Author: Reporter

Title 42: How the Trump administration used an obscure 1944 public health law to curb migration

This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years. The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health. The end of Title 42’s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the Mexico-United States border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants. A look at what Title 42 is...

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Desperate to reach U.S. soil: How Ukrainians fleeing Russia’s brutal invasion influenced border policies

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, refugees from the threatened nation started showing up at Mexico’s border with the United States. Roughly 1,000 Ukrainians a day flew to Tijuana on tourist visas, desperate to reach U.S. soil. The volume was overwhelming the nation’s busiest border crossing in San Diego. In Tijuana, thousands of Ukrainians slept in a municipal gym hoping for a chance to cross into the U.S. In response, the administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainians for two years — if they applied online, had a financial backer and entered through an airport. At the same...

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Data released by FBI shows hate crimes across America escalated at alarming rate in 2021

The number of hate crimes in the U.S. jumped again in 2021, continuing an alarming rise, according to FBI data released March 20. The nearly 12% increase marks a reversal of a previous, incomplete report from the agency that appeared to show a drop but was missing data from some of the nation’s largest cities, including New York and Los Angeles. The hate crime numbers now include those and other large departments, and the total is the highest level in decades, said Brian Levin, the director of the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State...

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Excavated remains: Forensic investigators move closer to identifying victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

A forensic anthropologist believes investigators are a step closer to identifying victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with the discovery of 19 surnames possibly connected to remains excavated from a Tulsa cemetery. Although the six bodies associated with the names are not confirmed massacre victims, nor do they show signs of trauma such as gunshot wounds, identifying them would provide a possible roadmap to the most likely areas of the cemetery to search for victims, according to Phoebe Stubblefield. Identifying the remains would help lead to death certificates that contain the date of death, indicating when the person...

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Crowd-sourced blanket project aims to welcome refugees and immigrants with hand-crocheted gifts

“Welcome to the USA,” says a note attached to a hand-crocheted blanket of purple, white and gray stripes. Hollie Shaner-McRae, of Burlington, who made the blanket as a gift for a refugee, wrote of her great-grandparents coming to the United States from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. One great-grandfather was a tailor and the other was a barrel maker, she wrote. “Both were so brave and came to America as teenagers,” she wrote in the note. “I hope you make friends and feel safe here,” Shaner-McRae wrote to whomever would receive the blanket. “Vermont is blessed to have new families...

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The carnage continues: Even experts seek answers to why America is plagued with so many mass killings

More than five years after his son was gunned down in the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history, Richard Berger still asks why. Why Stephen Berger was killed the day after celebrating his 44th birthday. Why the gunman rained bullets over the Las Vegas Strip in 2017, turning a country music festival into a bloodbath. Why the massacre’s death toll didn’t shock U.S. leaders into doing more to prevent that kind of violence from happening again and again. Why? “It’s just a hole in our hearts,” Berger said. “We just don’t know, and we just don’t know...

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