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The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com
Wednesday, June 26, 2019 3A
House passes border aid;
Collins votes against bill
PATRICK SEMANSKY I Associated Press
Protesters gather to demand the defunding of government agencies for border protection
and customs enforcement, Tuesday, June 25, on Capitol Hill in Washington.
Associated Press
In this photo released by the official website of the office of
the Iranian Presidency, President Hassan Rouhani attends a
meeting Tuesday, June 25, with the Health Ministry officials
in Tehran, Iran.
Iran: ‘Idiotic’ new
US sanctions shut
doors of diplomacy
BY NASSER KARIMI
AND JON GAMBRELL
Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran
warned Tuesday that new
U.S. sanctions targeting
its supreme leader and
other top officials meant
“closing the doors of diplo
macy” between Tehran and
Washington amid height
ened tensions, even as
President Hassan Rouhani
derided the White House as
being “afflicted by mental
retardation.”
President Donald Trump
called that a “very ignorant
and insulting statement,”
tweeting that an Iranian
attack on any U.S. interest
will be met with “great and
overwhelming force... over
whelming will mean obliter
ation.” His secretary of state
said the Iranian statement
was “immature.”
The sharp remarks from
Tehran shows the pressure
that the nation’s Shiite theoc
racy and its 80 million peo
ple feel over the maximalist
campaign of sanctions by
the Trump administration.
From Israel, U.S. National
Security Adviser John
Bolton said Iran could walk
through an “open door” to
talks with America but also
warned that “all options
remain on the table” if Teh
ran makes good on its prom
ise to begin breaking one
limit from its 2015 nuclear
deal with world powers.
The verbal volleys
recalled North Korea’s
statements about Trump
before the dramatic change
in course and the start of
negotiations with Washing
ton. In 2017, state media
quoted North Korean leader
Kim Jong Un calling Trump
“the mentally deranged U.S.
dotard.”
However, there are no
signs the Iranian leadership
would welcome talks.
“The useless sanction
ing of Islamic Revolution
Supreme Leader (Khame
nei) and the commander of
Iranian diplomacy means
closing the doors of diplo
macy by the U.S.’ desperate
administration,” Iranian
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Abbas Mousavi tweeted.
“Trump’s government is
annihilating all the estab
lished international mecha
nisms for keeping peace and
security in the world.”
Trump enacted the new
sanctions against Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei and his associ
ates on Monday.
U.S. officials also said
they plan sanctions against
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif,
something that drew Rou-
hani’s anger during his tele
vised address Tuesday.
“You sanction the foreign
minister simultaneously
with a request for talks,”
an exasperated Rouhani
said. He called the sanctions
against Khamenei “outra
geous and idiotic,” espe
cially since the 80-year-old
Shiite cleric has no plans to
travel to the United States.
“The White House is
afflicted by mental retarda
tion and does not know what
to do,” he added in Farsi,
using a term similarly as
offensive in English.
While U.S. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo said
he hadn’t heard Rouhani’s
reaction to the new sanc
tions, he said that if true,
“that’s a bit immature and
childlike.”
“But know that the United
States will remain steadfast
in undertaking the actions
that the president laid out in
this strategy to create stabil
ity throughout the Middle
East, which includes the
campaign we have, the eco
nomic campaign, the pres
sure campaign that we have
on the Islamic Republic of
Iran,” Pompeo added.
The crisis gripping the
Middle East stems from
Trump’s withdrawal of
the U.S. a year ago from
the nuclear deal with Iran
and other world powers
and then imposing crip
pling new sanctions on
Tehran. Recently, Iran
quadrupled its production
of low-enriched uranium to
be on pace to break one of
the deal’s terms by Thurs
day, while also threatening
to raise enrichment closer
to weapons-grade levels on
July 7 if European countries
still abiding by the accord
don’t offer a new deal.
BY ANDREW TAYLOR
AND ALAN FRAM
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — It
took last-minute changes
and a full-court press by
top Democratic leaders,
but the House passed with
relative ease Tuesday a
$4.5 billion emergency
border aid package to
care for thousands of
migrant families and
unaccompanied children
detained after crossing
the U.S.-Mexico border.
The bill passed along
party lines after House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi
quelled a mini-revolt
by progressives and
Hispanic lawmakers
who sought significant
changes to the legislation.
New provisions added
to the bill Tuesday were
more modest than what
those lawmakers had
sought, but the urgent
need for the funding — to
prevent the humanitar
ian emergency on the
border from turning into
a debacle — appeared to
outweigh any lingering
concerns.
Rep. Doug Collins,
R-Gainesville, voted
against the bill and called
it a “flimsy band-aid” for
the situation at the south
ern border.
“H.R. 3401 proves
Democrats are not seri
ous about fixing this cri
sis. The bill provides no
funds for ICE detention,
so migrants will remain
in custody at short-term
CBP facilities for even
longer periods of time
until ICE has room for
them. Democrats know
eventually CBP will
have to start releasing all
migrants into America’s
interior in the same way
they are currently releas
ing family units. H.R. 3401
is also the camel’s nose
under the tent toward
killing family detention
altogether because of
restrictions included in
the bill,” Collins said in a
statement regarding the
bill.
The 230-195 vote sets
up a showdown with the
Republican-led Senate,
which may try instead to
force Democrats to send
Trump a different, and
broadly bipartisan, com
panion measure in com
ing days as the chambers
race to wrap up the must-
do legislation by the end
of the week.
“The Senate has a
good bill. Our bill is much
better,” Pelosi, D-Calif., told
her Democratic colleagues
in a meeting Tuesday morn
ing, according to a senior
Democratic aide who spoke
on condition of anonymity to
describe the private session.
“We are ensuring that
children have food, clothing,
sanitary items, shelter and
medical care. We are provid
ing access to legal assistance.
And we are protecting fami
lies because families belong
together,” Pelosi said in a
subsequent floor speech.
The bill contains more
than $1 billion to shelter and
feed migrants detained by
the border patrol and almost
$3 billion to care for unac
companied migrant chil
dren who are turned over
the Department of Health
and Human Services. It
seeks to mandate improved
standards of care at HHS
“influx shelters” that house
children waiting to be placed
with sponsors such as family
members in the U.S.
Both House and Senate
bills ensure funding could
not be shifted to Trump’s
border wall and would block
information on sponsors of
immigrant children from
being used to deport them.
Trump would be denied
additional funding for
Immigration and Customs
Enforcement detention
beds.
“The President’s cruel
immigration policies that
tear apart families and ter
rorize communities demand
the stringent safeguards in
this bill to ensure these funds
are used for humanitarian
needs only — not for immi
gration raids, not detention
beds, not a border wall,” said
House Appropriations Com
mittee Chairwoman Nita
Lowey, D-N.Y.
Three moderates were
the only House Republi
cans to back the measure.
The only four Democratic
“no” votes came from some
of the party’s best-known
freshmen: Reps. Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez of New York,
Ihan Omar of Minnesota,
Ayanna Pressley of Massa
chusetts and Rashida Tlaib
of Michigan.
The White House has
threatened to veto the House
bill, saying it would ham
string the administration’s
border security efforts, and
the Senate’s top Republican
suggested Tuesday that the
House should simply accept
the Senate measure —
which received only a single
“nay” vote during a commit
tee vote last week.
“The idea here is to get a
(presidential) signature, so
I think once we can get that
out of the Senate, hopefully
on a vote similar to the one
in the Appropriations Com
mittee, I’m hoping that the
House will conclude that’s
the best way to get the prob
lem solved, which can only
happen with a signature,”
said Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Nick Watson contributed to
this report
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