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.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday the Senate would once again try to pass a bipartisan border security bill this week after a previous attempt failed when enough Republicans withdrew their support at the urging of former President Donald Trump.

“I hope Republicans and Democrats can work together to pass the bipartisan Border Act this coming week,” Schumer said in a letter to senators.

The Border Act would reform asylum laws, hire thousands of border agents and seek to curtail fentanyl smuggling, among other measures, the Democratic leader said.

Leaders of the Republican-controlled House of Representative called the bill politically motivated.

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

The White House said it strongly supported the legislation.

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

Record numbers of migrants have been caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border since Democratic President Joe Biden took office in 2021, and border security has become one of the leading issues in the presidential campaign. Trump is seeking to return to office by challenging Biden in the Nov. 5 election.

In February, a bipartisan immigration bill stalled in the Senate after Trump told Republicans not to support it even though it contained several border-security measures they had sought.

“The former President made clear he would rather preserve the issue for his campaign than solve the issue in a bipartisan fashion. On cue, many of our Republican colleagues abruptly reversed course on their prior support, announcing their new-found opposition to the bipartisan proposal,” Schumer said.

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 White House is weighing ways to provide temporary legal status and work permits to immigrants in the U.S. illegally who are married to American citizens, three sources familiar with the matter said on Monday, a move that could energize some Democrats ahead of the November elections.

Democratic lawmakers and advocacy groups have pressured President Joe Biden to take steps to protect immigrants in the country illegally as Biden simultaneously considers executive actions to reduce illegal border crossings.

Immigration has emerged as a top voter concern, especially among Republicans ahead of the Nov. 5 election pitting Biden, a Democrat, against his Republican predecessor, Donald Trump. Trump has said Biden’s less restrictive policies have led to a rise in illegal immigration.

The White House in recent months has considered the possibility of executive actions to block migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border if crossings reach a certain threshold, sparking criticism from some Democrats and advocates.

The Biden administration also has examined the possible use of “parole in place” for spouses of U.S. citizens, the sources said, requesting anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

The temporary status would provide access to work permits and potentially a path to citizenship. No actions are imminent or finalized, the sources said.

A White House spokesperson said the administration “is constantly evaluating possible policy options” but declined to confirm discussions around specific actions.

“The administration remains committed to ensuring those who are eligible for relief can receive it quickly and to building an immigration system that is fairer and more humane,” the spokesperson said.

The Wall Street Journal first reported the possible moves.

An estimated 1.1 million immigrants in the U.S. illegally are married to U.S. citizens, according to data by advocacy organization FWD.us.

A group of 86 Democrats sent a letter to Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas last year urging them to protect spouses of U.S. citizens and create a family reunification process for those outside the country.

Speaking at an advocacy press conference in Washington on Monday, Philadelphia resident and U.S. citizen Allyson Batista said her Brazilian-born husband still lacks legal immigration status after 20 years of marriage.

Batista and her husband have three children together and run a construction company, she said, pleading with Biden to act.

“Year after year, we continue to live in trauma and fear of separation,” she said, “especially if an unfriendly administration takes over again.”

San Diego Gas & Electric and Bali Express have announced the crossing of a Class 8, heavy-duty electric freight truck from the U.S. into Mexico.

The semi-truck made its maiden voyage into Mexico this week, marking a milestone as the binational region attempts to move towards a net-zero future.

These dedicated trucks will utilize new charging infrastructure installed by SDG&E that is designed to provide reliable and accessible charging options for medium- to heavy-duty electric freight trucks crossing the border.

“Today marks a historic milestone in our journey toward reducing emissions and paving the way for a cleaner energy future,” said Caroline Winn, SDG&E’s CEO. “This new electric corridor is a great example of how collaboration can create new and innovative ways to rethink how to propel our transportation systems towards electrification.”

Juan Baez, owner of San Diego-based Bali Express emphasized the importance of working together in achieving sustainability goals.

“By adding electric freight trucks, we are not only reducing our carbon footprint but also leading the way towards a more sustainable future for freight transportation on both sides of the border,” Baez said.

The chargers were partially funded by a $200,000 grant through the California Energy Commission’s Clean Transportation Program, which has provided more than $1 billion to alternative fuel and vehicle technology projects.

“To accommodate the transition to zero-emission trucks on both sides of the border, it’s critically important we have the necessary infrastructure. The California Energy Commission is helping fund projects across the state to build a better and more equitable charging infrastructure system for both cars and trucks,” Commissioner Patty Monahan said.

San Diego County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s appointee to the California Air Resources Board, emphasized the importance of reducing emissions in border communities. 

“I know the binational region firsthand, and this is a great example of the kind of public-private partnerships (that) can improve air quality and promote economic prosperity for the binational region,” Vargas said.

The electric charging infrastructure is a part of SDG&E’s Power Your Drive for Fleets program which connects fleet operators with resources and financial incentives to easily and cost-effectively design and install charging infrastructure. 

Donald Trump called immigrants in the United States illegally “animals” and “not human” in a speech in Michigan on Tuesday, resorting to the degrading rhetoric he has employed time and again on the campaign trail.

