I have been treating all of the inside wrought iron around here for days and days and packing up stuff for the Red Cross..the rust is a problem. Also, had Manny and Moe spade and their shots so now there is Rubio, Totsie, Squirt, Manny & Moe and I cannot keep doing this ! Manny & Moe have to live outside except in inclement weather, Squirt has been caught sleeping with Totsie, Rubio and Paris. So, I haven't been here at all. But here's some news in case you are headed up to the States which you may already be aware of (we have to go up twice for the second Moderna shots this week..so if you don't have a Sentri and even there, prepare to wait although not as long as the regular lines.) Give yourself some leeway so you don't miss your appointments.
Backup to last Friday:
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Asylum seekers waited in Tijuana, Mexico, on Friday to see if they would be among the few allowed to cross.Photo: Eric Thayer/Bloomberg News |
~ From the Wall Street Journal :
Migrants Crowd Border Crossing As Biden Administration Begins Undoing Trump Policy
By, Alicia A. Caldwell and Michelle Hackman
Updated Feb. 19, 2021 6:30 pm ET
"TIJUANA, Mexico—Hundreds of migrants crowded the pedestrian border crossing with the U.S. here Friday morning as the Biden administration let in the first handful who had been forced to wait in Mexico for their asylum claims to be resolved under Trump administration policy.
Biden administration officials had stressed in English and Spanish communications that only people contacted ahead of time would be allowed in Friday while others needed to register online and wait. A San Diego aid group working with the returning migrants said they received a total of 25 people Friday.
The admissions are part of President Biden’s reversal of the Trump policy officially called Migrant Protection Protocols but generally known as Remain in Mexico. It required migrants seeking asylum, many of them families, to wait in Mexican border cities for their claims to be resolved, rather than in the U.S. as had previously been the case.
The waits have been prolonged by the Covid-19 pandemic that closed immigration courts handling their claims.
The administration announced last week that, beginning Friday, it would start allowing some migrants in the program to enter the U.S. The government said it is moving slowly because allowing in large numbers of people could pose a public-health risk.
But the message received in Tijuana and other Mexican border cities was simpler: Joe Biden was now letting people in.
“The news said they were going to reopen and let 300 people in,” said Carina Rivas, a 27-year-old mother from El Salvador, who has been waiting in Mexico with her family for nearly two years.
A line of about a hundred migrants, mostly from Central America, with several from African countries, began forming Thursday night outside the border crossing across from San Isidro, Calif.
Cristian Antonio Reyes Flores slept on the sidewalk with his wife and four children. The Honduran family has been in Tijuana for four months, waiting for the border to reopen. He said there were rumors in the plaza overnight that some people would be allowed to cross, so he said he and his family will continue to wait, just in case.
“We had to leave—it wasn’t safe in my country,” Mr. Reyes, 30, said. “It’s not safe here either. We can’t stay. It is very hard to live here.”
Some migrants, the majority of whom wore masks, said they had been waiting for more than a year for their turn to be called to walk into the U.S. and ask for asylum.
The Trump administration created the MPP program because it believed that allowing migrants to live and work in the U.S. while waiting for their cases to be resolved incentivized migrants without a valid asylum claim to make one anyway.
The success rate for asylum seekers who waited in the U.S. for their cases to be resolved was about 30% in the federal fiscal year that ended in September 2019. For people in the MPP program, it was only about 1% as of last spring.
Biden administration officials, working with nonprofit aid organizations in Mexico, selected migrants they deemed particularly vulnerable to have the first chance, and set up a process to make sure the migrants could be tested for Covid-19 before entering the country.
Michael Hopkins, chief executive of Jewish Family Service of San Diego, a charity that helps migrants, said his group received about 25 migrants on Friday, a mix of families and single adults. Jewish Family Service will help the migrants to quarantine at hotels before sending them elsewhere in the U.S. to join family and friends.
After quarantining, they will be allowed to wait anywhere in the U.S. for their cases to be adjudicated, a process that in the past has taken months or even years due to court backlogs.
Alexis Lilibert Robles was put into the Remain in Mexico program with her two children about a year and a half ago and was sent to Mexicali, across the border from Calexico, Calif. The family, originally from Honduras, attended two court hearings in San Diego before the pandemic shut down courts along the border. They have been waiting in Mexicali ever since, moving west to Tijuana after her 17-year-old son was robbed and had his arm broken last month.
