AZMEX I3 7 JUN 2014
Also of local interest:
http://www.abc15.com/news/national/immigrants-bringing-diseases-across-border
Updated 15 minutes ago.
Arizona rushes supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:00 am
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-rushes-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
PHOENIX (AP) -- Angry about the federal government sending from Texas to Arizona immigrants who are in the country illegally, Arizona officials say they are rushing federal supplies to a makeshift holding center in the southern part of the state that's housing hundreds of migrant children and is running low on the basics.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the holding center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship the medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
A Homeland Security Department official told The Associated Press that children are sleeping on plastic cots but about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered, and portable toilets and showers have been brought to the holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used for detention in years.
The official, who who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the Nogales holding center opened for children because the Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
Wilder said a total of 432 unaccompanied minors detained in Texas arrived in Nogales on Friday, with 367 more expected both Saturday and Sunday.
The Homeland Security official said as many as 1,400 children are expected to be eventually brought to the warehouse, which has a capacity of about 1,500.
Federal authorities plan to use the Nogales facility as a way station, where the children will be vaccinated and checked medically. They will then be sent to facilities being set up in Ventura, California, San Antonio, Texas, and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
The Homeland Security official said that the children are being moved out of the Nogales site as soon as Health and Human Services finds places for them. But the official said: "As quickly as we move them out, we get more. We believe this is just a start."
The children being held in Nogales are 17 or younger. The official estimated three of every four were at least 16.
Wilder said reports from consulates that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was stopping the program to fly migrant families to Arizona and then bus them to Phoenix were incorrect. Instead, the program that has shipped unknown thousands of adult migrants and their children to Arizona since last month shows no sign of stopping, he said.
"The adults, the adults with children, families -- that continues unfettered and we have no idea where they are going," Wilder said.
In a statement Friday, Homeland Security officials said "appropriate custody determinations will be made on a case by case basis" for migrants apprehended in South Texas. The department declined to comment on the reports that the program of flying migrant families to Arizona was being halted.
Homeland Security started flying immigrants to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants, including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own, overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
The immigrant children were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an ICE office near where they were traveling within 15 days.
Brewer sent an angry letter to President Barack Obama on Monday demanding that the program of dropping off families at bus stations in Phoenix stop immediately. She called the program dangerous and unconscionable, asked for details and demanded to know why state authorities weren't consulted or even informed.
The governor said she hadn't received a response to her letter by Friday.
"I have reached out to Federal Homeland Security Director Jeh Johnson for answers. Meanwhile, I reiterate my call on President Obama to secure our southern border and terminate this operation immediately," Brewer said in a statement.
Brewer's staff spent Friday in a series of calls with officials from FEMA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security.
Wilder said FEMA's Region 9 administrator was being sent to the holding center in Nogales on Saturday to oversee efforts to deal with the hundreds of arriving children.
The federal emergency supplies are held in Arizona warehouses, and Wilder said the state is working to send them to the holding center.
On Friday night, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that young lawyers and paralegals are being sought for the community service program AmeriCorps to provide legal assistance in immigration proceedings to children who come to the U.S. illegally. Officials say about 100 lawyers and paralegals will be enrolled as members of AmeriCorps in a new division called "justice AmeriCorps."
Immigration officials can immediately return Mexican immigrants to the border, but they are much more hard-pressed to deal with Central American migrants who illegally cross into the U.S. In recent months, waves of migrants from nations south of Mexico have arrived in Texas.
The Homeland Security official said that legally, only their parents or guardians can take custody if the government makes the children eligible for release.
Spagat reported from Tijuana, Mexico. Associated Press writer Alicia A. Caldwell contributed to this report.
Conditions 'improving' for hundreds of Central American children held in Nogales
36 minutes ago • By Perla Trevizo Arizona Daily Star
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/conditions-improving-for-hundreds-of-central-american-children-held-in/article_5d58ec21-bff4-538b-8c3c-6ed5677739e6.html
About 750 immigrant children were being held at a detention center in Nogales as of Saturday, officials said, the result of an influx of border crossers in South Texas that has the federal government scrambling to keep up.
Jimena Díaz, consul general of Guatemala in Phoenix, visited the center Friday and said there were about 250 children from Guatemala, with the rest of the group coming from El Salvador and Honduras.
