(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s executive action on asylum, which was rolled out three weeks ago, has decreased encounters along the border by 40%, the Biden administration said.
The executive action established a rule to turn away migrants who are claiming asylum between ports of entry after there have been seven consecutive days of more than 2,500 encounters along the southern border.
The restrictions on asylum claims would remain in place for an additional 14 days once daily encounters at the border fall to a seven-day average of 1,500 or less.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Texas Civil Rights Project and other civil rights organizations filed a federal complaint challenging the rule, saying it puts vulnerable migrants at risk.
The administration claims the new rule is having an impact, but said the rule is “no substitute” for the bipartisan border bill which failed to advance in the Senate in May.
The daily average of encounters along the border are 2,400 a day — not enough to lift the asylum restrictions but trending downward, the administration said.
The numbers come as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be along the southwest border on Wednesday, touring operations.
Since the executive action was implemented, DHS has removed and returned more than 24,000 individuals to more than 20 countries, including by operating more than 100 international repatriation flights.
In this Oct. 9, 2016 file photo Republican nominee Donald Trump (R) watches Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St. Louis. (Saul Loeb/POOL/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)
(WASHINGTON) — Hillary Clinton, noting she is “the only person” to have debated both Joe Biden and Donald Trump, shared her thoughts on the upcoming presidential debate.
In an op-ed published in the New York Times on Tuesday, Clinton reflected on her own experience debating Trump and offered some advice to Biden ahead of Thursday’s matchup at CNN studios in Atlanta.
She wrote that Trump “interrupts and bullies — he even stalked me around the stage at one point — because he wants to appear dominant and throw his opponent off balance.”
Clinton said any attempt to refute his remarks would be a “waste of time” as he, in her words, “starts with nonsense and then digresses into blather.”
In addition to criticizing Trump’s argumentative strategy, Clinton discussed his felony convictions and attacked his stances on abortion rights and tax cuts. She said that “expectations for him are so low,” which she believes will skew the public’s perception of his performance on Thursday.
On the other hand, Clinton described President Biden as a “wise and decent man” who she claims is “one of the most empathetic leaders we’ve ever had.”
She advised Biden to be “direct and forceful” — a strategy she believes will successfully thwart Trump’s tactics of dominance and intimidation.
“The president also has facts and truth on his side,” she wrote. “He’ll win if that story comes through.”
Clinton acknowledged the disadvantage Biden faces as a sitting president, as his current responsibilities detract from debate preparation and the “excruciating pressure” that is to come. Biden is huddling with aides and advisers at Camp David this week to prepare.
She also briefly recognized Biden’s age, a major point of concern for his candidacy, and highlighted that he is “just three years older than Mr. Trump.”
Clinton also urged viewers tuning into Thursday’s debate to “not get hung up on the theatrics,” and instead focus on three things during Thursday’s faceoff.
“Pay attention to how the candidates talk about people, not just policies,” she began.
She then asked viewers to “focus on the fundamentals at stake” and to distinguish between what she considers to be “chaos and competence.”
Clinton’s op-ed arrived on the same day that she announced a new book. In a press release Tuesday, Simon & Schuster revealed it will be publishing Clinton’s Something Lost, Something Gained: Reflections on Life, Love, and Liberty on Sept. 17.
According to the release, the book will depict Clinton “like you’ve never seen her before.”
Kevin Hart is adding more context to a clip that was previously shared on social media. In it, he’s at a club with Latto and Usher, but he appears to be tired.
“That moment was a real moment. Both of them are amazing people,” Kevin says in an interview with Complex. “Usher’s a really close friend of mine, and he told me we were going to a little lounge atmosphere, which is my vibe. I don’t mind. But we ended up being at what I would consider to be a club.”
Though he makes it clear he has “nothing against the club,” he says he “was ready to take my a** home.”
“My fear is just looking like the old guy in the club. I never want people to look up and go, ‘Why is he here?’ That to me, that’s aggressive. ‘Oh God, you see Kevin over there in the corner? Why is he here? It’s 21, 22 night. Why did he come?’” Kevin says. “Bumping into my kids’ friends from school, that’s just aggressive. I don’t need those problems. I’ll take my a** home and be happy.”
(NEW YORK) — A multifaith group of Louisiana families with children in public schools is suing to challenge Louisiana’s new law requiring all public school classrooms to display the Ten Commandments.
HB 71 mandates public schools — from kindergarten to the collegiate level — to display the Ten Commandments, a religious set of rules from the Old Testament, in every classroom on “a poster or framed document that is at least 11 inches by 14 inches.”
