New Mexico delegates renew push for broader Chaco protection - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
Members of New Mexico's congressional delegation are again pushing to make permanent a stop on oil and gas development outside the boundaries of Chaco Culture National Historical Park.
The Democrats reintroduced legislation Tuesday that would formalize a 10-mile buffer around the park that would span more than 490 square miles of federal land.
It's the latest attempt to protect what environmentalists and Native American tribes consider the greater Chaco region, an expansive stretch of northwestern New Mexico that includes locations that are culturally significant to New Mexico pueblos and other tribes.
A moratorium on new leasing and mineral development on federal land remains in effect as the U.S. Interior Department considers a 20-year withdrawal that would prohibit drilling and other activities across
U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández said visiting the national park and the area that surrounds it provides a better understand of "who we are and where we came from."
"This sacred area educates, inspires and compels us to reflect on the importance of both our shared history and the communities we love today," she said in a statement.
Pueblos in New Mexico have been working on an extensive ethnographic study of the region in hopes of better informing federal land managers of the cultural resources that dot the landscape. While the work is still under way, tribal leaders are hopeful that the federal government — particularly the Interior Department — is moving toward planning that incorporates traditional knowledge.
Mark Mitchell, chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and former governor of Tesuque Pueblo, said the Chaco area represents an ancestral footprint and the foundation of core values that pueblo communities still strive to uphold today.
The legislation is a means to safeguard Indigenous histories, Mitchell and other pueblo governors said in a statement.
"When development damages this interconnected landscape, the harm can never be undone," said J. Michael Chavarria, governor of Santa Clara Pueblo.
The Navajo Nation also completed its own study last year and has been advocating for a smaller area to be set aside given the economic impacts a withdrawal would have on the tribe and individual Navajo landowners whose allotments would be landlocked as a result.
Advocates point to a federal assessment done last year that found less than a dozen Navajo allottee owners would be highly impacted, but a Navajo Nation Council committee made up of all 24 tribal lawmakers in April adopted a resolution rejecting the proposed buffer and opposing the federal legislation.
New Mexico St player: 'First it hurts, then it changes you' - By Eddie Pells AP National Writer
He came to New Mexico State to play basketball, maybe even live out a dream. On Wednesday, former Aggies basketball player Deuce Benjamin, flanked by his father and a former teammate, broke down as he shared the impact of his brief, troubling stay on the team.
"First it hurts, then it changes you," Benjamin said, while choking back tears that eventually would start flowing. "There's a part of me that hasn't been the same."
Benjamin and former Aggie Shak Odunewu held a news conference on the edge of NMSU's campus in Las Cruces to discuss the lawsuit they filed alleging teammates ganged up and sexually assaulted them multiple times, while their coaches and others at the school didn't act when confronted with the allegations.
The players, their attorneys and Benjamin's dad, William, an Aggie Hall of Famer who also is a plaintiff in the lawsuit, spent nearly an hour detailing the ways the university failed the students.
"My child has been failed. My family has been failed," said William Benjamin as he, too, paused to hold back tears. "And as a father, I feel like I failed my son for putting him in this situation."
New Mexico State spokesman Justin Bannister released a statement saying the school "continues to regard this matter as extremely important."
"The kind of behavior described in those allegations has no place on our campus," Bannister said.
As much as rehashing the gruesome details alleged in the lawsuit, the news conference provided a chance to review all the other issues that have surrounded New Mexico State — and come up anew — because of it.
One was the five-year contract extension given to athletic director Mario Moccia. It was a deal signed on the last day of the tenure of outgoing chancellor Dan Arvizu, who himself has been roundly criticized for his leadership during the troubling times for the basketball program.
This week, the faculty senate will vote on releasing a letter, a draft of which was obtained by The Associated Press, voicing their concern with the contract extension, which the letter called "both astonishing and deeply disheartening."
Another was the brushoff Benjamin got from Jason Hooten, the coach who replaced Greg Heiar, after Arvizu fired Heiar and canceled the rest of the basketball season when details of the assault first went public in February.
"I don't think you're supposed to hit the reset button and lump in victims with everyone you're getting rid of," William Benjamin said. "Deuce was going to be an Aggie if he was good enough."
