Update on the migrant caravan

- Tijuana Health Authorities Confirm Thousands Of Caravan
Members Are Crawling With Deadly Disease - AIDS, Tuberculosis,
Chagas, Hepatitis And Many Other Infections - They Are Not
Coming Here For ‘Jobs’ They Are After Free Medical Care

https://rense.com

MIGRANT CARAVAN MEMBERS HAVE BREACHED THE U.S. BORDER FENCE IN DESPERATE BID TO CLAIM ASYLUM

Newsweek,

4 December,2018

Faced with weeks, if not months, of waiting at the U.S.-Mexico border, frustrated Central American asylum seekers reportedly breached the border fence in a desperate bid to claim asylum in the U.S.

On Monday, a number of the asylum seekers who had been waiting in the Mexican border town of Tijuana to make their asylum claims climbed over the border fence, despite being almost certain to face detention by U.S. authorities on the other side, Reuters reported.

While the migrants are well aware of the risks of entering the U.S. outside designated ports of entry, they took the chance that entering illegally would at least give them a chance to make their claims for asylum.

Photos show groups of asylum seekers climbing over fencing put up at the border in Tijuana. Some photos show small children being hoisted by adults and carried over the border fence, with many telling Getty photographers that they planned to request political asylum in the U.S. once they reached U.S. Soil.

It is unclear how many people tried to cross into the U.S. on Monday.

Asylum seekers have faced weeks of waiting in Tijuana as U.S. immigration officers at the nearest port of entry, San Ysidro, in San Diego, California, continue to process no more than 100 asylum each day. 

It is unclear how long they will be forced to wait. Tijuana's government has said the asylum seekers could be there for months before they get their chance to submit their claims to U.S. authorities. 

If the Trump administration's recently proposed asylum policy barring anyone caught entering the U.S. outside legal ports of entry from being eligible for asylum was not tied up in court, asylum seekers caught crossing the border would likely face immediate removal orders. 

The Trump administration issued the policy on November 8, however, San Francisco Federal Judge Jon Tigar temporarily blocked it shortly afterward, stating that Congress had  mandated that all immigrants should be eligible to apply for asylum in the U.S., regardless of how they arrived in the country.

Members of the "migrant caravan" climb over the U.S.-Mexico border fence on December 3 in Tijuana, Mexico. Many making the crossing had planned to request political asylum in the United States after traveling more than six weeks from Central America.MARIO TAMA/GETTY

President Donald Trump has since proposed that asylum seekers should be forced to wait in Mexico while their claims are processed in the U.S. 

That proposal is likely to face challenges, however, with advocates saying that it would endanger the lives of refugees and deny them due process. 

Central American asylum seekers have expressed frustration over the conditions and treatment they have faced in Tijuana and at the U.S.-Mexico border, where U.S. Border Patrol agents fired tear gas at asylum seekers, including families with small children, last month. 

A Tijuana shelter housing as many as 6,000 of the asylum seekers in a sports arena was recently shut down because of "poor sanitary conditions," according to the local government. 

The closure came after advocates sounded the alarm about asylum seekers becoming sick with respiratory problems and chicken pox while living in the temporary shelter, where they were living in wet and muddy conditions brought on by heavy rains.

Many asylum seekers have been moved to a new facility, which is farther away from the U.S.-Mexico border. 

The new facility, set up at a former concert venue, is roughly 10 miles away from the border and will be run by federal authorities. 

More undocumented immigrants in California would get health care under Democrats’ plan

SacBee,

3 December, 2018

Influential Democratic state lawmakers are re-introducing bills Monday to give immigrants without legal status access to Medi-Cal, California’s health care program for low-income people.

Outgoing Sen. Ricardo Lara, incoming Sen. Maria Elena Durazo and Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula are introducing identical bills in each house, a frequent tactic for significant legislation.

The bills would allow all adults, regardless of immigration status, to be eligible for Medi-Cal.

Lara, who was elected state insurance commissioner and will leave the Senate next month, and Arambula proposed similar bills last session that didn’t pass.

Children without legal status are already eligible for Medi-Cal benefits under a 2016 law, which has expanded coverage to more than 200,000 children. People over 19 who don’t have legal authorization to live in the United States have access to some limited Medi-Cal benefits including pregnancy and emergency care.

The effort last session to expand full Medi-Cal benefits to immigrants living in the country illegally didn’t make it into the final budget.

“It’s something that is urgently needed across immigrant communities in California,” said Carolina Gamero, a spokeswoman for the California Immigrant Policy Center, which is supporting the bills. “The longer that we wait and the longer we keep up this unjust exclusion, it’s really setting back California.”

Although they were disappointed outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown didn’t prioritize the issue in budget negotiations last session, advocates are hopeful incoming Gov. Gavin Newsom will embrace the proposal, Gamero said.

Newsom campaigned on expanding access to health care. Most uninsured people in California are not eligible for coverage because of their immigration status.

“You cannot talk about universal health care in California unless you talk about health care for the undocumented,” said Rachel Linn Gish, spokeswoman for consumer group Health Access California.

Analyses of previous versions of the proposal found it could expand coverage to an estimated 1.2 million adults without legal status who meet the income requirements to enroll in Medi-Cal.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimated last session that the plan would cost roughly $3 billion per year. Federal limitations on undocumented immigrants accessing publicly funded health care would force the state to shoulder the full cost, a high price tag that has prevented past proposals from advancing.