The Republican presidential candidate, flanked by several law enforcement officers, listed several criminal cases involving suspects in the country illegally in often graphic terms and warned that violence and chaos would consume America if he did not win the Nov. 5 election.

While speaking of Laken Riley – a 22-year-old nursing student from Georgia allegedly murdered by a Venezuelan immigrant in the country illegally – Trump said some immigrants were sub-human.

“The Democrats say, ‘Please don’t call them animals, they’re humans.’ I said, ‘No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals,'” said Trump, president from 2017-2021.

During stump speeches, Trump frequently claims that immigrants crossing the border with Mexico illegally have escaped from prisons and asylums in their home countries and are fueling violent crime in the United States.

While available data on criminals’ immigration status is sparse, researchers say people living in the U.S. illegally do not commit violent crimes at a higher rate than native-born citizens.

Biden blames Trump for encouraging Republicans not to pass legislation in Congress this year that would have beefed up security at the southern border and introduced new measures aimed at reducing illegal immigration.

“Donald Trump is engaging in extreme rhetoric that promotes division, hate and violence in our country,” Michael Tyler, Biden campaign communications director, told reporters on Tuesday ahead of Trump’s speech.

“He encourages white nationalists and cheers on the disgusting behavior of the extreme far right,” Tyler said.

Trump delivered his speech, titled “Biden’s border bloodbath” in the city of Grand Rapids, where police said 25-year-old Ruby Garcia was murdered last month in her car by Brandon Ortiz-Vite, 25, who she was dating. Ortiz-Vite was in the country illegally, police said.

The murders of Garcia and Riley have allowed Trump’s campaign to simultaneously play to fears among some Americans about violent crime and immigration.

Some 38% of Republicans cited immigration as the country’s top issue in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released in late February, as did about one in five independents. Trump frequently claims without evidence that migrants have caused a spike in violent crime in U.S. cities. On Tuesday, he repeated an unfounded claim that Latin American nations are intentionally sending their criminals into the United States.

TUESDAY’S PRIMARIES

Trump was due to hold a rally with supporters in Green Bay, Wisconsin, after his Michigan speech. Michigan and Wisconsin are two swing states that could determine whether Biden or Trump occupies the White House next year.

In the 2020 election, Biden beat Trump in Wisconsin by less than one percentage point, and in Michigan by less than three. Both states are expected to be extremely close again this year.

Although both Trump and Biden have mathematically clinched their presidential nominations, they will be on their party’s presidential primary ballots in Wisconsin on Tuesday.

The Biden team will be watching for protest votes by Democrats angry over the president’s strong support of Israel in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

In February’s presidential primary in Michigan, a state with a large Muslim population, Biden easily won the primary but more than 100,000 Democrats voted “uncommitted,” instead of for Biden, as a protest over his Gaza policy.

A similar option is available in Wisconsin on Tuesday. The “uncommitted” campaign’s goal is to get 20,682 voters to mark their ballots “uninstructed,” Wisconsin’s version of “uncommitted.” The number is significant. Biden beat Trump by that number in the state in 2020.

One of two bodies found floating in the Tijuana River Channel in late February, a 36-year-old man from Mexico, has been identified as a victim of a homicide, police said Wednesday.

Rodolfo Agosto Castillo-Ancona of Mexico had trauma to his upper body that indicated he was a homicide victim, said Lt. Steve Shebloski of the San Diego Police Department.

The second man had no obvious signs of injury that indicated he was the victim of a crime, Shebloski said. He has been identified but his name is not being released pending family notifications and further examination by the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office.

The bodies were discovered in the river channel on Feb. 22 by SDPD officers who were notified the day before by the U.S. Border Patrol, who said there was a possible body floating in the channel next to the 3000 block of Dairy Mart Road in San Ysidro, the lieutenant said.

“This area is a large flood plain which had been flooded in recent weeks due to heavy rain,” Shebloski said. “Officers from Southern Division responded and checked the area. However, due to poor lighting conditions, a strong water flow, vegetation and debris in the river, they were not able to locate a body.”

The following day at about 6:50 a.m., officers returned to the area to resume the search, Shebloski said. With the assistance of a helicopter from the Border Patrol, officers located two bodies in the channel near a large pile of accumulated debris.

Officers consulted with officials from the San Diego Fire Department River Rescue Team, who ultimately were able to recover both bodies from the river.

“It is undetermined if the deaths of the two males are related in any way or if their bodies ended up at the same location due to the recent heavy rains and strong currents in the river that led to their discovery in a location where a large amount of debris had accumulated within the river,” Shebloski said.

The investigation is ongoing and anyone with information about the deaths was asked to call the SDPD Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

–City News Service

Homicide investigators responded Thursday after the discovery of two unidentified dead men, one of whom had suffered suspicious injuries, in a section of the Tijuana River.

Authorities found the bodies just north of the U.S.-Mexico border at about 8 a.m. That’s roughly 15 hours after the Border Patrol reported a sighting of what appeared to be a corpse floating in the waterway near the intersection of Clearwater Way and Dairy Mart Road, according to the San Diego Police Department.

