International
New York boasts of a migration model but criticizes the lack of federal support
New York City boasts of a migration model having received and integrated more than 200,000 irregular immigrants in the last two years, but complains about the null support received from the federal government of Washington, trapped in an electoral logic where the migration issue has become political dynamite.
“Our support network is better than the one they find in any other city and state, and we are proud to have been able to specifically support all these people, who already total 202,000, but the burden is only ours and we do not see enough support from the federal government,” the city’s Immigration Commissioner, Manuel Castro, says in an interview with EFE.
Castro embodies like few others the famous ‘American dream’: he arrived in New York from Mexico as undocumented at the age of only five, and three decades later, after a youth dedicated to activism in favor of asylum seekers, he became the top immigration leader of New York, the city “raised by immigrants,” as he himself remembers.
Two years ago, the Republican governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, devived the ‘bus strategy’, which consisted of filling these vehicles with newly arrived immigrants from Mexico and sending them to what he called ‘progressive cities’ with the promise that they would receive accommodation and food there. It was not a lie in the case of New York: a rule from 50 years ago forces the city not to leave anyone homeless.
In the following months, New York declared a ‘humanitarian crisis’ but it did not stop providing assistance to the thousands of people who arrived not only from Texas, but from other states attracted by the generosity that the city deployed with immigrants: roof for everyone, school for minors and medical expenses.
The attention to all these people made the city calculate an extra expense of 10 billion dollars between 2022 and 2025, which it faced “without the support of the federal government, even though it should be a responsibility shared with the other cities and states,” Castro recalls.
The city was “obliged” – in the words of the Commissioner – to limit the stay in public shelters to one or two months, depending on the circumstances, through an exceptional judicial remedy, but guaranteed that families with children were not evicted in any case.
However, and as EFE has been able to verify in the giant camp of Randall’s Island, where adults without a family are sent, the law is applied in a very flexible way and there are several tenants who have been looking for more than four months, while looking for a work permit that never arrives.
And it is that another of the problems they face is the enormous slowness of bureaucratic efforts to obtain asylum status and/or a work permit, which usually takes more than 12 months, and that forces many immigrants to fall into the underground economy, usually in street sales or as delivery people of food on a bicycle.
“The emigration system doesn’t work,” Castro reflects. There is a great demand for jobs and it would be logical for us to support them with a work permit. We have been without a solution to these problems for decades, it is an inadequate system and Congress should act,” he insists, although he recognizes that the proximity of the electoral appointment complicates everything.
Castro regrets that all the attention paid to immigrants is now the victim of two opposing narratives: “On the one hand, they tell us that we are not doing enough for immigrants, that we have a moral obligation not to abandon them; on the other, they accuse us of giving them too much, and the more we give them, the more they will come,” he explains.
“It is symbolic of what is happening in the country, there is too much political division,” he believes, recognizing that in the year of elections the issue has become especially thorny, with a Republican candidate like Donald Trump who “with his threats of mass deportations is generating a huge fear and uncertainty,” and makes some immigrants not dare to go to a health center or a police station for fear of expulsion.
International
Mexico requests extradition of ‘Mini Lic’ for murder of journalist Javier Valdez
The Mexican government has requested the extradition of Dámaso López Serrano, a former high-ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel, who is accused of masterminding the 2017 murder of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, the Attorney General’s Office announced on Tuesday.
López Serrano, known as “Mini Lic,” was arrested last Friday in Virginia, United States, on charges of fentanyl trafficking, a crime he committed while on parole.
“This is the key issue for us, he [López Serrano] is the mastermind of this murder. The rest of the perpetrators are already processed and in jail, he was the one missing,” said Attorney General Alejandro Gertz.
“We immediately made the extradition request,” the official added during the routine morning press conference of President Claudia Sheinbaum.
Valdez, an award-winning reporter specializing in drug trafficking and correspondent for AFP and the newspaper La Jornada, was murdered on May 15, 2017, in front of the office of his magazine Riodoce in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa state.
“Mini Lic” was originally arrested in 2017 when he voluntarily turned himself in to U.S. authorities and pleaded guilty to trafficking methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine. In 2022, he was released on parole.
Gertz confirmed that the Mexican Attorney General’s Office had requested López Serrano’s extradition “countless times,” but Washington had declined to act on the request because he had become a “protected witness” for the U.S. government and “was providing a lot of information.”
“Now, with this situation where they themselves are acknowledging that this individual is still committing crimes, I think there are more than enough reasons for them to support us,” the prosecutor added.
The Sinaloa Cartel is one of the largest drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and was founded by Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, who is serving a life sentence in the United States.
Culiacán has been shaken by a wave of murders since the arrest of Ismael “Mayo” Zambada, another key leader of the cartel alongside Guzmán, on July 25 in New Mexico, United States.
International
Cuba’s government stresses openness to serious, respectful U.S. relations
Cuba reiterated on Tuesday its willingness to engage in dialogue with the United States, just weeks before Republican President Donald Trump assumes office. During his first term, Trump halted the historic rapprochement between the two countries, which had been initiated just ten years earlier by Democrat Barack Obama.
“It will not be Cuba that proposes or takes the initiative to suspend the existing dialogues, to suspend the existing cooperation. Not even the discreet exchanges on some sensitive issues,” said Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos Fernández de Cossío at a press conference in Havana.
“We will be attentive to the attitude of the new government, but Cuba’s stance will remain the same as it has been for the last 64 years. We are willing to develop a serious, respectful relationship with the United States, one that protects the sovereign interests of both countries,” he added.
His statements come on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the historic rapprochement announcement between Washington and Havana.
On December 17, 2014, Cuban leader Raúl Castro (2006-2021) and Barack Obama (2008-2016) announced the beginning of a thaw in relations, which led to the restoration of diplomatic ties in 2015, after more than half a century of confrontation.
This process of thawing bilateral relations was later halted by businessman Donald Trump, who significantly reinforced economic sanctions against the communist-ruled country. The Republican will return to the White House on January 20.
Cuba, under a U.S. trade embargo since 1962, was re-listed in 2021 on the “blacklist of countries supporting terrorism,” blocking financial and economic flows to the island of 10 million inhabitants.
Subsequently, the administration of current Democratic President Joe Biden made only slight adjustments to the sanctions and also kept Cuba on this list. However, his administration resumed bilateral contacts with Havana on migration issues and the fight against terrorism.
International
Mexican government to use church atriums for gun surrender program to combat violence
The atriums of Mexican Catholic churches will be used for the voluntary surrender of weapons in exchange for economic and legal incentives as part of a plan announced on Tuesday by the government to reduce violence.
According to the Mexican government, there is a link between the illegal trafficking of weapons—almost entirely coming from the United States—and the spiral of criminal violence that has plagued the country since late 2006, when a controversial military anti-drug offensive was launched.
“The idea is to set up areas in the church atriums where people can voluntarily surrender their weapons, and in return, they will receive financial resources based on the weapon they are turning in,” explained President Claudia Sheinbaum during her regular press conference.
The left-wing leader emphasized that the program, called “Yes to Disarmament, Yes to Peace,” guarantees that those who surrender their weapons will not face any “investigation.”
“What we want is to disarm. This will be implemented next year. We also did it in Mexico City, and it had significant results,” added the former mayor of the capital, with a population of 9.2 million.
The disarmament plan is part of the government’s “comprehensive security strategy,” one of whose pillars is promoting a culture of peace, especially in regions severely affected by organized crime violence, Sheinbaum pointed out.
More than 450,000 people have been murdered in Mexico since the government launched its military-led anti-drug operation, alongside about 100,000 people who have gone missing.
Despite being a secular state, the Mexican Catholic Church has played a key role in efforts to contain violence, with priests acting as mediators between citizens and criminals. Several clergy members have been killed for this cause.
Just last week, the Catholic hierarchy called on cartels to declare a truce in their violent actions during the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe on December 12 and the upcoming Christmas holidays.
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