New DHS rule threatens access to green cards for immigrants using some public programs

by the El Reportero’s wire services

The Trump administration on Aug. 12 finalized a rule which creates additional hurdles for those who’ve waited years to legally stay in the United States. This “public charge” rule expands the list of public programs the government will consider in deciding some immigration applications. The programs will now include certain health care, nutrition, and housing programs. The proposed rule does not apply to those applying for citizenship, humanitarian migrants such as refugees and asylees, and those applying to renew their DACA.

The new rule requires that future receipt of certain kinds of government programs – namely Medicaid, nutrition assistance (SNAP), and public housing (Section 8) – will factor into the determination by immigration officials of who gets a green card. The rule does not go into effect today – there is a 60-day waiting period before the rule is enacted. In the meantime, multiple legal challenges are likely which could lead to further delays.

Advocates and experts emphasize that individuals should not take immediate action if they are currently participating in government programs since the DHS rule does not apply retroactively. Advocates and experts encourage individuals to use caution when deciding whether to participate in certain programs, making sure that they have the information they need to make informed decisions.

PAHO keeps alert for dengue epidemic in Latin America

The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is maintaining an alert for the growing dengue epidemic in Latin America and the Caribbean, with more than 720 deaths from January to July.

So far this year, more than two million dengue patients have been reported in the region, where 70 percent of the population lives in conditions favorable to the spread of the disease, transmitted by the Aeges Egypti mosquito.

Nicaragua, Brazil, Honduras, Belize, Colombia, El Salvador, Paraguay, Guatemala and Mexico are the countries most affected by the new outbreak, PAHO said in its alert.

Dr. Jose Luis San Martin, PAHO’s regional dengue advisor, said the alert was issued in response to an increase in dengue cases in Latin America and the Caribbean.

We also noted, he said, an increase in deaths, especially in children under 15, a group that regularly had not been affected, so the warning was considered necessary.

Explaining the increase in the number of infected people, San Martin said that in the more than 300 years of dengue presence in the region and after its re-emergence three decades ago, there are epidemic cycles repeated every three or five years, with an equal duration of time, which is why the region is currently in the fourth year after it had a major outbreak in 2015 with more than two million cases.

5 years after Ayotzinapa, Iguala’s ex-mayor, wife still in jail awaiting trial

Their daughter says authorities have failed to respect their right to the presumption of innocence

The former mayor of Iguala, Guerrero, and his wife have now spent almost five years in jail awaiting trial in the case of the 43 students who disappeared in September 2014.

José Luis Abarca Velázquez and María de los Angeles Pineda, a former regional president of the DIF family services agency, are accused of masterminding the attacks in Iguala against students from the Ayotzinapa teacher training college.

Six people were killed on the night of September 26, 2014, and 43 students were allegedly handed over to the Guerreros Unidos drug gang by municipal police before they were killed.

Abarca and Pineda, who were allegedly complicit with the Guerrero Unidos’ criminal activities, evaded capture for more than a month but were arrested in Mexico City on November 4, 2014.

Yesterday, less than three months before the fifth anniversary of their detention, the couple’s daughter took to social media to denounce what she says has been a failure to respect her parents’ right to the presumption of innocence.

. . . In the previous six-year term [of the federal government], they didn’t care that my parents were innocent of what they were accused of, they concealed evidence, altered files and altered the dates of hearings so that they didn’t occur,” Yazareth Abarca Pineda wrote on Facebook.

“They’ve been prisoners in maximum security jails for almost five years without guarantees, without medical care, without their children,” she added.

“. . . Let justice be served, for once in the history of this country, let’s allow one single thing to be done well and with honesty.”

In hashtags added to her post, Abarca Pineda claimed that her parents are political prisoners.

In addition to defending the innocence of the so-called “Imperial Couple” of Iguala, Abarca Pineda has also initiated legal action in a Mexico City court aimed at recovering assets seized from her parents.