Latest news with #AmericanFriendsServiceCommittee
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Gov. Newsom proposes immigrant healthcare cuts to close $12B deficit
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Governor Gavin Newsom is proposing cuts to healthcare for undocumented immigrants to address the state's $12 billion budget deficit next fiscal year. The move marks a significant shift for Newsom, who championed the first-in-the nation law expanding Medi-Cal to include more low-income immigrants last year. He detailed his nearly $322 billion spending plan at a press conference Wednesday morning. 'We're not cutting or rolling back those that are enrolled in our Medi-Cal system. We're just capping it particularly for those without documentation,' Newsom said. His revised 2025-2026 budget includes significant changes to the state-funded insurance program for low-income people. Newsom wants to freeze enrollment for adults 19 and older who are in the country illegally starting next year. The 1.6 million immigrants already signed up would keep their plans, according to CalMatters. 'First immediate reaction is I told you so,' said State Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones, a Republican from San Diego. Jones said he and other Republicans previously warned Newsom about the Medi-Cal expansion and slammed his approach. 'There's still over $11 billion of expenditures for illegal immigrant healthcare, this year in this budget. There's a $12 billion deficit, so they are about even,' Jones said. Starting in 2027, Newsom is also proposing charging a $100 monthly premium to adult Medi-Cal enrollees with 'unsatisfactory immigration status.' 'We believe that people should have some skin in the game as it relates to contributions,' Newsom said. The governor's office estimates the changes would save $5.4 billion by fiscal year 2028-2029. However, some immigrant rights advocates are pushing back. 'If someone doesn't have regular healthcare then they might forgo treatment that they would otherwise need and use the healthcare system only during emergency situations, which could be much costlier for the general public,' said Pedro Rios, director of the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee. There's also the possibility the proposed changes may prompt legal scrutiny. 'This kind of comes back to 'Do you have a right to healthcare?' 'Can the governor do that?' Technically yes, he can roll it back. Will he get hit by a lawsuit? Most-likely yes,' said Immigration law attorney Saman Nasseri. Still others believe the state government needs to rethink how to address their budgetary shortfalls. 'Looking at cutting basic human rights and basic healthcare benefits just is a really cheap way of scapegoating some of the most vulnerable members of our communities,' said Pedro Rios, director of the nonprofit American Friends Service Committee. Meanwhile, budget negotiations are ongoing as the Legislature faces a June 15 deadline to pass a balanced budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Sky News
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Donald Trump's immigration crackdown has changed lives
On the campaign trail Donald Trump promised the biggest mass deportation operation in history, railing against illegal immigration and pledging a crackdown on numbers of people crossing the southern border. Immigrant communities across America were braced for the impact of his second term but few could have predicted the speed and ferocity with which new policies have been enacted in Trump's first 100 days. "I did not expect the administration to be as sophisticated and effective in intimidating millions of people," says Adriana Jasso, who works for a Quaker charity which supports immigrants. American Friends Service Committee used to hand out bottles of water, food and other supplies to immigrants attempting to cross into the United States at the border in San Ysidro, California, the country's biggest port of entry. Hundreds of people would be sandwiched between the huge metal fences, with Mexico on one side and the US on the other, waiting to be processed. Many would be at the end of months-long journeys that were often fraught with danger and would be desperate to contact family and friends at their point of origin. Dozens of hands would poke through gaps in the metal slats, holding out their phones, asking anyone to help charge them. But just a few months into Donald Trump 's second term, a leftover white marquee tent is the only evidence of the charities that used to operate here and the immigrants they supported. Adriana Jasso says her organisation has not seen anyone other than border patrol or construction workers there since mid-February. Additional barbed wire has been added to the fence and a building project is under way to reinforce the metal slats. A helicopter flies overhead, monitoring the perimeter, and a border patrol agent on a quad bike approaches our camera crew asking if we have permission to be at the border. Numbers of immigrants trying to cross into the United States without authorisation had been declining towards the end of the Biden administration but have fallen sharply again since Trump took office. Millions of people voted for Trump, motivated primarily by immigration, and the current situation at the southern border can be viewed as a PR victory for the White House. But even on this signature issue of immigration, one of his biggest strengths, President Trump's approval ratings are declining. Some view him as having gone too far in his efforts to boost deportation numbers. Voters are divided on his strategy of deporting Venezuelan men, who the White House claims are gang members, to a notorious El Salvador prison. 3:49 The high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the White House admitted was deported to El Salvador in an "administrative error" but has not been returned, was a low point. Immigration advocacy groups have also highlighted cases of children who are US citizens being deported with their mothers, who the administration says are in the country illegally. President Trump wasted no time enacting his immigration policy. On inauguration day, he declared a national emergency at the southern border, effectively ending all asylum applications within 13 minutes of becoming president. Sky News was filming inside a migrant shelter in Piedras Negras, a town on the Mexican side of the border from Texas, on Trump's first day. We met Ericka Mendoza, a Guatemalan woman, who was in tears as she explained receiving an email cancelling a long-awaited appointment with immigration officials, which she hoped would lead to her being granted asylum. 3:19 One hundred days later, Mendoza has just moved out of that migrant shelter because she could no longer afford the few dollars a day it costs to stay there. But she remains in Piedras Negras, in the hope the president will change his mind and reopen asylum applications. She is working during the day at a butcher shop "washing rags, sweeping, keeping everything tidy," and at night in a parking garage. Her two sons, aged 10 and 12, are not currently in school and she worries about their education. She says there are far fewer migrants in the town now and she believes some have tried to cross illegally over the Rio Grande river. "A lot of people here, when they saw that the application was shut down, that no appointments were being given and those already scheduled were cancelled, they went with coyotes, smugglers," she says. "They charge between $7,000 dollars to $10,000." Mendoza begins to cry as she contemplates the future. She says she cannot return to Guatemala because she is a victim of domestic violence and her abuser has threatened her safety. "I don't know what I'm going to do," she says. "Not being from this country, people sometimes deny you work. They close the doors. I don't see opportunities here. I try not to think about it because I don't even have anywhere to go. All my hopes collapsed in a moment." With the flick of a pen, Donald Trump likely changed the course of Ericka Mendoza's life and so many others, both inside and outside the United States.
Yahoo
12-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bill levying harsh penalties for drug crimes nears passage in WV, advocates say it's not the answer
Kenny Matthews, a criminal justice advocate with the American Friends Service Committee, testifies in front of the House Judiciary Committee on April 7, 2025, in Charleston, (Perry Bennett | West Virginia Legislative Photography) A bill that drastically increases penalties for certain drug offenses passed the West Virginia House of Delegates on Friday. If signed into law, advocates worry how the new provisions will impact already vulnerable populations, like people who use drugs, who they say are more likely to be incarcerated even if they are not high-level 'dealers.' On Friday, the House passed the bill 98-1, with one member absent and not voting. Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, was the only lawmaker to vote against the legislation. A slightly different version of Senate Bill 196 passed the state Senate earlier this session. Through the committee process in the House, lawmakers amended the bill, removing provisions that required someone to know the drugs they carried or intended to distribute contained fentanyl, which through the bill language levies higher criminal penalties than ever before in the state. In addition, the amended version created a new code section for 'kingpins,' which is defined as people who finance or manage drug conspiracies and as such are subject to enhanced penalties. The current version of the bill added weight requirements for anyone delivering a drug that contains fentanyl to be charged with conspiracy. It also includes language for the crime of delivering a drug that results in someone's death, with increased penalties for failing to render aid to someone who is overdosing. Overall, the bill introduces mandatory minimum sentences into state code for transporting cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and fentanyl into West Virginia and removes alternative sentencing options — like probation or home confinement — for those who are jailed on those charges. The proposed law would increase sentences against those charged with manufacturing, delivering or possessing with the intent to deliver a Schedule I or II narcotic or meth from one to five years up to three to 15 years. Anyone who is charged with those crimes who has more than five grams of fentanyl, among other quantities of other drugs, could face 10 to 30 years in jail. The penalties levied in the bill are based on research from the West Virginia Fusion Center and the State Police showing that West Virginia enforces lower sanctions for certain drug charges than surrounding states. Sen. Vince Deeds, R-Greenbrier, who sponsored the bill, previously told lawmakers that he believes stronger penalties would curb the state's ongoing drug and overdose epidemic. But there is no data that shows stronger drug penalties anywhere curbing overdose or fatality rates related to the drug epidemic. Deeds and other proponents for the bill have said the proposed law is meant to target high-level narcotic dealers and distributors. Deeds told a committee earlier this week that no part of the bill is meant to apply to 'street-level users.' Distinguishing between who would be considered a 'drug user' and a 'drug dealer,' however, is complicated, advocates say. 