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Selasa, 16 Juli 2019

System Under Strain: How the U.S. Actually Manages the Thousands of Migrant Families Entering Each Day - The Wall Street Journal

Jessica Wang and

Alicia A. Caldwell | Graphics by Jessica Wang/The Wall Street Journal

Alicia A. Caldwell

The Wall Street Journal

Biography
@acaldwellwsj
alicia.caldwell@wsj.com

July 16, 2019 5:30 am ET

The record number of families entering the U.S. and requesting asylum has overloaded a border enforcement system not designed to safely and quickly process them. Here is a step-by-step look at the process families go through and where the system is straining.

Port of entry

Waiting time: weeks to months

Upon arriving at the border, asylum seekers wait for weeks or months in Mexico just to enter the U.S. The long wait times are due to “metering,” a Trump administration policy that sets limits on the number of people who can enter each day.

Between ports of entry

The other route most migrants take is crossing illegally between the checkpoints. Most of them are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Families typically surrender to Border Patrol agents upon crossing to begin the asylum process. Those who opt to evade authorities are usually single adults seeking work. The 688,000 people apprehended at the border since the federal fiscal year began in October includes 390,000 traveling as families, the highest level on record.

Crossing the port

Once allowed in, migrants are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and start the asylum process.

Customs and Border Protection facilities

Migrants are then held in Border Patrol stations until they are either sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, better known as ICE, or released. By law, the Border Patrol isn’t supposed to hold people for more than 72 hours. But the surge of migrants has caused overcrowding and holding times of weeks or longer.

Supposed to be 72 hours

Can be a week or few weeks

Facilities for those who enter through the ports are less crowded because of the “metering” policy.

To manage the overflow, authorities have opened tent camps, put children in cells for nearly a month, and in one case had migrants wait under a bridge, drawing criticism for conditions described as unclean and unsafe.

One of three things could happen from here.

Detained by ICE

Up to 20 days

Some families are sent to ICE where they can be held in a family detention center and start their immigration court proceedings. They must be released after 20 days, long before an asylum case can be completed. When single adults are sent to ICE, they are often deported or later released on bond.

Sent to Mexico

Can be from weeks to months

Some are sent to wait in Mexico for their first court appearance under a program launched by the Trump administration called the Migration Protection Protocols, often referred to as Remain in Mexico.

Sent to shelter or charity

Few days

Some are released directly to a shelter or charity, which arrange travel for migrants so they can meet up with friends or relatives in the U.S. as they wait for their first court appearance. Families sent to ICE first are sent here after.

Going to court

Migrants get their day in court. If for some reason the appearance doesn’t happen—whether they miss it, their lawyer has a conflict or their translator doesn’t show—the case goes to the back of the line. People wait for months or years for another date. There is a backlog of more than 908,000 cases pending in federal immigration court.

The process continues

Often more than a couple years

Multiple hearings will follow. The final hearing and decision can take years. The national average wait time is about 727 days, though the average wait eclipses 1,100 days in San Antonio and 1,000 days in Imperial, Calif., according to government data collected by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University.

In the meantime, most families will live in the U.S., many with work permits that allow them to legally hold a job while they wait for a final ruling.

Port of entry

Waiting time: weeks to months

Between ports of entry

The other route most migrants take is crossing illegally between the checkpoints. Most of them are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Crossing the port

Once allowed in, migrants are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and start the asylum process.

Customs and Border Protection facilities

Supposed to be 72 hours

Can be a week or few weeks

Facilities for those who enter through the ports are less crowded because of the “metering” policy.

One of three things could happen from here.

Detained by ICE

Up to 20 days

Sent to Mexico

Can be from weeks to months

Some are sent to wait in Mexico for their first court appearance under a program launched by the Trump administration called the Migration Protection Protocols, often referred to as Remain in Mexico.

Sent to shelter or charity

Few days

Going to court

The process continues

Often more than a couple years

In the meantime, most families will live in the U.S., many with work permits that allow them to legally hold a job while they wait for a final ruling.

Port of entry

Waiting time: weeks to months

Between ports of entry

The other route most migrants take is crossing illegally between the checkpoints. Most of them are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

Crossing the port

Once allowed in, migrants are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and start the asylum process.

Customs and Border Protection facilities

Supposed to be 72 hours

Can be a week or few weeks

Facilities for those who enter through the ports are less crowded because of the “metering” policy.

One of three things could happen from here.

Detained by ICE

Up to 20 days

Sent to Mexico

Can be from weeks to months

Some are sent to wait in Mexico for their first court appearance under a program launched by the Trump administration called the Migration Protection Protocols, often referred to as Remain in Mexico.

