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REYNOSA, Mexico Pastor Hector Silva is eagerly waiting to assist the U.S. government when it begins processing this summers expected spikes of migrants seeking asylum in their bid for peace and jobs away from the upheaval and violence of their homelands.

Talks have just begun this week among shelters and medical teams and other nonprofits says the Mexican preacher who runs Reynosas largest migrant shelter.

Reynosa is one of the largest major stopping points for migrants trying to cross into the U.S., and thousands of people have been stuck in camps and shelters here waiting for a chance to try. On May 23, the measure known as Title 42, which has been used more than 1.8 million times to quickly turn away migrants due to the coronavirus pandemic, is set to end.

Immigration advocates and immigration detractors, such as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, predict migration will swell. The Biden administration is preparing for as many as 12,000 to 18,000 arrivals daily.

Will U.S. officials, nonprofits and others who assist migrants really be ready?

Clearly it will be a huge and difficult job with all the families waiting in Reynosa, said Silva, who has worked with migrants for more than 20 years in Reynosa, across from McAllen in the Rio Grande Valley.

We want to work with the authorities so that there is order and so everything is calm at the bridge, he added. Silva was once himself an undocumented immigrant in North Texas. We want a change and people to be offered the help they deserve.

Others along the border raise similar concerns.

There is not a welcoming infrastructure at the border to process, in a legal and dignified way, the incoming flows of asylum seekers, unaccompanied minors and refugees, said Fernando Garca of the Border Network for Human Rights in El Paso. The asylum system must be repaired, Garca said.

Theyre worried about a repeat of past problems.

In Del Rio, a city of 36,000, Tiffany Burrow, who runs a day shelter for migrants, said she is stocking up on pallets of water and hygiene kits.

Last September, the Del Rio region strained under as many as 16,000 migrants who crossed the Rio Grande in just a few weeks. Federal authorities kept many migrants behind a fence under a bridge. Border Patrol agents were caught on video charging into some of them on horseback. The citys services were sorely strained as the migrants were processed and freed to move to the interior to await dates in immigration court.

A Facebook post from late March on her group Val Verde Border Humanitarian Coalition reads: The September 2021 event of 16,000 migrants under the Del Rio POE [port of entry] bridge was a dress rehearsal for whats already taking place.

The Department of Homeland Security didnt respond to specific questions about preparations for the end of Title 42. But DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas said three weeks ago that planning has begun.

We have put in place a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to manage any potential increase in the number of migrants encountered at our border, Mayorkas said in a statement. We are increasing our capacity to process new arrivals, evaluate asylum requests, and quickly remove those who do not qualify for protection.

Mayorkas said plans have been made to surge personnel and resources to the southwest border. Yet he also uses broken to describe the current immigration system.

Reports of increasing migration can be seen across much of the nearly 2,000-mile border. In March, the Border Patrol encountered nearly 210,000 migrants, according to federal immigration authorities. The last time the Border Patrol saw a monthly high was in 2000.

U.S. immigration officials have applied the Title 42 measure aggressively since March 2020 when it was implemented during the administration of former President Donald Trump. But the logic for its use has shriveled.

COVID cases have fallen, and U.S. citizens and many foreigners, such as those with green cards, already freely cross the international border.

About half of all migrants encountered in March were expelled under Title 42.

Immigration advocates emphasize migrants have a legal right to request asylum and say Title 42 deprives them of rights to due process. Detractors like Abbott, who is up for reelection, frame the mass migrations as President Joe Bidens failure to secure the border.

When migrants plans to cross and live into the U.S. are dashed by Title 42, they often remain in Mexican border cities because they cant afford to return to their native lands or fear violence and upheaval. Migrants try again and again to cross.

In March, 28 percent of migrants who were expelled under Title 42 were found to have already tried to enter the U.S. before, according to U.S. immigration authorities.

Driving repeat tries is the fact that a Title 42 public health expulsion doesnt carry a legal penalty, or a formal deportation record, as it does under U.S. immigration law.

