WeatherBELL.com meteorologist Joe Bastardi says he fears Dorian could become a major hurricane.
Hurricane Dorian is moving through the Caribbean and is expected to bring heavy rains to the Bahamas, Florida and the southeast U.S. by this coming weekend, the National Weather Service said, urging people in its potential path to start preparing.
Dorian is currently sustaining winds at about 80 miles per hour and is moving northwest at 13 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters have warned the Category 1 hurricane could grow in strength to a major Category 3 storm before potential Florida landfall.
The National Hurricane Center said Dorian was still moving away from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands on Wednesday night as of 8 p.m. ET, and hurricane warnings and watches for those areas were discontinued. The storm is still expected to strengthen into a powerful hurricane in the Atlantic over the next few days.
While not much damage has been seen in the Caribbean, an 80-year-old man in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, died Wednesday after falling from his roof while cleaning debris ahead of the storm, police said.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for counties in Hurricane Dorian’s path.
“It’s important for Floridians on the East Coast to monitor this storm closely,” DeSantis said. “Every Florida resident should have seven days of supplies, including food, water and medicine, and should have a plan in case of disaster. I will continue to monitor Hurricane Dorian closely with emergency management officials. The state stands ready to support all counties along the coast as they prepare.”
President Trump approved an emergency declaration in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Wednesday night. The president had declared a state of emergency in Puerto Rico on Tuesday ahead of the storm’s expected arrival.
“The President’s action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures,” the White House said.
“We are tracking closely tropical storm Dorian as it heads, as usual, to Puerto Rico. FEMA and all others are ready, and will do a great job,” Trump tweeted Tuesday.
Tropical Storm Dorian became a hurricane earlier Wednesday near St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, where islanders said the storm packed an unexpected punch.
“As of early this morning [Wednesday], Dorian was only supposed to be a weak tropical storm. It’s now just finished passing us with max winds of more than 100 miles per hour. I’m checking on my boat right now. There definitely are sunken boats around. None of us expected this,” private charter boat owner Scott Schroeder told Fox News.
John Wyatt, another St. Thomas resident, echoed the sentiment.
“It’s been a long day and a lotta work. Several trees were downed,” he said.
A hotel worker near Point Pleasant Resort said he spent most of the night “mopping up everything.”
Video from a boat that was in the water at the time showed rough conditions.
The National Weather Service said Dorian is “threatening Florida and the risk is increasing.”
Southwest Airlines and Allegiant Airlines had issued travel waivers as of 5:45 p.m. ET.
Southwest issued alerts for airports in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and Allegiant is offering waivers for those flying through Sanford, Jacksonville and Fort Lauderdale. All major carriers in the Caribbean, including San Juan, have travel waivers in effect, except for Alaska Airlines.
President Trump joked about Kirsten Gillibrand’s departure from the crowded Democratic presidential field.
About an hour after the news broke Wednesday, Trump took to Twitter to mock the 52-year-old New York senator for bowing out.
“A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!” Trump said.
A sad day for the Democrats, Kirsten Gillibrand has dropped out of the Presidential Primary. I’m glad they never found out that she was the one I was really afraid of!
Gillibrand launched her bid to unseat the president in March outside of the Trump Tower in Manhattan. She failed to gain much traction and continually polled near the bottom.
A RealClearPolitics national average of polls showed her garnering only 0.1% support at the time she left the race.
VIEQUES, Puerto Rico — Hurricane Dorian appeared to spare Puerto Rico on Wednesday, weaving an erratic path that sideswiped the archipelago and pounded the U.S. Virgin Islands with rain, but didn’t ravage the U.S. territories that are still recovering from Hurricane Maria’s destruction from 2017.
The Category 1 storm, which was headed out into the Atlantic Ocean late Wednesday, was on its way to becoming the first major hurricane to threaten the East Coast of the United States this season, with forecasters predicting a direct hit on Florida, perhaps on Labor Day, when the storm is expected to have reached Category 3 status.
Puerto Rico dodged a worst-case-scenario direct hit after growing from a tropical storm earlier in the day, but some residents lost power amid winds that topped 75 mph, and some areas flooded as intense rainfall pelted thousands of homes that still don’t have adequate roofing to keep families and properties dry.
“This is not Maria,” said Gov. Wanda Vázquez Garced at an afternoon news conference in San Juan as she updated residents on the shifting track of a storm that has defied prediction.
The threat of a major storm this week served as a catalyst for a faster, more efficient rollout of emergency preparedness plans and resources by a local government wary of repeating the mistakes of the past — and hoping to win back the public trust lost in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. Hundreds of power utility worker brigades were staged ahead of time in strategic locations. Massive amounts of supplies were stocked and ready. Scores of public schools became shelters full of cots and food.
But vulnerabilities persist in the U.S. territory, where memories of death and destruction remain raw and where promised federal funds aimed at mitigating catastrophe still have not arrived. Local communities have now established their own protocols for protecting themselves — and each other — in the wake of feeling abandoned by Puerto Rico and federal officials during Maria.
When Dorian’s projected path unexpectedly swerved northward late Tuesday, Puerto Rico’s eastern islands of Culebra and Vieques fell squarely in the cone of uncertainty, triggering fears that the struggling communities would once again be cut off from the big island, where resources are concentrated.
Mark Martin Bras, operations captain for the local nonprofit ViequesLove, said community members on the small island just off the big island’s east coast created a communication network using 32 radios to keep everyone informed of storm conditions in real time. With donations and support from nonprofit organizations on the U.S. mainland, they bought the technology and trained volunteers, connecting them to other residents, church leaders, emergency responders and businesses.
A satellite image of Hurricane Dorian as it approaches the east coast of Puerto Rico on Wednesday. Dorian was upgraded to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall on Puerto Rico. (NASA Worldview Handout/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
As Dorian swirled nearer, volunteers were activated. They learned the local shelter was without a working generator and pulled together resources to bring a new source of power to those who sought refuge.
“These are private citizens working to make sure we feel more protected than we were during Maria,” Martin Bras said. “We dodged a bullet but we are not where we need to be in Vieques. The local state government still hasn’t answered questions about water, power and transportation that are critical to being prepared for the next one.”
Pastor Urayoan Silva of the local Fe Que Transforma congregation has for years been serving the local Vieques community, where the cost of living is higher and maritime transportation to the main island is unreliable. His church established a food bank and supplies clothes to families in the center of the island. But after Hurricanes Maria and Irma, Silva realized the group needed to enhance its operation to help protect people from the next storm.
The church took over an abandoned school and, with help from outside donors and the community, rebuilt it into a recovery center and supply warehouse powered by solar energy. Every barrio now has a leader with a radio to stay connected and access to a water filtration system should the electric system that supplies power to local water pumps fail.
“If a hurricane comes, I have instant access to information to know how my community is doing,” Silva said.
On the main island of Puerto Rico, Dorian turned into a rain event, allowing island officials to breathe a sigh of relief. They told residents they would remain alert, but the power grid appeared to withstand Dorian’s gusts and remained largely operational throughout Wednesday. Officials said that schools and government offices will be open Thursday.
“We have to be cautious and not let our guard down,” said FEMA’s federal coordinating officer, Nick Russo, who monitored the slowing storm through the night amid concerns the hurricane was intensifying as it heads toward Florida. FEMA officials said they are watching and waiting to see if they can start demobilizing in Puerto Rico and shift teams to the Sunshine State.
A view of the beach in El Negro, Yabucoa municipality, Puerto Rico, on Wednesday as Hurricane Dorian was set to arrive. (Thais Llorca/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Before and during the storm’s trek through the Caribbean, President Trump took to Twitter to criticize Puerto Rico as “one of the most corrupt places on earth,” encouraging locals to thank FEMA “unlike last time” and taunting San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
“Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten …” the president said. “And by the way, I’m the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!”
Trump’s comments were met with little attention from the governor’s mansion, where Vázquez Garced has been communicating with administration officials in recent weeks. But Cruz responded by telling CNN that the president has a “vanity complex” and is attempting to distract the public from his administration’s diversion of FEMA funding toward border security.
“This is not about him,” Cruz wrote on Twitter. “This is not about politics. This is about saving lives.”
Puerto Rico’s resident commissioner, Rep. Jenniffer González-Colón, who has a voice but no vote in Congress, responded to the president’s comments, saying hurricanes obviously are not the island’s fault.
“This is a moment for everyone to stand up and help our fellow Americans suffering from a natural disaster,” said González-Colón, who is a Republican and is expected to run for governor of Puerto Rico in 2020 as the candidate for the island’s statehood party. “Thank you for quickly dispatching personnel and declaring a state of emergency in Puerto Rico.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday declared a state of emergency for more than two dozen counties due to “the threat posed by Hurricane Dorian.” Jared Moskowitz, director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, said in a statement that every resident along the state’s east coast — from Miami to Jacksonville — should be prepared and monitor forecasts because “the track of this storm has been changing and can continue to change rapidly.”
Back in Puerto Rico, municipalities in the southeast and northeast such as Toa Baja, Canóvanas and Naguabo are still susceptible to dangerous flooding from bloated lakes and rivers. Many of those communities were targeted for federally funded resiliency projects to build and reinforce levees and systems that would help mitigate the worst effects of the flooding on roads and neighborhoods, said Deepak Lamba-Nieves, lead researcher with the San Juan-based think tank Center for a New Economy.
Congress imposed new restrictions and requirements on some disaster aid funding earlier this summer after two top-ranking members of the previous Puerto Rican administration were charged in a public corruption investigation involving federal funds. That, coupled with other delays in the disbursement of the bulk of $42 billion in appropriated aid, has stalled Puerto Rico’s reconstruction.
The local government, whose finances are managed by a federally appointed fiscal oversight board, does not have the resources to tackle such projects on its own in many cases, experts say. The oversight board authorized $260 million in aggregate funds from a reserve account for Puerto Rico’s emergency-related expenses late Wednesday.
“These communities are in dire situations, and the government has done little to solve their structural and geographically based problems,” Lamba-Nieves said. “The combination of flood zones and poverty in these places is a recipe for future disaster.”
With more than two months left in the Atlantic hurricane season, Puerto Rico could still face another emergency.
Dorian was a “great dry run,” said longtime Vieques resident and community leader Paul Lutton. “Hopefully we will learn things from it that will make us better prepared for a big one.”
Gordon is a freelance journalist based in Vieques, and Jackson is a freelance journalist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Hernández reported from Washington.
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The president dismissed the report, which was published Tuesday night and included on the record comments from the White House press office, as a “totally Fake story.”
“This was made up by the Washington Post only in order to demean and disparage – FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted.
Another totally Fake story in the Amazon Washington Post (lobbyist) which states that if my Aides broke the law to build the Wall (which is going up rapidly), I would give them a Pardon. This was made up by the Washington Post only in order to demean and disparage – FAKE NEWS!
The Post reported that Trump has privately suggested that he would pardon officials who carry out potentially illegal orders connected to construction of a wall at the southern border and that he has grown worried not completing the structure by the 2020 election could hurt his reelection chances.
The Post reported that 60 miles of barrier to replace current fencing at the southern border has been completed in Trump’s first term, which is about one-tenth of the barrier Trump promised voters.
The president on Wednesday afternoon tweeted a video showing a section of wall being built and claiming the structure is going up “very fast.”
The White House did not return a request for comment Wednesday from The Hill on the details as reported by the Post. One anonymous White House official told the newspaper that Trump was joking with the talk about pardons.
A pair of Democratic presidential candidates seized on the Post’s story to hammer Trump over reportedly dangling pardons.
The New York Postreported Tuesday on a high-profile divorce. To be specific, a woman has claimed in court papers that her husband has been cheating on her, carrying on with married Rep. Ilhan Omar.
Omar’s alleged paramour, Tim Mynett, has been a fundraising consultant for Omar’s 2018 and 2020 campaigns.
Omar hasn’t commented on the accusations, but there’s a possible second scandal involving the more than $200,000 that her campaign has spent with Mynett’s firm.
Of the $145,406 reported earnings by the E Street Group during the 2018 campaign cycle, $62,674 came from Omar’s campaign. Not counting payroll taxes and transfers to Minnesota’s Democratic Party, E Street Group was Omar’s second-largest vendor, according to FEC data. From Labor Day through the end of the year, E Street Group ate up more than 10% of her campaign’s spending (not counting transfers to other campaigns).
Here’s the odd thing: The overwhelming majority of Omar’s funds spent on the E Street Group were paid after she won the contested primary and during the totally noncompetitive general election race in her D+26 district. Contrary to FEC rules, Omar’s filings did not designate whether her E Street Group disbursements (or any of her disbursements) were for the primary election or the general election.
The Omar campaign payments to the E Street Group, often reported as “fundraising consulting” fees on her FEC filings, have accelerated in the 2020 cycle. Her campaign has spent $160,000 at E Street this year, the campaign off year. That’s nearly one in every three dollars spent on her reelection (again, not including transfers to other campaigns or committees) going to her alleged lover.
Omar did not answer the Post‘s questions about the alleged affair. Her congressional office declined to answer my questions, instead passing along a campaign email address. Her campaign did not respond to an email.
Fox News Flash top headlines for August 28 are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com
The Earth’s lungs are on fire. They’re burning up.
Some version of that has been said by politicians, journalists, celebrities and members of the public since the destructive blazes began to engulf Brazil’s rainforest more than three weeks ago.
Almost all the oxygen in the air is produced by plants through photosynthesis, and since a large amount of photosynthesis happens in places like the Brazilian rainforest, that claim has gained traction.
A fire burns in highway margins in the city of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, part of Brazil’s Amazon, Sunday, (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres) (AP)
Although the fires pose a danger to the massively biodiverse area, some experts are now offering another view, saying they do not threaten the planet’s oxygen supply.
According to Scott Denning, professor of atmospheric science at Colorado State University, most of the oxygen that gets produced by photosynthesis each year is consumed by fires and living organisms, with trees shedding dead leaves and twigs that in turn end up feeding insects and microbes.
“Forest plants produce lots of oxygen, and forest microbes consume a lot of oxygen. As a result, net production of oxygen by forests — and indeed, all land plants — is very close to zero,” Denning explained on Tuesday in a Scientific American essay.
Shanan Peters, a geologist at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, imagined what would happen if we burned every forest, blade of grass, bacteria and bird on Earth — basically everything except humans — in a presentation slide at a scientific convention in June.
After such a catastrophic scenario, the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere dropped from 20.9 percent to 20.4 percent, acording to The Atlantic.
“Virtually no change,” Peters said. “Generations of humans would live out their lives, breathing the air around them, probably struggling to find food, but not worried about their next breath.”
As Denning notes in his essay, tiny phytoplankton in the ocean generate half of the oxygen produced worldwide.
“The fact that this upsurge in deforestation threatens some of the most biodiverse and carbon-rich landscapes on Earth is reason enough to oppose it,” Denning concludes.
Hurricane Dorian is barreling through the Caribbean Sea on Wednesday afternoon, lashing the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico with heavy winds and rain.
It’s on a similar path to areas that were hit hard by Hurricane Maria two years ago. Dorian’s wind speeds won’t approach Maria’s, but they’ll be enough to strain power infrastructure still in tenuous condition, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers says.
Dorian is expected to dump 4-10 inches of rain in a matter of hours, according to the National Hurricane Center. After that, it is projected to continue on a path toward the southeastern United States.
John Bercow, the speaker of the House of Commons, has also responded fiercely, issuing a statement that denounced Mr. Johnson’s decision as a “constitutional outrage” that would “undermine his democratic credentials.”
Others say Mr. Johnson is acting well within his powers.
Crucially, that group includes Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, whose lawmakers Mr. Johnson’s government depends on to win parliamentary votes.
She said that she welcomed the decision, adding that a new session of Parliament would be “an opportunity to ensure our priorities align with those of the government.”
Does this mean there will be a no-deal Brexit?
Again, this is unclear. The shortened time frame raises the risk that Britain could potentially crash out of Europe without an agreement, which economists say would be chaotic and economically damaging.
Parliament, which has struggled to agree on anything since the 2016 referendum on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union that saw the country vote in favor of severing ties, seems relatively unified behind the idea that Britain exiting without a deal would be harmful.
The failure of the former prime minister, Theresa May, to pass an agreement for an orderly departure through Parliament ultimately led to her downfall. But Mr. Johnson has repeatedly said that he is willing to leave the European Union with or without an agreement, though he would prefer to have one.
A meeting of the European Council — set for Oct. 17 and 18 — seems to be the one window of opportunity in this new timeline for Mr. Johnson to secure a deal.
The president has asserted as recently as this month that the wall “is under major construction.” But of the nearly 2,000-mile border, only about 60 miles of barrier have been built, and all as a “replacement” for aging structures that had already been built, the Post reported.
In a July tweet, Trump said it was “Fake News” to suggest no “new” wall had been built.
“When an old Wall at the Southern Border, that is crumbling and falling over, built in an important section to keep out problems, is replaced with a brand new 30 foot high steel and concrete Wall, the Media says no new Wall has been built,” he complained. “Building lots of Wall!”
Trump has held regular meetings to try to speed up the project, and has waved off worries about possible legal violations, suggesting he would pardon officials who pushed forward regardless, according to the Post.
“Don’t worry, I’ll pardon you,” he reportedly said in response to legal concerns about the use of eminent domain and contracting procedures.
CNN reported months earlier that Trump told Customs and Border Protection chief Kevin McAleenan that he would be pardoned if he were found to have broken immigration laws. McAleenan is scheduled to travel to El Salvador on Wednesday to discuss immigration issues, according to a Homeland Security Department press release.
The White House declined CNBC’s request for comment on the Post’s report. But deputy White House press secretary Hogan Gidley, in a statement to the newspaper, said Trump “promised to secure our border with sane, rational immigration policies to make American communities safer, and that’s happening everywhere the wall is being built.”
The reported criticisms, Gidley said, are “just more fabrications by people who hate the fact the status quo, that has crippled this country for decades, is finally changing as President Trump is moving quicker than anyone in history to build the wall, secure the border and enact the very immigration policies the American people voted for.”
Defense Secretary Mark Esper reportedly approved the construction of 20 more miles of border wall Tuesday.
The Democratic Party had its own motives for joining Five Star. Those included stopping Mr. Salvini, draining Five Star of their protest appeal and giving their leadership time to build their support before scheduled elections in 2023, or for however long their alliance lasted.
Earlier in the day, Nicola Zingaretti, the leader of the Democratic Party, also informed the Italian president that his party had reached an agreement with Five Star.
“We have accepted the proposal of the Five Star Movement, as they are the relative majority, to name the prime minister,” he said. He rejected the notion that Democrats were merely subbing in for the League and said the new government would mark a major change of direction for Italy.
“We intend to put an end to the season of hatred, rancor and fear,” he said, in a clear poke at Mr. Salvini’s politics.
For some advocates of the European establishment, that was welcomed news.
“Things would surely change for Italy and Europe,” said Stefano Stefanini, Italy’s former representative for NATO, who said that the influence of the Democratic Party would likely bring relations with Brussels, France and Germany, all of which the outgoing Italian government antagonized, “back to normality.”
But the coalition between Italy’s largest center-left establishment party and Five Star, the protest movement born to burn it down, was far from a normal arrangement.
In many ways the new coalition has less in common than did Five Star and the League, which shared a scorn for expertise, the elites and globalization.
A new report shows several members of the Democratic National Committee are deeply concerned with their current performance in battleground states that were key in securing a victory for President Trump in the 2016 election.
A report from the Daily Beastquotes several sources from the DNC expressing grave concern with the party’s unwillingness to reach out to Midwestern states that made Trump the president. Trump won in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan, all states that hadn’t opted for a Republican candidate since the 1980s.
“There’s a general unease right now among operatives and others who believe the DNC is not doing enough to build out the infrastructure before the next election,” an anonymous member of the DNC said. “There’s a deep concern that while we’re turned inwards, the Trump campaign is already out there talking to general election voters.”
The Democratic Party fractured after Hilary Clinton’s stunning loss in 2016. Those with further left-wing, liberal views pushed issues that generally appeal more to urban and coastal areas, which seemed to generate a group of 2020 presidential candidates echoing their agenda.
Trump’s reelection campaign, meanwhile, has been targeting the same Midwestern states that ushered him into the White House. “Donald Trump is in general election mode while we’re still in primary mode. We see it in Ohio,” said David Pepper, chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party. “He’s absolutely carpet-bombing Ohio online. We’re doing our best to respond.”
Other members of the DNC raised serious concern about the ability of DNC Chairman Tom Perez, who has stated he believes socialist candidates are the future of the party, to reach swing voters. Perez gave high praise to the more socialist freshmen in Congress in 2018 while dismissing recently ousted moderate Democrats as being a thing of the past. “I have three kids. two of them are daughters,” Perez said in an interview. “One just graduated college, one who is in college, and they were both texting me about their excitement over Alexandria [Ocasio-Cortez] because she really, she represents the future of our party.”
Ocasio-Cortez defeated longtime New York incumbent Democrat Joe Crowley in 2018, a man many thought would eventually lead the party. “He’s a good Democrat,” Perez said after his loss. “He’s fought the good fight.”
Co-chairman of the DNC Ethnic Counsel Jim Zogby expressed exasperation at the lack of effort from his party to reach out to states in the Midwest. “I am frustrated beyond belief at the sheer neglect of the constituencies I represent,” Zogby said of the high concentration of ethnic communities in Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
“There’s some deep concerns brewing under the surface. Nothing that’s spilled into the public yet,” another DNC member said. “Where’s all the support? They keep talking about the calories coming. People generally are feeling Trump is beating us on all fronts right now.”
From the roadside, Oswaldo Ortiz-Luna offered a box of candy to the cars idling in the golden dust of northern Mexico. His wife hawked another box of sweets farther up the line of traffic, perching their 18-month-old daughter on one hip. Sticky fruit and tears smudged the baby’s cheeks.
As the sun went down, Oswaldo and his family of six hadn’t yet sold enough candy for the roughly $6 they needed to spend the night at a nearby shelter. They are among the thousands of asylum seekers trapped just beyond the border under the Trump administration’s signature policy — “Remain in Mexico.”
Under the Migrant Protection Protocols — better known as Remain in Mexico — Trump administration officials have pushed 37,578 asylum seekers back across the U.S. southern border in roughly seven months, according to Homeland Security Department reports reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. One-third of the migrants were returned to Mexico from California. The vast majority have been scattered throughout Mexico within the last 60 days.
While their cases wind through court in the United States, the asylum seekers are forced to wait in Mexico, in cities that the U.S. State Department considers some of the most dangerous in the world. They have been attacked, sexually assaulted, and extorted. A number have died.
In dozens of interviews and in court proceedings, current and former officials, judges, lawyers and advocates for asylum seekers said that Homeland Security officials implementing Remain in Mexico appear to be violating U.S. law, and the human cost is rising. Testimony from another dozen asylum seekers confirmed that they were being removed without the safeguards provided by U.S. law. The alleged legal violations include denying asylum seekers’ rights and knowingly putting them at risk of physical harm — against federal regulations and the Immigration and Nationality Act, the foundation of the U.S. immigration system. U.S. law grants migrants the right to seek protection in the United States.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers are writing the phrase “domicilio conocido,” or “known address,” on asylum seekers’ paperwork instead of a legally required address, making it nearly impossible for applicants stuck in Mexico to be notified of any changes to their cases or upcoming court dates. By missing court hearings, applicants can then be permanently barred from asylum in the U.S.