The suit, filed in federal court Monday, argues that the law violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent, pointing to the Stone v. Graham case in which the court overturned a similar state law, holding that the separation of church and state bars public schools from posting the Ten Commandments in classrooms.
The nine families — who are Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist and nonreligious — also argue the law is religious coercion and violates their First Amendment rights. The parents represented include rabbis, pastors and reverends.
“Permanently posting the Ten Commandments in every Louisiana public school classroom – rendering them unavoidable – unconstitutionally pressures students into religious observance, veneration and adoption of the state’s favored religious scripture,” the complaint reads.
It continues, “It also sends the harmful and religiously divisive message that students who do not subscribe to the Ten Commandments — or, more precisely, to the specific version of the Ten Commandments that H.B. 71 requires schools to display — do not belong in their own school community and should refrain from expressing any faith practices or beliefs that are not aligned with the state’s religious preferences.”
Supporters of HB 71 argue that the law isn’t about religion: “This is not preaching a Christian religion. It’s not preaching any religion. It’s teaching a moral code,” the bill’s primary sponsor and Republican state Rep. Dodie Horton said during an April hearing, according to local news outlet WWL-TV.
The law argues that the Ten Commandments are also historically significant, reflecting “the understanding of the founders of our nation with respect to the necessity of civic morality to a functional self-government,” the text reads.
“If you want to respect the rule of law, you gotta start from the original lawgiver, which was Moses,” Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said last week during the press conference where he signed the bills.
The bill is one of 18 signed by Landry as part of his “Dream Big” education plan that aims to “bring back common sense in our classrooms,” he said in a recent statement.
Horton declined to comment. Landry and Attorney General Liz Murrill have not yet returned ABC News’ requests for comment.
Public schools have until January 2025 to display the poster, which will be paid for by private donations and not state dollars, according to the law. The law does not state what would happen if a school does not comply with the order.
(WASHINGTON) — Across the street from the Department of Transportation’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., advocates working to prevent the deaths of children in hot cars recently hung 1,086 colorful infant onesies underneath a tree — the display representing the number of children’s lives lost in hot cars since 1990, according to the advocacy organization Kids and Car Safety.
As another hot summer begins, advocates are renewing their call for federal regulators to require technology in cars that they say can help prevent child deaths.
Three children have already died in hot cars in 2024, and an average of 38 children die in hot cars each year, according to Kids and Car Safety.
Although the technology has grown more advanced, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) missed deadlines set by Congress in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act requiring the agency to issue a rule requiring all new passenger motor vehicles weighing under 10,000 pounds to be equipped with a system to alert the driver to check the back seat after the car is turned off, Kids and Car Safety said.
According to the advocacy group, NHTSA missed the December 2022 deadline to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and the November 2023 deadline to issue a final rule.
“They had two years to look at what technology is out there and to come up with a final rule. Well, it’s almost a year past that deadline, and they still haven’t even issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking,” Amber Rollins, director of Kids and Car Safety, told ABC News.
The new deadline for NHTSA to issue the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is August 2024.
In a statement to ABC News, NHTSA said, in part, that it’s “exploring exceeding congressional requirements by evaluating a full range of options that could more effectively address the issue of hot car deaths.”
NHTSA said it is initiating rulemaking that would require vehicles to have a system that reminds the driver to check the back seat at the end of a drive, analyzing more sophisticated technology that would detect and alert parents if a child is in the back seat, and assessing the one rear seat occupant detection system the agency has acquired. The agency said it will continue to test other systems as they become publicly available and is looking into retrofitting existing cars with rear-seat alert systems.
There are currently two types of technology available in vehicles: end-of-trip reminders and occupant detection. The occupant detection has sensors that can detect movements or heartbeats of occupants in the back seat and alert the driver. Some can even differentiate between the heartbeats of a child and an adult. The end-of-trip reminder alerts the driver to check the back seat before exiting the vehicle but does not acknowledge if there is a human being in the back.
Kids Car and Safety said it finds the occupant detection system to be the most effective.
The occupant detection and alert technology is currently available in vehicles made by Hyundai and Kia and costs around $20, according to a 2023 report commissioned by NHTSA.
If NHTSA passes a rule, and depending on what NHTSA requires, automakers would have to include it in all car models.
Until a new rule is passed by NHTSA — and the technology is not required in all cars for occupant detection — Rollins shared a few tips for drivers to ensure safety for kids in cars:
Always keep the car doors locked.
Be extra cautious when there’s a change in routine.
Keep a stuffed animal toward the front area of your car as a visual reminder.
Place an item you can’t start your day without in the back seat to help you remember to look at the back before leaving or come back in case you forget.
Childproof the car doors and put stick-on alarms on them so a child cannot get inside the vehicle without your knowledge.