An initial search proved fruitless.

“This area is a large floodplain (that) has been flooded in recent weeks due to heavy rain,” Lt. Steve Shebloski said. “Officers … responded and checked the area. However, due to poor lighting conditions, a strong water flow, (and) vegetation and debris in the river, they were not able to locate a body.”

Shortly after dawn Thursday, police resumed the search. With help from a Border Patrol helicopter crew, officers found the dead men in the river channel, near a large pile of accumulated debris. They called in city lifeguards to retrieve the bodies.

“The San Diego (County) Medical Examiner’s office was contacted, and, upon closer examination of one of the (dead men), it was discovered he had trauma to his upper body that indicated he was the victim of a homicide,” Shebloski said. “The (other) had no obvious signs of injury that indicated he was the victim of a crime.”

The causes of death are pending completion of postmortem examinations.

Shebloski added that “it is undetermined if the deaths … are related in any way or if (the) bodies ended up at the same location due to the recent heavy rains and strong currents in the river.”

– City News Service

Updated 4:45 p.m. Feb. 22, 2024

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Fallbrook, Monday sent a letter to the Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission addressing what he describes as cost overruns and lack of transparency around the efforts to fix sewage infrastructure on the border.

Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated the need for Congress to approve $310 million that President Joe Biden included in his emergency supplemental appropriations bill to address contamination in the Tijuana River Valley — specifically the South Bay International Wastewater Plant, which is a federal facility on federal land.

“I enthusiastically support the completion of this vital project — but we can’t ignore our obligations to pursue accountability for taxpayers,” Issa wrote. “We simply cannot overlook IBWC’s failure to oversee the proper maintenance and management of this facility and its unsupported requests for hundreds of millions of dollars in additional funding with no end in sight.”

While the region has spent money to improve storm water infrastructure, half of the $300 million in requested federal funds will go toward upgrades and deferred maintenance, rather than expanding the wastewater treatment plant, the County Board of Supervisors said last year.

Extensive documentation by the USIBWC has found “that since 2018, more than 100 billion gallons of toxic effluent have entered the United States through the Tijuana River,” and “an alarming 35 billion gallons have crossed the international border flowing north from another broken sewage treatment plant in Punta Bandera” since Dec. 28, 2022, which impacts the San Diego coastline during the summer.

Issa claims that since deferred maintenance on trans-border infrastructure was not clearly disclosed, the commission didn’t provide any rationale for another several hundred million in funding requests.

“Such negligence prompted my office to initiate an investigation to understand why these maintenance needs were not previously shared and to better understand the changes needed to ensure these problems are not repeated moving forward,” Issa wrote in his letter.

Newsom, in his request to Congress to approve the funding, said it was long overdue.

“It is the federal government’s responsibility to complete the capital improvements to the facility that are required to stop the ongoing harmful discharges into the marine environment that are impacting public health, the local economy, and ecosystems and species in coastal communities,” he wrote. “Southern California communities have suffered from this crisis for far too long, impacting the lives and livelihoods of tens of thousands of people and U.S. Navy Seal special operation forces who train in those waters.”

“Congress must act quickly to approve the president’s proposal and provide this much needed, urgent funding,” Newsom wrote.

More than 300,000 Californians live in proximity to the polluted river. Studies by local researchers have found negative health impacts from not only the water itself but the aerosolized spray from the ocean.

January’s storm was a stark reminder of the failure of some of the region’s infrastructure, with state agencies estimating more than 14.5 billion gallons of raw sewage flowed from Mexico into California as a result of heavy rains.

Newsom’s administration has invested $32.2 million in state funding to help clean up the area, a statement from the governor’s office read.

Issa represents California’s 48th Congressional District.

City News Service contributed to this article.

The Ped West border crossing in San Ysidro will resume limited operations Thursday following its closure last month.

Starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, northbound operations will be open from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily, and southbound operations will be open each day from 3 to 11 p.m.

The PedWest crossing was closed in September and December, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection stating both closures were in response to an influx of migrants at the San Diego County border. CBP officials said last month the closure would allow the agency to redirect resources to assist U.S. Border Patrol at other border crossings in the county.

Some local elected officials criticized the latest closure as a blow to local businesses and people who cross regularly for work or to visit family on either side of the border.

In a statement regarding the Dec. 9 closure, CBP officials said the increased migrant presence was “fueled by smugglers peddling disinformation to prey on vulnerable individuals and encourage migration.”

A number of other border crossings along the southern United States were closed for similar reasons and Thursday will also mark the reopening of three other crossings in Arizona and Texas.

“CBP will continue to prioritize our border security mission as necessary in response to this evolving situation,” according to an agency statement. “We continue to assess security situations, adjust our operational plans, and deploy resources to maximize enforcement efforts against those non- citizens who do not use lawful pathways or processes — such as scheduling an appointment via CBP One — and those without a legal basis to remain in the United States.”

Those seeking to travel through the crossing were advised to check wait times at https://bwt.cbp.gov/.