Meanwhile, some federal asylum officers who are convinced they are sending asylum seekers back to their deaths told The Times that they have refused to implement the Remain in Mexico policy at risk of being fired. They say it violates the United States’ decades-long legal obligations to not return people to persecution.
Homeland Security headquarters, as well as Customs and Border Protection, the agency charged with primary enforcement of the policy, refused repeated requests for interviews or data on the policy, citing “law enforcement sensitivity.”
For President Trump, however, whose political priority is to restrict even legal immigration to the United States, the Remain in Mexico policy has been his single most successful effort: One asylum seeker subjected to the policy is known to have won the ability to stay in the U.S.
Oswaldo said his family fled their hometown outside Guatemala’s capital in February after his older sons refused to join MS-13 and gang members threatened to kill them. While in Mexico, he said police beat and robbed them, and local gangs tried to kidnap his 7-year-old daughter. They rode freight trains to the U.S. border, Oswaldo running for the trains with the baby on his chest in a bright pink carrier.
The family claimed asylum in April with U.S. authorities in Calexico, a small agricultural city in southeastern California across from Mexicali. Officials sent them back to Mexico, telling them to report to the border again a month later and 120 miles west, in Tijuana. There, they’d be brought across the border for a court hearing in San Diego, then sent back to Tijuana. Officials separated the case of Oswaldo’s eldest son, 21, from the rest of the family’s case.
“Life was already so difficult,” Oswaldo said. When U.S. officials returned them to Mexico, he said, “it was hard to take.”
After unveiling the policy in December, Homeland Security officials did not push the first asylum seekers back to Mexico until Jan. 28, launching the program in San Ysidro, south of San Diego. By the end of March, they’d expanded the policy east to El Paso.
At least 141 migrants under the Remain in Mexico program have become victims of violence in that country, according to Human Rights First, a nonpartisan advocacy group. The nonprofit submitted a public complaint about the policy on Monday to the Homeland Security inspector general’s office and its Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
During a media briefing in August, Mark Morgan, the acting head of Customs and Border Protection, told The Times, “I would never participate in something I thought was illegal.” He added that the judicial system would ultimately “determine the legality” of the policy.
He said he was unaware of any incidents in which an asylum seeker was harmed under Remain in Mexico, but he said the U.S. didn’t track what happened to migrants once they were returned to Mexico. “That’s up to Mexico,” he said.
Roberto Velasco, spokesman for Mexico’s foreign ministry, said the policy was a “unilateral action” and that the U.S. was “solely responsible” for ensuring due process for asylum seekers returned to Mexico.
While saying the policy is for the immigrants’ own protection, Morgan said it was also intended to deter asylum seekers. He claimed, as the president often does, that many asylum applicants had fraudulent cases. “If you come here with a kid, it’s not going to be an automatic passport to the United States,” Morgan said. “I’m hoping that that message will get back.”
When Oswaldo and his family returned to Mexicali in May after their first hearing in San Diego, they had lost their place in a nearby shelter. They’re now on their fourth hearing.
Unable to obtain work permits promised by the Mexican government, and potentially years away from a final decision on his family’s asylum claim in the U.S., Oswaldo gestured with the candy box, saying it was all the family had.
“This is it.”
* * * * *
Daniela Diaz, a 19-year-old from El Salvador, emerged from a small tent wearing a pink jacket lined with fake fur.
Crowded into a Tijuana shelter, the tent had been the teenager’s home for five months as she waited on her asylum claim in the United States — except for the month she’d spent in U.S. detention.
Since fleeing San Salvador, El Salvador’s capital, late last year, Diaz has been repeatedly tripped up by the Trump administration’s chaotic rollout of Remain in Mexico.
In November, the Trump administration was engaged in intense negotiations with Mexico to get them to agree to take asylum seekers headed for the U.S. During that time, administration officials drafted a pilot program in California called Remain in Mexico. In e-mail exchanges, the officials struck key protections for asylum seekers. But when plans were leaked, the policy was put on hold.
In late January, officials pushed back the first asylum seekers from San Ysidro, but it was short-lived — in April, a federal judge in San Francisco temporarily blocked Remain in Mexico.
Then, just a few weeks later, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals allowed the Trump administration to resume the policy.
But two of the three judges raised concerns about its legality. One judge said the government’s legal argument to send migrants to Mexico was an “impossible” reading of the law.
“The government is wrong,” the judge wrote. “Not just arguably wrong, but clearly and flagrantly wrong.”
As for Diaz, she fled El Salvador last year after a Barrio 18 gang member threatened to kill her when she refused to become his girlfriend. A local police officer said he’d protect her but began to harass her instead, she said.
“He said, ‘I can rape you, I can do whatever I want to you, and make it look like the gangs did this, not me,’ ” she recounted the police officer saying.
She crossed alone from Guatemala into southern Mexico in November. In January, she arrived in Tijuana to join thousands of people waiting at the San Ysidro port of entry to register asylum claims.
In March, Diaz’s number finally came up. U.S. officials brought her into the San Ysidro entry, took her fingerprints, asked her a few questions and then sent her to the “icebox,” migrants’ term for U.S. immigration detention, she said. But shortly after, CBP officials took her to the gate leading back to Tijuana and gave her a notice to come back the next month for a court hearing.
“I can’t go back there, my life is at risk,” she recounted telling them.
She said they told her: “That’s not my problem anymore.”
On April 8, Diaz was taken from San Ysidro to San Diego for her first hearing — the same day a federal judge blocked the policy.
After several more weeks in detention, officers returned her to Tijuana, with another court date a month away.
Diaz told the judge in May that she wanted to represent herself, but he ignored her decision. She’d already called every lawyer on the list provided by the court. None answered. She’s still waiting in Tijuana.