There wasn't much doubt about that. Playing for his dad at Las Cruces High, Deuce Benjamin was a two-time player of the year in New Mexico whose dream was to follow in his dad's footsteps.
"Growing up, I always wanted to be an Aggie," Deuce said.
That almost certainly won't happen, and Odunewu will be looking for other options, as well. Everyone involved agreed that navigating these players' futures will be more difficult now, and the top priority won't necessarily be hoops.
Odunewu was a redshirt freshman who said he endured the same assaults as Benjamin did. Odunewu said his Muslim faith made him hesitant to go public with his story because "there were people involved with this ... and I was going to mess up their careers."
"But it just got to a point where I just can't bear anymore," he said. "And it's just sad my college experience had to go like this. ... I hope me and Deuce will have the strength to move past this and become dominant in whatever path we choose."
The state's department of education is getting involved. Last week, it sent a letter to New Mexico State, asking it to investigate both the interaction between Deuce Benjamin and Hooten and the full athletic department in general.
Attorney Ramez Shamieh said the lawsuit has two missions: to find justice for the Benjamins and Odunewu and to effect change at a school where the basketball program alone has sparked no fewer than a half-dozen investigations.
"By putting pressure on the university to make changes to hold people accountable, there's going to be change," Shamieh said. "That's what we're trying to gain out of this. And then from a human standpoint, we want these kids to move on."
Senate to vote on solar tariffs, prairie bird protections - By Matthew Daly Associated Press
The Senate is moving to approve a measure that would reinstate tariffs on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries after President Joe Biden paused them in a bid to boost solar installations in the U.S.
Lawmakers also will vote late Wednesday on a separate plan to undo federal protections for the lesser prairie chicken, a rare grouse that's found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the country's most prolific oil and gas fields.
The two measures are part of efforts by newly empowered Republicans to rebuke the Democratic president and block some of his administration's initiatives, particularly on the environment. Republicans control the House and have strong sway in the closely divided Senate, where California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein remains out for health reasons and conservatives such as Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., often side with the GOP.
Congress voted earlier this year to block a clean water rule imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency and a separate Labor Department measure that allows retirement plan managers to consider the effects of climate change in their investment plans. Biden vetoed both legislative measures.
The Senate action on solar tariffs follows a House vote last week to reinstate fees on solar panels imported from Asia. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns about what many call unfair competition from China.
Some U.S. manufacturers contend that China has essentially moved operations to four Southeast Asian countries — Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Cambodia — to skirt strict anti-dumping rules that limit imports from China.
Biden has vowed to veto the tariff and bird protection measures if they reach his desk.
Biden paused the tariffs last year amid complaints from the solar industry that the threat of up to $1 billion in retroactive tariffs and higher fees had led to delays or cancellations of hundreds of solar projects across the United States. Solar installations are a key part of Biden's agenda to fight climate change and achieve 100% clean electricity by 2035.
The White House said Biden's action was "necessary to satisfy the demand for reliable and clean energy" while providing "certainty for jobs and investments in the solar supply chain and the solar installation market."
A Commerce Department inquiry last year found likely trade violations involving Chinese products and recommended steep penalties. Biden halted tariffs for two years before the Commerce investigation was completed.
The U.S. industry argues that solar panel imports are crucial as solar installations ramp up to meet increased demand for renewable energy.
But Sen. Rick Scott, R-Florida, said tariffs were needed to hold China accountable while protecting U.S. jobs and workers.
"It's disgusting that Biden's actions would shield Chinese solar companies — many of which are using child and slave labor — and allow them to circumvent U.S. trade laws,'' Scott said in a statement. "We need to be taking every step possible to hold Communist China and these companies accountable for breaking U.S. law.''
Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, sponsored a separate measure repealing federal protections for a rare prairie bird that's found in parts of the Midwest and Southwest, including one of the country's most prolific oil and gas fields.
The lesser prairie chicken's range covers a portion of the oil-rich Permian Basin along the New Mexico-Texas state line and extends into parts of Colorado, Oklahoma and Kansas. The habitat of the bird, a type of grouse, has diminished across about 90% of its historical range, officials said.
