumers more sustainable alternatives, vegetable alternatives, more respectful packaging, production that respects the environment, continue to innovate in technology, reformulate products…”.

Awareness, food education, the legislative power’s commitment to research are some of the actions proposed by the nutritionist.

Noelia López closes her intervention this week in the podcast «At ease with the Earth» with the example of the European Union’s strategy «From farm to table», which contributes to reducing the climate footprint, helps the leadership of the global transition to sustainability, advances a neutral or positive impact on the environment, ensures food safety and public health, safeguards food availability, and promotes fair trade and job security.

Image of the podcast “At ease with the Earth”, EFEsalud and Nestlé join forces in defense of sustainable food

Hidroituango challenges before starting to generate energy this year - Medellín - Colombia

Hidroituango, the $18.3 billion megaproject that promises to generate 17 percent of the country’s energy demand, has three major challenges that must be overcome before the first of its eight turbines starts generating in July.

Even if EPM indicates that the construction progress is 86.9 percent and that there is significant progress on all work fronts, the first major challenge is the auxiliary diversion gallery, which was plugged in 2018 and caused the current contingency.

(Also: Daniel Quintero celebrated the millionaire payment of Mapfre to EPM)

William Giraldo, Vice President of Power Generation Projects EPM, explained that in 2019, as a result of said contingency, the two gates installed in this gallery, weighing 300 tons each, were closed to prevent the passage of water.

“In recent days it was possible to enter the auxiliary diversion gallery (GAD), a very positive fact for the recovery of the project and for the tranquility of the communities located downstream. With the pumping of the water that was in this area, it was possible to enter sufficient personnel and machinery to carry out the proper cleaning and removal of debris and mud,” Giraldo said.

(Also read: Was it shelved? This is how they reacted to the Hidroituango report in Antioquia)

Due to the pandemic, the visits of the international experts could not be carried out, so the report had a delay of approximately a year and a half to be delivered.

Once the adequacy and cleaning of the GAD is achieved, the construction of the two definitive plugs, 22 meters long, will need to be installed there to consider them definitively sealed. This milestone is expected to be achieved in April.

As for blockages, progress is also being made in blocking the right tunnel, which was the one that was unblocked in May 2018, generating the avalanche in Puerto Valdivia. This milestone is also progressing satisfactorily, EPM said.

Power house, the heart of the work

The other challenge to start operating is that the powerhouse, the ‘heart of Hidroituango’, which was flooded for 271 days, is adequate.

(Keep reading: EPM says that the ANLA is already analyzing Pöyry’s report on Hidroituango)

Work is currently underway to put the first two generation units into service, in July and October of this year.

“The civil works of the first generation unit have already been completed and work has begun on the installation of electromechanical equipment and the control and installation of all auxiliary services. In the generation 2 unit, the emptying of the remaining concrete is carried out. It is estimated that in a month it would be reaching level 217, the same level where unit 1 is located and where work is leveled out so that it can start operating in October,” Giraldo said.

Regarding units 3 and 4, which will be ready for next year, EPM reported that the works are advancing according to the installation schedule of the spiral chambers and stationary rings. The remaining units – 5, 6, 7 and 8 – were used as a temporary area to store equipment.

(You may be interested: EPM explained its departure from ANDI and dismissed political reasons)

To date, EPM maintains the schedule for the first two units for 2022.

Photo:

Courtesy EPM Group

Pöyry report, key to what is to come in the mega-work

And the third great challenge is for the project to recover the environmental license with the Pöyry report, requested in 2018 by the National Authority for Environmental Licenses (Anla) as an expert opinion on the stability conditions of Hidroituango.

The report was delivered at the end of December 2021 and it depends on it that the environmental authority lift Resolution 820 so that the project can continue with the works that are not those exclusive to the contingency.

(In context: EPM received payments of $425.9 billion for the contingency of Hidroituango)

In recent days it was possible to enter the auxiliary diversion gallery, a very positive fact for the recovery of the project and for the tranquility of the communities located downstream.