'Drug dealers often are drug users, and under this law there's no real distinction,' said Jennie Hill, the assistant director for the West Virginia Alliance of Recovery Residences. 'There's no science behind these arguments at all. They said higher punishment will deter crime, but people who use drugs are going to use drugs no matter what. You could give them a death sentence for using fentanyl. If they're addicted to fentanyl, they're still going to carry fentanyl, still going to sell it to support the habit.' And, Hill said, five grams of fentanyl is not a lot for people who are habitual, daily users. Some people, she continued, use five or more grams a day depending on their tolerance; if they're carrying that amount, it's often not because they're dealing it. 'Instead of being able to shoot up once and be high for eight to 10 or 12 hours, like you used to on heroin, it's like you have to get high every two, three or four hours,' Hill said. 'And so if somebody's shooting up every two hours, and they need that much, you're getting into five and seven grams a day personal use.' Hill is in long-term recovery for substance use disorder. Now she works with people who are entering recovery themselves and said it's common for people who aren't traditionally thought of as drug 'dealers' to sell drugs when they're in active addiction. Pushkin, in explaining his vote against the bill, said he worried about challenges making similar distinctions. People who are using drugs and carrying them around are often charged with intent to deliver even if that isn't the case, he said. 'I know who we're trying to go after here, and I fully support that you're trying to go after the big fish,' Pushkin said. 'I think when you cast such a wide net, you're gonna catch some little fish as well.' The drastically increased jail time for such offenses is also a concern for Kenny Matthews, a criminal justice advocate who previously served five years behind bars on a charge of intent to deliver $20 of marijuana and $20 worth of crack cocaine. Matthews, who is in long-term recovery, testified in the House Judiciary Committee against the bill earlier this week. He warned lawmakers that more prison time for people with substance use disorder was only going to cause more problems in the state as it struggles to care for the incarcerated people it already has. When people are released from incarceration, Matthews said, systems often don't exist to set them up for success. '[People] in long-term recovery, we believe in accountability. You're held accountable for your actions. We're not negating that,' Matthews said in an interview after his testimony. 'What we're negating is the fact that you want to throw away somebody for a mistake, whether intentional or not, and you want to over-penalize somebody for not a moral failing, but for a diagnosed disease, like a majority of the people with these possession of intent to delivers have.' Matthews and Hill, along with other advocates who wrote in public comments against the legislation (no comments came in support of the bill), said the only thing that is known to work to decrease the devastation from West Virginia's drug crisis is public health intervention. The state's rate of fatal overdose is already on the decline — a statistic often celebrated by the state's leaders. Harsher penalties for drug possession and use is not the answer to deterring crime or tragedy, said Sara Whitaker, the senior criminal legal policy analyst at the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy. 'The answer is in public health investment. The last few years, we've seen our state — thanks to COVID federal funding — make additional investments in public health resources, in getting opioid reversal drugs into the hands of people who are using and people who care about them, and we've seen the fruits of that,' Whitaker said. 'SB 196 has none of that, and it's not going to change anything for the better.' Following the House's vote Friday, the passage of SB 196 was communicated to the Senate. If the Senate accepts and approves the House's changes to the legislation, the bill will head to Gov. Patrick Morrisey's desk for signage. The 2025 regular session is scheduled to end at midnight on Saturday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Illegal border crossings hit record low in March, says White House
SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — In March, illegal border crossings hit a new record low, according to data from the White House released on Tuesday. According to the new data, Border Patrol encountered 7,181 illegal migrants at the southern border in March, a 95% decrease from 2024, when a reported 137,473 migrants were encountered at the border. The data also shows a 96% decrease since 2023, and a 97% decrease from 2022, when 211,181 illegal migrants were reported. With a little more than two months into the Trump administration, the changes are evident. Local migrant advocacy group, American Friends Service Committee, said they are seeing more enforcement, more wiring getting put on the border wall, a national guard presence, and nearly zero migrants. Whiskey 8, the name for a border wall gate in San Ysidro, used to be a common spot for migrants to gather as they wait to seek asylum. Border Patrol agents stay with stranded Mexican women overnight on Otay Mountain During the end of Title 42 in May 2023, hundreds of migrants waited there for days to be picked up by Border Patrol agents to begin the process to seek asylum. During that time, the American Friends Service Committee, with the help of volunteers, helped with emergency supplies, clothes, food and basic necessities during the time the asylum seekers were waiting. One of their tents remains, but they haven't seen a migrant since mid-February. 'We haven't seen people in a while,' Adriana Jasso, the committee's program coordinator said. Pedro Rios, the director of the committee, said the way migrants are trying to get into the U.S. is changing. 'The past couple of years we have been providing food and water,' Rios said. 'Now we aren't doing that because there just aren't people arriving in the same way.' 'It's a mixed feeling,' Jasso said. 'The setup was to provide a service to people, we don't have people on the other side which is a good thing,' she added. 'But at the same time, I worry that the reinforcement and some of the changes that we see in the landscape could potentially lead to the loss of life.' One migrant dead, another injured in fall from San Diego border wall On Monday night, one person died and another was hurt while trying to climb the wall. Rios said they are seeing less people trying to climb the wall, and more people trying to enter the U.S. through the ocean. 'It's not as common anymore because of the presence of the Mexican National Guard on the south side. They also are preventing certain types of migration patterns that we might have seen in the past, however I don't think it's going to stop everyone trying to scale the border wall,' he added. US Coast Guard 'tripled' personnel to prevent maritime human smuggling The Coast Guard said they have tripled their fleet in the last two months, but Rios said trying to cross through the ocean is extremely dangerous. 'Often times people don't know how to swim, they're not told of what the dangers are, they're not wearing the proper equipment in case they do fall into the ocean. Sometimes boats, which are small Panga boats, are overpacked with people.' The committee said they are shifting more of their efforts for educating migrants already on U.S. soil. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
30-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
California-Mexico border, once overwhelmed, now nearly empty
When the humanitarian aid workers decided to dismantle their elaborate tented setup — erected right up against the border wall — they hadn't seen migrants for a month. A year earlier, when historic numbers of migrants were arriving at the border, the American Friends Service Committee, a national Quaker-founded human rights organization, came to their aid. Eventually the group received enough donations to erect three canopies, where it stored food, clothing and medical supplies. But migrant crossings have slowed to a near halt, bringing a striking change to the landscape along the southernmost stretch of California. Shelters that once received migrants have closed, makeshift camps where migrants waited for processing are barren, and nonprofits have begun shifting their services to established immigrants in the U.S. who are facing deportation, or migrants stuck in southern Mexico. Meanwhile, the Border Patrol, with the assistance of 750 U.S. military troops, has reinforced six miles of the border wall with concertina wire. On a recent day at the aid station erected by the Service Committee a few miles west of the San Ysidro border crossing, just one mostly empty canopy remained. Three aid workers wearing blue surgical gloves were packing up boxes labeled 'kids/hydration," "tea and hot coco"and 'small sweater.' There was no need for them now. Border Patrol agents in the San Diego sector are now making about 30 to 40 arrests per day, according to the agency. That's down from more than 1,200 per day during the height of migrant arrivals to the region in April. Adriana Jasso, who coordinates the U.S.-Mexico program for the Service Committee, recalled that hectic time and the group's aid effort. 'This was the first time we took on this level of providing humanitarian aid,' Jasso said. But these days, she said, 'it's the closing of an experience — for now. Because life can be unpredictable.' In May 2023, the Biden administration ended a pandemic-era policy under which migrants were denied the right to seek asylum and were rapidly returned to Mexico. In the leadup to the policy change, migrants descended on the border by the thousands. Two parallel fences make up much of the border barrier near San Diego. Asylum seekers began scaling the fence closest to Mexico and handing themselves over to Border Patrol agents, who would tell them to wait there between both fences for processing. Days often passed before agents returned to the area, known as Whiskey 8. In the meantime, Jasso and her colleagues doled out hot instant soup, fresh fruit and backpacks through the slots in the fence. The last time Jasso saw any migrants there was Feb. 15 — a 20-person group made up mostly of men from India and China. Then a storm came in, dislodging two of the canopies. Jasso and her team took that as a sign to tear the rest of it down. The stench of the contaminated Tijuana River wafted in the morning air as Jasso hauled out a plastic shelving unit from the canopy. Inside the canopy, one of the last remaining items was a stuffed Minnie Mouse, her bubblegum pink shoes shaded gray with dirt. A young girl had handed it to Jasso through the fence. 'Border Patrol refused to let her take it,' Jasso said. 'I promised her I would take care of it and that somebody would love it as she did.' Just as Jasso was packing up at Whiskey 8, Border Patrol held a news conference a few miles away. Parked against the border wall, east of the San Ysidro border crossing, a Border Patrol SUV and a green Humvee served as a backdrop to illustrate the partnership between the departments of Homeland Security and Defense. A gate in the barrier opened and Border Patrol, Marines and Army officials showed reporters how both fences were now sheathed in concertina wire. Loud music could be heard from Tijuana, where construction workers were building an elevated highway right up against the wall separating Mexico from the U.S. Troops created an 'obstacle design' by welding metal rods to the top of the fence, pointing toward Mexico, and attaching more layers of wire over that. Jeffrey Stalnaker, acting chief patrol agent of the San Diego sector, said the additional wire, installed since troops arrived on Jan. 23, has slowed illegal entries. Stalnaker said federal prosecutors in San Diego had also accepted more than 1,000 border-related criminal cases this fiscal year. And following Trump's tariff threats, Mexico vowed to send 10,000 National Guard troops to its northern border. Those troops now meet with U.S. agents a few times a week and conduct synchronous patrols on their respective sides of the border, Stalnaker said. 'What we see behind us here today is the result of a true whole-of-government effort, from the Marines laying down miles of concertina wire along the border infrastructure, to the soldiers manning our scope trucks and remote video surveillance cameras,' he said. Only Border Patrol agents can arrest migrants entering the country illegally, but Stalnaker said that using military personnel to detect migrants has freed agents to spend more time in the field. Last April, San Diego became the top region along the border for migrant arrivals for the first time in decades. Stalnaker said there's been a 70% decrease in migrant arrests so far this fiscal year, compared to the same period last year. 'To say there has been a dramatic change would be an understatement,' he said. But Stalker noted that Border Patrol expects an increase in attempts by migrants to enter California by boat 'as we continue to lock down the border here and secure it.' Farther east, Jacumba Hot Springs was once the site of additional open-air camps, where hundreds of migrants slept on plastic tarps (or in tents, if they were lucky) and huddled around campfires fueled by brush to stay warm. Sam Schultz, a retired international relief worker who has lived near Jacumba for nine years, once made daily deliveries of water, hot meals and blankets to migrants there. When the camps popped up a few miles from his home, he felt compelled to help. The tents that once covered a camp site just off Old Highway 80 are gone. Schultz's son recently hauled them away because they're no longer needed. Schultz still visits three sites a few times a week to check if water left out for migrants needs replenishing. 'The water hasn't been touched,' he said. Legal aid and humanitarian organizations that helped migrants have shifted their operations away from the border. Immigrant Defenders Law Center, headquartered in Los Angeles, served migrants who were bused there from the border by the Texas governor; the group also provided legal help to those waiting in Tijuana for appointments with Customs and Border Protection. After his inauguration, President Trump quickly canceled existing appointments and ended use of a phone application used by the Biden administration to schedule them. Lindsay Toczylowski,the law center's co-founder and CEO, said that since arrests by immigration agents have increased around Los Angeles, the organization has begun to focus on defending recently detained immigrants from deportation. Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado, said many of those deported to Mexico are being sent farther south, so there aren't as many people stuck in Tijuana. She said the organization has brought staff to Mexico City and to Tapachula, which borders Guatemala. Pinheiro said the San Ysidro-based organization recently scaled up a project supporting non-Spanish-speaking migrants in Mexico — refugees who now cannot seek asylum in the U.S. but also can't safely return to their country of origin. The American Friends Service Committee has also shifted its work to focus on offering 'know your rights' presentations at schools, churches and community centers. But back at Whiskey 8, Jasso said the organization will continue offering direct humanitarian aid to migrants moving forward. She recalled learning about three migrants who died earlier this month in the Otay Mountain wilderness after calling for help during a storm that brought near-freezing temperatures to the harsh terrain. With migrants now unable to seek legal ways of entering the U.S. through the asylum process, advocates anticipate that more will begin to risk their lives by attempting to enter illegally through more remote and dangerous terrain. Some desperate enough might even try to jump over all the newly installed concertina wire. Get the L.A. Times Politics newsletter. Deeply reported insights into legislation, politics and policy from Sacramento, Washington and beyond, in your inbox twice per week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