Sent to shelter or charity

Few days

Going to court

The process continues

Often more than a couple years

In the meantime, most families will live in the U.S., many with work permits that allow them to legally hold a job while they wait for a final ruling.

Port of entry

Waiting time:

weeks to months

Between ports

The other route most migrants take is crossing illegally between the checkpoints. Most of them are from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, according to U.S. government data.

Crossing the port

Once allowed in, migrants are taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, and start the asylum process.

Customs and Border Protection facilities

Supposed to be

72 hours

Can be a week or

few weeks

Facilities for those who enter through the ports are less crowded because of the “metering” policy.

One of three things could happen from here.

Sent to Mexico

Detained by ICE

Up to 20 days

Can be from weeks

to months

Some are sent to wait in Mexico for their first court appearance under a program launched by the Trump administration called the Migration Protection Protocols, often referred to as Remain in Mexico.

Sent to shelter or charity

Few days

Going to court

The process continues

Often more than a couple years

In the meantime, most families will live in the U.S., many with work permits that allow them to legally hold a job while they wait for a final ruling.

Share Your Thoughts

What is your biggest concern about the current immigration process in the U.S.? Join the conversation below.

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https://www.wsj.com/articles/system-under-strain-how-the-u-s-actually-manages-the-thousands-of-migrant-families-entering-each-day-11563269400

2019-07-16 09:30:00Z
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How North Korea’s Leader Gets His Luxury Cars - The New York Times

WASHINGTON — The armored black limousines appear everywhere with Kim Jong-un, sleek Western chariots for the young dictator of North Korea.

Flown in from the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on a cargo plane, the sedans carried Mr. Kim through the streets of Singapore, Hanoi and Vladivostok during summit meetings with President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Sometimes a phalanx of bodyguards jogs beside them.

The cars are top-of-the-line Mercedes-Benzes — the Maybach S600 Pullman Guard and the Maybach S62, popular with world leaders and costing up to $1.6 million each. And Mr. Kim is using them in open defiance of United Nations sanctions intended to ban luxury goods from North Korea.

High-end Western goods are making their way to North Korea’s elite through a complex system of port transfers, secret high-seas shipping and shadowy front companies, according to research by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies, a nonprofit Washington group that looks at smuggling networks, and an investigation by The New York Times.

The evasions point to potential limits of sanctions as a tool for the Trump administration to pressure Pyongyang into serious negotiations to end its nuclear weapons program. American officials say their only real leverage with North Korea is tough sanctions. During the failed summit in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February, Mr. Kim’s main demand of Mr. Trump was to lift major sanctions, which have been tightened since late 2016.

At the request of President George W. Bush’s administration, the United Nations imposed sanctions in 2006 to keep luxury goods out of North Korea.

Kim Jong-un’s motorcade, including a Mercedes that sanctions should bar North Korea from importing, in Singapore before a summit between Mr. Kim and President Trump in June 2018. — CreditJoseph Nair/Associated Press

But from 2015 to 2017, as many as 90 countries served as the sources of luxury goods for North Koreans, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies. Moreover, the networks and supply chains run through the territories of some United Nations Security Council member nations and American allies — China, Russia, Japan and South Korea among them.

Both President Xi Jinping of China and President Moon Jae-in of South Korea rode with Mr. Kim in Mercedes-Benz sedans on recent visits to Pyongyang.

For officials seeking to enforce the sanctions, it is important to track the smuggling of luxury goods — especially of rare items such as armored cars — because North Korea uses similar techniques to obtain dual-use technology for its nuclear weapons program, sanctions experts say. Analysts say North Korea continues to enrich uranium to increase its arsenal of an estimated 30 to 60 warheads.

“When it comes to sanctions evasions, North Korea relies on a sophisticated but small group of trusted individuals that move any goods required by the state, whether it’s luxury goods or components for missiles, or whether it’s arranging for trade of resources,” Neil Watts, a maritime expert and former member of the United Nations panel on North Korea sanctions enforcement, said, speaking generally about patterns of illicit trade into the country.

The United Nations panel noted in its annual report this year the appearance of limousines made by Mercedes-Benz and Rolls-Royce in Pyongyang. Last October, in Pyongyang, Mr. Kim got out of a Rolls-Royce Phantom limousine to greet Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The journey taken by a pair of armored Mercedes Maybach S600 sedans from Europe to East Asia illustrates how one of the luxury-goods transportation networks operated. The Center for Advanced Defense Studies and The Times traced their path through five countries using open-source material, including shipping records and satellite images.

Image

CreditPool photo by Sergei Ilnitsky

Interviews with officials and business executives confirmed some of the details of the network. In February, South Korean officials seized a Russian-owned ship that had transported the cars.