Now, U.S. officials are returning asylum seekers at a rate of nearly 3,300 a week.
* * * * *
Judge Lee O’Connor’s raised voice ricocheted through his near-empty courtroom in San Diego.
“If I were to issue an in absentia order, where would it even be served?” O’Connor asked the administration lawyer.
“Your honor, on the address the court has.”
“The ‘general delivery,’ Baja California, Mexico?”
“Yes, your honor.”
“How is that an address?”
“Those are the addresses I was given,”the government lawyer responded. “I don’t know where they came from.”
Lawyers, advocates, U.S. asylum officers and judges see more than just bureaucratic dysfunction and sloppy policymaking — Trump officials, they say, intended to make it nearly impossible to win asylum in the United States under Remain in Mexico.
In the 9th Circuit ruling in May, one judge said Homeland Security’s procedures for implementing the policy were “so ill-suited to achieving that stated goal as to render them arbitrary and capricious.”
Earlier this summer in San Diego, on a day when roughly 100 Remain in Mexico cases had been heard, nearly all the judges had gone and security had left the courthouse — except for Judge O’Connor.
He was running hours late because he had tried to carefully explain to each applicant the new policy that was forcing them to stay in Mexico throughout an already complex U.S. immigration process.
Remain in Mexico has added to a backlog of more than 975,000 pending immigration cases. In July, one out of every four new cases were assigned to the Remain in Mexico program.
Sitting behind piles of paper, O’Connor weighed the government’s request to issue removal orders for a handful of asylum seekers who hadn’t shown up for their hearings that day. If O’Connor ruled in the administration’s favor, the decision could bar each applicant from the United States for at least a decade, if not permanently.
He launched into the administration lawyer, rattling off a list of legal violations.
The government had given no proof that a notice to appear in court was properly served to the asylum seekers. The government hadn’t submitted certified Spanish translations of case documents, which O’Connor noticed had glaring translation errors. And the address the government provided for dozens of asylum seekers whose cases he’d seen was “domicilio conocido” — loosely translated, “general delivery.”
“It seems like an awfully big coincidence that for 70 different people, they give the same address,” O’Connor told the government lawyer. CBP officers were putting “virtually no effort” into obtaining the legally required information, the judge added. “It gives me severe pause how this program is being implemented.”
Earlier that day, in a courtroom down the hall, Judge Christine Bither had heard her first cases from the program.
One couple had traveled from Mexicali to Tijuana and then across the border for their hearing in San Diego. But the government hadn’t filed their notice to appear with the court, meaning the immigration judge couldn’t see them that day, and they’d have to return to Mexico.
An administration lawyer handed papers to one family from Guatemala who spoke K’iche’. The lawyer told Bither, “Your honor, I am going to serve them with instructions in Spanish language and in English on how to present themselves.”
The judge retorted: “Neither of which language they speak.”
The majority of asylum seekers returned to Mexico under the policy are originally from Central America, so a sizable number speak only indigenous languages. But Homeland Security officials routinely don’t provide translation or use phone interpreters in removal proceedings, according to internal communications obtained by the nonprofit American Oversight and shared with The Times.
The Times reviewed a number of asylum seekers’ paperwork on which CBP officers had put incomplete addresses or provided no translation. And the free phone number the government provided for applicants to call for updates on their cases was an 800 number, which can only be used from within the United States.
“There’s some things that we’re still working through,” said Sidney Aki, a CBP official in charge of the San Ysidro port. He conceded that officers had made mistakes implementing the policy, saying they were in uncharted territory.
As of the end of July, only 2,599 Remain in Mexico cases had been decided, with another 23,402 cases pending in immigration courts across the country — nearly double the number from one month earlier, according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. At that point, not one person had won asylum.
O’Connor ordered that the government’s removal proceedings against the absent asylum seekers be terminated. He’s not the only one; overall, in roughly 60% of the decisions reached so far under Remain in Mexico, immigration judges have closed the government’s case against the asylum seekers, according to the TRAC data.
“If the government intends to carry out the program,” O’Connor ruled, “it must ensure due process is strictly complied with and statutory requirements are strictly adhered to. That has not been shown in any of these cases.”
* * * * *
Nora Muñoz Vega watched her son kick a soccer ball at Buen Pastor shelter in Juarez. As 9-year-old Josue David played, his 29-year-old mother weighed a difficult decision: Keep waiting in Juarez on their asylum case or take a bus, sponsored by the Mexican government, back to Honduras.
Asylum seekers stuck in Juarez under Remain in Mexico have hearings scheduled into 2020. But unable to find work in Mexico without a permit, and too scared to venture out, Muñoz Vega said the few weeks until her second hearing seemed like an eternity.
In its May ruling allowing Remain in Mexico to resume, the 9th Circuit relied in part on assurances from the U.S. that Mexico was providing for the asylum seekers. Yet none of the migrants to whom The Times spoke had been able to obtain a work permit: All were staying in shelters run by churches or non-governmental organizations, or hotels when shelters filled up.
Through “voluntary return,” the Mexican government, along with the United Nations, is facilitating the Trump administration’s effort to get asylum seekers to give up on their cases. More than 2,000 Central Americans have taken free rides back to their home countries under the U.N. program, which is funded by the U.S. government.
“We are similarly concerned with the implications,” the U.N. migration agency wrote on Aug. 13 to a group of NGOs concerned about its role in Remain in Mexico, according to a letter obtained by The Times. The agency said it was taking steps to ensure the returns were in fact voluntary.
Although it’s unclear exactly how many asylum seekers under Remain in Mexico have gone home, a number appear to be growing tired of waiting and are crossing the border illegally.
On the viaduct between Juarez and El Paso, Border Patrol Agent Mario Escalante watched from the U.S. side as Mexican National Guard units patrolled on theirs.
Escalante was born in El Paso but said he practically grew up in Juarez, with family on both sides of the bridge for generations. Grisly murders had become commonplace in Juarez, he added. “It’s the culture; you get used to it.”