Many migrants end up lingering in cities like Reynosa, a sprawling city of more than 900,000 with three international bridges. Passage through Reynosa and its nearby towns leads into Texas Rio Grande Valley, the busiest migration region and the quickest route north from Central America.

But Reynosa also sits at the edge of the most violent Mexican border state, Tamaulipas, according to the U.S. State Department. It has the harshest U.S. no-travel advisory -- a level 4 warning like the ones in war-torn Syria and Somalia. Heavily armed members of criminal groups often patrol areas of the state, especially along the border between Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, reads the State Department warning.

Its no wonder migrants plan to try again to head north, and they are eager for the fall of Title 42.

Leticia Hernandez, a 53-year-old Honduran, is one of them, waiting for her chance to make an asylum plea. She lives in a crowded tent camp in a city park in Reynosa with other family members. She cant go back home, Hernandez said. Gangs of men barge into houses and assault average Hondurans, she said. And, If you made a complaint... police will come after you for doing it, she said.

Her message to Biden is simple: Help us. We like to work. We are hard workers.

The Department of Homeland Security has said it has plans for three different scenarios of mass arrivals: 6,000 migrants per day, 12,000 per day, and up to 18,000 migrants per day.

Federal authorities have said the additional staff they will send to the border includes asylum officers and teams from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Getting asylum officers to the border is part of an overhaul of the asylum process aimed at more quickly deciding claims and allowing asylum-seekers at the border to avoid the clogged immigration courts.

Usually, when an asylum-seeker enters at the border, they are placed into the immigration court system. It now takes an average of nearly five years to process those pleas in the courts, and there are nearly 700,000 asylum cases in the backlog, according to the Syracuse University nonprofit TRAC. The new asylum officers are considered critical to processing migrants more quickly, sending them on to the interior or back out of the country.

But its unclear if the asylum officers will be in place by May 23.

DHS also has prepared more temporary holding facilities for migrants.

Ursula, the largest Border Patrol holding center in south McAllen, was recently renovated. The processing center, marked by a black, green and yellow Border Patrol flag flapping high above the facility, can now hold up to 1,200 people.

In nearby Donna, a soft-sided tent city is ready for federal use again. It can hold up to 1,500 migrants.

Part of the DHS plan also includes a warning: One aimed to establish that not all seeking entry will qualify as asylum-seekers.

Those who attempt to enter the United States without authorization, and without a valid asylum claim, are subject to additional long-term consequences beyond removal including bars to future immigration benefits, reads a DHS fact sheet on Title 42.

Growing unease over whether federal authorities are ready for what lies ahead is spurring on a backlash against the lifting of Title 42.

In Congress, Republican Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz are among those who oppose the lifting of Title 42. Cornyn has supported a legislative proposal that would delay the end of Title 42 by at least 60 days. Among those leading the effort are Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz..

If Title 42 is eliminated, the Border Patrol tell me they will lose control, and the drug cartels stand to benefit the most, Cornyn said in support of the measure.

Abbott has made the end of Title 42 a principal whipping boy in his re-election campaign, and has promised to continue his Operation Lone Star to stop the flow of migrants across the border. Billions of state dollars have been poured into border security. As part of that effort, Texas has over the last year sent state troopers and 10,000 members of the Texas National Guard to the border.

One day this week in Anzalduas park, nestled in a curve of the Rio Grande in Mission, Texas troopers could be seen at picnic tables milling around in the shade on a recent afternoon. A week earlier, the Texas National Guard conducted military exercises with riot gear, waiving batons and using shields.

But how effective they can be is in question. Border enforcement is largely a federal responsibility, and state authorities are arresting migrants on minor state charges, such as trespassing.

Even some Democrats have urged the Biden administration to reconsider the May 23 end date. Among them are Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Peters and chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. He said this week he wants details on a well-thought-out plan. Otherwise, he said, the end of Title 42 should be delayed.

Others continue to outright oppose Title 42 and want it lifted now, such as Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-El Paso. The use of Title 42, introduced by the Trump administration, effectively eliminated access to legal asylum in our country, Escobar has said.

