Biden rolls out migration order that aims to shut down asylum requests, after months of anticipation

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By SEUNG MIN KIM, COLLEEN LONG and ELLIOT SPAGAT (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday unveiled plans to enact immediate significant restrictions on migrants seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border as the White House tries to neutralize immigration as a political liability ahead of the November elections.

The White House detailed the long-anticipated presidential proclamation signed by Biden, which would bar migrants from being granted asylum when U.S. officials deem that the southern border is overwhelmed. The Democratic president has contemplated unilateral action for months, especially after the collapse of a bipartisan border security deal in Congress that most Republican lawmakers rejected at the behest of Donald Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee.

The order will go into effect when the number of border encounters between ports of entry hits 2,500 per day, according to senior administration officials. That means Biden’s order should go into effect immediately, because that figure is higher than the daily averages now. The restrictions would be in effect until two weeks after the daily encounter numbers are at or below 1,500 per day between ports of entry, under a seven-day average. Those figures were first reported by The Associated Press on Monday.

Once this order is in effect, migrants who arrive at the border but do not express fear of returning to their home countries will be subject to immediate removal from the United States, within a matter of days or even hours. Those migrants would face punishments that could include a five-year bar from reentering the U.S., as well as potential criminal prosecution.

Meanwhile, anyone who expresses that fear or intention to seek asylum will be screened by a U.S. asylum officer but at a higher standard than what is currently used. If they pass the screening, they can pursue more limited forms of humanitarian protection, including the U.N. Convention Against Torture.

Biden’s order was detailed by four senior administration officials who insisted on anonymity to describe the effort to reporters. The directive is coming when the number of migrants encountered at the border have been on a consistent decline since December, but senior administration officials nonetheless justified the order by arguing that the numbers are still too high and that the figures could spike in better weather, when the encounter numbers traditionally increase.

Yet many questions and complications remain about how Biden’s new directive would be implemented.

For instance, the Biden administration already has an agreement with Mexico in which Mexico agrees to accept up to 30,000 citizens a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela once they are denied entry from the U.S., and senior administration officials say that will continue under this order. But it is unclear what happens to nationals of other countries who are denied under Biden’s directive.

Senior officials also acknowledged that the administration’s goal of deporting migrants quickly is complicated by insufficient funding from Congress to do so. The administration also faces certain legal constraints when it comes to detaining migrant families, although the administration said it would continue to abide by those obligations.

The legal authority being invoked by Biden comes under Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows a president to limit entries for certain migrants if it’s deemed “detrimental” to the national interest. Senior officials expressed confidence that they would be able to implement Biden’s order, despite threats from prominent legal groups to sue the administration over the directive.

The senior administration officials insisted that Biden’s proposal differs dramatically from that of Trump, who leaned on the same provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act that Biden is using, including his 2017 directive to bar citizens of Muslim-majority nations and his efforts in 2018 to clamp down on asylum.

For instance, Biden’s order outlines several groups of migrants who would be exempted due to humanitarian reasons, including victims of human trafficking, unaccompanied minors and those with severe medical emergencies.

The directive would also exempt migrants who arrive in what senior officials called an orderly fashion, which includes people who make appointments with border officials at ports of entry using the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s CBP One app. About 1,450 appointments are made a day using the app, which launched last year.

Average daily arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico were last below 2,500 in January 2021, the month that Biden took office. The last time the border encounters dipped to 1,500 a day was in July 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Congressional Republicans, who almost all rejected the Senate’s bipartisan border proposal earlier this year, dismissed Biden’s order as nothing more than a “political stunt” meant to show toughened immigration enforcement ahead of the election.

“He tried to convince us all for all this time that there was no way he could possibly fix the mess,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference. “Remember that he engineered it.”

___

Associated Press writer Stephen Groves contributed to this report.

Wisconsin attorney general files felony charges against attorneys, aide who worked for Trump in 2020

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By SCOTT BAUER (Associated Press)

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul filed felony forgery charges Tuesday against two attorneys and an aide who helped submit paperwork falsely saying that former President Donald Trump had won the battleground state in 2020.

The charges were filed against Trump attorneys Kenneth Chesebro, 62, and Jim Troupis, 70, and former Trump aide Mike Roman, 51, who allegedly delivered Wisconsin’s fake elector paperwork to a Pennsylvania congressman’s staffer in order to get them to then-Vice President Mike Pence on Jan. 6, 2021.

All three are due in Dane County Circuit Court on Sept. 19, according to court records.

Troupis and Chesebro did not return voicemail messages left Tuesday. Roman did not have an attorney listed in court records.

Kaul, a Democrat, has faced pressure to bring action against the 10 fake electors, who have yet to be charged with any criminal wrongdoing. He has previously suggested that he was relying on federal investigators while also not ruling out a state probe.

Electors are people appointed to represent voters in presidential elections. The winner of the popular vote in each state determines which party’s electors are sent to the Electoral College, which meets in December after the election to certify the outcome.

