Fresh snow beckons Italian skiers
Ski resorts launch pass to ensure safety
SAN VIGILIO DI MAREBBE, Italy – After nearly two years of being restricted to watching snow accumulate on distant mountains, Italian skiers are finally returning to the slopes that have been off-limits since the first pandemic lockdown in March 2020.
But just as the industry is poised to start its recovery from the lost season and the abrupt closure the previous year, a spike in cases in the Alpine province bordering Austria is underlining just how precarious the situation remains.
As if on cue, snow fell overnight into Saturday, blanketing the slopes of Plan de Corones in the South Tyrolean town of San Vigilio di Marebbe, giving a fresh covering to the man-made base just in time for opening day Saturday. Skiers came from as far away as Croatia and the Italian capital, Rome, as well as from neighboring valleys where slopes have yet to open.
“I have shivers up and down my spine, because we left the slopes on the famous March 8 of 2020, rushing to Rome because everything was going into lockdown,” said Monica Meloni, 53, from Rome, as snow continued to fall. “We did the last run on this slope, looking at each other and asking ourselves, ‘When can we get back?’ It took nearly two years.”
Her companion, Massimo Vela, said he was optimistic that the season would continue unabated.
“We hope it goes well not just for us tourists, but for all the workers in the Alpine region. This is a very important industry,” he said.
To ensure the safety of skiers, the Dolomoti Superski network of 16 ski resorts, with nearly 750 miles of runs in the Trentino-alto Adige and Veneto regions, including Plan de Corones, have launched a special ski pass. It is
Her Democratic colleague, Rep. Joaquin Castro, from San Antonio, ducked a question when asked if House members in swing districts will be forced to run away from Biden in 2022, saying “I’m going to wait on political discussions.”
But Castro added that the party had done as much as it could do on immigration this session, given Senate rules that have prevented larger legislation on the issue from advancing with the required minimum of 60 votes in that chamber.
“Right now, Democrats have control of the White House, the Senate and the House and we have pushed as hard as we can with the number that we have in the chambers to get protections from deportation, workplace permits, driver’s licenses, travel abilities,” Castro said.
Former Rep. Beto O’rourke, who recently announced he’d run for Texas governor, has been one of a few Democrats to put the border front and center and suggested the White House is doing its party no favors.
“It’s clear that Biden could be doing a better job at the border,” O’rourke said. “It is not enough of a priority.”
Like most top Democrats, O’rourke will have to counter the narrative pushed by Republicans that an increase in the number of people crossing the border illegally this year has reached “crisis” levels. Incumbent Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign accused O’rourke of supporting Biden’s “open borders” policies and financed billboards along the border featuring O’rourke’s face morphing into that of the president.
Nick Rathod, Rourke’s campaign manager, sees “neglect, I think by Democrats across the board, not just the Biden administration, in engaging in an authentic manner in those communities” along the border.
“It’s sort of created a vacuum. What we want to do is fill that space.”
But immigration is a complex issue, and no administration has been able to fix it. And Biden is trapped between the conflicting interests of showing compassion while dealing with migrants coming to the country – illegally – seeking a better life.
The administration has said it is focusing on root causes of immigration, and working to broker long-term solutions that make migrants want to stay in their homelands. They’ve pushed through regulations that aim to adjudicate asylum cases faster so migrants don’t wait in limbo, and they’ve worked to diminish the massive backlog of cases.
But mostly, Biden has spent much of the past year undoing Trump-era rules widely viewed as cruel that clamped down on asylum seekers, gutted the number of refugees allowed to the U.S. and then shuttered the border entirely in the name of COVID-19.
Despite that effort, Biden has faced a heap of criticism from progressives and immigrant advocates who say he is still making too much use of inhumane Trump-era policies.
One of the most criticized is the “Remain in Mexico” program, where migrants are sent to wait for resolution of their immigration claims over the border to Mexico in fetid makeshift refugee camps. It was put on hold after a judge ruled it was improper, but according to court papers, the Biden administration is waiting on final agreements with Mexico to start doing it again.
“We reject a system where people facing life and death consequences are forced to navigate a complex legal system – in a language they may not speak and in a culture which they may not be accustomed to – alone,” the Catholic Legal Immigration Network said in a statement.
Another is a provision, known as Title
42, that gives federal health officials powers during a pandemic to take extraordinary measures to limit transmission of an infectious disease. The White House has appealed a judge’s ruling that ended the regulation.
The administration has used the provision to justify the deportation of Haitian migrants who entered Texas. After viral images surfaced of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback using aggressive tactics, Biden’s team took heat from even the staunchest of allies.
Republicans are hammering border security, intent on keeping the issue in the headlines. The issue remains a high priority to some voters. A CNN poll earlier this month showed 14% of Americans identified immigration as the top issue facing the county, trailing behind the economy and the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.s.-mexico border from September 2020 to September 2021, more than quadruple the number in the prior fiscal year and the highest annual total on record.
The number of encounters had dropped over the previous 12 months to around 400,000, as the pandemic slowed global migration. But the rebound is now higher than the previous record set in 2000, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. The tally includes both expulsions when migrants are turned away immediately, and apprehensions when they’re detained by U.S. authorities, at least temporarily.
The U.S. system is still ill-equipped to manage such a crush, though career immigration officials warned of a coming surge. Border stations are temporary holding places not meant for long-term care. It’s a massive logistical challenge, especially when dealing with children who cross alone and require higher standards of care and coordination across agencies.