ON THE BORDER - Asylum Seekers

Again, I do not dislike the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) on principle.  I DO dislike how some Boarder Patrol Agents act, they have in effect become Trump's Storm Troopers treating all immigrants as criminals (5 year old children?!) just because they are seeking a better life in America.  Asylum is the law and Asylum seekers should NOT be treated as criminals.

"What’s happening to U.S. asylum seekers forced to wait in Mexico" PBS NewsHour 2/14/2020

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SUMMARY:  A new report from Human Rights Watch finds that the Trump administration’s controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy forces asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border to wait in crowded, unsafe and unsanitary conditions.  Many said they lived in constant fear of violence, with some reporting that they had actually been attacked.  Amna Nawaz speaks with Human Rights Watch's Michael Garcia Bochenek.

CARTEL LAND - Mexico's Failed Capture

"Mexico failed to capture the son of ‘El Chapo.’ Can it contain drug cartels?" PBS NewsHour 10/18/2019

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SUMMARY:  Mexico’s president defended his security forces Friday for releasing the son of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after they caught him, when members of the cartel opened fire and seized soldiers.  Analysts say the failed raid casts doubt on the Mexican government’s ability to contain drug violence.  Nick Schifrin reports on the significance for the U.S. fight against illegal narcotics.

THE POLITICS OF ART - Artist Joaquin Segura

"Why Mexican artist Joaquin Segura doesn’t think politics solves problems" PBS NewsHour 9/5/2019

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SUMMARY:  Modern Mexico faced profound change 100 years ago, when revolution toppled a dictatorship, and the country has remained in a state of political evolution ever since.  Mexico City native Joaquin Segura draws inspiration from the growing pains of the region around him, weaving powerful social commentary into his contemporary art.  NPR correspondent Lulu Garcia Navarro has Segura’s story.

BORDER BATTLE - U.S.-Mexico Deal vs Immigration

"Will U.S.-Mexico deal reduce immigration?  A report from 2 borders" PBS NewsHour 6/10/2019

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SUMMARY:  President Trump announced Friday that he had struck a deal with Mexico both to stem the flow of immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. and to avoid levying tariffs on Mexican imports.  Nick Schifrin talks to the NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz, reporting from El Paso, and James Frederick, a journalist based in Mexico City, about the details of the agreement and the outlook for meaningful change.

OPINION - Shields and Wehner 6/7/2019

"Shields and Wehner on Trump’s tariff threat, Biden’s abortion rule reversal" PBS NewsHour 6/7/2019

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SUMMARY:  Syndicated columnist Mark Shields and Peter Wehner of The New York Times join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week’s news, including President Donald Trump's threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods, former Vice President Joe Biden's policy reversal on an abortion rule, plus remembering D-Day 75 years later.

Judy Woodruff (NewsHour):  President Trump's ongoing threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods, Joe Biden's policy reversal, and remembering D-Day 75 years later.

It's been a busy week in politics,.  and we have Shields and Wehner here to analyze it all.  That's syndicated columnist Mark Shields and contributing opinion writer for The New York Times Peter Wehner.

And hello to both of you…

Mark Shields, syndicated columnist:  Judy.

Peter Wehner, New York Times:  Thank you.

Judy Woodruff:  … on this Friday.

Let's start by talking about, Mark, what we led with tonight, which is — we started talking about the jobs report today, but connecting it to this threat of tariffs on Mexico that the President has been talking about foe days.

Now, the latest word we're hearing is maybe it won't happen, but it's thrown a lot of people off-balance, Congress, Mexico, a lot of companies.  How do you assess the President's handling of this?

Mark Shields:  Judy, it's the President.  It's the way the President does it.  It's very personal.  It's high-risk.

It's not traditional.  We're talking our two biggest trading partners, Mexico and China.  And, right now, I think what we're facing is probably best put by Angus King [D-Me], the senator from Maine, who pointed out that 84 percent of the lobster business in Maine has already been lost because of the policy to Canada, and the unlikelihood of that getting back.

And for the first time, I have seen a little bit of resistance, a little bit of vertebrae on the part of farm state Republicans.  I think that — but I predict right now, with absolutely no knowledge, that the President will declare victory, and there will be something.

But I can't believe it's going to do anything but leave relations with Mexico, which had been improving over the past 30 years, in just terrible and worse shape.

Judy Woodruff:  How do you size up with the President's been saying and how he's handled this?

Peter Wehner:  I think Mark is right.  There's a lot of volatility in this.

Trump has a tropism for tariffs, if I can use that alliteration.  It's one of the few issues that he's had deep convictions for his entire life.  It's hard to tell if he thinks it's a means or an end.

If it's an end, we're in real trouble, because tariffs are taxes.  It would hurt the economy.  And it would create a lot of uncertainty in the market.

And the other thing — last thing that Mark said, which I think is extremely important, in some ways the most important part of this story, which is the damage that it's doing to the relations with Mexico.  That has been a tremendous achievement, bipartisan achievement, over the last several decades.

Mark Shields:  Yes.

Judy Woodruff:  Mexico is an ally.

Peter Wehner:  It is an ally.

But the relations are getting distant and icy.  And, in fact, if you study what's going on in Mexico, you see this stoking, that Trump is stoking anti-American resentment.

And if that relationship goes south, so to speak, that is going to have a lot of ramifications that are harmful, economic, security and otherwise.

Judy Woodruff:  But, Mark, you're saying — when you say you think the President may back off and accept whatever Mexico offers, is it — how much of that has to do with the politics of this, that he is running into headwinds from members of his own arty?

Mark Shields:  No, I think there are, and I think in the farm state — and they are states that he has to carry, quite frankly, in November 2020.

But I think he has shown that ability or the agility, I should say, to declare victory.

Judy Woodruff:  And, I mean, do you agree with Mark, that what we may see is the President's had everybody on the edge of their seats, but now we will see?

Peter Wehner:  I suspect that is — I suspect that's right, that it's such a question mark.

I mean, one of the, I guess, motifs of the Trump presidency is, he will be reckless, or wants to be reckless, and his aides try and stop him.  And sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't.

But I do agree with Mark that, whatever happens, Trump will declare victory.  It doesn't have to be rooted in reality.  It's just rooted somewhere in his own — in his own weird mind.

Judy Woodruff:  Well, we will…

(LAUGHTER)

BORDER BATTLE - Mexico

"Why Trump’s Mexico tariff idea is widely opposed" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2019

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SUMMARY:  President Trump has long praised the use of tariffs, but his new threat to Mexico took many people by surprise.  Trump said he will levy a 5 percent tariff on Mexican imports as of June 10 unless the country curbs immigration to the U.S.  The proposal drew widespread bipartisan criticism from lawmakers, who predicted U.S. consumers would bear its cost.  Yamiche Alcindor joins Amna Nawaz to discuss.

"Why this former U.S. ambassador thinks Trump’s tariffs won’t achieve immigration goals" PBS NewsHour 5/31/2019

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SUMMARY:  This spring, around 100,000 migrants per month have been caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.  With a proposed 5 percent tariff on imports from Mexico, one of the largest U.S. trading partners, President Trump wants to leverage economic power to reduce that flow.  But will the strategy work?  Amna Nawaz talks to Ambassador John Feeley, a former U.S. envoy to Panama, for analysis.

IMMIGRATION - Will 'Dreamers' Have no Home?

"Some ‘Dreamers’ face painful reality of no country to call home" PBS NewsHour 5/20/2019

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SUMMARY:  The immigration policies of the Trump administration have dramatically changed life for young undocumented Mexicans who came to the U.S. as children.  Under DACA, which President Obama implemented in 2012, they were protected from deportation.  Now, many have been forced out of the U.S. or left out of fear of deportation, finding they belong in neither country.  NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro reports.

KINGPIN ON TRIAL - Trial of 'El Chapo'

"The ‘remarkable’ courtroom revelations in trial of ‘El Chapo’" PBS NewsHour 1/21/2019

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SUMMARY:  Joaquín Guzmán, commonly known as the Mexican drug lord “El Chapo,” is on trial in federal court in New York City for running a multimillion-dollar narcotics operation across the United States border.  Keegan Hamilton of VICE [News] joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss El Chapo's violent legacy as head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, how the FBI eventually tracked him down and the dramatic courtroom revelations.