The globe-spanning voyage began in the port of Rotterdam, the Netherlands. In June 2018, two sealed containers, each holding a Mercedes worth $500,000, were brought by truck into a shipping terminal, according to cargo tracking records. They were in the custody of China Cosco Shipping Corporation. It was unclear who had first purchased the cars. Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes, says Mercedes runs background checks on potential buyers of the vehicles to ensure the company is not selling to sanctions violators.

The cars traveled by ship for 41 days to Dalian, in northeast China. The containers were off-loaded after the ship’s arrival on July 31. They remained in the port until Aug. 26. They were then put on a ship for Osaka, Japan. From there, they were put on a vessel for a three-day voyage to Busan, South Korea, where they arrived on Sept. 30.

Then came the most mysterious part of the passage. The containers were transferred within one day of arrival to the DN5505, a cargo ship sailing under the flag of Togo, a West African nation, and bound for the port of Nakhodka in the far east of Russia. At this point, the cars were consigned to Do Young Shipping, a company registered in the Marshall Islands that owns the DN5505 and one other ship, the Panama-flagged oil tanker Katrin.

Do Young’s ownership is not clear from its registration but appears to be tied to a Russian businessman, Danil Kazachuk, documents and interviews show. Executives at Han Trade and AIP Korea, the South Korean shipping agencies that worked with the two ships, said Mr. Kazachuk was the ships’ owner. Documents obtained by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies show Mr. Kazachuk was listed as the owner of the Katrin for about one month in 2018.

The ship with the cars, the DN5505, was originally called Xiang Jin, but it was renamed DN5505 and its ownership transferred from a Hong Kong-registered company to Do Young on July 27, just days before the two sedans arrived in Dalian.

A Smuggling Network to North Korea

A shipment of luxury cars eventually reached East Asia from the Netherlands, and may have ended up in Pyongyang, in violation of United Nations sanctions.

On June 20, 2018, two luxury Mercedes-Benz cars were loaded onto a container ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

The DN5505 appeared to have gone to Nakhodka, Russia, according to ship data and customs records.

In Osaka, Japan, they were put on another ship.

North Korean jets may have taken the cars to Pyongyang, North Korea. On Jan. 31, 2019, the same models of Mercedes appeared with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

After 41 days, the cars arrived in Dalian, China, and were transferred to another cargo ship.

In Busan, South Korea, the cars were loaded onto a cargo vessel, the DN5505.

Russia

China

1. On June 20, 2018, two luxury Mercedes-Benz cars were loaded onto a container ship in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

2. After 41 days, the cars arrived in Dalian, China, and were transferred to another cargo ship.

3. In Osaka, Japan, they were put on another ship.

4. In Busan, South Korea, the cars were loaded onto a cargo vessel, the DN5505.

5. The DN5505 appeared to have gone to Nakhodka, Russia, according to ship data and customs records.

6. North Korean jets may have taken the cars to Pyongyang, North Korea. On Jan. 31, 2019, the same models of Mercedes appeared with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang.

After leaving Busan on Oct. 1 with the sedans, the ship went dark — its automatic identification system stopped transmitting a signal. That is common practice among ships evading sanctions.

The signal stayed off for 18 days. When it came back on again, the ship was in South Korean waters. Now it was on a return trip to Busan, but laden with 2,588 metric tons of coal, which it later unloaded in another South Korean port, Pohang. Customs records in South Korea showed that the ship had taken on the coal in Nakhodka, the report from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies said.

That port city is next to Vladivostok, where Mr. Kazachuk is based. Ship traffic data and shipping agency executives said the ship had reported Nakhodka as its destination after leaving Busan with the cars.

The center’s report did not say with certainty what happened there with the sedans. But the researchers say the cars might have been flown from Russia to North Korea. On Oct. 7, three cargo jets from Air Koryo, North Korea’s state-run airline, arrived in Vladivostok, according to a video online and flight tracking data. (That happened to be the same day Mr. Kim drove in a Rolls-Royce through Pyongyang to meet with Mr. Pompeo.)

It is rare for North Korean cargo planes to fly to Vladivostok. The jets are the exact same airplanes used to transport Mr. Kim’s vehicles outside North Korea, according to tail numbers.

“Given the heavy lift cargo capacity of the planes and their role in transporting Kim Jong-un’s armored limousines, it is possible that the cargo jets could have loaded the Mercedes,” the report said.

Image

CreditAlexander Khitrov/Associated Press

Four months later, on Jan. 31, 2019, the same model of Mercedes drove through the streets of Pyongyang to the headquarters of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea, according to video footage analyzed by NK Pro. The sedans also appeared that day alongside Mr. Kim in a photo session with an art delegation.