Cornyns measure isnt the only action up in the air. Still to be decided is the outcome of a federal lawsuit, filed by 21 GOP-led states earlier this month, that challenges the termination of Title 42. The states say the Centers for Disease Control violated the public-comment requirements of the Administrative Procedures Act when it moved to kill the health measure.

A hearing will be held on May 13 in the Louisiana court of U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays, a Trump appointee.

And on Friday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed his own lawsuit attempting to keep Title 42 in place.

Meanwhile, border leaders, including Republicans and Democrats, fear that Border Patrol facilities will soon be overwhelmed again.

McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos, a Republican, presides over a city where hundreds of migrant families have been released weekly to a Catholic Charities shelter and hundreds more were held under the shade of the Anzalduas international bridge last year in neighboring Mission. Hes among those who have asked President Biden to reconsider Title 42s end date.

Although our community is giving, well-prepared and proactive, no amount of preparation will allow for a local government such as the City of McAllen to respond to the dramatic rise in undocumented immigration that is anticipated, said the mayor of the city of 150,000, only one in a string of communities along the border where residents are growing tired of waiting for immigration reform.

Andy Harvey, the police chief of nearby Pharr, a city with an important international bridge into Reynosa for produce, said bluntly: We are not ready for it.

They havent done anything for reform of immigration, said Harvey, a member of the Law Enforcement Immigration Task Force, a national group that has pushed for an overhaul of U.S. immigration laws to make immigrants less fearful.

So here we are with Title 42, and were back to square one. So no progress has been made. And we are still dealing with the same things over and over, and nothings getting done.

Staff writers Alfredo Corchado in El Paso and Imelda Garcia in Del Rio contributed to this report.

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Is the border ready for the lifting of the Title 42 pandemic order? - The Dallas Morning News

In the race for an open seat in New Jerseys 8th Congressional District this year, Democratic primary candidate David Ocampo Grajales says that a progressive vision is whats needed for the Hudson County-based district.

In an interview with the Hudson Reporter, speaking over a small cup of espresso on a chilly day in the Heights neighborhood of Jersey City, he said that a progressive representative will help constituents, particularly working class people, call the Garden State a home for the long term, while also refuting the countys machine politics.

I think fundamentally, if we can make New Jersey the state that works for the working class, that is better for the community as well, he said. Because it allows people to dig in their roots, build a family here, stay for the long term, and then you stay multi-generational. But none of thats going to happen if we dont address the challenges that people are facing today.

That includes a number of progressive policies such as Medicare for All, a Green New Deal and forgiving student debt. For him, theres also affordable housing, immigration reform and transportation that are important as he campaigns for the Democratic nomination, and potentially win the seat itself.

Pushing for Green New Deal, transportation and immigration

Ocampo Grajales grew up in Ridgefield Park as a first-generation American with his parents from Columbia, and has been in Jersey City for about a year. He went to New York University and had worked at a healthcare startup called Salute, which helps hospitals and universities improve accountability around environmental compliance and keeping workers, students and patients safe.

His candidacy for the 8th District, which was left open following Rep. Albio Sires impending retirement, is his first foray into politics, which he is now dedicating to full time.

I think our politics would be better off if it was made up of more people who represent and look like the lives of people who live in the district, and less career politicians that come in, stay for 30-40 years, and end up changing nothing, he said.

The 8th District is one of the most heavily Democratic districts in all of New Jersey, and the only one with a Hispanic majority. Being on the campaign trail, Ocampo Grajales argued that the district is more progressive than what elected officials believe.

One of the 8th Districts biggest challenges is affordable housing, noting that nearly 70 percent of Hudson County residents are renters, and that rent is increasing more than peoples incomes are. He also sees climate change as another challenge due to increasing extreme weather every year, and is supportive of a Green New Deal.

One of the issues that Ocampo Grajales is running on is transportation, where he says for too many people there are no transportation options, too much traffic or no parking, a symptom of not having a connected transportation system like in New York City.