Jorge Andrés Carrillo -general manager of EPM- indicated that it will be Anla, within the framework of its powers, that must inform, communicate or require everything related to said report on the current stability of the project and the operation of the future power plant. generation.

“Due to the pandemic, the visits of the international experts could not be carried out, so the report had a delay of approximately a year and a half to be delivered. This is an opinion and not a root cause study of what happened in the contingency,” Carrillo clarified.

The manager clarified that the recovery of said environmental license depends on the commissioning of Hidroituango.

(We also recommend: Sura will disburse 100 million dollars to EPM for Hidroituango)

Precisely, this report warns about the risk that the landfill has, which is still in operation and that it is a work that is not made to be in constant operation.

In this regard, EPM indicated that this is their main concern and made it clear that the only option to evacuate the water, other than the landfill, is through the generation units, that is, for Hidroituango to start operating.

DAVID ALEJANDRO MERCADO PEREZ
Correspondent of THE TIME
Medellin
On Twitter: @AlejoMercado10
davmer@eltiempo.com

Nicaraguan 'Chocolatito' Castillo challenges 'King' Julio César Martínez | Sports Social Networks

Mexican Julio César ‘Rey’ Martínez, flyweight world champion, and Nicaraguan Román ‘Chocolatito’ González will fight on March 5 at the Pechanga Arena in the US city of San Diego, the World Boxing Council (WBC) announced on Wednesday. ).

“I am delighted to be able to move up in weight and fight the best right away. ‘Chocolatito’ is a living legend and a fighter I have always admired. Going with him in my first fight at super flyweight is special: The night will be a war and I’m ready for her,” Martinez wrote.

US Supreme Court to Hear Challenges to Race-Based College Admissions

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear two cases that could determine if race can be used as a factor for college admission.

The cases, brought by the conservative group Students for Fair Admissions, targets Harvard, the country’s oldest private school, and the University of North Carolina, one of the nation’s oldest public schools.

FILE – People walk past an entrance to Widener Library, behind, on the campus of Harvard University, in Cambridge, Mass., July 16, 2019.

The group maintains Harvard discriminates by using a quota-like system that disproportionately rejects qualified Asian applicants thus violating their civil rights.

“Harvard’s mistreatment of Asian-American applicants is appalling,” the plaintiffs wrote in their brief in the Harvard case. “That Harvard engages in racial balancing and ignores race-neutral alternatives also proves that Harvard does not use race as a last resort.”

Harvard says race is only one consideration for admission.

“Harvard does not automatically award race-based tips but rather considers race only in a flexible and non-mechanical way; consideration of race benefits only highly qualified candidates; and Harvard does not discriminate against Asian-American applicants,” the school wrote the court in its brief.

At UNC, Students for Fair Admissions is demanding a colorblind admissions process.

“Public schools have no legitimate interest in maintaining a precise racial balance,” Students for Fair Admissions wrote in its brief to the court.

Both cases are seen as landmark challenges to affirmative action policies in university admissions. Affirmative action seeks to address disadvantages and discrimination certain groups have historically faced in America and ensure equal access of opportunity in education, employment and other areas.

UNC Charlotte’s website says it enrolls “a diverse, competitive class of scholars” each year and that the university prides itself “on being one of the most diverse public universities” in the state. The site adds: “Having a diverse student body gives our students the opportunity to learn from other students from different backgrounds and cultures … to create a holistic and informed academic and social experience.”

Institutions of higher learning that prioritize achieving racially-diverse student bodies have at times been accused of watering down admissions criteria for certain minority applicants and, in effect, penalizing more qualified applicants from other groups.

Chief Justice John Roberts has been an outspoken critic of affirmative action, famously declaring in a 2006 opinion, “It is a sordid business, this divvying us up by race.”

The cases will likely be heard during the Supreme Court’s 2022 term, which starts in October.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters.