President Joe Biden has “limited ability” to step up security at the U.S.-Mexico border via executive action, a top Democratic lawmaker said on Sunday, arguing that the issue should be addressed with legislation in Congress.

Senator Chris Murphy, the lead Democrat who negotiated a bipartisan border security bill introduced this year, said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” that U.S. courts would likely strike down sweeping action by Biden.

“The president has such limited ability to issue executive orders that would have an impact on the border. He can’t conjure resources out of thin air,” Murphy said. “If he were to try to shut down portions of the border, the courts would throw that out, I think, within a matter of weeks.”

Biden, a Democrat seeking another term in Nov. 5 elections, has said his administration is looking at executive actions to potentially block migrants at the border after Republicans rejected the bipartisan Senate bill this year. Republicans spurned the measure after former President Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican challenger, came out against it.

Senate Republicans blocked the bill again last week and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said it “doesn’t secure the border” and “incentivizes further illegal immigration.”

The number of migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border has dropped this year compared with a monthly record high in December, a trend U.S. officials partly attribute to increased enforcement by Mexico.

Murphy said the decrease was due to “smart, effective diplomacy between the United States and the Mexican government” but warned that the dropoff may not be permanent and that illegal crossings remain high compared with a decade ago.

“We have to just recognize that without updating the laws of this country, without surging more resources to the border, we can’t count on the numbers staying as low as they are today,” Murphy said.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre said last week that the Senate bill would deliver “significant policy changes, resources, and personnel needed to secure our border and make our country safer.”

Migrants and asylum seekers transit through Mexico to the U.S. to escape violence, economic distress and negative impacts of climate change, according the United Nations.

President Joe Biden on Monday urged Republican leaders in the House and Senate to support a revived bipartisan bill on border security, even as House Speaker Mike Johnson declared the bill would be “dead on arrival.”

Democrats are again trying to pass the Border Act, which they say would reform U.S. asylum laws, hire thousands of border agents and help curtail fentanyl smuggling.

Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since Biden took office in 2021 and border security has become one of the leading presidential campaign issues ahead of the Nov. 5 election that will pit Biden against former President Donald Trump.

In February, a version of the bill stalled in the Senate after Trump told Republicans not to support it even though it contained several border-security measures they had sought. Biden and other Democrats said Trump undercut the bill in order to keep the border debate alive during the campaign.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer on Sunday announced the Senate would seek to pass the new bill this week, after which the White House said it strongly supported the legislation.

In the president’s calls to Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Biden asked congressional Republicans to “stop playing politics” and quickly pass the legislation, the White House said.

Before the president reached out, leaders of the Republican-controlled House of Representatives called the bill politically motivated.

“Should it reach the House, the bill would be dead on arrival,” Johnson and other Republicans said in a statement.

The previous legislation was tied to U.S. foreign aid for Ukraine and Israel, but this bill would stand alone, Schumer said.

Nearly 900 humanitarian advocacy groups and individuals have signed a petition calling for border agencies to treat and better care for people who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing.

The signatories — which include Jewish Family Service of San Diego, the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law, and the American Civil Liberties Union — have circulated a petition in light of growing evidence of reproductive injustices committed by Customs and Border Protection, calling for better care of a particularly vulnerable population.

The coalition has called for changes since 2020, when an investigation by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General confirmed the mistreatment of a 27-year-old woman who was forced to give birth at the Chula Vista Border Patrol Station. 

“Four years after we first demanded accountability for CBP’s horrific mistreatment of pregnant people in its custody, the agency has still failed to take meaningful action to protect the well-being of this vulnerable population,” said staff attorney at UCLA Center for Immigration Law and Policy Monika Langarica in a statement.

“People with reproductive health needs should be in the care of their communities, not subjected to inhumane conditions in CBP custody. “We continue to demand common sense solutions to ensure pregnant, postpartum and nursing people are treated with dignity and fairness and that the traumatic experience of our client who was forced to give birth in a Border Patrol station never repeats.”

“It is well past time that CBP strictly limit its detention of pregnant, postpartum and nursing persons and their families to the minimum time necessary,” added Kate Clark, Esq., senior director of immigration services at Jewish Family Service of San Diego, operator of the San Diego Rapid Response Network Migrant Shelter Services.

“This year, as many people prepare to celebrate the mother figures in their life on Mother’s Day, we hope that Acting Commissioner Miller and his team consider the mothers in CBP custody, and finally implement the desperately needed measures we have been calling for.” 

The Mother’s Day petition to CBP Commissioner Miller urges the agency to strictly limit its detention of people who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, and their families, to the minimum time necessary to process them for release to their networks of care in the United States.

People who wish to support this effort are encouraged to add their signature to the petition by May 30. An updated petition will be sent on May 31. 

The Biden administration is set to tighten access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border via a new regulation that could be issued as soon as Thursday, four sources familiar with the matter said, in a targeted move aimed at reducing illegal crossings.

The regulation would require migrants to be assessed at an initial asylum screening stage to see whether they should be barred from asylum and quickly deported, said the sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal government planning. They added that the measure appeared limited in scope.

The migrants would be assessed for asylum bars related to criminality and security threats, two of the sources said.

The new regulation would improve efficiency by screening asylum seekers earlier in the process to determine whether they should be barred, one of the sources, a U.S. official, told Reuters. It would be issued as a proposed regulation and finalized at a later date, the official said.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat seeking another four-year term in the Nov. 5 election, has struggled with record numbers of migrants caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since taking office in 2021. Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican challenger, has criticized Biden for rolling back more restrictive Trump-era policies.

The Biden administration has considered a more sweeping move to block asylum seekers and migrants at the border using a federal statute deployed by Trump in his travel bans, but is not immediately planning to take that step, the sources said.

Biden implemented new asylum restrictions last year, but their effectiveness has been limited by a lack of resources to process arriving migrants.

The regulation expected to be issued this week could potentially mean thousands of people would be more quickly deported from the U.S. per year, two of the sources said, a relatively small number compared with the total number caught crossing illegally.

The Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted 4-1 to advance a proposal for a long-term migrant and asylum-seeker transit center that includes $19.6 million in federal money.

According to a statement from Supervisor Joel Anderson and Chairwoman Nora Vargas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Shelter and Services Program money comes after the county “spent months” advocating for it.

Supervisors directed Sarah Aghassi, interim chief administrative officer, to begin programs that will temporarily provide shelter, food, transportation, acute medical care, personal hygiene supplies and labor to support migrants recently released from federal Department of Homeland Security custody.

Until the county receives the federal dollars, it will use money from its general fund reserves, to the extent it is available, officials said.

Aghassi will make a formal funding request during the board’s May 21 meeting. She will also apply for grant money to help migrants.

Anderson, who sponsored the proposal with Vargas, said Tuesday’s action wasn’t perfect but was “a step in the right direction,” and can ensure that migrants aren’t exploited or end up homeless.

He also praised Vargas for “helping make this a bipartisan solution.”

Anderson noted that, since last September, the San Diego region has experienced 135,000 migrant street releases. He added that, until it closed in February, the county’s migrant center processed over 80,000 people, with 99% continuing on to other locations.

In a statement, Vargas — who is resting her voice due to a vocal cord issue — said the funding “is vital for providing dignified and humane assistance, including essential resources such as food, clothing and crucial information to safely guide people to their intended destinations.”

“I want to thank my colleagues for their support in advancing our long-term migrant transition center,” she added. “Together, we are working to tackle the global humanitarian crisis at our border by expediting the asylum process, reducing street releases, and ensuring that asylum-seekers are treated with the utmost dignity as they seek safety and a brighter future.”

Supervisors last October approved $3 million, followed by an additional $3 million in December, to open a temporary migrant center.

After the center was closed due to a lack of funding, supervisors in late February approved Vargas’ proposal for a sustainable, federally funded center.

Anderson and Vargas added that the U.S. Congress passed a spending bill on March 23, which includes funding for the FEMA Shelter and Services Program.

Supervisors Monica Montgomery Steppe and Terra Lawson-Remer were supportive of the long-term shelter plan.

Lawson-Remer said it was important to have feedback from nonprofit groups that have been on the ground helping migrants, while Montgomery Steppe called for a transparent planning process.

Aghassi said the county has heard  “loud and clear,” from groups that help migrants, and is planning to meet with them as early as next week.

Supervisor Jim Desmond, who has criticized federal immigration policy, was opposed.

Desmond said that while he appreciates federal assistance, the money doesn’t address safety and security, and should be used to screen migrants entering the United States.

Further, Desmond added that more money is needed to prevent boats with undocumented migrants from arriving on shore.

The federal government “is giving us money for us to deal with the problem they created,” Desmond said.

Desmond said that, based on how quickly the county spent $6 million over a five-month period, the one-time federal funding would last one year, “leaving the problem in our lap, with no long-term plan.”

During a public comment period, several nonprofit representatives proposed ways to help migrants.

Citing recent criticism of SBCS — the Chula Vista-based nonprofit that previously received county money to assist migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border — Flower Alvarez Lopez of Universidad Popular said the county needs to be more mindful of which agency gets funding, and work with people who have expertise on helping migrants.

Erin Tsurumoto Grassi of Alliance San Diego said that, along with accountability and transparency, there needs to be an open bidding process for any future contractor, and that general funds should not limit which migrants can receive help.

County resident and activist Michelle Krug praised the board’s action, saying migrants “are only here to better their lives for them and their children.”

City News Service contributed to this article.

Following a week in which the San Diego region again became the number-one area along the southern border for migrant arrests, San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond lashed out Thursday at policies he said made the region “the path of least resistance for illegal immigration.”

According to a post by U.S. Customs and Border Protection Patrol Chief Patrol Agent Patricia D. McGurk-Daniel on X — formerly known as Twitter — San Diego saw 8,959 apprehensions of people crossing the border for the week ending April 16, surpassing previous top crossing spot Tucson by 2,400 arrests.

The numbers increased last week, when CBP officers apprehended 9,513 individuals from 74 countries, including 218 unaccompanied minors.

San Diego, for the first time since the late 1990s, is now the top region in the country for migrant arrests. According to CBP data, the last time the region outpaced the rest of the country’s nine southern border regions for a month was October 1999 and the last year the region arrested the most migrants was back in 1997.

Desmond said that on Wednesday alone, “Border Patrol apprehended 2,000 illegal border crossers within the San Diego sector, including 206 Chinese nationals.”

“Human smugglers have identified California, particularly the San Diego border sector, as the path of least resistance for illegal immigration,” he said. “Border Patrol has inadvertently become the `Uber’ for migrants entering San Diego County, and the county is the travel agent.”

According to McGurk-Daniel, CBP officers intervened in 35 possible human smuggling operations in the San Diego County region and seized 154 pounds of cocaine, 238 pounds of methamphetamine, nearly 37 pounds of fentanyl and seven firearms.

Earlier this month, more than $39 million in Shelter and Services Program funding was announced for San Diego as part of federal monies authorized by Congress to support communities that are providing services to migrants.

“The San Diego area has a long tradition of welcoming individuals seeking asylum and refuge with open arms. I’m proud to have worked alongside my San Diego delegation colleagues to secure this critical funding for communities and organizations aiding migrants,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego. “This funding will help make sure they have the resources they need to continue their important work to provide migrant communities with food, shelter and other critical services.”

The county of San Diego and the Catholic Diocese of San Diego County were both awarded $19,592,554 in SSP funding, which comes from the Department of Homeland Security, through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The agencies awarded $300 million nationally.

Desmond used fiery language responding to the federal funding, describing it as “concierge service to get migrants to their destinations across the United States.”

The Board of Supervisors allocated $3 million in October 2023 and an additional $3 million in December 2023 to operate a temporary Migrant Transitional Center.

Following its closure due to lack of funding, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas advocated for a federally funded migrant transition center, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 27.

“I am thrilled to announce that after months of tirelessly advocating for funding, the federal government has allocated $19.6 million to support the thousands of asylum seekers who are coming across our border,” Vargas said following the grant announcement. “Our work is not over, and we are now working to adopt a sustainable, federally funded migrant transition center in San Diego County.”

The Department of Homeland Security has removed or returned more than 660,000 individuals — the vast majority of whom crossed the Southwest Border — including more than 102,000 individual family members, since May 12, 2023.

“DHS efforts to manage and secure our borders in a safe, orderly, and humane way include support for communities, as well as strengthened consequences for those without a lawful basis to remain and an expansion of lawful pathways that have helped reduce the number of encounters from specific populations,” a statement from the agency read.

Copyright 2024, City News Service, Inc.

San Diego’s robust migrant advocacy networks have an opportunity to serve as an example for the rest of the country for how to offer care and support to refugees and asylum-seekers, say supporters.

But the region is frittering away the opportunity to do so, say immigration advocates with the California Welcoming Task Force, a cross-border coalition that coordinates groups with government at all levels to help people entering the United States navigate the byzantine bureaucracy that characterizes American immigration laws.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced that it would offer $39.2 million in new federal funding to the San Diego region as part of its Shelter and Services Program, which was lauded as an opportunity to boost services for people coming through the city.

But there are now concerns that the very groups which built these advocacy networks locally are being left out of discussions on how the money should be used, said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is one of the groups that make up the California Welcoming Task Force.

“It’s really important that there’s this investment of federal funds into our welcoming infrastructure,” she said. “These dollars cannot be spent effectively without these organizations having a seat at the table.”

Previously, more than $6 million was allocated by the county to South Bay youth and family advocacy group SBCS for a Migrant Welcome Center — which they abruptly closed in February after just a few months, citing lack of resources.

“That’s what happens when the experts in the room are not consulted,” said Toczylowski, who noted that the members of the California Welcoming Task Force and the local San Diego Rapid Response Network have been stepping up their own work since the welcome center closed.

“Since February 23rd, we have welcomed 33,715 people who have been released on the streets of San Diego,” she said, referring to the Border Patrol pactice of what is euphemistically called “street releases” — dumping people at transit centers without resources or maps, which the Migrant Welcome Center was supposed to provide.

“Our collection of organizations is stepping up and making sure that all of those people make their way initially to the old town transit center, then on to the airport or onto buses or transit to get safely to where they need to go.

“We’ve done that with no funding at all.”

Earlier this month, San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas thanked local, federal and nonprofit partners for their help when she announced that the funding had been awarded to the county.

“I am thrilled to announce that after months of tirelessly advocating for funding, the federal government has allocated $19.6 million to support the thousands of asylum seekers who are coming across our border,” she said at the time. “Our work is not over, and we are now working to adopt a sustainable, federally funded migrant transition center in San Diego County.

“As we learn more details on the funding in the coming days and weeks, I look forward to working with our partners to maximize these critical federal dollars for our region,” Supervisor Vargas added.

This has not come to fruition, said Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado a group that provides legal and humanitarian support to migrants on the ground in San Diego and Tijuana. “We’ve tried to meet with supervisors, tried to engage with them, but since this funding allocation came out they have not reached out to any organizations that have been providing aid on the ground,” she said.

“I heard Nora Vargas say she believed that the welcome center was a model for the rest of the country, and that really showed me that she’s never seen any other of the jurisdictions’ welcoming structure.”  

Pinheiro said that Al Otro Lado, as with the rest of the California Welcoming Task Force and San Diego Rapid Response Network partners, has been coordinating for years to build out a welcoming infrastructure for migrants, which includes legal and humanitarian services, travel services, and other aid.

She added that until the state cut funding for the shelters that local nonprofits had been maintaining, San Diego was a national model for building a welcoming infrastructure.

“To see that being dismantled without even a conversation is …. it’s very disappointing.” 

Residents interested in helping can donate to SDRRN, or contact them directly for volunteer opportunities.

Two brothers who kidnapped three people without documentation and held them for ransom at an Escondido home in 2023 pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges, prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Virves Pablo-Francisco, 22, and his brother Nicolas Pablo-Francisco, 20, held a father and son from Ecuador and a 16-year-old boy from Afghanistan hostage and demanded thousands of dollars from their families in June 2023.

The siblings demanded between $4,000 and $10,000 for each person’s release.

Virves Pablo-Francisco also admitted to investigators that he provided the Ecuadorian father and son no food and told them they were required to pay extra if they wanted to eat.

Prosecutors say the abductions came to light last June, when the 16-year-old boy’s family in the United States was contacted by his kidnappers.

The family reached out to law enforcement. According to a probable cause statement filed in federal court last year, investigators found cell phone records for a phone the kidnappers used to call the family.

Records showed Nicolas Pablo-Francisco was the phone’s user, with a listed address in Escondido, according to the statement. Virves Pablo-Francisco was listed as the billing party for the account.

On June 14, 2023, agents searched the home listed on the phone’s account and found all three kidnapping victims. Nicolas Pablo- Francisco was arrested at the home, while Virves Pablo-Francisco was arrested later.

“Criminals involved in alien smuggling may think they will get away with taking migrants hostage because of the unique vulnerability of their victims,” said FBI San Diego Acting Special Agent in Charge John Kim in a statement. “They are wrong.”

Virves Pablo-Francisco pleaded guilty on Tuesday, while his brother pleaded guilty in February.

City News Service contributed to this report.

San Diego will receive millions in funding as part of federal monies authorized by Congress to support communities that are providing services to asylum-seekers and refugees.

The County of San Diego and the Catholic Diocese of San Diego County were both awarded $19,592,554 in Shelter and Services Program funding, which comes from the Department of Homeland Security through the Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

“The San Diego area has a long tradition of welcoming individuals seeking asylum and refuge with open arms. I’m proud to have worked alongside my San Diego delegation colleagues to secure this critical funding for communities and organizations aiding migrants,” said Rep. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego.

“This funding will help make sure they have the resources they need to continue their important work to provide migrant communities with food, shelter and other critical services.”

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas thanked local, federal and nonprofit partners such as Jewish Family Service of San Diego and Catholic Charities.

“I am thrilled to announce that after months of tirelessly advocating for funding, the federal government has allocated $19.6 million to support the thousands of asylum seekers who are coming across our border,” she said. “Our work is not over, and we are now working to adopt a sustainable, federally funded migrant transition center in San Diego County.

“As we learn more details on the funding in the coming days and weeks, I look forward to working with our partners to maximize these critical federal dollars for our region,” Supervisor Vargas added.

The Board of Supervisors allocated $3 million in October 2023 and an additional $3 million in December 2023 to operate a temporary Migrant Transitional Center.

Following its closure due to lack of funding, Vargas advocated for a federally funded migrant transition center, which was adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Feb. 27.

“Thanks to a united voice across San Diego, we now have federal resources to stop the strain of the hundreds of daily street releases that have been occurring since the end of February,” said Supervisor Joel Anderson. “I look forward to working with my colleagues, and our government and community partners, on the path forward.”

The Department of Homeland Security has deported more than 660,000 individuals — the majority of whom crossed through the southwest border region — including more than 102,000 individual family members, since May 12, 2023.

“DHS efforts to manage and secure our borders in a safe, orderly, and humane way include support for communities, as well as strengthened consequences for those without a lawful basis to remain and an expansion of lawful pathways that have helped reduce the number of encounters from specific populations,” a statement from the agency read.

The agencies awarded a total of $300 million to communities receiving and caring for migrants.

City News Service contributed to this report.

President Joe Biden said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that he and his administration are trying to determine whether he has the authority to act on his own to shut down the U.S.’s southern border with Mexico to migrants, should it be deemed necessary.

Biden told Univision in the interview that because bipartisan legislation that would have granted him the authority to shut the border was stalled by Republicans in Congress, he was being encouraged to try to do it alone.

“We’re examining whether or not I have that power,” Biden said, adding there was “no guarantee” he has the power without legislation.

Migration is a central issue in this year’s presidential campaign. Former President Donald Trump, Biden’s likely Republican opponent in the Nov. 5 election, has accused Biden of bungling border issues.