President Ivan Duque said the helicopter he was flying in Friday near the border with Venezuela was hit by gunfire in the first attack against a Colombian head of state in nearly 20 years.No one was injured, and authorities did not say which side of the border the shots came from. Colombia regularly accuses Venezuela of harboring Colombian rebels on its territory.”It is a cowardly attack, where you can see bullet holes in the presidential aircraft,” Duque said in a statement.Duque said he was flying with the defense and interior ministers and the governor of Norte de Santander province, which borders Venezuela, when the helicopter was attacked.Photos released by the president’s office showed the tail and main blade had been hit.Duque said the aircraft’s “safety features” prevented a “lethal” attack.”I have given very clear instructions to the entire security team to go after those who shot at the aircraft,” he said.The U.S., European Union and U.N. mission in Colombia all condemned the attack.The presidential delegation had left the town of Sardinata and was headed to the border city of Cucuta when they came under fire.Duque had attended an event in the Catatumbo region, one of the main coca-growing areas of the country. Colombia is the world’s largest cocaine producer.Holdouts from the disbanded FARC rebel group, an active guerrilla group called the National Liberation Army (ELN), and other armed bands fight drug trafficking turf wars along the long and porous border with Venezuela.The two countries broke off relations after Duque, a conservative, came to power in 2018. Venezuela is governed by socialist President Nicolas Maduro.The Duque government has repeatedly accused Venezuela of giving refuge to ELN fighters.”We are not frightened by violence or acts of terrorism. Our state is strong and Colombia is strong to confront this kind of threat,” Duque said after the attack on his chopper.The border area has been violent of late.Anger in the streetsOn June 16, a car bomb exploded on a military base in Cucuta, wounding 36 people.The government blamed the ELN, with which it ended peace negotiations in 2019.Those talks started after the government concluded a historic peace accord in 2016 with the much bigger FARC that ended decades of civil war.The last attack against a president in Colombia was a bombing that targeted then leader Alvaro Uribe in 2003.A 20-kilogram bomb hidden in a building near the airport in the southwest city of Neiva exploded prior to the landing of a plane carrying Uribe, who is Duque’s political mentor.The blast killed 15 people and wounded 66. The government blamed the FARC for that attack.Since Duque came to power the country has been enduring its worst outbreak of violence since the peace accord with the FARC.The government accuses armed groups financed with drug money of carrying out massacres in isolated coca-producing regions.With his approval record at rock bottom, Duque is also facing anger in the streets.Tens of thousands of people voiced their discontent on April 28 against a proposed tax hike that they said would hurt the middle class, already suffering economically from the pandemic.The government withdrew the proposal, but the protests morphed into a broader grassroots movement to air gripes about inequality, education and other woes, amid complaints of heavy-handed police action to put down the marches. More than 60 people have died in the unrest.
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Leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada say investigators have found more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children, which follows the discovery of 215 bodies at another school last month.The new discovery was at the Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899-1997 where the Cowessess First Nation is now located, about 135 kilometers east of Regina, the capital of the province of Saskatchewan.Ground-penetrating radar registered 751 ”hits,” indicating at least 600 bodies were buried, said Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess. Some and perhaps most are from over a century ago. The gravesite is believed to hold the bodies of children and adults, and even people from outside the community who attended church there.Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, said it is not unusual to find such graves at former residential schools but is always a devastating discovery that reopens old wounds about the forced assimilation of native children at those often-abusive institutions.Many non-Indigenous Canadians were not aware of the extent of the problems at the schools until the remains of 215 children were found last month at what was once the country’s largest such school in British Columbia.What are residential schools?From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian boarding schools in an effort to assimilate them into Canadian society. Thousands of children died there of disease and other causes, with many never returned to their families.Nearly three-quarters of the 130 residential schools were run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, with others operated by the Presbyterian, Anglican and the United Church of Canada, which today is the largest Protestant denomination in the country.The Canadian government has admitted its role in a century of isolating native children from their homes, families and cultures, and that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, where students were beaten for speaking their native language. That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by native leaders as a cause of alcoholism and drug addiction widely seen on reservations today.Indigenous leaders have called it a form of cultural genocide.Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday called it “an incredibly harmful government policy that was Canada’s reality for many, many decades and Canadians today are horrified and ashamed of how our country behaved.”He said the policy “forced assimilation” on the children.What’s behind the discovery of the remains?A National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was set up as part of a government apology and settlement, issued a report in 2015 that identified about 3,200 confirmed deaths at schools. While some died of diseases like tuberculosis amid the often-deplorable conditions, it noted that a cause of death for about half of them often was not recorded.The government wanted to keep costs down at the schools, so adequate regulations were never established, the reconciliation commission said.It said the practice at the schools was to not send the bodies home to their communities. Delorme said the graves at the Saskatchewan school were marked at one time, but that the Catholic operators of the facility had removed them.What apologies have been made?Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized in Parliament in 2008 for the government’s role. Among the Christian denominations, the Presbyterian, Anglican and United churches also apologized for their roles in the abuse.A papal apology was one of 94 recommendations from the reconciliation commission, but the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops said in 2018 that the pope could not personally apologize for the residential schools.Former Pope Benedict XVI met with some former students and victims in 2009 and told them of his “personal anguish” over their suffering.After last month’s discovery, Pope Francis expressed his pain and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair,” but didn’t offer an apology.Trudeau said Friday he has spoken to Francis personally “to impress upon him how important it is not just that he makes an apology but that he makes an apology to indigenous Canadians on Canadian soil.”Archbishop Don Bolen of the Regina Archdiocese posted a letter on its website this week to the Cowessess First Nation in which he repeated an apology he said he made two years ago.What compensation has been offered?The reconciliation commission was created as part of a $5 billion Canadian ($4 billion U.S.) class action settlement in 2005, the largest in Canadian history.Under the settlement, students who attended the schools were eligible to receive $10,000 Canadian ($8,143 U.S.) for the first school year and $3,000 Canadian ($2,443 U.S.) for every year thereafter. Victims of physical and sexual abuse were eligible for further compensation.Trudeau has said the government will help preserve gravesites and search for unmarked burial grounds at other schools, but he and his ministers have stressed the need for indigenous communities to decide for themselves how they want to proceed.The government previously announced $27 million Canadian ($22 million U.S.) for the effort in what it called a first step. 
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The Champlain Towers South drew people from around the globe to enjoy life on South Florida’s Atlantic Coast, some for a night, some to live. A couple from Argentina and their young daughter. A beloved retired Miami-area teacher and his wife. Orthodox Jews from Russia. Israelis. The sister of Paraguay’s first lady. Others from South America.
They were among the nearly 100 people who remained missing Friday morning, a day after the 12-story building collapsed into rubble early Thursday. Much of the Champlain’s beach side sheared off for unknown reasons, pancaking into a pile of concrete and metal more than 30 feet (10 meters) high.
Only one person had been confirmed dead, but officials feared that number could skyrocket. Eleven injuries were reported, with four people treated at hospitals.
“These are very difficult times, and things are going to get more difficult as we move forward,” Miami-Dade Police Director Freddy Ramirez said.Rescue workers look through the rubble where a wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed, June 24, 2021, in the Surfside area of Miami.Fire Rescue personnel and others worked through the night in hopes of finding survivors.  
State Sen. Jason Pizzo of Miami Beach told the Miami Herald he watched as tactical teams of six worked early Friday to pull bodies from the rubble. He said he saw one body taken in a yellow body bag and another that was marked. They were taken to a homicide unit tent that was set up along the beach.
Many people remained at the reunification center set up near the collapse site early Friday morning, awaiting results of DNA swabs that could help identify victims.
Officials said no cause for the collapse has been determined.
Video of the collapse showed the center of the building appearing to tumble down first and a section nearest to the ocean teetering and coming down seconds later, as a huge dust cloud swallowed the neighborhood.
About half the building’s roughly 130 units were affected, and rescuers pulled at least 35 people from the wreckage in the first hours after the collapse.Part of a building is shown after a partial collapse, June 24, 2021, in Surfside, Fla.Raide Jadallah, an assistant Miami-Dade County fire chief, said that while listening devices placed on and in the wreckage had picked up no voices, they had detected possible banging noises, giving rescuers hope some are alive. Rescuers were tunneling into the wreckage from below, going through the building’s underground parking garage.