The crow-size, terrestrial birds are known for spring courtship rituals that include flamboyant dances by the males as they make a cacophony of clucking, cackling and booming sounds. They were once thought to number in the millions, but now hover around 30,000, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Environmentalists have long sought stronger federal protections for the bird, which they consider severely at risk due to oil and gas development, livestock grazing and farming, along with roads and power lines.
Marshall and other Republicans say greater protections aren't needed and that the government instead should rely on voluntary conservation efforts already in place.
"Farmers, ranchers, and others in Kansas and the region have been instrumental in the recovery of the species to this point, while the climate activists demanding (federal protections under the Endangered Species Act) have no understanding of the threat it poses to Kansas's economy, especially the energy and ag industries,'' Marshall said in a statement.
He called the federal protections over a five-state area "destabilizing" and vowed to work to eliminate federal designations of the bird as threatened or endangered.
Lew Carpenter, director of conservation partnerships with the National Wildlife Federation, said voluntary efforts are not enough.
"We hope partisan politics will not put a halt to federal efforts to recover one of our region's iconic birds. And recovery means recovery of the habitat, too,'' said Carpenter, who also serves as vice president of the North American Grouse Partnership, a Colorado-based conservation group.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nevada, said reinstating solar tariffs would jeopardize 30,000 jobs nationwide, including thousands in Nevada, which has the nation's most solar jobs per capita.
"Enacting retroactive tariffs on imported solar panels and cells will absolutely kill the American solar industry, and it will kill any chance we have to meet our climate goals, and it will kill the current American solar jobs," Rosen said.
Calls for clean-up intensify around Kirtland Air Force Base’s spill into ABQ’s groundwater - Danielle Prokop, Source New Mexico
A decades-old U.S. Air Force jet fuel spill into Albuquerque’s groundwater is garnering renewed attention from officials as concerns rise over a lagging clean-up effort.
Eric Olivas, who chairs the city and county’s water utility, sent a letter requesting Rep. Melanie Stansbury to push the Air Force to clean up, as first reported in the Albuquerque Journal.
The letter asked for political pressure on the Air Force to work with state regulators, develop a public timeline, guarantee funding and start treating and removing fuel further below ground.
Utility experts, Olivias cites, estimate that under the “passive” approach taken currently by the Air Force, clean up could stretch up to 800 years.
“Such a timeline is unacceptable. Aggressive action on the site is needed now. The longer the Air Force delays, the longer the site will remain contaminated and the more difficult and costly it will be to clean up.” wrote Olivas.
In a call with Source NM, Olivas said he hoped to see a “reset” for the Air Force, with help from the congressional delegation.
“While we did see some really stiff action by the Air Force at one point, in the mid-2010s, that has largely stopped.”
In response to the letter, Rep. Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.) called Tuesday for the Air Force to “quickly and decisively” act on the spill.
“Our communities deserve action, transparency, and collaboration from Air Force leadership, and I will be working to ensure the Air Force is responsive to the needs of our community,” she said in an emailed statement.
Now, Kirtland has a new deadline to meet.
The New Mexico Environment Department directed the Air Force to submit three past-due work plans by July 31, or possibly face a fine.
“No further extensions will be granted, and the Permittee will be out of compliance if the Plans are not submitted by that date,” wrote Rick Shean, the resource protection director for New Mexico Environment Department.
When asked about next steps, Ashley Palacios, the spokesperson for Kirtland Air Force Base said discussions were ongoing with NMED “to schedule future meetings.”
Matthew Maez, a spokesperson for NMED, disputed that.
“We made it clear that we were not interested in future meetings with them, if they are not going to abide by the sampling protocol requirements,” Maez said in an email.
THE PLUME
For decades, a plume of fuel ballooned out from a network of underground pipes and tankers to store the air base’s fuel. When it was discovered in 1999, investigators found quarter-sized holes in the pipes. This allowed as much as 24 million gallons of jet fuel to soak through soils and float on top of groundwater below the city.
The contaminants are not in the city’s drinking water, and the plume is approximately half a mile away from the nearest well.
“The contaminated groundwater is not being served to our customers,” said Diane Agnew, the water rights program manager for the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority. “We voluntarily sample our nearby wells on a monthly basis. Nothing has been detected in those wells to date.”