The fake elector efforts are central to an August federal indictment filed against Trump alleging he tried to overturn results of the 2020 election. Federal prosecutors, investigating his conduct related to the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot, have also said the scheme originated in Wisconsin. Trump also faces charges in Georgia and has denied wrongdoing.

Michigan and Nevada have also criminally charged fake electors.

Chesebro and Roman were among the 18 people indicted along with Trump in August in a sprawling racketeering indictment in Georgia. They’re accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to try to illegally overturn the 2020 election in that state.

Chesebro in October pleaded guilty to one felony charge of conspiracy to commit filing false documents after reaching a deal with prosecutors. Roman has pleaded not guilty to racketeering and conspiracy charges related to a plan to have Republican electors meet and cast Electoral College votes for Trump even though Biden had won Georgia.

The Wisconsin electors, Chesebro and Troup all settled a civil lawsuit that was brought against them last year.

Documents released as part of those settlements showed that the strategy in Wisconsin replicated moves in six other swing states.

Trump lost Wisconsin to Biden, a Democrat, by fewer than 21,000 votes. Trump carried Wisconsin by a similar margin in 2016.

Wisconsin is one of a handful of swing states again this year.

Government and outside investigationshave uniformly found there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could have swung the 2020 election. But Trump has continued to spread falsehoods about the election, particularly in Wisconsin.

___

Associated Press writer Kate Brumback in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Garland slams attacks on the Justice Department, telling lawmakers: ‘I will not be intimidated’

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By ALANNA DURKIN RICHER and ERIC TUCKER (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland forcefully rebuked what he described as unprecedented attacks on the Justice Department Tuesday, telling Republicans who have sought to hold him in contempt that he will “not be intimidated.”

During a hearing before the the House Judiciary Committee, Garland condemned the “conspiracy theory” pushed by Donald Trump’s allies that the department was behind Trump’s state court prosecution in New York in which the former Republican president was convicted of 34 felony charges.

Garland called the unsupported claim “an attack on the judicial process itself.”

And Garland pushed back against “baseless and extremely dangerous falsehoods” being peddled about the FBI as well as threats to defund the special counsel prosecutions of former President Trump.

His appearance came as Republicans have moved to hold him in contempt for the Biden administration’s refusal to hand over audio of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur, which focused on the president’s handling of classified documents.

A transcript of Biden’s interview has been made public, but the president asserted executive privilege over the audio last month to block its release. The White House has said Republican lawmakers only want the audio so they can chop it up and use it for political purposes.

The Justice Department has argued witnesses might be less likely to cooperate if they know their interviews might become public. Garland told lawmakers he would not “jeopardize the ability of our prosecutors and agents to do their jobs effectively in future investigations.”

“I will not be intimidated,” Garland said. “And the Justice Department will not be intimidated. We will continue to do our jobs free from political influence. And we will not back down from defending our democracy.”

Rep. Jim Jordan, the committee’s top Republican, criticized Garland in his opening statement for a broad array of what he depicted as politically motivated decisions by federal law enforcement — including the conclusions by different special counsels that Trump criminally mishandled classified documents while Biden did not.

“Many Americans believe there’s now a double standard in our justice system. They believe that because there is,” Jordan said.

Rep. Matt Gaetz, who was investigated by the Justice Department but not charged in a sex trafficking inquiry, had a tense exchange early in the hearing when he demanded to know if the department would produce records related to the New York state case in which Trump was convicted last week.

Garland disputed as false allegations by Gaetz that he had “dispatched” to the Manhattan District Attorney office a Justice Department attorney who later became part of the Trump prosecution team, insisting that he had nothing to do with it.

The Return of the MOLLY

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Last week, the Texas Observer held its annual MOLLY gala and fundraiser, a tradition—named, of course, for the inimitable Molly Ivins—that was briefly interrupted last year as the organization scrambled to save itself from a near-closure but that has returned in triumphant, and poignant, form this year. In its 70th year of publication, the Observer is reestablishing its financial footing, growing its community, and, as always, publishing some of the most important journalism in the state and country. Below are a few of the highlights from the 2024 MOLLY.

A video highlighting the work of the Observer‘s longtime cartoonist, Ben Sargent, was produced for the event.

Condensed remarks from the Observer’s Interim Executive Director Loren Lynch:

The MOLLYs have become a defining element of the Texas Observer, something that I know many people in this room look forward to each year. It’s an opportunity for us to come together as a community, a chance to celebrate in a moment when things worth  celebrating may feel harder and harder to find.   

Speaking of celebrating, before I get too much further, there’s actually a few people in particular I’d like to recognize. If you’re currently a staff member at the Texas Observer, could you please stand up? These folks right here are a big reason why we’re all here today to come together for the MOLLYs. And actually, I’d like to just see something here quick. I’m going to shout out a few other people. If everyone could please stay standing as we do this. If you are currently a member of the Texas Democracy Foundation board, can you please stand? Now anyone who has ever been a TDF board member? How about everyone who served on the Molly host committee, this year or any previous year please stand. And lastly, if you’ve ever worked at the Texas Observer, been a fellow or intern, if you’ve ever freelanced for the Observer at any time, please stand.