I think we need transportation that actually connects our communities here at home, he said. Not just to alleviate the burden of rising gas prices, alleviate the challenges caused by climate change and air quality, but its an economic stimulant to be able to connect with that and make communities walkable.

To that end, he sees changing the conversation about it in Congress, where he said hell advocate in the House and also connect and work with local officials to push for those policies.

Ocampo Grajales also sees immigration as important to him, noting how it feels for him to have a family thats undocumented, and other family members and friends that are as well.

Immigration is broken in this country, he said. People talk about waiting in line, but the reality is that, aside from the lottery and a couple other processes, there are not a lot of options for actually getting into the country, and having a pathway to citizenship.

He plans to push for immigration reform, addressing immigration courts, and advocate for abolishing federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Willing to take on a machine

As Ocampo Grajales competes in a now three-way primary race between Robert Menendez Jr., the son of U.S. Senator Robert Menendez, and Ana Roseborough-Eberhard, a public school teacher from Weehawken, he believes that he has a chance of winning it.

He also dismissed the establishments support of Menendez Jr. to potentially succeed Sires. Im so confident in our message, its just a matter of having people to get it out to, he said. Its absolutely an uphill battle, but its definitely a winnable one.

When asked about how he would deal with the gridlock and polarization that Congress has become almost commonplace, Ocampo Grajales acknowledged that Democrats could lose their majority in the House this November. In the meantime, he would focus on staying connected to the local community, creating a constituent services office in the district, and innovate the way constituents would interact with their elected officials such as town halls, and using technology to collect feedback and respond more quickly.

Regardless of who controls Congress after this year, Ocampo Grajales plans to join the Congressional Progressive Caucus and would work to reform it due to what he says are a number of representatives that call themselves progressive, and that they need to set a standard for what the term means.

Ocampo Grajales also wants to join committees such as Foreign Affairs, Transportation and Infrastructure, and Appropriations, where he would take time to do research and create questions that he wants answers to, as well as investigating how decisions are made and whether companies are doing things to improve transparency.

He said that hell try to work with Republicans, but pointed out with the recent infrastructure bill and the stalled Build Back Better agenda that sometimes theyll face an opposing party that doesnt want to get anything done for people.

He also said hell focus on stopping the GOPs moves to pull back voting rights and abortion rights, and that he wouldnt compromise on what he sees as basic principles.

I think that if voters want a representative who truly represents them, understands the challenges that theyre facing because hes gone through it himself, and is willing to just fight with everything, Im willing to take on a machine and want to do a whole lot more to fight for the actual change that they deserve, he said.

For updates on this and other stories, check hudsonreporter.com and follow us on Twitter @hudson_reporter. Mark Koosau can be reached at mkoosau@hudsonreporter.com or his Twitter @snivyTsutarja.

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David Ocampo Grajales pushes for progressive policies in the 8th District primary - The Hudson Reporter

On Thursday, April 28, 2022, the Consulate General of Saint Lucia in New York willconveneits annual Immigration Forum. This event, which is open to the general public,willbeginat 7:00 PM, andwillbe held at the Saint Lucia House, 438 East 49th Street (between Church and Snyder Avenues) in Brooklyn.

The forum will provide accurate and timely information for Saint Lucian nationals navigating the often bewilderingUnited Statesimmigration process,enabling them to make rational decisions on behalf of themselves or their loved ones. It will also feature an open panel discussion on a host of relevant topics, including:

1. US immigration reform policies

2. Citizenship/Permanent residency

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3. Implications and legal consequences of overstaying on a temporary US visa

4. Resources available to immigrants

5. Immigration fraud prevention

Formal presentations by New York City-based immigration lawyers, experts in the field, representatives from non-governmental organizations, community stakeholders, and various partnering agencies, will also be featured.

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The Consulate encourages Saint Lucians and all interested parties residing in the New York City area to attend this important meeting, to benefit from the wealth of information to be provided.