But since the city has lessened its draw on the aquifer, the water table has risen. That can create a cycle of recontamination in the water, as the groundwater encounters fuel-soaked soils, or trapped gasses from the spill. Agnew said that cycle over time could increase the total pool of contaminated water, and the time it takes to clean it.
When the fuel dissolves in water, it breaks down into toxic, cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and ethylene dibromide (EDB) – which can harm people through ingestion or inhaling the fumes. Long-term effects of benzene exposures can cause leukemia and other blood disorders in people.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations for drinking water say ethylene dibromide and benzene levels cannot legally exceed 5 parts per billion. This legal limit is called the maximum contaminant level.
The Air Force is using that number as its ruler, said Palacios, the spokesperson for Kirtland.
“The Air Force does not target a specific number of gallons for clean-up,” Palacios said in a written statement to Source NM. “Rather, we will continue to treat groundwater until the contaminants are removed to below cleanup limits.”
But local water experts pushed back on calling water with any amount of ethylene dibromide “safe.”
“The maximum contaminant level is set by the EPA, and it doesn’t represent human health,” Agnew said in a March meeting. “It represents what the EPA believes is a technical, feasible level that they can measure a contaminant to and treat a contaminant to.”
The EPA’s metric for human health is called the maximum contaminant level goal, which Agnew said should be the number driving risk assessment and cleanup efforts.
“The goal is zero. That means that the EPA recognizes that the only safe amount of ethylene dibromide to consume is zero,” Agnew said.
‘A WAKE-UP CALL’
The increased pressure comes after a March utility meeting with conflicting presentations from the Air Force contrasted against state regulators and local water experts.
Olivas said he hoped the March 22 Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority meeting would be a “wake-up call,” about the issue, which he said has stretched on for too long.
The Air Force struck a different tone. Colonel Jason F. Vattioni and Ryan Wortman, a physical scientist at Kirtland, lauded work on the spill since 2014, which included the installation of four extraction wells, the treatment of 1.5 billion gallons of groundwater and remediating soils to a depth of 20 feet.
Vattioni called the Air Force’s work since 2014 puts the military “on the road” to a final cleanup of the bulk fuels facility. However, those “tremendous progresses” are under threat, he said.
“Unfortunately, we are encountering a shift from the collaborative environment that has facilitated the superb progress of the site thus far,” Vattioni said. “Recently, there seems to be concern, questioning the great work done together, by our collective agencies and partners. We should strive to prevent any undoing of the progress made.”
Col. Jason Vattioni, 377th Air Base Wing commander, discusses the Bulk Fuels Facility Cleanup Project with Ben Mouyyad, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers technical lead, at the Groundwater Treatment Facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, NM, July 21, 2022. The Groundwater Treatment Facility cleans ethylene dibromide (EDB) from the drinking water supply. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Spencer Kanar / Public domain)
The state regulators see it differently.
The clean-up has remained in the first investigation phase since the spill was discovered, said Shean, who now oversees the project at NMED.
Under the federal process for cleaning up hazardous waste, the spill is first identified, followed by an investigation. After an investigation, the regulators and Air Force would consider remedies by a proposal process. After a method would be selected, there’d be a chance for the public to weigh in, and then clean-up and track the progress until completed.
Shean said the first major actions to pump and treat the water in 2014 only happened after the Air Force, which was under different leadership, was forcibly brought to the table, with pressure from elected officials and NMED.
“There was fierce resistance of a pump-and-treat system,” Shean said of the Air Force at the time.
He acknowledged the Air Force showed up with money and effort, and said the work relaxed the direct threat to Albuquerque drinking water at Ridgecrest wells.
Now, however, there needs to be a focus on “source” cleanup, including restarting a project on cleaning up the soils, which was decommissioned.
NMED rejected the Air Force’s most recent work plans in November. Shean said the Air Force’s data and sampling methods provide an incomplete picture, and are not reliable enough to capture how much fuel or vapors are in the surrounding soil, or floating on the groundwater.
“We feel we’re getting pushback from Kirtland Air Force Base regarding the direction we’re giving them on how they’re sampling,” Shean said.
Wortman, the physical scientist at Kirtland, said that these data gaps are “important to address,” in response to questions from the utility authority.
“We just need to flesh out what those specific data points are, and what is needed to close out that investigation phase,” Wortman said.