But asked whether Juarez was safe for the asylum seekers U.S. officials had sent there, Escalante brushed off the question.
When his radio crackled, he sped toward a popular crossing just beyond the international bridge. A group of Central American women and children cowered in the shade.
“It’s difficult to watch,” Escalante said. “The need’s gotta be pretty great.”
One woman with her son raised her head. It was Muñoz Vega, the Honduran mother.
* * * * *
Across the country, a number of federal asylum officers have quit, and a handful are refusing to implement Remain in Mexico, half a dozen asylum officers and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel told The Times.
They say the Trump administration is forcing them to violate the law in implementing the policy, end-running standards set by Congress and intentionally putting vulnerable asylum seekers in harm’s way. Most requested anonymity due to fears of retaliation.
In June, the union representing federal asylum officers in the Washington, D.C., area filed a brief in support of the lawsuit against Remain in Mexico.
“Every day, it gets a little bit worse,” said one asylum officer in California who refused to screen migrants under the policy.
Generally, before Remain in Mexico, asylum seekers at the border would receive a “credible fear” interview. The asylum officers, many of whom are attorneys, screen for fear of persecution in the asylum seeker’s home country based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or being part of a particular social group. Congress set “credible fear” as an intentionally low bar to help ensure the U.S. did not violate the law by returning people to harm.
But according to administration guidelines under Remain in Mexico, only asylum seekers who proactively express a fear of returning to Mexico — not their home countries — are referred by CBP officials to asylum officers, and for an entirely new interview process. That process screens them for likelihood of persecution in Mexico.
In these interviews, asylum officers also have to use a much higher legal standard. Essentially, instead of proving a 10% likelihood of persecution in their home country, asylum seekers have to prove a 51% likelihood of persecution in Mexico. That standard is generally reserved for a full hearing before an immigration judge.
In reality, the standard being used under Remain in Mexico is nearly impossible, another asylum officer said. “No one can pass.”
And even when officers decide that the asylum seekers meet the higher standard and would be in grave danger in Mexico, Homeland Security officials are overruling them and returning them anyway, according to the six USCIS personnel.
According to interviews with asylum seekers and officers, as well as USCIS statistics shared with The Times, many asylum seekers under Remain in Mexico are being removed without any interview at all.
Against its own guidelines, those sources say, Homeland Security officials also are returning children, people with disabilities and other medical conditions, and pregnant women. Lawmakers have demanded an inspector general investigation of the alleged violations.
The second asylum officer said she recently sounded the alarm after seeing a spate of women in late stages of pregnancy being turned back to Mexico. She was told that CBP does not consider a late-stage pregnancy to be a serious medical condition.
“They don’t want them to drop any babies on U.S. soil,” the asylum officer said.
A third asylum officer said they’re required to conduct the more complex Remain in Mexico interviews — sometimes lasting more than five hours — with children too young to speak.
Four officers described cases of asylum seekers who said they had been kidnapped in Mexico, then beaten and raped. Once their families sent money, the kidnappers released them. But when the victims fled for the border, the asylum officers had to turn them back. Kidnappers are now waiting outside ports of entry for the U.S. returns, officers said.
“In 99% of the interviews, they said they faced harm in Mexico, and we sent them back,” the third asylum officer said.
One asylum officer said she routinely woke up in a sweat from nightmares.
“How long can I do this and live with myself?” she said. “I think about these people all the time … the ones that I sent back. I hope they’re alive.”
Tropical Storm Dorian was hours away from thrashing the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico on Wednesday as it continued to gain strength, with forecasters predicting it could become a Category 3 hurricane by the time it hits Florida over the weekend.
Dorian was forecast to become a hurricane later Wednesday and expected to move near the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, according to the National Hurricane Center.
As of midmorning Wednesday, hurricane warnings were in effect for the U.S. Virgin Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico’s island municipalities of Vieques and Culebra. A hurricane watch and tropical storm warning were in effect for Puerto Rico.
The hurricane center said the storm’s maximum sustained winds had increased to 70 mph with higher gusts, and forecast that Dorian could strengthen to a Category 3 hurricane as it nears Florida this weekend and early next week.
Rainfall from the storm could cause ‘life-threatening flash floods,” according to the hurricane center.
The storm was tracking more north than most forecasts had predicted and could pass Puerto Rico to its east, drastically increasing the odds of a hurricane landfall in the southeast U.S., wrote Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science.
But the storm could still prove a major test of Puerto Rico’s electrical grid two years after Hurricane Maria wiped out power on the entire island and thousands died in the aftermath of the storm. In some areas, power was only fully restored a year later.
The island was already seeing heavy rain Wednesday as conditions worsened. The worst was expected from Wednesday afternoon to early Thursday before the storm pulls away. The eastern part of the island and the Virgin Islands were expected to get 4 to 6 inches of rain, with isolated areas seeing as much as 10 inches.
Late Tuesday, President Donald Trump approved a state of emergency declaration for Puerto Rico, allowing federal authorities to coordinate aid efforts.
But on Wednesday morning, the president had this message for the U.S. territory: “Puerto Rico is one of the most corrupt places on earth. Their political system is broken and their politicians are either Incompetent or Corrupt,” he tweeted. “Congress approved Billions of Dollars last time, more than anyplace else has ever gotten, and it is sent to Crooked Pols. No good!”
Trump has repeated a false claim that Congress sent $92 billion of aid money to Puerto Rico. Congress has allocated $42.5 billion to disaster relief for Puerto Rico, according to federal data, but the island had received less than $14 billion through May.
Trump then said he was “the best thing that’s ever happened to Puerto Rico!”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump said they were tracking Dorian “as it heads, as usual, to Puerto Rico.”
Trump then defended the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which was widely criticized in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in September 2017, and targeted a regular critic of his, San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz.
“FEMA and all others are ready, and will do a great job. When they do, let them know it, and give them a big Thank You — Not like last time,” Trump tweeted. “That includes from the incompetent Mayor of San Juan!”
