Read Donald Trump’s full statement after his New York indictment

• March 31, 2023

This is the full statement by Donald Trump provided moments after he was indicted by a grand jury in New York:

Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America

“This is Political Persecution and Election Interference at the highest level in history. From the time I came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, and even before I was sworn in as your President of the United States, the Radical Left Democrats – the enemy of the hard-working men and women of this Country – have been engaged in a Witch-Hunt to destroy the Make America Great Again movement. You remember it just like I do: Russia, Russia, Russia; the Mueller Hoax; Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine; Impeachment Hoax 1; Impeachment Hoax 2; the illegal and unconstitutional Mar-a-Lago raid; and now this.

“The Democrats have lied, cheated and stolen in their obsession with trying to ‘Get Trump,’ but now they’ve done the unthinkable – indicting a completely innocent person in an act of blatant Election Interference.

“Never before in our Nation’s history has this been done. The Democrats have cheated countless times over the decades, including spying on my campaign, but weaponizing our justice system to punish a political opponent, who just so happens to be a President of the United States and by far the leading Republican candidate for President, has never happened before. Ever.

“Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, who was hand-picked and funded by George Soros, is a disgrace. Rather than stopping the unprecedented crime wave taking over New York City, he’s doing Joe Biden’s dirty work, ignoring the murders and burglaries and assaults he should be focused on. This is how Bragg spends his time!

“I believe this Witch-Hunt will backfire massively on Joe Biden. The American people realize exactly what the Radical Left Democrats are doing here. Everyone can see it. So our Movement, and our Party – united and strong – will first defeat Alvin Bragg, and then we will defeat Joe Biden, and we are going to throw every last one of these Crooked Democrats out of office so we can MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

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​ Orange County Register 

Even the Sonoran Desert is threatened by climate change

• March 31, 2023

The same climate changes known to be reshaping mountain ecosystems in places like the Alps and Yosemite also are driving alarming new patterns in the Sonoran Desert near Palm Springs, according to the latest findings from a long-running study by UC Riverside.

If temperatures continue to rise and droughts continue to become more severe, the study suggests that portions of the Sonoran and similar deserts someday could become barren, with little plant or animal life.

“These ecosystems are incredibly fragile, actually,” said Tesa Madsen-Hepp, an ecology doctoral candidate at UCR and first author of the study. “They’re not super resilient, and they are reaching their limits.”

The findings, which track changes measured over several decades, are surprising to some scientists who had assumed that deserts and other dryland ecosystems would be resilient to more extreme heat and prolonged drought. Instead, Madsen-Hepp said that unless we get greenhouse gas emissions under control, and stop or reverse the current global warming trajectory, the planet is on track to create stretches of desert that are “completely collapsed.” Such a change, she added, would affect humanity “in a lot of different ways.”

“Not just in terms of losing species that we love. But by changing how nutrients and water are being cycled and filtered through those ecosystems.”

Ocotillo growing in the Boyd Deep Canyon Reserve, south of Palm Desert. This is one of the plants moving into lower-elevation territory where other taller species are declining. (Photo courtesy of Boyd Reserve)

Locally, such trends may be hitting the Sonoran Desert first, since it is one of the hottest and driest stretches of North America. But if warming trends continue, Madsen-Hepp said there’s no reason to suspect the pattern won’t also play out in parts of the neighboring Mojave Desert and in drylands globally, which make up some 45% of land on Earth.

“Other dryland ecosystems are likely headed in this direction if we continue to see rising temperatures and greater atmospheric demand on the plants,” she said. “The timing of this ecosystem shift change will probably vary. But I think that we could expect to see similar things in general as these ecosystems reach similar levels.”

There’s solid research to show how climate change is forcing plant populations that grow in temperate climates to adjust in all sorts of ways. Trees around the world are moving further north and west, and they’re growing faster but dying younger. Some plants are moving to lower elevations, where climate change is bringing torrential rains to once-dry valleys, while other plants are creeping up mountain slopes in search of cooler temperatures and steadier moisture.

This global redisruption of species also is expanding the risk of diseases, such as malaria, along with crop-threatening funguses and pests. That, in turn, is leading to more food insecurity, which can turn residents of some communities into climate refugees.

While rising temperatures are expected to make desert climates tougher for humans to tolerate, Madsen-Hepp said desert plant life was assumed to be almost immortal. But after her full-time crew of four spent six months gathering 84 football fields worth of data she no longer believes that to be true.