There’s no definitive timeline for the next step, but Shean said the Air Force would need to provide at least two years of active testing, which could push finding a clean-up solution to another two or three years.
Shean said he accepts the Air Force’s word that they want to produce a work plan that will get NMED approval.
“If we can do that and not play this game of sending letters back and forth, then I think this is going to get done faster,” Shean said.
Transgender woman's US cycling win within rules, UCI says - By Dave Skretta AP Sports Writer
The victory for the first openly transgender woman to win an official cycling event should stand after she adhered to the updated policy the organization put in place last year, the global governing body for cycling said.
Austin Killips rode to victory in the fifth stage of the Tour of the Gila on Sunday, one of the few remaining marquee stage races in the United States. That gave her the overall victory by 21 seconds and earned her the polka dot jersey as the race's best climber.
But the victory by the 27-year-old American, who began racing in 2019, was met almost immediately by backlash from cycling fans on social media and some former cyclists.
Last year, the Union Cycliste Internationale changed its rules to stipulate that athletes must have serum testosterone levels of 2.5 nanomoles per liter or less for at least 24 months before they are allowed to compete in women's events. That was an increase from past rules, which required levels below 5 nanomoles for 12 months prior to racing.
"The UCI rules are based on the latest scientific knowledge and have been applied in a consistent manner, and continues to follow the evolution of scientific findings," the UCI said in a statement, adding that the governing body "may change its rules as scientific knowledge evolves."
Former Olympic cyclist Inga Thompson posted on Twitter after Killips' victory that the UCI was "effectively killing off women's cycling" with its transgender policy.
Other sports governing bodies like World Athletics, which oversees track and field, and World Aquatics, which oversees swimming, prohibit transgender women from competing in women's international events.
The Tour of the Gila, which takes place in New Mexico and is among the lowest levels of UCI events, said in a statement was bound by the governing body's rules and upheld Killips' victory.
"Tour of the Gila recognizes the passionate debate regarding rider eligibility and classifications of riders set by UCI and USA Cycling and encourages UCI and USA Cycling to host an open discussion on the manner," the race said in a statement.
Killips, who rides for the Amy D Foundation in memory of American cyclist Amy Dombroski, said in a statement posted to social media that she had received an outpouring of support from those within and outside the cycling community.
"After a week of nonsense on the internet I'm especially thankful to everyone in the peloton and sport who continue to affirm that Twitter is not real," Killips posted on Instagram on Monday. "I love my peers and competitors and am grateful for every opportunity I get to learn and grow as a person and athlete on course together."
Remains in California are Navajo woman missing since 1987 - Associated Press
Human remains that had been buried for decades in a California gravesite and marked as "Jane Doe" have been identified as a Navajo woman who went missing from northern Arizona, authorities said.
The Madera County Sheriff's Office hasn't publicly disclosed the cause of death for Christine Lester because it doesn't want to jeopardize the investigation, Phoenix television station KTVK reported Wednesday.
Officials with the sheriff's office near Fresno said a woman was found dead on the side of a rural county road in 1987 but couldn't identify her at the time. The body was exhumed in 2020 to create a DNA profile that authorities were able to match to one Lesters siblings earlier this year.
Lester's family received the remains Monday. Her siblings plan a procession Friday to escort the remains from Flagstaff to a family gravesite on the Navajo Nation, where a memorial service will be held — 36 years to the date she went missing and on a day that's designated to raise awareness of missing and slain Indigenous people around the globe.
The then-24-year-old Lester told her family that she was planning to hitchhike — a common practice on the Navajo Nation — from Indian Wells to the Flagstaff mall in May 1987 to buy gifts for Mother's Day. They don't know if she made it there, her siblings said.
"We've always had that hope that she'll come through that door and introduce her family," a brother, Herbert Rockwell, told KTVK.
Lester's siblings said they've cherished the good memories they had with her when she was alive.
"I'd just like to say 'Welcome home, Christine, Shadi, which means big sister,'" Rockwell said.
Cops: Man borrows phone, admits to ex-landlord's '08 killing - By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A New Mexico man, overwhelmed by guilt, borrowed a cellphone to call 911 and confess to the 2008 killing of his former landlord and he also told police where the body was buried, authorities said Tuesday.