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Consulate General of Saint Lucia in New York to Host Annual Immigration Forum - St. Lucia News From The Voice - The Voice St. Lucia

SAN DIEGO In 2022, the Republican Party could really use a pep talk from the Gipper.

How the GOP of today cries out for the spirit of Ronald Reagan. He got right so many things that the Republicans of today are getting wrong.

For instance, I don't suppose Reagan, an ardent foe of the Soviet Union who demanded that Mikhail Gorbachev "tear down this wall" in Berlin, would look kindly on how former president Donald Trump fawns over Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the early days of the invasion of Ukraine, Trump dubbed Putin a "genius." Yes, because nothing moves your Mensa application to the top of the pile like overestimating the competence of your forces and underestimating the resistance of the opposition.

Nor would Reagan be proud of how some Republicans have of late done the bidding of organized labor by twisting an "America First" agenda into a familiar form of tariff-driven protectionism that says U.S. industries should be excused from having to compete with global competitors. For Republicans, the first hint that they made a colossal mistake by falling in line behind Trump's restrictive trade policies should have been when the Biden administration decided to keep those policies in place.

Tribune graphic

And, of course, "Dutch" who signed into law the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act, which granted legal status to nearly 2.7 million undocumented people would surely be disgusted by the way in which many Republicans now approach immigration. Whereas Reagan believed in welcoming the stranger and often spoke about how immigrants benefit America, the Republicans of today opportunistically grab hold of the issue with a toxic combination of dishonesty, cynicism, racism and fear.

Not that Democrats are much better. They lie to constituents and rail against the same restrictionist immigration policies that they later adopt as their own. They cater to organized labor, much of which wants to keep out foreign workers who could turn into competitors. They rack up record numbers of deportations, put refugee kids in cages, and embrace light-skinned Ukraine refugees while rounding up dark-skinned Haitians using Border Patrol agents on horseback. Then, instead of just admitting their sins, anti-immigrant Democrats point fingers at Republicans for being the preferred party of nativists.

I'm not sure. Has anyone polled nativists? I imagine they would be fine with the parts of President Joe Biden's immigration agenda that were borrowed from Trump.

However, one recent development that is causing angst among Republicans, and other Americans, is the Biden administration's decision to "86" Title 42. The controversial public health statute which has allowed Customs and Border Protection agents to turn away, since March 2020, as many as 1.7 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border without letting them apply for asylum is set to end on May 23.

All this turning away was done under the pretense of helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 into the United States, but where both the Trump and Biden administration really found Title 42 useful was as a convenient device to keep out immigrants and refugees.

In fact, the statute is so convenient that, in the Senate, a bipartisan group of lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would keep Title 42 in place - presumably forever or at least until senators no longer have to run for reelection, whichever comes first.

Meanwhile, in the four U.S. states that border Mexico, Republicans are panic-stricken. They warn that the nation's southern border is about to be overrun by the underprivileged, the unwashed, the unwanted.

You know, the same kinds of folks who built this country in the first place.

Leave it to politicians in both parties to take something intended to be temporary, and try to make it permanent to serve their short-term political interests.

Title 42 was supposed to be a temporary behavior modification to protect public health. You know, like masking. But while many Republicans couldn't wait to rip off their masks and protest against efforts by bureaucrats and local governing bodies to make masking permanent, they are in no similar hurry to surrender Title 42.

But surrender, we must. With nary a peep from Congress, the Biden administration has already lifted the policy with regard to Ukrainians who wish to apply for refugee status. It can't justify not doing the same for desperate people from other dark corners of the world.

America is strong enough and good enough to handle whatever comes her way. Just like she always has.

At least, I bet that's how Reagan would see it.

Ruben Navarrette can be reached at ruben@wctrib.com.

2022, The Washington Post Writers Group

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Ruben Navarrette: The legacy of Reagan still looms large. It's the Republican Party that got smaller. - West Central Tribune

TheHealthcare Workforce Resilience Act(HWRA)is a bipartisan bill sponsored by Sens.Chris Coons (D-DE), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Todd Young (R-IN) andformer Sen. David Perdue (R-GA).

