Trump admin defends 'zero tolerance' border policy

Agencies
June 19, 2018

Washington, Jun 19: The Trump administration today defended its controversial "zero tolerance" border policy of separating immigrant parents and their children on the US border, and alleged that Democrats do not want to have a comprehensive solution to the current immigration crisis.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, under President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, nearly 2,000 children have been separated from their parents and guardians and placed into holding facilities between April 19 and May 31 of this year.

"This entire crisis, just to be clear, is not new. It's been occurring and expanded over many decades. But currently, it is the exclusive product of loopholes in our federal immigration laws that prevent illegal immigrant minors and family members from being detained and removed to their home countries," Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen told reporters at a White House news conference.

In other words, these loopholes create a functionally open border, she said, noting that apprehension without detention and removal is not border security.

"We have repeatedly called on Congress to close these loopholes," Nielsen said.

She said that in the last three months, illegal immigration on southern border exceed 50,000 people each month. Since last year, there has been a 325 per cent increase in unaccompanied alien children and a 435 per cent increase in family units entering the country illegally.

"Over the last 10 years, there has been a 1,700 per cent increase in asylum claims, resulting in asylum backlog to date, on our country, of 600,000 cases," Nielsen said.

Since 2013, the US has admitted more than half a million illegal immigrant minors and family units from Central America, most of whom today are at large in the US.

At the same time, large criminal groups such as MS-13 have violated the US borders and gained a deadly foothold within the US, the Homeland Security Secretary said.

Nielsen asserted that the Trump administration did not create a policy of separating families at the border.

"We have a statutory responsibility that we take seriously to protect alien children from human smuggling, trafficking and other criminal actions while enforcing our immigration laws," she said.

Asserting that there has been a long-existing policy, she said multiple administrations have followed that outline when they may take action to protect children.

"We will separate those who claim to be a parent and child if we cannot determine a familial or custodial relationship exists.

"For example, if there's no documentation to confirm the claimed relationship between an adult and a child, we do so if the parent is a national security, public or safety risk, including when there are criminal charges at issue and it may not be appropriate to maintain the family in detention together," Nielsen said.

The system also separates a parent and child if the adult is suspected of human trafficking, she explained.

There have been cases where minors have been used and trafficked by unrelated adults in an effort to avoid detention, Nielsen claimed.

"In the last five months, we have a 314 per cent increase in adults and children arriving at the border, fraudulently claiming to be a family unit. This is, obviously, of concern," she said.

The top Trump administration official said that she has not seen the photos of children in cages.

"The image that I want of this country is an immigration system that secures our borders and upholds our humanitarian ideals. Congress needs to fix it," Nielsen said.

Meanwhile, Congressman Bennie Thompson, Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, in a letter to Nielsen expressed his concern and requested more information regarding US Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) recent transfer of 1,600 detainees to five federal prisons due to President Trump's zero-tolerance policy.

"The Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy punishes asylum seekers and separates children from their parents at the border. Ill-prepared for the inevitable consequences of its own misguided and inhumane policy, the administration has now begun to shuffle immigrant detainees to federal prisons and place thousands of children in one or more tent cities along the border.

"This administration's response to our broken immigration system, much to the fault of its own making, continues to be inhumane and un-American," he said.

Senator Tina Smith called on Nielsen to resign amid families being cruelly separated at the border, which is a policy she oversees in her leadership role within the Trump administration.

Democratic Leader Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who visited San Diego Immigration Detention Facilities, said that this is not an immigration issue but a humanitarian issue. It’s about the children. It’s also about people seeking asylum.

The public outcry in the wake of images and stories of the children caught in the middle of Trump's controversial immigration policy has sparked fierce debate in the US.

In a rare statement on a policy issue, First Lady Melania Trump weighed in through her spokeswoman on the immigration crisis, saying she "hates to see children separated from their families".

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News Network
July 2,2020

Jul 2: Democratic presidential candidate and former US vice-president Joe Biden has said that if he wins the November elections, strengthening the relationship with India which is America’s "natural partner", will be a high priority for his administration.

"India needs to be a partner in the region for our safety's sake and quite frankly for theirs," he said in response to a question on India-US relationship during a virtual fundraiser event on Wednesday.

At the fundraiser hosted by Chairman and CEO of Beacon Capital Partners Alan Leventhal, the former vice president said that India and the United States were natural partners.

"That partnership, a strategic partnership, is necessary and important in our security," Biden said when asked by an attendee whether India is critical to the US' national security.

Referring to his eight years as the vice president, he said, "In our administration, I was proud to play a role more than a decade ago in securing Congressional approval for the US-India Civil Nuclear Agreement, which is a big deal".

"Helping open the door to great progress in our relationship and strengthening our strategic partnership with India was a high priority in the Obama-Biden administration and will be a high priority if I'm elected president,” Biden said.

Both as the vice president and a senator from Delaware, he was a big supporter of India-US relationship.