Police said Tony Ray Peralta, 37, of Roswell, was booked into the Chaves County jail on suspicion of murder.
They said Peralta went to a store Monday afternoon, borrowed a cellphone to call 911 and told a dispatcher that he had killed someone. Officers went to the store and Peralta was detained for questioning.
Police investigators then obtained a search warrant for a house where Peralta had been a tenant of 69-year-old William Blodgett. He told them where he buried the body, and they found a boot, bones and dentures after removing plywood floorboards from a detached room on the side of the house.
A tearful Peralta told police during an interview that he didn't know why he had killed Blodgett and that he just needed to confess, according to an affidavit filed with the criminal complaint.
Peralta told police he decided to come forward because "his heart hurts" and that the killing had been eating at him. He told the officer to tell Blodgett's family "that he was a good man and that he didn't deserve what I did."
"I don't have an excuse," he told police, according to the affidavit. "A lot of people have an excuse, I don't have one."
Peralta was being represented by the major crimes unit within the public defender's office.
"We are just beginning to work with Mr. Peralta on this case, and we will make sure Mr. Peralta's due process is respected as this case starts to move through the court," said attorney Ray Conley, who leads the unit.
The dentures found at the property were compared with Blodgett's dental records — obtained in early 2009 after he was reported missing — and that led to a positive identification, according to police.
Blodgett's girlfriend and family had not seen him since late December 2008. She told police that Peralta, who was considered a suspect by police early on, allegedly had some sort or argument or fight with Blodgett, who had tried to evict him.
Authorities at the time had talked to Blodgett's family, friends and neighbors and visited the home the two men shared, which appeared to have been abandoned with personal belongings still in place. Police found no immediate signs of foul play and Blodgett's vehicle was still there, according to the original missing person report.
Detectives would periodically drive by the house but never spotted anyone. They also brought a dog trained to sniff for bodies to the property but found nothing.
Police said the case went cold after investigators exhausted all leads until Peralta's 911 call.
US, Mexico agree on tighter immigration policies at border - By Colleen Long Associated Press
U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on new immigration policies meant to deter illegal border crossings while also opening up other pathways ahead of an expected increase in migrants following the end of pandemic restrictions next week.
Homeland Security adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall spent Tuesday meeting with Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and other top officials, emerging with a five-point plan, according to statements from both nations.
Under the agreement, Mexico will continue to accept migrants from Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba and Nicaragua who are turned away at the border, and up to 100,000 individuals from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador who have family in the U.S. will be eligible to live and work there.
Despite sharing a 1,951-mile border with the U.S., Mexico had been notably absent from the rollout last week of a fresh set of efforts, including the creation of hubs outside the United States where migrants could go to apply to legally settle in the U.S., Spain or Canada. The first centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia.
The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even with the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new avenues meant as alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.
Mexico's support is critical to any push by the U.S. to clamp down at the southern border, particularly as migrants from nations from as far away as Haiti are making the trek on foot up through Mexico, and are not easily returned back to their home countries.
With Mexico now behind the U.S., plus an announcement Tuesday that 1,500 active-duty U.S. troops are deploying south for administrative support, and other crackdown measures in place, border officials believe they may be able to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise once the COVID-19 restrictions end.
Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, is trying to signal his administration is making a serious effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, which has been a potent source of Republican attacks. He also is trying to send a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey.
But the effort also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden's Republican predecessor, Donald Trump, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.
The U.S. will continue to turn away Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans who cross illegally. Mexico said Tuesday it would continue to accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from the four countries that are making up a ballooning share of the overall illegal border crossings, with no easy way to quickly return migrants to their home countries.
According to data on asylum seekers in Mexico, people from Haiti remained at the top with 18,860 so far this year, higher than the total for the whole of 2022.
Meanwhile, the U.S. is accepting 30,000 people per month from the four nations for two years and offering them the ability to legally work, as long as they come legally, have eligible sponsors and pass vetting and background checks.
The administration also plans to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border itself, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally move through another country on their way to the U.S. border.
In addition, 1,500 active-duty personnel will be deployed to the border area for 90 days and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill those troops with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border. They are not working in a law enforcement capacity, but their mere presence sends a message.