The newer work was possible thanks to botanist Jan Zabriskie, who established a study area while working for the UC system in 1977 at the Boyd Deep Canyon Desert Research Center. Zabriskie stretched out a tape measure across 400 meters, documenting every plant species that touched the line. That process was repeated 21 times, with new linear transects every 150 meters, starting from the desert scrub ecosystem of the low-lying Coachella Valley, moving up through the pinyon-juniper woodlands into the chaparral ecosystem, and finishing with the coniferous forest some 8,000 feet up.

Another research team repeated those plant surveys in 2008. And Madsen-Hepp’s team did it again in 2019, with their findings comparing the changes since 1977 recently published in the journal “Functional Ecology.”

One surprising finding was that populations of species long thought to be very hardy, such as California juniper and pinyon pines, are shrinking or shifting to higher elevations much like the changes seen in alpine forests. But even higher up, Madsen-Hepp said, these species don’t appear to be thriving. Instead, with climate warming, she said, “they’re basically reaching their physiological thresholds.”

Another surprise was that in the years since the previous reports, some higher-elevation  plant species have moved lower, to hotter parts of the desert. Shorter, shrub-style plants, such as brittlebrush and ocotillo, are replacing those pines and the newer arrivals have shallower root systems, meaning they can grow faster and without a need for deep soil water. Such water increasingly is scarce in the wake of long droughts followed by more volatile rains, the weather pattern that has hit California this winter.

That shift in plant life is bad news for several reasons, Madsen-Hepp said.

First, such shrubs store less carbon than the pines and other plants they’re replacing. In that way, much like the findings of another recent study out of UCR, climate change appears to be fueling itself.

Second, Madsen-Hepp said broader research shows this is likely the last stage before a shift to bare ground. Since the shrubs replacing hardier plants in these areas don’t live as long, or have the same adaptive strategies, she said the climate can become too hot and dry for their long-term survival.

“We are really reaching the edge of a habitable ecosystem for plants to live in,” she said. “So I think that’s pretty alarming.”

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Next up, Madsen-Hepp is using the same data to dig deeper into how plant species in this slice of the Sonoran Desert interact with each other, as they cooperate and compete for resources. Those shifting relationships also can affect plant interactions with pollinators, other organisms dependent on the soil and desert wildlife. In the Sonoran, that includes everything from desert tortoises and Gila monsters to coyotes and bighorn sheep.

Madsen-Hepp said she hopes this work helps people see desert environments as vulnerable and vital, and that it motivates them to take steps to protect these places.

“As we continue to dump carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere and warm the planet, all of these ecosystems are tipping,” she said. “It’s just a matter of when and how much warming “

​ Orange County Register 

Key events that led to the grand jury vote to indict Donald Trump

• March 31, 2023

The investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office into Donald Trump’s hush-money payments to a porn star, which led to the vote to indict the former president, has spanned nearly five years.

Here are some key moments:

Aug. 21, 2018

Michael Cohen says he arranged hush-money payments for the president, and the investigation begins.

Cohen, previously a personal lawyer and fixer for Trump, pleaded guilty to federal crimes and told a court that Trump had directed him to arrange hush-money payments to two women. The payments were made during the 2016 campaign to keep the women from speaking publicly about affairs they said they had conducted with Trump.

Soon after Cohen’s admission, the Manhattan district attorney’s office opened an investigation to examine if the payments broke New York state laws. The office soon paused the inquiry at the request of federal prosecutors, who were still looking into the same conduct.

August 2019

The district attorney’s office subpoenas the Trump Organization.

After federal prosecutors said they had “effectively concluded” their investigation, Cyrus Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney at the time, revived his own inquiry. Late in the month, prosecutors in his office issued a subpoena to the Trump Organization and another subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm, demanding eight years of Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns.

Sept. 19, 2019

Trump’s lawyers sue to protect his tax returns.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, argued that a sitting president cannot be criminally investigated. It led to a lengthy delay.

July 9, 2020

Vance wins his first key victory at the U.S. Supreme Court.

After appellate judges ruled against Trump, the lawsuit found its way to the Supreme Court, where the justices ruled that the presidency did not shield Trump from criminal inquiries and that he had no absolute right to block the release of his tax returns.

The ruling left Trump with the opportunity to raise different objections to Vance’s subpoena.

Fall of 2020

The investigation intensifies.

Prosecutors interviewed employees of the main bank and insurance company that serve Trump and issued several new subpoenas.

The district attorney’s office also signaled in another court filing that it had grounds to investigate the president for tax fraud.

Feb. 22, 2021

The Supreme Court denies Trump’s final bid to block the release of his returns.

The brief unsigned order was a decisive defeat for Trump and a turning point in Vance’s investigation.

Just hours later, eight years of financial records were handed over to Vance’s office.

March 1, 2021

The investigation’s focus turns to a top executive.

In the spring, Vance’s prosecutors set their sights on Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s long-serving chief financial officer, whom they hoped to pressure into cooperating with their investigation.

The prosecutors were particularly interested in whether the Trump Organization handed out valuable benefits to Weisselberg as a form of untaxed compensation.

July 1, 2021

The Trump Organization is charged with running a 15-year tax scheme.

When Weisselberg refused to testify against his boss, prosecutors announced charges against him and Trump’s company, saying that the company helped its executives evade taxes by compensating them with benefits such as free cars and apartments that were hidden from the authorities.

Jan. 1, 2022

A new Manhattan district attorney takes office.

Vance left office, and his successor, Alvin Bragg, took over the case. Both are Democrats.

Bragg, a former federal prosecutor, retained two of the investigation’s leaders, Mark Pomerantz, an experienced former federal prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer, and Carey Dunne, Vance’s general counsel.

Feb. 23, 2022

Two prosecutors resign, leaving the investigation’s future in doubt.

After Bragg expressed reservations about the case, Pomerantz and Dunne suspended the presentation of evidence about Trump to a grand jury. A month later, they resigned, prompting a public uproar over Bragg’s decision not to proceed with an indictment.

In his resignation letter, which was later obtained by The New York Times, Pomerantz said Trump had been guilty of numerous felonies.

Aug. 18

Bragg’s investigation continues.

After staying mostly silent through weeks of criticism, the district attorney publicly discussed his office’s investigation of Trump for the first time. His fundamental message: The inquiry would continue.

Aug. 18

Weisselberg pleads guilty and agrees to testify against the Trump Organization.

Although the chief financial officer declined to turn on Trump himself, he agreed to testify at the October trial against the company that he had served for nearly a half-century.

Late summer

The prosecutors turn back to hush money.

After several months, Bragg’s prosecutors returned to the long-running investigation’s original focus: a hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, the porn star, who said she had a sexual relationship with Trump.

Dec. 24

The Trump Organization is convicted, securing a significant victory for the district attorney.

Bragg’s prosecutors won a conviction of Trump’s family business, convincing a jury that the company was guilty of tax fraud and other crimes.

January

The district attorney impanels a new grand jury.

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The grand jury met throughout the next three months and heard testimony about the hush-money payment from at least nine witnesses.

Midwinter

Prosecutors signal that an indictment is likely, offering Trump a chance to testify before the grand jury.

Such offers almost always indicate an indictment is close; it would be unusual to notify a potential defendant without ultimately seeking charges against him.

March 18

Trump predicts his arrest and calls for protests.

Without any direct knowledge, the former president posted on his Truth Social account that he would be arrested three days later and sought to rally supporters to his side. His prediction was soon walked back, and he was not arrested at that time.

Thursday

Grand jury votes to indict Trump.

The charges, which are still unknown, will be the first against any U.S. president.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

​ Orange County Register 

Donald Trump’s legal worries extend far beyond charges in New York

• March 31, 2023

The hush money case in New York that has led to criminal charges against Donald Trump is just one of a number of investigations that could pose legal problems for the former president.

Joe Tacopina, a lawyer for Trump, confirmed Thursday that he had been informed that the former president had been indicted on charges involving payments made during the 2016 campaign to silence claims of an extramarital sexual encounter. The specific charges were not immediately made public.

Related: Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime

Trump faces a string of other inquiries as he campaigns for another term in 2024, including a criminal investigation over top secret documents found at his Florida estate, a probe in Washington into his efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, and an investigation in Georgia looking into whether he and his allies illegally interfered in the state’s 2020 election.

Trump, a Republican, has denied any wrongdoing and says he is being targeted by Democrats trying to keep him from reclaiming the White House.

Here’s a look at the probes underway in various states and venues:

MAR-A-LAGO

Of all the inquiries Trump faces, a Justice Department probe into the retention of top secret government documents at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, could present the most significant legal jeopardy, with investigators saying in court filings last year that they were examining potential violations of multiple felony statutes.

As part of that inquiry, agents and prosecutors have spent months interviewing multiple people close to Trump, including an aide who was seen on surveillance video moving boxes of documents at the property, as they examine whether Trump or his representatives sought to obstruct the classified documents probe.