(SAGINAW, Mich.) — For many in Saginaw, Michigan, a town less than two hours north of Detroit, the once-thriving hub for the auto industry is now a shell of itself.
After several major factories closed in the county, the local economy has struggled to fully recover.
“Some of the things that have plagued us are the lack of good jobs, the ones that can take care of a family,” Hurley Coleman III, executive director of Saginaw County Community Action Center, told ABC News’ “Nightline.”
Coleman’s organization helps to provide low-income and elderly Saginaw residents with resources like food and housing assistance.
While the U.S. unemployment rate is at 4%, dropping to historic lows during the Biden administration’s first term, Black unemployment in Michigan is roughly 50% higher than the national average, hovering over 6.1%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
“My concern personally is our Black community and our men and our women, being able to have the opportunity to go into homes, financial literacy, education, opportunities to advance,” Coleman said.
In this county, which is roughly 45% Black, according to the U.S. Census, voters have looked to both parties in recent elections in hopes of change.
In 2008 and 2012, Saginaw voted for former President Barack Obama. Trump won the county in 2016, but Biden took a close victory in 2020 by just 303 votes.
In a battleground like Michigan, a key state needed to win the Oval Office, Saginaw is a pivotal county.
Both the Biden and Trump campaigns have made stops in Saginaw, focusing on making sharp contrasts to one another in their vision for rebuilding the economy.
“I’m going to turn it around. I’ll bring you the car industry back to Michigan,” Trump said to voters during a campaign stop on May 1.
Biden met with Coleman during his visit to Saginaw on March 14.
“We talked about inflation and what it feels like to go to the grocery store. To pull out $25 and figure out how far that $25 can stretch,” Coleman told “Nightline.”
“I believe in what President Biden is trying to accomplish and I will be standing with him,” Coleman added.
First Lady Jill Biden and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff have also made campaign stops in Saginaw, visiting Baldwin’s Smokehouse BBQ, a Black-owned business in East Saginaw.
The owner of the restaurant, Roy Baldwin, 69, told ABC News he voted for Biden in 2020 and plans to do so again in November, but he remains worried about the economy, as he struggles to bounce back from inflation.
“I don’t think either one could make a big difference in the economy. I think things just got to level out. I don’t think a president really has much power to change any of that,” Baldwin said, noting that he thinks division in Congress has stalled policies that would benefit him.
Despite his worries, he says he’s committed to casting a ballot in November.
“My motivation in voting goes back to being a child. When my parents and other Blacks were not allowed to vote, and saw the struggle of at least having a voice,” Baldwin said. “We fought for it. We died to have a right and a voice.”
But not everyone is convinced.
At a gathering hosted by Coleman’s organization, a group of fathers brainstormed ways to improve their community for their children.
Among them was Antonio Brooks, a 47-year-old community organizer who grew up in Saginaw and watched the area transform after multiple factory closures caused a rise in poverty.
Brooks tells ABC News that he has voted Democrat in every election for more than two decades, a political stance he says he was taught to follow in the Black community he was raised in. But this election cycle, for the first time, he is considering not voting at all.
“I have the right to stand firm in my own beliefs and what I believe is they’re [Trump and Biden] not good candidates for the people,” Brooks said.
Brooks voted for Biden in the 2020 presidential election, hoping to see the passage of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, reform the president and other Democrats advocated for to prevent and remedy racial profiling by law enforcement at the federal, state and local levels.
However, several attempts to pass police reform ultimately have failed in Congress, never making it to Biden’s desk during his first term.
“All we do is go in and just vote for a straight ticket. We don’t really vet the ballots and we don’t really vet the candidates. We just vote Democrat. So we’re not holding them accountable. We’re just giving them our vote,” Brooks said. “I feel like you don’t deserve it, I’m not giving it to you anymore. I keep it to myself.”
While the Black community still overwhelmingly supports Democrats, some of that support could be eroded. A recent ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that some Black people may have moved away from President Joe Biden.
Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida, a prominent Black conservative and a vice presidential contender, has been actively courting undecided Black voters in hopes of getting them to vote for Trump. The congressman most recently moderated a roundtable discussion with Trump at a church in Detroit on June 15.
In the last three presidential election cycles, Black men were more likely than Black women to vote Republican, according to ABC News analysis of exit polling data.
“I believe that voters in our country are shifting underneath the feet of the political parties,” Donalds told ABC News Chief National Correspondent and “Nightline” Co-Anchor Byron Pitts.
“I think there’s a frustration with the American people just with politics overall. I think people are somewhat tired of politics being the first, or fifth, topic in every room they walk into. And at the end of the day, I think the American people just want common sense policies that work,” Donalds said.
