Newspaper Page Text
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.
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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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