The children are being kept in separate groups, divided by age and gender. Most of them are between 15 and 17, Diaz said, but there are a few much younger than that. Teen mothers with their children are also being detained separately.
The placement center, part of the Nogales Border patrol Station on West La Quinta Road in Nogales, was recently reopened to handle the new arrivals. It is a refurbished warehouse with no indoor plumbing but portable toilets were moved in and showers were installed, Diaz said.
José Joaquín Chacón, consul general of El Salvador in Arizona, visited Saturday and said that while the situation was not optimal, the condition of the minors was good and it was improving.
While the mood was anxious, with some of the minors at the center for three days, the children had been given plastic balls and playing cards to pass the time. Border Patrol agents were also working to set up a recreation area, Chacón said.
Consular Officials from the Central American countries have been explaining the process they are going through and the children have been in contact with family members in the United States.
"What they want is to be with their families, we are asking them to be patient," Diaz said. "Due to the large quantity it's something that's going to take some time."
Border Patrol cannot send them to their families directly, Diaz said, but once they are at a shelter can family reunification begin. The problem right now is that all the shelters are full.
In a statement, Customs and Border Protection said that once the youths are processed, certain individuals will be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where appropriate custody determinations will be made case-by-case, prioritizing national security and public safety.
The surge in border crossers, especially unaccompanied minors, is the sum of various factors, Diaz said, including poverty and crime in the children's home countries and smugglers spreading rumors of amnesty.
According to reports, federal officials told Gov. Jan Brewer's office more than 1,000 minors would be coming into Arizona over the weekend.
end
State sends supplies to site holding migrant kids
By Associated Press
Originally published: Jun 7, 2014 - 8:48 pm
http://ktar.com/22/1739250/Arizona-sends-supplies-to-site-holding-migrant-kids
NOGALES, Ariz. (AP) -- Mattresses, portable toilets and showers were brought in Saturday for 700 unaccompanied migrant minors who spent the night sleeping on plastic cots inside an Arizona warehouse, a federal official said.
The Homeland Security official told The Associated Press that about 2,000 mattresses have been ordered for the makeshift holding center -- a warehouse that has not been used to shelter people in years.
Gov. Jan Brewer's spokesman, Andrew Wilder, said Friday that conditions at the center are so dire that federal officials have asked the state to immediately ship medical supplies to the center in Nogales.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security started flying immigrants in the country illegally to Arizona from the Rio Grande Valley in Texas last month after the number of immigrants -- including more than 48,000 children traveling on their own -- overwhelmed the Border Patrol there.
Immigrant families were flown from Texas, released in Arizona, and told to report to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office near where they were traveling within 15 days. ICE has said the immigrants were mostly families from Central America fleeing extreme poverty and violence.
The Homeland Security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because there was no authorization to discuss the matter publicly, said the holding center opened for unaccompanied migrant children because the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services had nowhere to turn.
"They became so overwhelmed and haven't kept up with planning," the official said.
At the holding center, vendors are being contracted to provide nutritional meals, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, meanwhile, will provide counseling services and recreational activities.
The Homeland Security official said the number of children at the warehouse was expected to double to around 1,400. The warehouse has a capacity of about 1,500.
END
Posted: Friday, June 6, 2014 8:46 am
Nogales International | 0 comments
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/news/migrant-teen-reports-robbery-abduction/article_ab38f38c-ed91-11e3-ae08-0019bb2963f4.html
A 16-year-old migrant from Southern Mexico told police in Nogales, Sonora that two men robbed him with a knife and abducted two of his cousins, who are also minors.
According to a bulletin from the municipal police, officers were patrolling the area of Elías and Internacional streets at around 6 p.m. Wednesday when they were approached by the youth. He said he had come to the city from the state of Oaxaca in hopes of crossing the border illegally to reunite with his mother, who lives in the United States.
The youth said he had been walking through the neighborhood with his two male cousins, ages 16 and 17, when they were intercepted by two knife-wielding men. The assailants stole his wallet, containing 500 pesos ($39), and his backpack of clothes, and then drove off with his cousins.
The officers searched the area and found no trace of the teens or their alleged abductors. A local judge ordered that the youth who reported the incident be examined by medical personnel and taken to a shelter for repatriated migrants.
END
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