The United States is facing a border crisis due to the increase in immigrants who, as a result of the economic situation in their countries of origin or because of climate change, have been forced to go in search of the American dream. The issue becomes urgent in view of the upcoming elections, where Democrats are concerned that the situation will be politicized.

According to figures from the U.S. Border Patrol (CBP), in the first week of December 2023, 9,923 people were detained daily trying to cross from Mexico to the United States. 

Of these figures, according to the CBP, 2,398 are Mexican and 7,525 are of other nationalities, so it was estimated that 307,000 people would be detained at the border by the end of 2023 (of which almost 75,000 would be from Mexico).

However, immigrants are currently coming from all over the world (52 percent), unlike a few years ago, when the majority came from Mexico and Central America, and “that is a great difficulty,” assured Angela Kelly, Senior Advisor for Policy and Partnerships at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and the American Immigration Council (AIC), during a briefing held by Ethnic Media Services.

“Immigration has changed in recent years, it has changed in the form and the number of encounters, this means that if the border patrol were to deal with all the people who are coming in, before they would have said it was impossible, but today it is 4,000 or 5,000 a day, the numbers we see now are up to 11,000,” said Angela Kelly.

President Joseph Biden is expected to use his authority to create a legal path for protection in order to enter the country, considering that there are key points that can improve the movement of migrants, including how to better serve more of those seeking asylum, since the daily flow far exceeds the capacities of immigration agencies, said Angela Kelly, while acknowledging that the problem will continue.

Kelly stressed that it is important to recognize that new avenues and policies have been created to provide immigrants with more options, but in practice the expected results have not been achieved.

Vanessa Cárdenas, executive director of America's Voice, a Washington, DC-based nonprofit that advocates for immigrant rights, said the lack of immigration reform is partly the reason for the current severe immigration crisis, as the country's immigration system has not been updated in recent years, although efforts have been made to fix and improve it.

The expert highlighted that the main reasons that have driven the increase in the flow of migrants on the southern border are the unstable economy of their countries of origin and the impacts of climate change, so not everything is centered on the policies of the United States.

Cárdenas added that America is an immigrant nation, as more than 80 percent of American voters accepted a progressive option, “America wants a compassionate legal system.”

“We are facing a significant threat. Trump has already said that he will carry out large-scale deportations and imprisonments, so they have already given an idea of what they are going to do. We must understand that this goes beyond our communities, beyond our immigrants. They are a threat to us,” said Cárdenas. 

Lupita Martinez from the Coalition for Human Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA), which is made up of diverse immigrant families and individuals who act as agents of social change at the national level to achieve a just society that fully includes immigrants.

“We have seen many children who arrive very tired from the journey, from all the traveling. We have medical care waiting for them, as well as people who support us as translators, and we take them to a welcome center so they can rest and eat.”

In this way, they seek ways to support and help migrants who are sent to other various states of the American Union, welcoming them and supporting them to make their journey and stay easier. 

CHIRLA received the first truck in June 2023 and to date more than 39 trucks of people have been served. 

Likewise, he commented that only 3 percent of migrants who arrive in the country stay in Los Angeles, so they seek to guide and support them so that they reach their destinations. The way they work is through collective support, donations and other organizations that promote the work carried out.    

Experts agreed that there is still much to be done and that the political and social circumstances facing other countries increase the flow of migrants to the southern border seeking to enter the United States to obtain a better quality of life, so these phenomena will continue to be present, and it will be the next administration that will have the task of improving the conditions of immigrants, betting that the Democratic Party will be a more viable option.

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The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today released new civil rights data showing it received 3,578 complaints during the last three months of 2023 amid an ongoing wave of anti-Muslim protests and anti-Palestinian hate.

The country's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization said the figure represents a 178 percent increase in complaints received in the last three months of 2023 compared to the same period last year.

Among this subset of complaints from October to December, she said, employment discrimination (19 percent), hate crimes and incidents (13 percent) and educational discrimination (13 percent) were the three most reported categories.

“In the face of relentless hate and false smears, American Muslims, Arabs, and a broad coalition of Jews, Christians, African Americans, Asian Americans, and others continue to call for justice for Palestine,” CAIR Research and Advocacy Director Corey Saylor said in a statement. “This coalition knows that the way to stop the hate is to end the apartheid, occupation, and genocide taking place in Palestine.

