Reunification prospects unclear for freed immigrant parents
EL PASO, Texas — A Texas charitable organization says 32 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border were freed into its care Sunday, but they don’t know where their kids are or when they might see them again despite government assurances that family reunification would be well organized.
The release is believed to be the first, large one of its kind since President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that preserved a “zero-tolerance” policy for entering the country illegally but ended the practice of separating immigrant parents and children. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered no immediate comment.
Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, said the group of both mothers and fathers includes some from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who arrived to his group after federal authorities withdrew criminal charges for illegal entry. He didn’t release names or personal details to protect the parents’ privacy, and Homeland Security officials said they needed more specifics in order to check out their cases.
A Saturday night fact sheet by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies said authorities know the location of all children in custody after separating them from their families at the border and are working to reunite them. It called the reunification process “well coordinated.”
It also said parents must request that their child be deported with them. In the past, the fact sheet says, many parents elected to be deported without their children. That may be a reflection of violence or persecution they face in their home countries.
Pentagon says 2 bases to house immigrants
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — The Pentagon is preparing to build temporary camps for immigrants at two military bases, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Sunday.
He did not name the two bases, but said the details are being worked out, including how much capacity is needed. The Pentagon had initially talked about four potential bases, but Mattis indicated the number is now two.
The Pentagon last week said it would make space available on military bases for as many as 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children detained after illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. It wasn’t clear Sunday if the housing would be limited strictly to children or if it would also involve families.
Speaking to reporters traveling with him to Asia on Sunday, Mattis said the military has housed people in the past, including Vietnamese fleeing their country as well as Americans needing shelter in the wake of natural disasters.
“We consider that to be a logistics function that’s quite appropriate” for the department, Mattis said.
Erdogan proclaimed winner of Turkey’s presidential election
ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was proclaimed the winner early Monday of a landmark election that ushers in a government system granting the president sweeping new powers and which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule.
The presidential vote and a parliamentary election, both held more than a year early, completed NATO-member Turkey’s transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, a process started with a voter referendum last year.
“The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty,” Erdogan said in televised remarks from Istanbul after a near-complete count carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency gave him the majority needed to avoid a runoff.
The head of Turkey’s Supreme Election Council, Sadi Guven, declared Erdogan the winner early Monday after 97.7 percent of votes had been counted. The electoral board plans to announce final official results on June 29.
Based on unofficial results, five parties passed the 10 percent support threshold required for parties to enter parliament, Guven said.
Mattis seeks less contentious visit with Chinese
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis laid out plans for a less contentious, more open dialogue with Chinese leaders as he travels to Asia, less than a month after he slammed Beijing at an international conference for its militarization of islands in the South China Sea.
Speaking to reporters on his plane Sunday en route to a stop in Alaska, Mattis avoided any of the sharp criticism of China that he had voiced recently. Instead, he insisted that he is going into the talks with Chinese leaders without any preconceived notions, and wants to focus on larger, more strategic security issues.
According to officials, a key topic of the discussions later this week will be the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the role China can play, considering its longstanding friendship with North Korea.
“I want to go in right now without basically poisoning the well at this point. I’m going there to have a conversation,” said Mattis. “I do not want to immediately go in with a certain preset expectation of what they are going to say. I want to go in and do a lot of listening.”
Mattis’ more diplomatic tack reflects the U.S. administration’s recognition of China’s crucial influence on Korea as negotiations move ahead to get North Korea to abandon its nuclear program.
California wildfires destroy buildings, force evacuations
CLEARLAKE OAKS, Calif. — Wind-driven wildfires destroyed buildings and threatened hundreds of others Sunday as they raced across dry brush in rural Northern California.
The Pawnee Fire that broke out Saturday near the community of Clearlake Oaks has destroyed 12 buildings and threatened an additional 600 as it burned out of control across about 12 square miles. Authorities ordered people to evacuate all homes in the Spring Valley area, where about 3,000 people live.
“What we’re stressing is that people, when they get the evacuation order, they heed it immediately and get out and stay out until it is safe to return,” state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Battalion Chief Jonathan Cox said. “This is one of four large fires burning in Northern California. It’s a good reminder that fire season is upon us.”
From wire sources
Erratic wind and heat gripping a swath of California from San Jose to the Oregon border drove the flames, which were north of the wine country region where devastating wildfires killed 44 people and destroyed thousands of homes and businesses last October.
Farther north, a fire spanning about three-quarters of a mile in Tehama County destroyed “multiple residential and commercial buildings,” Cal Fire said. But firefighters appeared to be making good progress — the Stoll Fire was halfway contained and some evacuees were allowed to return home, authorities said.
Trump tells Jimmy Fallon to ‘be a man’ over hair-mussing
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is telling “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon to “be a man” and stop “whimpering” about the personal anguish he felt over the backlash he received after messing up Trump’s hair during a 2016 campaign appearance on Fallon’s late-night talk show.
Fallon recently told The Hollywood Reporter that he “made a mistake” on the Sept. 15, 2016, episode and would do it differently.
The comments didn’t appear to sit well with Trump.
The president tweeted Sunday: “.@jimmyfallon is now whimpering to all that he did the famous “hair show” with me (where he seriously messed up my hair), &that he would have now done it differently because it is said to have “humanized” me-he is taking heat. He called &said “monster ratings.” Be a man Jimmy!”