Walkthrough
Louisiana Senator Criticised For 'vulgar And Racist' Comment About Mexicans Eating Cat Food
© AFP via Getty Images GettyImages-1248536969.Jpg A Republican senator found his own efforts to paint himself as a reasonable moderate under question by none other than Fox News on Wednesday.
Speaking on Your World with Neil Cavuto, Louisiana's John Kennedy found himself in the hot seat and facing a line of questioning about an off-colour remark he had made about the state of Mexico's economy, wherein he had suggested that people in the country would be reduced to eating pet food were it not for US foreign aid.
Mr Kennedy's original remark had been made during a Senate hearing.
"Without the people of America, Mexico, figuratively speaking, would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback [Steakhouse restaurant]," said the senator.
The remark was insulting to say the least, given the US's close relationship with Mexico's government and the fact that the bulk of the US aid to Mexico is centred around the issue of helping the country deal with a constant, massive stream of US-bound migrants, most of whom actually begin their journeys elsewhere in Central or South America.
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The country also remains plagued by drug cartels whose power in some areas rivals that of the federal government; those cartels are fueled by buyers in the United States and elsewhere.
Mexico's ambassador to the United States had previously denounced Mr Kennedy's remark as "vulgar and racist".
On Wednesday, Cavuto grilled Mr Kennedy over whether he should apologise, and whether the remark undermined his efforts to paint himself as apart from what he called the "loony" far-right and far-left wings of the Republican and Democratic parties, respectively.
"You know, Senator, you mentioned the loon wings in each party. As you know, Democrats have been coming out and pouncing on your remarks regarding Mexico in which you said without us, the Mexicans 'would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback.'"
"Well, I love the people of Mexico," Mr Kennedy responded. "I hate the cartels. President [Andres Manuel] Lopez Obrador, who is the president of Mexico, he ran on a slogan with respect to the cartels of 'hugs not bullets.' Well, that's not working out too well for him."
Mr Cavuto continued to press him on whether the original remarks were a mistake, and whether he should have offered that more nuanced explanation to begin with.
He also questioned whether Mr Kennedy had a response to those, including the ambassador, who accused him of denigrating the Mexican people.
"I would say that's not true," the senator shot back.
The US is currently faced with the effects of the end of Title 42, a legal authority that the federal government used throughout the Covid-19 pandemic to expel or deny entry to large numbers of immigrants seeking asylum. Illegal border crossings continue in high numbers, though Department of Homeland Security officials say that an initial spike that coincided with Title 42's end is subsiding.
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Cat Dies In $750,000-plus Monona House Fire, Authorities Say
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A cat died in a fire early Tuesday morning that did more than $750,000 damage to a Monona house, the Monona Fire Department reported.
Fire crews were sent to a home in the 5400 block of Pheasant Hill Road at about 3 a.M. Tuesday for a possible structure fire with flames and smoke showing, Fire and EMS Chief Jeremy McMullen said in a statement.
Firefighters found the garage and a camper in the driveway on fire, and heavy fire pushing into the house. Firefighters attacked the fire and knocked it down quickly, both inside and outside, McMullen said.
The family was able to escape from the house with a pet, and there were no injuries, but a cat was found unresponsive and died despite lifesaving efforts, McMullen said.
The cause of the fire is undetermined, but the fire started in the garage and appears to be unintentional, McMullen said.
Agencies that assisted in the effort included the McFarland, Maple Bluff, Fitchburg, and Madison fire departments, Fitch-Rona EMS, Monona police, Monona Public Works and MGE.
Cat-and-mouse: After Title 42, Human Smuggling Is Flourishing, And Prices Are Jumping
© Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS Smugglers traverse the rocky terrain along the Mexican side of the New Mexico/ Texas border. SUNLAND PARK, N.M.— The scrawny teenager boasted he was the best option for migrants heading north from Mexico to this small border city just west of El Paso.
He was a self-described old-school coyote, a smuggler of human beings benefiting from a surge in popularity in a decades-old trade.
"Here we do things the old-fashioned way: We run like hell," said Saul, known in this treacherous terrain as a coyotito, a juvenile smuggler. Saul asked that his last name not be used because of his work zig-zagging across both sides of the border. He sneaks migrants to a large gap near the 30-foot border fence or coaches them to use flimsy ladders to jump over.
Business has spiked since a pandemic-linked health policy known as Title 42 was lifted May 11. The health rule had allowed border agents to quickly expel migrants back to Mexico.
Human smuggling is flourishing, prices are jumping and confusion reigns over what legal pathway a migrant might try.
"I see a rise in smugglers, the old cat-and-mouse game," said Howard Campbell, border anthropologist at the University of Texas at El Paso. "As someone who has studied the border and Mexico for the last 40 years, I am stumped. No one knows what the hell is going on. It all depends on the whims of U.S. And Mexican policymakers."
Border smuggling fees can cost $1,500 to $5,000 just to cross the Rio Grande or the land border in New Mexico, migrants and authorities interviewed in the last two weeks told The Dallas Morning News.
The other choice for migrants: a glitchy smartphone app run by the U.S. Government for crucial appointments that could lead to legal entry, especially for asylum. Appointments are priceless on the government app CBP One, named after U.S. Customs and Border Protection, with about 1,070 slots available daily.
In the tense days leading up to the lifting of Title 42, encounters with migrants leaped to more than 10,000 a day, U.S. Government officials said. The encounters have plummeted to 3,000 in recent days.
Why the decline? Toughened enforcement with consequences, officials said.
Under Title 42, immigrants didn't face legal consequences and were quickly expelled. Now, with the pivot to existing immigration laws, certain immigrants could be barred from reentering the U.S. For at least five years. The U.S. Has also placed tougher conditions on asylum-seekers.
But the U.S. Government also created other legal pathways for immigrants from Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and Nicaragua. Under that measure, up to 30,000 people monthly from those countries can get special U.S. Travel authorization, if they pass background checks and have a financial sponsor.
© Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS Rick, an Anapra resident on the outskirts of Juarez, Mexico, is pictured through the border wall where he resides. He lived in Kansas City before being deported back to Mexico 12 years ago. He tries to convince migrants camping along his property to rethink their position to cross into the U.S.. Homeland Security officials also credited stronger enforcement by the governments of Mexico and Guatemala. On May 22, Mexican police cleared out a migrant camp in downtown Ciudad Juárez, a location favored because of the WiFi access needed for the CBP One app.
Cat-and-mouse gameSmugglers remain a challenge for governments. It's a constant cat-and-mouse game across this desolate stretch of border in New Mexico across the sands of the Chihuahuan Desert.
© Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS A U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent patrols the border wall seperating Anapra, Chihuahua, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, May 12, 2023. Three juveniles, self-described smugglers, asked a reporter and photographer to leave the area so "we can do our job."
Saul said he and his partners had two families from Central America who needed to try to cross into the U.S. At the intersection of New Mexico, Texas and the Mexican state of Chihuahua, a popular area used by smugglers. His partners kept an eye on U.S. Border Patrol agents who hid about 300 yards away. A train rolled by with wheels screeching under a scorching sun.
The coyotitos waited. Patience was key. It can take minutes, or sometimes hours, Saul said, again urging journalists to leave.
Days later, Saul and a youth named Elias, who also looked underage, guided a group, including a mother and three sons. Elias declined to give his surname.
"Over the last week, we've been contacted by more families who want to evade authorities and get to their destination in the United States," Elias said.
The smugglers peered across the New Mexican landscape and didn't like what they saw. They rushed back to the Mexican side. A U.S. Government helicopter hovered over Mount Cristo Rey, an iconic shrine in Sunland Park. A Border Patrol van left a trail of dust.
It's a scene that one of the Mexican neighbors sees replayed often. Rick, a former Mexican immigrant, lived in Kansas City for 36 years before being deported back to Mexico. For the past 12 years, he has lived in Anapra, Mexico, on the outskirts of Ciudad Juárez and directly across from Sunland Park.
"I tell them the United States is not the country it was once," said Rick, who asked that his full name not be shared because of fears of persecution by gang members in the area. He spoke through a 30-foot-wall border barrier. "They still need you, but there is too much hatred. I tell them it was hard for me to come back, too, but somehow I have made it work."
© Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS In hopes of moving migrants, smugglers on the outskirts of Juarez study the terrain where the border wall ends at the end of the Texas/ New Mexico border in Sunland Park, New Mexico, May 12, 2023. He pointed to a small shack behind him. "I used to make about $800 in construction in the United States," he said. "I now make $80, but I have been able to buy my own piece of land and slowly build my little house. It's not much, but it's mine."
© Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News/TNS Smugglers at the New Mexico/ Texas border study the terrain in hopes of moving families across now that Title 42 has expired in Sunland Park, New Mexico, May 12, 2023. Rick said he lives there with his wife. He has children and grandchildren back in Kansas City. He points to Border Patrol agents, U.S. Drones and a helicopter hovering above. "All the deterrence will not stop desperate people from trying to get across," Rick said.
"Desperation can also be deadly," he said, pointing at the U.S. Barrier and sprawling desert, explaining he's seen men and women fall to their deaths when they jump from cheap ladders to the New Mexico soil.
In the past two weeks, with temperatures rising, the Sunland Park Fire Department has recovered five bodies "believed to be migrants," said Chief Daniel Medrano, adding the number of fatalities is "unusual" as the region has yet to hit triple-digit temperatures.
Decades of boom timesBoom times never really faded for smugglers, immigration experts say.
"Smugglers have always used any change on the border or any new policy, whether it's in effect or only a remote possibility, or still blocked in court, as opportunity to make the case for their services," said leva Jusionyte, a Brown University associate professor of international security and anthropology and author of the book "Threshold: Emergency Responders on the U.S.-Mexico Border."
"It is no wonder that the end of Title 42 and the confusion over what that means for which category of migrants make it a good selling point for smugglers," she said, adding that prices also depend on what criminal organization controls what portion of the border.
In Dallas, at a migrant day shelter at the Oak Lawn United Methodist Church, the Rev. Isabel Márquez attends to newcomers from Venezuela, Colombia and other countries. If you ask about smugglers and rising prices, the pastor just shakes her head.
"They said they paid $3,000 to $5,000 for coyotes to [help them cross], and some abandoned them," she said.
That's just to cross the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo, as it's known in Mexico. One desperate migrant told her he forked over $7,000 for such a crossing. "They are willing to pay, because the coyote said they will get them to their family," Márquez said. "They say, 'You just walk two minutes and then you'll be in Houston.' ''
In the past two weeks, migrants at the day shelter told their stories on condition their surnames not be used, because they planned to file difficult asylum cases. A 42-year-old Venezuelan man named Jean said a smuggler in Ciudad Juárez wanted $1,500 to take him across the river to El Paso. Then the smuggler asked to take a video of him and other migrants individually.
This was a kidnapping set-up with potential extortion to his family back in the homeland, he suspected.
He made a dash for the border gates without smuggler help. "We entered illegally," he said. "The Border Patrol grabbed me."
Soon, he was processed by U.S. Authorities and released on May 9 with a notice to appear in federal immigration court next year in Houston. That was two days before the lifting of Title 42.
Now, he wants to get his wife to the U.S. But first he must find a job. He ticks off all the things he can do, including construction work and cooking. "Nothing in life is free," he said.
A gaunt Salvadoran man named Melvin said smugglers in Juárez asked for $3,000 to get him across the river. He said he balked at paying.
Another Venezuelan named Jefferson said he was threatened to pay the smuggling fee by men with guns "of all sizes." Trim and athletic, Jefferson said he opted for running toward the El Paso bridge.
That was the first of May. Today, he clutches precious documents like a trophy. The documents detail his court date, Sept. 27, 2023, in New York, his final destination.
©2023 The Dallas Morning News. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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