In San Juan, volunteers went door to door to make sure residents were prepared. Many homes on the island are still covered by blue tarps from Hurricane Maria.
Jorge Ortiz, 50, a construction worker who had the second floor of his house ripped off in that storm and just finished rebuilding three months ago, without local or federal assistance, told The Associated Press that he was worried he would “lose it again.”
Cruz said the island was prepared, but added: “We’re scared. We know what may be coming.”
Jorge Ortiz works to tie down his roof as he prepares for the arrival of Tropical Storm Dorian, in the Martín Peña neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico. (AP Photo/Gianfranco Gaglione)
Good morning and welcome to Fox News First. Here’s what you need to know as you start your Wednesday…
Puerto Rico prepares for Dorian’s wrath
Puerto Rico is bracing for a possible direct hit from Tropical Storm Dorian on Wednesday as forecasters say it has shifted in its path and could strengthen into a hurricane. The storm is expected to pass over or near western and central Puerto Rico, with landslides, widespread flooding and power outages possible. President Trump declared an emergency Tuesday night and ordered federal assistance for local authorities. Click here to find out everything you need to know about Dorian’s path.
Photos show North Korea may be building submarine capable of launching nuclear missile: report
New photos taken of a North Korean shipyard suggest the country could be building a submarine that could potentially be capable of launching a nuclear missile, a report early Wednesday said. The photos show vessels and cranes that could be used to haul a missile out to sea for launch, according to experts at a Washington-based think tank, NBC News reported. The satellite photos seem to confirm North Korean state media reports from July about a newly built submarine. “There is no conclusive evidence at the moment that this is a near-term certainty,” an expert said of a possible missile test. Once a submarine is built, it would take at least a year before it’s ready, according to an expert.
DC consultant’s alleged affair with ‘Squad’s’ Omar detailed in divorce papers
The wife of a prominent Washington political consultant has filed for divorce, claiming her husband made a “devastating and shocking” revelation that he was having an affair with freshman Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn. Beth Mynett, 55, submitted divorce papers in Washington, D.C., Superior Court on Tuesday, saying her husband, Tim Mynett, 38, informed her earlier this year that he was having an affair with Omar.
The news of the divorce filing, first seen in the New York Post, comes just over a month after it was reported that Omar had separated from Ahmed Hirsi, her husband and father of her three children, and moved into a luxury penthouse in Minneapolis.
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma is settlement talks over opioid cases
State attorneys general and lawyers representing local governments said Tuesday they are in active settlement talks with Purdue Pharma, the maker of the prescription painkiller OxyContin that is facing billions of dollars in potential liability for its role in the nation’s opioid crisis. Purdue has been cast by attorneys and addiction experts as a main villain in the crisis for producing a blockbuster drug while understating its addiction risk. Purdue Pharma and its owners are reportedly looking to settle more than 2,000 opioid cases in a deal between $10 billion and $12 billion.
NYPD arrests slump in wake of the firing of officer accused in Garner case, report says
The firing of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who was involved in the fatal arrest of Eric Garner in 2014, appears to have already had an effect on the Big Apple, with the number of arrests dropping sharply compared to 2018 and cops warning of plummeting morale among New York City’s finest. Just between Aug. 17, when Pantaleo was fired, and Aug. 25, arrests dropped by 27 percent compared to the same period in 2018, the New York Post reported. NYPD cops made 3,508 arrests compared to 4,827 a year earlier, according to the Post.
Fox News First is compiled by Fox News’ Bryan Robinson. Thank you for joining us! Enjoy your day! We’ll see you in your inbox first thing Thursday morning.
Yvette Cooper, an opposition Labour lawmaker strongly opposed to a no-deal Brexit, wrote on Twitter on Wednesday: “Boris Johnson is trying to use the Queen to concentrate power in his own hands — this is a deeply dangerous and irresponsible way to govern.”
Philip Hammond, a senior Conservative lawmaker, tweeted, “It would be a constitutional outrage if Parliament were prevented from holding the government to account at a time of national crisis.”
Dick Newby, leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, wrote: “Suspending Parliament to stop debate and possible defeat is what dictators do. It must be resisted by every possible means.”
A Brexit deal with the European Union would be complicated, covering tariffs, product standards, fisheries, immigration, financial services, the border with Ireland and other issues. Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May, negotiated a withdrawal agreement that was nearly 600 pages long, just to secure a transition period while long-term arrangements were made.
Parliament rejected Mrs. May’s deal three times this year, and nonbinding votes on a range of alternatives suggested that no particular approach had majority support.
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell says he has a source who told him Russian oligarchs signed off loans given to President Trump by Deutsche Bank.
Lawyers for the German lender told a federal appeals court Tuesday that the bank has documents sought by Democrat-led House committees, which subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Capital One for financial records related to Trump, his family, and businesses, but declined to reveal if they have Trump’s tax returns.
While the New York Timesreports Deutsche Bank, which has done business with Trump for two decades, does have some of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns, O’Donnell told colleague Rachel Maddow in the hand-off between their shows Tuesday evening he can go a bit further.
“This single source close to Deutsche Bank has told me that the Trump — Donald Trump’s loan documents there show that he has co-signers. That’s how he was able to obtain those loans. And that the co-signers are Russian oligarchs,” he said.
A shocked Maddow replied, “What? Really?”
“That would explain, it seems to me, every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin, if true, and I stress the ‘if true’ part of this,” O’Donnell added.
O’Donnell later said this source told him that Trump’s tax returns reveal “he pays little to no income tax in some years.”
He added that his source said Trump, a longtime real estate businessman, would not have been able to obtain his loans with Deutsche Bank without these co-signers he described as “Russian billionaires close to Vladimir Putin.”
“If true,” O’Donnell said, “that would explain every kind word Donald Trump has ever said about Russia and Vladimir Putin. If true. If true, that would be a significant factor in Vladimir Putin’s publicly stated preference for presidential candidate Donald Trump over presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.”
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