Federal officials obtained a search warrant last year to search his home, convincing a Florida judge there was probable cause of criminal activity there, including the willful retention of national defense information – a statute that by itself carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison.

A grand jury in Washington has been hearing evidence in the investigation. Prosecutors last year granted limited immunity to one close Trump ally to secure his testimony and more recently were able to compel the testimony of a Trump lawyer said to have drafted a document stating that a diligent search for classified records had been conducted.

Attorney General Merrick Garland in November named Jack Smith, a veteran war crimes prosecutor who previously led the Justice Department’s public integrity section, to serve as special counsel for the Mar-a-Lago investigation and key aspects of a separate probe into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Related: This is what will happen when Trump is arrested in the coming days 

2020 ELECTION AND CAPITOL RIOT

Smith has also been leading a team investigating efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the election that Trump falsely claimed was stolen.

Federal prosecutors have been especially focused on a scheme by Trump allies to put forth a slate of fake presidential electors in key battleground states who falsely declared that Trump, not Democrat Joe Biden, had won the 2020 election. They have issued subpoenas to a number of state Republican Party chairs.

Federal prosecutors have brought multiple Trump administration officials before that grand jury for questioning, including the former Trump White House counsel and a top aide to Vice President Mike Pence. A federal judge recently ruled that Pence would have to testify before the grand jury, though his team was still deciding Thursday whether to appeal.

In a sign of the expanding nature of the investigation, election officials in multiple states whose results were disputed by Trump have received subpoenas asking for past communications with or involving Trump and his campaign aides.

A House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has recommended that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against Trump and associates who helped him launch a wide-ranging pressure campaign to try to overturn his 2020 election loss.

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GEORGIA

After his 2020 election loss, Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and urged him to “find 11,780 votes” — just enough to overtake Biden and overturn Trump’s narrow loss in the state.

That Jan. 2 phone call was part of a monthslong effort by a special grand jury in Atlanta investigating whether crimes were committed as part of the pressure campaign to overturn Trump’s defeat.

Among those questioned by the special grand jury were Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor and Trump lawyer; Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

Key events that led to the grand jury vote to indict Donald Trump

Prosecutors have advised Giuliani and Georgia Republicans who served as fake electors that they are at risk of being indicted. The fake electors signed a certificate asserting Trump had won the election and declaring themselves the state’s electors, even though Biden had won the state and Democratic electors had already been certified.

Trump and his allies have denied wrongdoing, and he has repeatedly described his phone call to Raffensperger as “perfect.”

It’s up to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat, to decide whether to convene a regular grand jury and pursue criminal charges in the case. The foreperson on the special grand jury that investigated the case at Willis’ request indicated publicly in February that the panel had recommended multiple indictments.

NEW YORK

New York Attorney General Letitia James has sued Trump and the Trump Organization, alleging they misled banks and tax authorities about the value of assets including golf courses and skyscrapers to get loans and tax benefits.

That lawsuit could lead to civil penalties against the company if James, a Democrat, prevails. She is seeking a $250 million fine and a ban on Trump doing business in New York. Manhattan prosecutors investigated the same alleged conduct but did not pursue criminal charges.

A civil trial is scheduled in state court for October.

In a separate civil case in federal court in New York, Trump has been accused of raping a former magazine columnist in a dressing room in the mid-1990s. That case is scheduled to go to trial on April 25.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he never met the columnist, E. Jean Carroll, at the store and has dismissed her rape claims, saying, “Physically she’s not my type.” During an October deposition, he misidentified a decades-old photograph of her as one of his ex-wives.

​ Orange County Register 

This is what will happen when Trump is arrested in the coming days

• March 31, 2023

He will be fingerprinted. He will be photographed. He may even be handcuffed.

In the days ahead, Donald Trump is expected to walk through the routine steps of felony arrest processing in New York, now that a grand jury has voted to indict him in connection with his role in a hush-money payment to a porn star. But the unprecedented arrest of a former commander in chief will be anything but routine.

Related: Trump indicted; 1st ex-president charged with crime

Accommodations may be made for Trump. While it is standard for defendants arrested on felony charges to be handcuffed, it is unclear whether an exception will be made for the former president because of his status. Most defendants have their hands cuffed behind their backs, but some white-collar defendants who are deemed to pose less of a danger have their hands secured in front of them.

Trump will almost certainly be accompanied at every step of the process — from the moment he is taken into custody until his appearance before a judge in lower Manhattan’s imposing Criminal Courts Building — by armed agents of the Secret Service, who are required by law to protect him at all times.

Security in the courthouse is provided by state court officers, with whom the Secret Service has worked in the past. But the chief spokesperson for the agency, Anthony J. Guglielmi, said he could not comment on any specific measures that would be put in place for Trump.

It may take several days for Trump to appear at the courthouse. Now that the grand jury has voted to indict him, the indictment must be handed up. Then prosecutors would typically contact his defense lawyers to negotiate the terms of his surrender, a common practice in white-collar investigations when the district attorney’s office has been in touch with defense attorneys.

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Lawyers for Trump, who is running for president a third time, have said he will surrender to face the charges and fly from his Florida estate to New York for the arraignment.

After he is arraigned, he is almost certain to be released on his own recognizance because the indictment will likely contain only nonviolent felony charges; under New York law, prosecutors cannot request bail in such cases.

The former president plans to use the charges as part of a campaign strategy to rile up his base.

Surrender, some might argue, is not in the confrontational former president’s DNA, and he often seems to relish antagonizing and attacking the prosecutors who have investigated him. He has called Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney who secured the hush money indictment and who is Black, “a racist,” and said that his investigation was politically motivated.

In the unlikely event that the former president refuses to surrender, he would put Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, his leading but undeclared rival for the Republican nomination, in an awkward political position. Under law, DeSantis’ role would be essentially ministerial and he would have few legal options other than approving an extradition request from New York.

Still, if New York prosecutors sought Trump’s extradition, DeSantis would face an unenviable dilemma. He would be compelled to choose between authorizing an arrest warrant for Trump and inflaming his base, or attempting in some way to aid his Republican rival, and possibly face legal action as a result.

​ Orange County Register 

Biden calls to revive bank regulations that Trump weakened

• March 31, 2023

Weeks after the failure of two banks, President Joe Biden called Thursday for independent regulatory agencies to impose tighter rules on the financial system, telling them that they can act under current law without additional steps taken by Congress.

The recommended changes outlined by the White House try to put a clear blame on the Trump administration for weakening supervision of regional banks, issuing a fact sheet that said Biden’s predecessor “weakened many important common-sense requirements and supervision.”

“The president is urging the banking regulators to consider reforms that will reduce the risk of future banking crises,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

Rattling the financial markets and U.S. voters alike, the California-based Silicon Valley Bank and New York-based Signature Bank failed over the course of a weekend and required government intervention. Then another financial institution, First Republic Bank, received an emergency $30 billion infusion of funds from 11 large private banks.

Biden wants to revive and expand rules for mid-size banks that face less scrutiny than the industry’s behemoths, with administration officials saying that U.S. banks have stabilized since the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on March 10 as it rolls out its recommended changes.

Once banks hold assets of more than $100 billion, the administration is asking them to hold more capital to absorb losses and face enhanced stress testing to ensure they could withstand a possible crisis. They would also need to provide the government with “living wills” to help them be unwound in case of failure.

In addition, Biden wants regulators to provide more aggressive supervision of banks and have them ensure that community banks are not responsible for replenishing the federal insurance fund for bank deposits.

Greg Baer, CEO of the Bank Policy Institute, criticized the administration’s proposals, saying it would impose costs on the economy as the bank failures are still being reviewed.

“This has a strong feeling of ready, fire, aim,” said Baer, whose advocacy group represents the financial sector.

Rob Nichols, president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, called the move “premature.”

The Biden administration’s public push is part of a larger effort by the Biden to ensure that individual bank failures can be contained without triggering a chain reaction across the wider financial system.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a Thursday speech that regulations have been weakened in recent years as the shocks of the 2008 financial crisis wore off, but that the recent failures required swift government intervention in order to preserve public confidence.

“The failures of two regional banks this month demonstrate that our business is unfinished,” Yellen said at the National Association for Business Economics conference in Washington. “Regulation imposes costs on firms, just like fire codes do for property owners. But the costs of proper regulation pale in comparison to the tragic costs of financial crises.”

What seemed unique in the two recent bank failures was how quickly bank runs started in a digital era, putting at risk accounts that exceeded the $250,000 limit on deposit insurance. The banks’ holdings were also hurt by the Federal Reserve raising interest rates in order to tame inflation.

Yellen is focused not just on banks, but also rules for money market funds, hedge funds and cryptocurrency.