In a telephone interview, Mr. Kazachuk acknowledged that he was responsible for the DN5505, but declined to give details about the shipment of the cars or say how or whether he had transferred them to North Korea.

“This is my company’s business secret,” he said. “Why do I need to tell everybody where I bought these cars and to whom I sold the cars?”

There is no evidence tying Mr. Kazachuk to the movement of military technology or goods to North Korea, but international sanctions experts say the Russian Far East is a common transit point for smuggled goods going to and from North Korea.

In February, the South Korean authorities seized the DN5505 and the Katrin in separate actions because of suspected sanctions violations. The DN5505 had docked in Pohang, South Korea, carrying more than 3,200 tons of coal after sailing from Nakhodka. Officials told employees of the South Korea shipping agency handling the ship that it was being investigated for carrying North Korean coal. The other ship, the Katrin, was accused of bringing petroleum products to North Korea.

Mr. Kazachuk said he as a shipowner was not responsible for what the ships carried. He also said the South Korean authorities were engaged in a “state racket” and might have planted evidence on the ships. “The South Korean police spit from a high bell tower on basic human rights,” he said.

Image

CreditBrendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

There is another tie between his ships and suspected sanctions violations. Last fall, when the DN5505 dropped off its shipment of coal in Pohang, on the return trip after having unloaded the two sedans, a company called Enermax Korea took possession of the coal.

The United Nations panel has been investigating Enermax, registered in South Korea, for sanctions violations.

The panel’s 2019 report said Enermax appeared to be the final recipient of North Korean coal that was intended to be transferred in April 2018 in Indonesian waters by a North Korean-flagged ship, the Wise Honest, to a Russian cargo ship. The Indonesian authorities detained the Wise Honest around April 1.

Enermax had signed a contract to buy the coal from a Hong Kong-registered company, yet told the panel that it was buying Indonesian coal from someone who appeared to be a local broker in Indonesia.

The sales contract valued the coal at nearly $3 million.

In May, the United States announced it was seizing the Wise Honest.

In an interview, Enermax executives said the deal with the Indonesian broker fell apart and no money exchanged hands. They also said they had thought the coal delivered to South Korea by the DN5505 both last October — right after the Mercedes were unloaded — and this February was Russian in origin. They said Mr. Kazachuk had told them the coal was from Russia.

The South Korean authorities have seized at least six ships since late 2017 on suspicion of sanctions violations. Last month, it began scrapping the Katrin. Officials said the dismantling was done at the request of Mr. Kazachuk, who did not want to continue accruing docking fees for the seized ship.

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2019-07-16 09:25:51Z
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More than 100 dead and 6 million affected by flooding across South Asia - CNN

More than 100 people have died in India and Nepal since monsoon flooding began over the weekend. The rains have stopped in Nepal on Tuesday, but the disaster is far from over -- with heavy downpours expected to continue in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan in the coming days.

Villagers travel on a boat near a submerged house in the Morigaon district of India's Assam state on July 15, 2019.

Nepal appears the worst hit so far, with at least 78 people dead, officials said on Tuesday. A further 29 have died in the northeastern Indian states of Bihar and Assam.

Flash floods have also ripped through Pakistan and Bangladesh, which border India on the east and west, respectively. 28 have died in Pakistan, and 16 in Bangladesh, according to authorities from each country.

More than 6.7 million people in India have been directly affected by the floods, according to official statements -- about 2.5 million in Bihar and 4.2 million in Assam.

An Indian rickshaw puller transports commuters on a flooded street in the Indian state of Tripura, on July 14, 2019.

Across the border area, over a million hectares of cropland (2,471,054 acres) has been submerged, roads and homes have been damaged, livestock has been swept away and killed, and entire wildlife sanctuaries have been cut off.

Federal and state agencies are working around the clock across all four affected countries to evacuate those in high-risk areas. More than 42,000 security personnel in Nepal have been mobilized for rescue and relief efforts -- including the police, army, and paramilitary forces.

Images from India's National Disaster Response Force show officials helping children and carrying the elderly out of flooded houses into orange inflatable dinghies.

Indian officials carry out evacuations in flooded Golghat, in India's northeastern Assam state.

Disaster relief agencies are now scrambling to provide housing and crucial supplies for families who have been displaced. Over 116,000 in Bihar and 83,000 in Assam have been evacuated to temporary shelters, and state agencies are distributing rice, biscuits, baby food, and candles to hundreds of relief centers, according to state officials.