Then-President Trump deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre downplayed any similarity between Biden's immigration management and Trump's use of troops during his term. "DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now," she said. "So this is a common practice."
But some in Biden's own party objected to the decision.
"The Biden administration's militarization of the border is unacceptable," said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-N.J. "There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation's troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth."
The Pentagon on Tuesday approved a request for troops made by the Department of Homeland Security, which manages the border.
As a condition for Austin's previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through Oct. 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls to maintain security and immigration processing without the use of Defense Department resources, Pentagon officials said.
As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without service members. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement — particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.
Biden sending 1,500 troops for Mexico border migrant surge - By Colleen Long, Aamer Madhani And Tara Copp Associated Press
The Biden administration will send 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border starting next week, ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions.
Military personnel will do data entry, warehouse support and other administrative tasks so that U.S. Customs and Border Protection can focus on fieldwork, White House spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Tuesday. The troops "will not be performing law enforcement functions or interacting with immigrants, or migrants," Jean-Pierre said. "This will free up Border Patrol agents to perform their critical law enforcement duties."
They will be deployed for 90 days, and will be pulled from the Army and Marine Corps, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will look to backfill with National Guard or Reserve troops during that period, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. There are already 2,500 National Guard members at the border.
The COVID-19 restrictions have allowed U.S. officials to turn away tens of thousands of migrants crossing the southern border, but those restrictions will lift May 11, and border officials are bracing for a surge. Even amid the restrictions, the administration has seen record numbers of people crossing the border, and President Joe Biden has responded by cracking down on those who cross illegally and by creating new pathways meant to offer alternatives to a dangerous and often deadly journey.
For Biden, who announced his Democratic reelection campaign a week ago, the decision signals his administration is taking seriously an effort to tamp down the number of illegal crossings, a potent source of Republican attacks, and sends a message to potential border crossers not to attempt the journey. But it also draws potentially unwelcome comparisons to Biden's Republican predecessor, whose policies Biden frequently criticized. Congress, meanwhile, has refused to take any substantial immigration-related actions.
Then-President Donald Trump deployed active-duty troops to the border to assist border patrol personnel in processing large migrant caravans, on top of National Guard forces that were already working in that capacity.
Jean-Pierre downplayed any similarity between Biden's immigration management and Trump's use of troops during his term. "DOD personnel have been supporting CBP at the border for almost two decades now," Jean-Pierre said. "So this is a common practice."
But some in Biden's own party objected to the decision.
"The Biden administration's militarization of the border is unacceptable," said Senate Committee on Foreign Relations chair Bob Menendez, D-N.J. "There is already a humanitarian crisis in the Western Hemisphere, and deploying military personnel only signals that migrants are a threat that require our nation's troops to contain. Nothing could be further from the truth."
It's another line of defense in an effort to manage overcrowding and other possible issues that might arise as border officials move away from the COVID-19 restrictions. Last week, administration officials announced they would work to swiftly screen migrants seeking asylum at the border, quickly deport those deemed as not being qualified, and penalize people who cross illegally into the U.S. or illegally through another country on their way to the U.S. border.
They will also open centers outside the United States for people fleeing violence and poverty to apply to fly in legally and settle in the United States, Spain or Canada. The first processing centers will open in Guatemala and Colombia, with others expected to follow.
The Pentagon on Tuesday approved the request for troops by Homeland Security, which manages the border.
The deployments have a catch: As a condition for Austin's previous approval of National Guard troops to the border through Oct. 1, Homeland Security had to agree to work with the White House and Congress to develop a plan for longer-term staffing solutions and funding shortfalls, "to maintain border security and the safe, orderly, and humane processing of migrants that do not involve the continued use of DOD personnel and resources," said Pentagon spokesman Air Force Lt. Col. Devin Robinson.
As part of the agreement, the Pentagon has requested quarterly updates from Homeland Security on how it would staff its border mission without servicemembers. It was not immediately clear if those updates have happened or if border officials will be able to meet their terms of the agreement — particularly under the strain of another expected migrant surge.
Homeland Security said it was working on it. "U.S. Customs and Border Protection is investing in technology and personnel to reduce its need for DOD support in coming years, and we continue to call on Congress to support us in this task," the agency said in a statement.