“If there is any place where the vulnerabilities of the system to runs and fire sales have been clear-cut, it is money market funds,” she said. In February, money market funds contained net assets worth $5.3 trillion, according to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

​ Orange County Register 

Biden’s new border policies are unjustifiably onerous and restrictive

• March 30, 2023

I’ve been a Placentia-based immigration attorney for the past decade, but I’ve never forgotten the story of a young Salvadoran man I met several years ago. When Enrique (a pseudonym to protect his privacy), a married father with two school-age children, witnessed a police murder in his village, his world turned upside down. Soon after his friend who was with him that night was killed, Enrique started receiving death threats. The family made the impossible decision to send him north in search of safety.

After Enrique made his way across the border, he turned himself into officials and asked to apply for asylum. This is a well-worn path; In 1980, the United States passed a law allowing a person with a “well-founded fear of persecution” to apply for asylum in accordance with United Nations conventions. Enrique was let into the country and connected with his brother. While he waited for an immigration judge to hear his case, he was given the right to work. The judge who heard his case granted him asylum. Later, when his wife found a dead dog on her doorstep, Enrique was allowed to petition his family to join him in America.

Six years later, Enrique now works as a mechanic for a semitruck company. His kids, 15 and 17, are thriving in school, and he and his wife perform in the worship band at their local church. They are in the process of applying for citizenship. It’s clear to me that our asylum process saved Enrique’s life—and his family’s lives.

I’ve thought about this a lot since the Biden administration proposed a restrictive new asylum rule late last month. If Enrique were seeking asylum here today, he would likely be found ineligible before he even had the chance to apply. I’m calling on President Biden to reconsider this policy that unfairly penalizes many asylum seekers.

It may seem that the White House’s proposed plan looks to create “law and order” at the border. And I understand that we’ve got plenty of problems in our own backyard; however, if we turn a blind eye to this injustice, then we’re opening the door to worse ones. Word that Biden has considered reinstating family detention prompted more than a hundred House Democrats this week to call such a policy “cruel” and explain that even short periods of detention can cause “psychological trauma” and long-term mental health risks for children. It wasn’t long ago that the Trump administration separated children from their parents—a moral catastrophe that few Californians of any political background could stomach. While Biden’s family detention idea stops short of ripping children from their parents’ arms, even imprisoning young children with their parents feels like we’re heading down a similar dangerous path.

We have a well-established system that allows people who have a reasonable fear of persecution to make a case why they should be allowed to seek safe haven here. The problem with Biden’s latest asylum rule is that it doesn’t offer a fair “right way” for migrants to seek asylum. In fact, it represents a stunning disconnect between what’s happening in Washington and the situation at the border. There, desperate people are trying to understand our ever-changing rules amid a sea of misinformation and a lack of access to fancy (and poorly functioning) technology.

Here are just a few of the problems with the proposed rule: Migrants are now expected to apply for asylum using a new mobile app called CBP One. Not only is the app far from being user-friendly, it’s riddled with technological flaws (including frequent “error messages”). Plus, its existence assumes that vulnerable and often poor people who are fleeing for their lives have access to newer-model smart phones—never mind access to a good wi-fi connection.

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An alternative to using the CBP One app is showing you have applied for—and been denied—asylum in every country a person passes through on their way to the U.S. border. For Salvadorans, that likely would mean Mexico. Yet with gangs crossing borders with relative ease, many Central Americans will not be safe in Mexico. Not surprisingly, there is significant confusion around border policy, especially given long-standing American and international law. It’s likely that many migrants will continue to believe they are acting in good faith by quickly turning themselves in to American border patrol agents, only to be told they cannot apply for asylum.

We need to remember that people who are seeking asylum are part of a humanitarian crisis and are doing their best to survive. That is why international law allows anyone who reaches our shores, no matter how they get here, the opportunity to apply for protection. Congress needs to continue to pressure President Biden to find better solutions—and why we need to continue to push our elected officials to create solutions. Making it more difficult for individuals to find safety goes against our commitment to uphold international law and everything the United States stands for as a humane and just nation.

Kristy White is an immigration attorney at Camino Immigration Services serving Orange County.

​ Orange County Register 

Orange County scores and player stats for Thursday, March 30

• March 30, 2023

Support our high school sports coverage by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribe now

Scores and stats from Orange County games on Thursday, March 30

Click here for details about sending your team’s scores and stats to the Register.

THURSDAY’S SCORES

BASEBALL

NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL (NC)

Santa Margarita 2, St. Xavier (KY) 1

Huntington Beach 8, Calvary Christian (FL) 3

​ Orange County Register