In March 2021, Sen. Durbin formally introduced the bill into theSenate to strengthen the country's healthcare workforce byrecapturing unused visas and assigning them to foreign nationalphysicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals.

The intent of HWRA is to bring more qualified immigrant doctorsand nurses into the U.S. to address healthcare employment issuescaused by the COVID-19 pandemic. It may also help alleviate thecountry's shortage of healthcare workers.

Even though the senators unveiled HWRA at the start of theCOVID-19 pandemic to prompt immigration reform and supporthealthcare workers, it also addresses an issue that started beforethe pandemic.

Prior to 2020, the U.S. healthcare system already had a shortageof workers. Research from theNew American Economy (NAE)showsthat in 2018, before the pandemic struck, approximately 27healthcare practitioner jobs were available for each unemployedhealthcare practitioner.

Nursing is experiencing a labor shortage, which led to itscategorization as a"Schedule A"occupationby the Department of Labor (DOL). DOLclassifies occupations as "Schedule A" if there are notenough qualified workers in the U.S. for a specific job.

In the healthcare sector, the COVID-19 pandemic has shown thatthere is an urgent need for more qualified healthcare workers.

As a result of the healthcare worker shortage, hospitals haverepeatedly exceeded their capacity throughout the pandemic. In someinstances, healthcare workers have worked shifts up to 24 hours,theNiskanen Center reports.

To compensate for the shortage, nurses have been called out ofretirement to work, and school nurses have been called to hospitalsto assist. More so, the Association of American Medical Colleges(AAMC) reports thatpandemic and nationwide nursing shortage have ledto increased burnoutamong staff.

One major issue in the U.S. immigration system that HWRA wouldaddress is unused visas. In total, the HWRA wouldallow U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services torecaptureabout 40,000 visas for healthcareprofessionals, including 25,000 visas for nurses and 15,000 visasfor physicians. If signed into law, the legislation would also helpalleviate the shortage of healthcare workers in the country.

Unused visas are a widespread concern in the U.S. immigrationsystem. Unissued visas in the healthcare industry have beenparticularly problematic during the pandemic as the countrygrappled with a shortage of healthcare workers. Despite thewillingness of foreign healthcare workers to come over to the U.S.to improve the situation, help has beenslow to arrive, according to theNiskanen Center.

Thousands of nurses from other countries have been hoping to getinto the U.S. throughout the pandemic. However, because they arenot typically eligible for temporary work visas, they must waituntil immigrant visas are available. Many foreign nationals aresubject to limitations, such as country caps and backlogs.

Several times in the past, Congress has managed to recaptureunused visas. In 2000, Congress passed the American Competitivenessin the 21st Century Act. In 2005, it passed the EmergencySupplemental Appropriations bill. Collectively, thetwopieces of legislationrecapturedalmost 200,000 visas.

Even so, the Niskanen Centerreportsthat over 505,000employment visas went unused between 1992 and 2009. Over 175,000visas were unused and never recaptured between 2005 and 2009. Byrecapturing unused visas again, Congress could significantlyenhance the nation's healthcare workforce by allowing qualifiedworkers into the country.

HWRAproposes recapturing visasfroma pool of previously unused employment-based visas Congress hasalready authorized. The visas would be issued by their prioritydate, and they would also be eligible for premium processing.

Ultimately, the bill may help to alleviate the shortage ofhealthcare workers in the U.S. Although it is designed to providerelief for an overtaxed healthcare system, HWRA would also remedyan employment situation that would likely persist into the futurewithout legislative intervention.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a severe shortage ofhealthcare workers, and it has strained healthcare systems acrossthe country. Luckily, there is renewed bipartisan support for abill to repair the country's healthcare system.

The HWRA isawaiting further action in theSenate, and it hasgained support from moreorganizationssince its introduction, includingthe American Health Care Association/National Center For AssistedLiving.

Originally published 20 April, 2022

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The Healthcare Workforce Resilience Act: A Legislative Vaccine Against COVID-19? - Immigration - United States - Mondaq