“I pray to God,” Ms. Robles said of her hope to be allowed into the U.S. on Friday."
Write to Alicia A. Caldwell at Alicia.Caldwell@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at Michelle.Hackman@wsj.com
Copyright ©2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
Appeared in the February 20, 2021, print edition as 'Migrants Crowd Border Crossing.'
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I am unaware of which news sources down here were spreading misinformation, more likely this bad information came from the polleros - or smugglers . Next, the past two days at the POE's could have been a reaction to what happened on Friday. Also on the link, there will be another tightening up at the POE's in March, and do not miss the podcast of the drug trafficking in the Valley de Guadalupe (Ruta de Vino, Ensenada). Noticias del Dia will bring you uptodate on drug wars activities - it's been typically bloody, we are over 100 executions again this month.
~ From Zeta:
Mas de 7 Kilometros de Fila Para Cruzar Las Garitas Por Tijuana
Por, Ernesto Eslava
"Once again, there are long lines to cross into the United States through the Tijuana booths. To enter San Ysidro the line is 7 kilometers long and the delay exceeds 5 hours and through Otay it is 3 kilometers long and the line is longer than 4 hours of waiting. Although motorists presume that the wait is "normal" but the traffic congestion on the eastern expressway and on the Airport Highway is notorious.
It was in August 2020 that there was a change in strategies at the checkpoints as Border Protection realized that three out of every five crossings were not essential. In other words, American citizens and legal residents of the United States crossed the border into Mexico for leisure.
“US Customs and Border Protection recently surveyed 100,000 travelers and found that more than 60 percent of border travel by US Citizens and Permanent Residents was for reasons considered nonessential. In response to the health crisis and to protect border communities, CBP is taking steps to discourage unnecessary crossings of travelers to and from Mexico, ”CBP stated at the express question of ZETA in August 2020.
Between Saturday 20 and Sunday 21 February 2021, the lines were maintained with a similar length: 7 kilometers, to the Black Bridge for access to the San Ysidro checkpoint and 3 kilometers, from Plaza Alameda, for access to the Otay sentry box.
Officially, CBP does not support a special program at the border crossing, so there is still no explanation for the long lines to cross the border crossing through Tijuana."
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Late here, so tomorrow when I can I'll be adding more information on the Biden Administrations Immigration Plans...which he is going to have a difficult time selling to the GOP and the activists have already been saying it is just not enough.
It is also a wonder that more people did not die during the Arctic Freeze-out in Texas, unbelievable.
Take care.
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Update/edit 02/22: Fact Checking Joe, Watsonville,Trump Forced to Release His Taxes, Biden's Immigration Plans.....
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| Just wondering how the air quality is with all of the agriculture in Watsonville |
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| For sale in Watsonville - Built in 1922 - Needs Pool & Some Work |
Not many folks are making a big deal out of this one, which soured things for me like the facts that Linda Mar beach in Pacifica is contaminated along with many of the beaches in Santa Cruz (not to mention sharky). Well, there's always Watsonville, a designated Sanctuary City with adorable old 1920-1930 houses, clean as a whistle, low crime (sort of) and good temperatures. La Selva beach and thereabouts (Manresa) are also sharky. My problem is that I am searching for the old Steinbeck California, and it simply does not exist anymore. Sigh. Yikes, avoid Castroville like the plague - haunted by bad vibes due to horrid history of abuse towards the Chinese and Japanese and most likely Mexican farmworkers.
Back to Joe : Que Paso Joe? Here is Joe's Townhall from several days back:
Watch the Entire CNN Presidential Town Hall with Joe Biden
Updated 12:16 AM ET, Wed February 17, 2021
Oops, now read the fact checks from the Whiz Kid:
Fact Check: Biden Makes at Least Four False Statistical Claims At CNN Town Hall
Updated 4:10 PM ET, Wed February 17, 202
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I think Joe should pepper up his presentations with full on press calls . The only thing that is saving me today is that Mike is making machaca tonight so I don't have to cook. I'll be back with the info on Joe's Immigration Plans. Ah yes, Trump has to release his taxes. Hardy har har.
Oh please Lord, this could be the final curtain for Trump.....
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Rundown on the Biden Immigraion Plan:
~ From Vox:
The New Biden-Backed Immigration Bill, Explained
Democrats are pushing a comprehensive approach to immigration reform — for now.
Reversing the previous administration’s cruelties isn’t the same as an unconditional welcome.