“Despite this disturbing wave of prejudice against Muslim, Arab-American and Palestinian communities, we are witnessing an impressive resilience in the face of intolerance,” said CAIR National Executive Director Nihad Awad.

On Friday, CAIR welcomed a preliminary ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the UN's principal judicial body, which finds South Africa's genocide charge against the Israeli government plausible, allows the case to proceed, and orders the Israeli government to take various steps to prevent genocidal acts and report back to the ICJ within a month.

CAIR called the figures in its latest data release for December “astonishing.”

Earlier in 2023, CAIR had reported that 2022 showed the first drop in incoming complaints to the organization since it began tracking data in 1995.

This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the CaliFornia State Library.

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The Doomsday Clock has been reset at 90 seconds to midnight, marking the second closest the clock has ever come to “apocalypse,” reflecting the ongoing state of unprecedented danger facing the world, including war, climate change, the threat of nuclear bombs, and even artificial intelligence. 

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, administrators of the Doomsday Clock, emphasized in their announcement that the Clock could be turned back, but for this to happen, urgent action is needed by governments and individuals. 

A range of global threats cast ominous shadows over the deliberations of Clock 2024, including: the war between Russia and Ukraine and the deterioration of nuclear arms reduction agreements; the climate crisis and the official designation of 2023 as the hottest year on record; the increasing sophistication of genetic engineering technologies; and the dramatic advance of generative AI, which could magnify disinformation and corrupt the global information environment, making it harder to solve the most important existential challenges. 

“Make no mistake: resetting the clock to 90 seconds to midnight is not an indication that the world is stable. Quite the contrary. There is an urgent need for governments and communities around the world to act. And the Bulletin maintains hope (and inspiration) by looking to younger generations leading the charge,” said Dr. Rachel Bronson, president and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists.

The time on the Doomsday Clock is set by the Atomic Scientists Science and Safety Bulletin Board (SASB) in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes nine Nobel laureates. Previously, in January 2023, the Doomsday Clock was set at 90 seconds to midnight, the closest to midnight the Clock had ever been.  

“Ominous trends continue to point the world toward global catastrophe. The war in Ukraine and the widespread and growing reliance on nuclear weapons increase the risk of nuclear escalation. China, Russia, and the United States are spending vast sums of money to expand or modernize their nuclear arsenals, heightening the ever-present danger of nuclear war by mistake or miscalculation,” the Doomsday Clock statement said.

In 2023, the Earth experienced the hottest year on record, and massive floods, wildfires and other climate-related disasters affected millions of people around the world. Meanwhile, worryingly rapid advances in life sciences and other disruptive technologies accelerated, while governments made only feeble efforts to control them. “But the world can be safer. The Clock can move away from midnight,” he details.

For Jerry Brown, executive president of the Bulletin, “As if on the Titanic, leaders are steering the world toward catastrophe: more nuclear bombs, massive carbon emissions, dangerous pathogens and artificial intelligence. Only great powers like China, the United States and Russia can turn us back. Despite deep antagonisms, they must cooperate… or we are doomed.”

Bill Nye, who participated in the announcement of the 2024 Doomsday Clock, said: “For decades, scientists have been warning us about the dangers facing humanity. We could face catastrophe unless we better manage the technologies we have created. It is time to act.” 

Turn back the clock 

Everyone on Earth has an interest in reducing the likelihood of global catastrophe caused by nuclear weapons, climate change, advances in life sciences, disruptive technologies, and widespread corruption of the global information ecosystem. For the Bulletin's members, turning back the clock requires, as a first step, and despite their profound disagreements, that three of the world's major powers (the United States, China, and Russia) begin a serious dialogue on each of the global threats described here. 

At the highest levels, they said, these three countries must take responsibility for the existential danger facing the world now. “They have the ability to pull the world back from the brink of catastrophe. They must do so clearly and boldly and without delay,” they warned.

Founded in 1945 by Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons in the Manhattan Project, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists created the Doomsday Clock two years later, using imagery of the apocalypse (midnight) and the contemporary language of nuclear explosion (countdown to zero) to convey threats to humanity and the planet. 

The Doomsday Clock is set each year by the Bulletin's Science and Security Board in consultation with its Board of Sponsors, which includes nine Nobel laureates. The Clock has become a universally recognized indicator of the world's vulnerability to global catastrophe caused by man-made technologies.

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