About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 22, 2018)
4A Saturday, December 22, 2018 The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com NATION/POLITICS Asylum policy has few details, much uncertainty i MOISES CASTILLO I Associated Press Migrants embraces after receiving one of the 50 turns for an interview to request U.S. asylum, alongside the El Chaparral pedestrian border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, Dec. 21. BY MOISES CASTILLO AND ELLIOT SPAGAT Associated Press TIJUANA, Mexico — The Trump administration’s decision to make asylum seekers wait in Mex ico while their cases wind through clogged U.S. courts was announced with crucial details still unknown — a move that creates uncertainty along the border and possibly an incentive for people to cross ille gally before the change take effect. The policy shift would force asylum seekers to stay in often- dangerous Mexican border cities as they navigate the American immigration court system. On Friday, little had changed at Mexico’s busiest U.S. border cross ing, where Mauricio Gomez of Nicaragua joined about 150 others to learn if his name would be called to claim asylum. “We are aware of the news, but nothing has happened so far,” said Gomez, 41, who hoped to join a cousin in Nebraska. “We don’t know when they are going to imple ment it.” Details were missing when the U.S. announced the policy Thursday in response to a large and growing number of Central American asy lum seekers, many of them fami lies, who are typically released in the United States while their cases are adjudicated, a process that can take years. The process at the bor der remains status quo until specific new procedures are put in place. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the next step was “more legal paperwork” with Mexico. “So, we’ll work on a technical agreement with them, but we have our teams working on that now,” she told Fox News on Friday. The U.S. characterized the pol icy as a unilateral move, but Mex ico almost simultaneously said it would grant foreigners permission to stay in the country while their asylum claims are considered in the U.S. and that they could seek work authorization. The two gov ernments have been in discussions for months, and the timing of the twin announcements suggested a high level of cooperation and coordination. A Homeland Security official, speaking to reporters Thursday on condition of anonymity, said some details were expected in the com ing days and that the policy would be rolled out in phases at different locations on the border. The U.S. said the policy will not apply to chil dren traveling alone or to Mexican asylum seekers. The mechanics may get com plicated: Where will immigration hearings be held and how will asylum seekers get there? How will they communicate with attor neys? How will they be returned to Mexico? Details about implementation and “the circumstances in which people will be shuttled back and forth across the border are not at all clear,” said Alan Bersin, a for mer Customs and Border Protec tion commissioner who helped negotiate repatriation agreements with Mexico as a senior Homeland Security official under President Barack Obama. Government protocols are meant to establish uniform guide lines “rather than leave it up to the operators in the field to make it up as they go along,” Bersin said. Some U.S. authorities worry that any lag between the announcement and implementation may encour age some asylum seekers to cross illegally before the changes take effect. Illegal crossings surged between Trump’s election and inauguration in fear of what the new president might do. Bersin said smugglers always seek to take advantage of per ceived “loopholes,” and they may view a lag in implementation as an incentive. There is also uncertainty on the legal front. Judges have blocked some of Trump’s biggest strokes on immigration, the latest reminder coming Friday when a divided Supreme Court decided it would not let the administration begin enforc ing a ban on asylum announced last month for anyone who illegally crosses the U.S.-Mexico border. Andrew Selee, president of the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute, said elements of the roll out may be challenged in court as they become known. That could include issues such as whether phone access is sufficient to consult an attorney or what happens if the Mexican government is at fault for someone failing to cross the border in time for a court date. “All of these pieces, every logis tical piece, can be litigated. This can go on for years,” Selee said. “I actually wonder if this will ever be implemented.” A migrant named Ismael, who declined to give his last name for fear of reprisal in his native Hon duras, went to the Tijuana border crossing Friday to check his place on a list of asylum seekers kept in a tattered notebook managed by the migrants themselves. U.S. inspec tors process about 100 claims a day at the crossing, and there are more than 1,800 waiting. Ismael, who has been waiting in Tijuana for nearly three months, heard about the policy change on the news and wondered when it would take effect. He was shaken by the recent killings of two Hon duran migrants in Tijuana and feels unsafe and unwelcome in the Mexican border city. But, he said, returning to Honduras would be too dangerous. The United States has its laws, he said. “I don’t agree, but if they send us back here, what can one do? Wait.” Mattis resignation letter lays out challenges for successor BY LOLITA C. BALD0R AND ROBERT BURNS Associated Press WASHINGTON — The extraordinary resignation letter that Defense Secre tary Jim Mattis handed to a surprised President Donald Trump was not just a prod uct of two years of accumu lating frustration with an impulsive boss, but an out line of the strategic hazards facing the next Pentagon chief. Mattis, who was quietly back at work Friday while stunned Pentagon staff soldiered on around him, implicitly warned in his let ter to the president of the threat to the