Attendees stand up at the 2024 MOLLY. (Joseph Rushmore)

Eight people are currently employed full time at the Texas Observer, and they’ve fought for us to be here. But there’s the saying, it takes a village—this is the community that makes the Texas Observer, right here standing up in this room. We’ve all benefited from the Observer continuing to publish for the last 70 years—and I’m willing to bet that if I asked anyone who isn’t already standing if you’ve felt like you’ve benefited from the Observer, this whole room might be standing.

We’re all here because this organization means something to a lot of people. The impact of reporting is felt, and, in Texas, deeply impactful reporting that “hews hard to the truth” is vital beyond words. I’m deeply grateful for all of you here tonight, helping to ensure the community we’re seeing in this room continues to expand.

None other than Lyle Lovett speaks with Texas Democracy Foundation board member Kathleen McElroy. (Joseph Rushmore)

The Observer presented its MOLLY National Journalism Prize, which honors the best in American journalism, to Alicia Inez Guzman of Searchlight New Mexico for her story “Buried Secrets, Poisoned Bodies”—a gripping literary investigation into the lingering effects of atomic bomb development and the life of a particular woman from the same tiny town as the writer. An excerpt from the story:

A kind of armor protects the lab’s nuclear secrets. For that reason alone, I have little faith that I will be able to identify her—the anonymous Trucheña with 60 times more plutonium in her body than any other New Mexican autopsied in this hair-raising study. But I keep looking. Maybe it’s that I believe finding her can reaffirm, in some small measure, her humanity...

Read the full piece here.

Lize Burr, board president of the Texas Democracy Foundation, the Observer’s parent nonprofit, addresses the crowd about the importance of the Observer‘s work. (Joseph Rushmore)

Kimberly Mata-Rubio, a mother who lost her daughter in the 2022 Uvalde school shooting, and Tamir Kalifa, a photographer who embedded in that southwest Texas town, shared powerful words about the importance of longform ethical journalism with the MOLLY audience. The pair collaborated on a photo essay in the most recent issue of the Observer. A sampling of Mata-Rubio’s essay:

Two weeks after I lost Lexi, and three days before her funeral, I agreed to testify before Congress about the effects of gun violence. I don’t recall making a conscious decision to actively join the gun violence prevention movement, but, looking back, I’ve always been a member. I have always prioritized children over some civilians’ desire to own high-powered weapons of war...

Kimberly Mata-Rubio and Tamir Kalifa (Joseph Rushmore)

Full photo essay here.

Condensed remarks from Interim Editor-in-Chief Gus Bova:

I wish I had the time to tell y’all about each member of the Observer’s small but mighty editorial team—but I understand we have a tight program and are attempting to pull off the first ever banquet in history that didn’t take way too long. So just know that these folks are some of the finest investigative and magazine journalists working in the country. Please check their bylines, come up to me after, or email me sometime, so I can rave to you about them.

Today, I’m speaking as the Observer’s interim editor-in-chief. And the feeling is surreal—mostly because, a little over a year ago, I didn’t think that I or y’all would be here at all. Just over a year ago, many of you likely heard, the Observer nearly shut down just shy of its 70th anniversary. 

The journalism industry, nonprofits included, is in crisis, and layoffs are everywhere you look these days. But the Observer is the only place I know where the workers who make the magazine that each of you has right now said, “Wait, let us try, let us really see what the people think.” And not just one big donor but thousands of small donors came together—support from across the state, nation, and world—to, along with board members who continue to serve today, save the place. Our subscriptions soared, and we made it through what was certainly not the first existential crisis the Observer has faced over seven decades.

I started at the Observer in 2016 as an idealistic intern, working part-time at a migrant shelter called Casa Marianella while trying to somehow break into journalism. Eight years later, I’m still here. It’s my first, and only, journalism job—and I’ve come to understand it’s one of the best gigs going. When you work here long enough, you start to feel a certain weight—the weight of all the people who poured their sweat and tears into this place before you, the people who averted the crises of the years and decades prior so that you could be here at all. So, when we almost folded last year, I couldn’t just think of the fact that my wife Marina and I had just bought a house—or that she was five months pregnant with our son Gino. I had to think of the Observer too.

The weight, in part, is the knowledge that should the Observer ever go away, there is no other Observer coming to take its place. The capitalist free market, and our Republican state government, do not require the existence of a progressive-minded investigative magazine in Texas. Quite the opposite. We exist because of the will and generosity of Texans like y’all, and many like Molly who’ve left us, who have persisted in the crazy belief that this state can be something else, something better. The weight that I feel, as the interim editor, is the knowledge that the Observer is irreplaceable.

To support the Observer’s work, become a member here or donate here.