About the November polls, Biden said that the character of the country is on the ballot. The upcoming election is the most important poll of a lifetime and that the country is currently engaged in a battle for its soul, he claimed.

Biden also slammed President Donald Trump and his administration over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

"Trump ignored warnings from the very beginning, refused to prepare and failed to protect the country. Not just now but throughout his presidency, undermining the very core pillars of ours, what I would argue, moral and economic strength.

"I really do believe that our country is crying out for leadership and maybe even more important, some healing. Today, we have an enormous opportunity not only to rebuild but to build back better than before. To build a better future. That's what America does," he added.

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News Network
May 7,2020

United Nations, May 7: An average of 80,000 COVID-19 cases were reported each day in April to the World Health Organization, the top UN health agency has said, noting that South Asian nations like India and Bangladesh are seeing a spike in the infections while the numbers are declining in regions such as Western Europe.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday that countries must also be able to manage any risk of the disease being imported into their territories, and communities should be fully educated to adjust to what will be a "new norm".

He said as the countries press forward in the common fight against COVID-19, they should also lay the groundwork for resilient health systems globally.

"More than 3.5 million cases of COVID-19 and almost 250,000 deaths have now been reported to the WHO. Since the beginning of April, an average of around 80,000 new cases have been reported to the WHO every day," Ghebreyesus said in Geneva yesterday.

Asserting that the virus cases were not just numbers, he said: "every single case is a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, sister or friend".

He said while the numbers are declining in Western Europe, more cases are being reported every day from Eastern Europe, Africa, South-East Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean and the Americas. Even within regions and within countries, there are divergent trends, the agency added.

While some countries are reporting an increase in COVID-19 cases over time, many have seen caseloads rise because they have ramped up testing, the WHO official said.

"We've also seen in Europe and Western Europe a fundamental decrease in the number of cases, but we have seen an associated increase in the number of cases reported in places like the Russian Federation. Southeast, the Western Pacific areas are relatively on the downward trend like Korea and others, but then we do see in South Asia, in places like Bangladesh, in India, some trends towards increase.

"So it's very difficult to say that any particular region is improving or (not improving). There are individual countries within each region that are having difficulties getting on top of this disease and I am particularly concerned about those countries that have (an) ongoing humanitarian crisis," WHO's Executive Director Michael Ryan said.

The death toll due to COVID-19 in India rose to 1,783 while the number of cases climbed to 52,952 on Thursday, registering an increase of 89 deaths and 3,561 cases in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 35,902 while 15,266 people have recovered, it said.

Noting that while seeing an increase in the number of cases is not good in terms of transmission, WHO's Emerging Diseases and Zoonoses Unit head Maria Van Kerkhove said: "but I don't want to equate that with something (being) wrong".

"I want to equate that with countries are working very hard to increase their ability to find the virus, to find people with the virus, to have testing in place to identify who has COVID-19, and putting into place what they need to do to care for those patients," Kerkhove said.

With more countries considering easing restrictions implemented to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the WHO has again reminded the authorities of the need to maintain vigilance.

"The risk of returning to lockdown remains very real if countries do not manage the transition extremely carefully, and in a phased approach," Ghebreyesus said.

He urged countries to consider the UN agency's six criteria for lifting stay-at-home measures.

That advice includes ensuring surveillance is strong, cases are declining and transmission is controlled. Health systems also must be able to detect, isolate, test and treat cases, and to trace all contacts.

Additionally, the risk of outbreak in settings such as health facilities and nursing homes needs to be minimised, while schools, workplaces and other public locations should have preventive measures in place.

"The COVID-19 pandemic will eventually recede, but there can be no going back to business as usual. We cannot continue to rush to fund panic but let preparedness go by the wayside," he said.

He said the crisis has highlighted the importance of strong national health systems as the foundation of global health security: not only against pandemics but also against the multitude of health threats that people across the world face every day.

"If we learn anything from COVID-19, it must be that investing in health now will save lives later," Ghebreyesus said.

While the world currently spends around USD 7.5 trillion on health annually, the WHO believes the best investments are in promoting health and preventing disease.

"Prevention is not only better than cure, it's cheaper, and the smartest thing to do," he said.

The deadly coronavirus, which originated from the Chinese city of Wuhan in December last year, has infected over 3.7 million people and killed 263,831 people globally, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

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News Network
June 2,2020

Minneapolis, Jun 2: An official autopsy released Monday ruled that George Floyd, the African-American man whose death at police hands set off unrest across the United States, died in a homicide involving "neck compression".

George, 46, died of "cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression," and the manner of death was "homicide," the Hennepin County Medical Examiner in Minneapolis said in a statement.

Floyd's other significant health conditions were listed as "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use."

The statement added that the "manner of death is not a legal determination of culpability or intent."

It emphasized that under Minnesota state law "the Medical Examiner is a neutral and independent office and is separate and distinct from any prosecutorial authority or law enforcement agency."

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