US: Immigration from Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba soars in August
SAN DIEGO — The number of Venezuelans, Nicaraguans and Cubans taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August as migrants from Mexico and traditional sending countries were stopped less frequently, authorities said Monday.
U.S. authorities stopped migrants from Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba about 56,000 times last month, up from 49,826 times in July and 23,141 times in August 2021, administration officials said.
At the same time, fewer migrants were stopped from Mexico and the Central American “Northern Triangle” countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras for a third consecutive month.
Overall, migrants were stopped about 203,000 times. They were stopped 199,976 times on the U.S. border with Mexico in July and 213,593 times in August 2021.
The growing numbers from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua are the latest sign of rapidly changing migration flows as U.S. authorities wrestle with unusually large influxes.
While no single reason can be pinpointed, it is challenging for the U.S. to expel migrants from those countries under a pandemic-era rule known as Title 42, which U.S. officials invoke to deny a chance at seeking asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
U.S. relations with all three countries are deeply strained, making it difficult to impossible to send them home.
Mexico agrees to accept migrants expelled under Title 42 if they are from Guatemala, Honduras or
El Salvador, in addition to Mexico. While the rule applies to all nationalities in theory, people from those four countries are most affected.
The Biden administration has leaned on other countries in the Americas to absorb more people fleeing their homes, including Mexico, Costa Rica, which is home to many Nicaraguans, and Colombia, which has taken in millions of Venezuelans in recent years.
China criticizes Biden:
China’s government on Monday criticized President Joe Biden’s statement that American forces would defend Taiwan if Beijing tried to invade as a violation of U.S. commitments about the self-ruled island, but gave no indication of possible retaliation.
Biden said “yes” when asked during an interview broadcast Sunday on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” program whether “U.S. forces, U.S. men and women, would defend Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion.”
The comment added to displays of official American support for the island democracy in the face of growing shows of force by the mainland’s ruling Communist Party, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory.
Without citing Biden by name, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said the “U.S. remarks” violate Washington’s commitment not to support formal independence for Taiwan, a step Beijing has said would lead to war.
Mexico quake: A magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Mexico’s central Pacific coast Monday, killing at least one person and setting off a seismic alarm in the rattled capital on the anniversary of two
earlier devastating quakes.
There were at least some early reports of damage to buildings from the quake, which hit at 1:05 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Geologic Survey, which had initially put the magnitude at 7.5.
It said the quake was centered 23 miles southeast of Aquila near the boundary of Colima and Michoacan states and at a depth of 9.4 miles.
President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said via Twitter that the secretary of the navy told him one person was killed in the port city of Manzanillo, Colima, when a wall at a mall collapsed.
In Coalcoman, Michoacan, near the quake’s epicenter, buildings were damaged, but there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Mars meteoroids: A NASA lander on Mars has captured the vibrations and sounds of four meteoroids striking the planet’s surface.
Scientists reported Monday that Mars Insight detected seismic and acoustic waves from a series of impacts in 2020 and 2021. A satellite orbiting the red planet confirmed the impact locations, as far as 180 miles from the lander.
Scientists are delighted by the detections — a first for another planet.
The first confirmed meteoroid exploded into at least three pieces, each leaving its own crater. An 11-second audio snippet of the strike includes three “bloops,” as NASA calls them, one sounding like metal flapping loudly in the wind here on Earth.
Baltic roadblock: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania closed their borders Monday to most Russian citizens in response to the wide domestic support in Russia for the war in Ukraine.
Under the coordinated travel ban, Russians wishing to travel to the Baltic countries as tourists or for
business, sports or cultural purposes will not be allowed in even if they hold valid visas for the European Union’s checks-free Schengen Area.
The prime ministers of the three Baltic nations and Poland agreed earlier this month to stop admitting Russian citizens, saying the move would protect the security of the four EU member nations.
“Russia is an unpredictable and aggressive state. Three-quarters of its citizens support the war. It is unacceptable that people who support the war can freely travel around the world, into Lithuania, the EU,” Lithuanian Interior Minister Agne Bilotaite said Monday.
A major storm that battered western Alaska over the weekend churned through Northern California on Monday after bringing early-season snow to mountains and dropping rain that
Storm hits California:
helped firefighters increase their containment of a huge wildfire.
No growth was reported on the 119-square-mile Mosquito Fire in the Sierra Nevada foothills northeast of Sacramento.
The blaze was 38% contained Monday after downpours allowed sheriff ’s officials in two counties to lift or downgrade some evacuation orders. It’s the state’s largest wildfire of the year so far.
More rain was expected, which fire spokesman Scott Mclean called a mixed blessing for firefighters.
“It did help a bit to stifle that aggressive fire,” Mclean said. “But we’re going to have new safety issues now with all the mud that’s out there. And the ground moisture could cause some of those damaged trees to fall over.”
Lingering showers over the Mosquito Fire will increase the risk of ash and mud flows, the National Weather Service said.