U.S. from allow ing alliances to fray and of the risk that disrespecting allies will undermine U.S. credibility. It was an outline of the challenges facing the nation and whoever takes over as defense secretary when Mattis leaves Feb. 28. “As this Administration continues to implode, Sec retary Mattis’ extraordinary resignation is a significant loss and a real indication that President Trump’s for eign policy agenda has failed and continues to spi ral into chaos,” said Sen. Bob Menendez, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee. Mattis announced on Thursday his plan to resign, a move prompted by the decision by the president to pull all of the approximately 2,000 U.S. troops from the fight against the Islamic State group in northeastern Syria. Mattis also was dismayed by plans under consider ation to cut the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan and, as his letter made clear, did not see eye to eye with a president who has expressed disdain for NATO and doubts about keeping troops in Asia. The person nominated to succeed Mattis will face a Senate likely to probe for evidence of new strategic direction in hotspots like Syria, Afghanistan and the Korean peninsula. In making clear that he could no longer toler ate Trump’s approach to American foreign policy, Mattis appeared to fashion a resignation letter that not only expressed his reasons for leaving but also sounded an alarm. He implicitly criticized the president’s unwillingness to stand up to Russia or take a stron ger stance against Chinese assertiveness. Company sues to block order to contain 14-year-old oil leak BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press The company that has failed to end a 14-year-old oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico is suing to challenge a Coast Guard official’s order to design and install a new contain ment system to capture and remove the crude before it forms slicks that often stretch for miles. The federal lawsuit that Taylor Energy Co. filed Thursday in New Orleans asks the court to throw out Coast Guard Capt. Kristi Luttrell’s Oct. 23 administrative order. The company faces daily civil penalties of up to $40,000 if it fails to comply with the order. Luttrell issued it one day after the Washing ton Post published a front-page story about the leak off Louisiana’s coast. The story included a new estimate that approximately 10,500 to 29,400 gallons of oil is leaking daily from the site where a Taylor Energy-owned platform toppled during Hurricane Ivan in 2004. That estimate, contained in a report that the federal government commissioned from a Florida State University researcher, is much higher than previous government estimates and dwarfs the company’s own assessment of the leak’s volume. “The Coast Guard’s actions were an abrupt departure from the well-verified scientific conclusions in the record and were taken in response to adverse publicity, rather than in response to any imminent and substantial threat to the public health or welfare, ” the suit says. MEMORIAL PET CARE THE ONLY FULL SERVICE PET FACILITY IN NORTHEAST GEORGIA NOW LOCATED IN GAINESVILLE Memorial Pet care is working with area Veterinarians to insure we can meet all needs regarding your pet. Through your Veterinarian you can request our services for cremation, burial in our cemetery, or interment in our pet niche wall. Additionally, we have a full line of urns, jewelry, and a well-appointed area for memorial services. Chicago archbishop to help lead sex abuse reforms BY JEFF KAROUB Associated Press The Catholic arch bishop of Chicago, who was hand-picked by the pope to help organize an upcoming Vatican sum mit on clergy sex abuse, will have a leading role in the church’s effort to seek reforms, including the response to new alle gations from the Illinois attorney general. Cardinal Blase Cupich expressed regret for “our failures to address the scourge of cleri cal sexual abuse” in a statement responding to the attorney general’s report, which said the church failed to disclose the names of at least 500 clergy accused of sexu ally abusing children. Still, he said, his arch diocese, the state’s larg est and long considered a flagship of American Catholicism, has been a leader in dealing with the issue. Cupich, Francis’ first major U.S. appointment, will walk a tightrope as he tries to represent the embattled church, the distressed laity and a public demanding justice. Boston College theology professor Lisa Sowle Cahill said it will “be interesting to see how he negotiates” all of that. Among the U.S. church hierarchy, Cupich “has certainly been a good exam ple of honesty,” Cahill said, citing his willingness to step forward, accept account ability and attempt to enact better policies. The report released Wednesday by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan concluded that the church’s six archdioceses did a woefully inadequate job of investigating allega tions and in some cases did not investigate them at all or notify child-welfare offi cials. It did not say when the allegations were made. Madigan’s report did not accuse the dioceses of withholding the names of “credibly” accused clergy. It concluded only that the list of names is far longer than the 185 disclosed by the church. For his part, Cupich said he was disappointed after the Vatican told U.S. bish ops last month not to vote on proposed new measures to investigate sexual mis conduct or cover-ups within their ranks, even taking the step of coming up with a proposal himself. The Holy See wanted to delay any vote until after a global summit set for Feb. 21 to Feb. 24, raising its stakes considerably. However, it is unlikely that such a diverse group of church leaders, includ ing some who represent churches that continue to deny or downplay the scandal, will over four days come up with any universal proposals that come close to the accountability norms that U.S. bishops were seek ing. Cahill expects a “hard sell” with a lot of bishops. 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