Meanwhile in Bangladesh, many people live in homes made of bamboo, mud, or timber -- which provide little to no protection in floods, said Azmat Ulla, head of the the Bangladesh office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).

More than 200,000 Bangladeshis have been displaced and are living in temporary camps, according to the country's state minister for disaster management and relief.

Rohingya refugees in the southeastern corner of Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable. One million Rohingya Muslims who fled persecution in nearby Myanmar are now living in overcrowded camps -- and 400 of these makeshift homes have been destroyed by the floods, leaving 3,000 refugees displaced, said Ulla.

A member of Nepalese army carrying a child walks along the flooded colony in Kathmandu, Nepal on July 12, 2019.

Aid organizations and health workers have other concerns as well -- waterborne diseases like diarrhea are known to spread in the aftermath of floods, and destroyed sewage systems could exacerbate those sanitation issues.

The loss of crops and livestock is another potentially devastating long-term effect.

"There are still communities that depend very much on the crops," Ulla told CNN. "They lose their crops, they lose their livelihoods."

The monsoon rains began on Thursday in Nepal, with tens of thousands evacuated after major rivers swelled to dangerous levels, according to the Nepalese Ministry of Home Affairs.

The monsoon rains and the accompanying floods are an annual occurrence -- they bring much-needed water to farmers and drought-hit regions each year, but the sudden downpours also regularly trigger deadly floods and landslides.

An Indian girl carries drinking water as she wades through flood waters in India's Assam state on July 15, 2019.

Changes in climate has led to increasingly extreme seasons across South Asia. Just last month, swathes of India -- including the major cities of Mumbai and Chennai -- nearly ran out of water, with people lining up for hours for meager daily allocations of government-provided water.

The drought may also have dried up the land, making it harder and less absorbent, said CNN meteorologists -- therefore exacerbating the floods when the monsoon rains arrive.

Residents are forced from one unlivable extreme to the next -- from having no water to drink to escaping rushing floodwater.

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2019-07-16 06:54:07Z
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Japan-South Korea dispute is called 'disturbing and unhelpful' for the global economy - CNBC

South Korean President Moon Jae-in walks past Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan, on June 28, 2019.

Kim Kyung-Hoon | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The dispute between Japan and South Korea is "a lose-lose proposition" as it comes amid an ongoing global trade war that the U.S. and its trading partners are embroiled in, an economist said on Tuesday.

Tokyo and Seoul have long had political disagreements stemming from Japan's conduct during the second World War. The dispute between the neighbors spilled into the economic arena when Japan earlier this month restricted exports of materials critical to South Korea's high-tech industry, citing national security concerns.

Japan and South Korea are large exporters of products such as chips and smartphone displays. An escalated trade fight between the two could be bad news for the global technology industry and consumers may end up having to pay more for products.

"This development that we're seeing now is disturbing and unhelpful for the global economic sentiment. To begin with, we already have so much around the trade war between the U.S. and the rest of the world," Taimur Baig, chief economist at DBS Group Research, told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Tuesday.

He added that Japanese and South Korean companies have spent years building up "intricate" supply chains, and it'll be "so hard to redo" such arrangements when trust among all those involved has been breached.

"It doesn't help anybody," he said. "To me, it's a lose-lose proposition."

Baig is not the only one who has warned about a potential disruption to the technology supply chain. Troy Stangarone, a senior director at think tank Korea Economic Institute of America, said prices of semiconductors could rise if South Korean manufacturers cut production as a result of Japan's trade restrictions.

That higher cost may be passed on to consumers, some experts warned.

Can China benefit?

Other analysts, however, said affected companies will find a way to cope with measures imposed by Japan.

Jesper Koll, senior advisor at WisdomTree Investments, told CNBC last week that the total value of products affected by Japan's curbs is less than $450 million. He predicted that if Tokyo implements further restrictions, "people will scramble but the overall damage is going to be teeny."

And Chinese companies could potentially step in to fill any shortfall in the supply of tech parts, said Stangarone.

"At a time when the United States has raised concerns around China-based technology companies, the Japan-Korea dispute creates space in the market for (Chinese) state-backed firms to establish themselves as potential players," he told CNBC in an email.

"Even though they are not yet as advanced as chipmakers like Samsung or Micron, these firms have the opportunity to substitute supply if there are market disruptions, " he added.

Baig is less optimistic about China's potential to substitute Japan as a major supplier to South Korea. He explained that there are reasons why Japan has the competitive advantage to supply those materials in the first place, and China may find it hard to replicate the same edge.

"Can China be a beneficiary? I have my doubts," he said. "You can't reinvent those supply chains and re-calibrate them so easily, even if you're China."

— Reuters contributed to this report.

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2019-07-16 06:14:42Z
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