Personal belongings were evidence of shattered lives amid the wreckage of the Champlain, which was built in 1981 in Surfside, a small suburb northwest of Miami. A children’s bunk bed perched precariously on a top floor, bent but intact and apparently inches from falling into the rubble. A comforter lay on the edge of a lower floor. Televisions. Computers. Chairs.
Argentines Dr. Andres Galfrascoli, his husband, Fabian Nuñez and their 6-year-old daughter, Sofia, had spent Wednesday night there at an apartment belonging to a friend, Nicolas Fernandez.
Galfrascoli, a Buenos Aires plastic surgeon, and Nuñez, a theater producer and accountant, had come to Florida to get away from a COVID-19 resurgence in Argentina and its strict lockdowns. They had worked hard to adopt Sofia, Fernandez said.
“Of all days, they chose the worst to stay there,” Fernandez said. “I hope it’s not the case, but if they die like this, that would be so unfair.”People wait for news at a family reunification center, after a wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed, June 24, 2021, in the Surfside area of Miami.They weren’t the only South Americans missing. Foreign ministries and consulates of four countries said 22 nationals were missing in the collapse: nine from Argentina, six from Paraguay, four from Venezuela and three from Uruguay.
The Paraguayans  included Sophia López Moreira — the sister of first lady Silvana Abdo and sister-in-law of President Mario Abdo Benítez — and her family.
Israeli media said the country’s consul general in Miami, Maor Elbaz, believes that 20 citizens of that country are missing.
Also missing was Arnie Notkin, a retired Miami-area elementary school physical education teacher, and his wife, Myriam. They lived on the third floor.
“Everyone’s been posting, ‘Oh my God, he was my coach,'” said Fortuna Smukler, a friend who turned to Facebook in hopes of finding someone who would report them safe.
“They were also such happy, joyful people. He always had a story to tell, and she always spoke so kindly of my mother,” Smukler said. “Originally there were rumors that he had been found, but it was a case of mistaken identity. It would be a miracle if they’re found alive.”
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Leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada said Thursday that investigators have found more than 600 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children — a discovery that follows last month’s report of 215 bodies found at another school.The bodies were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School, which operated from 1899-1997 where the Cowessess First Nation is now located, about 135 kilometers east of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.A search with ground-penetrating radar resulted in 751 “hits,” indicating that at least 600 bodies were buried in the area, said Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess. The radar operators have said their results could have a margin of error of 10%.”We want to make sure when we tell our story that we’re not trying to make numbers sound bigger than they are,” Delorme said. “I like to say over 600, just to be assured.”He said the search continues, the radar hits will be assessed by a technical team and the numbers will be verified in coming weeks.The graves had been marked at one time, Delorme said, but the Roman Catholic Church that had operated the school removed the markers.’My heart breaks’On Twitter, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was “terribly saddened” to learn of the latest discovery.”My heart breaks for the Cowessess First Nation following the discovery of Indigenous children buried at the former Marieval Residential School,” he said. ”We will tell the truth about these injustices.”Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said the entire province mourns the discovery of the unmarked graves.Don Bolen, Archbishop of Regina, posted a letter to the Cowessess First Nation on the archdiocese’s website.”The news is overwhelming and I can only imagine the pain and waves of emotion that you and your people are experiencing right now,” Bolen wrote.Bolen said that two years ago, he apologized to the Cowessess people for the “failures and sins of Church leaders in the past.””I know that apologies seem a very small step as the weight of past suffering comes into greater light, but I extend that apology again, and pledge to do what we can to turn that apology into meaningful concrete acts — including assisting in accessing information that will help to provide names and information about those buried in unmarked graves,” he said.’We learned how to not like who we were’Florence Sparvier, 80, said she attended the Marieval Indian Residential School.”The nuns were very mean to us,” she said. “We had to learn how to be Roman Catholic. We couldn’t say our own little blessings.”Nuns at the school were “condemning about our people,” and the pain inflicted continues generations later, Sparvier said.”We learned how to not like who we were,” she said. “That has gone on and it’s still going on.”Last month the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia.Following that discovery, Pope Francis expressed his pain over the discovery and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.” But he didn’t offer the apology sought by First Nations and by the Canadian government.”An apology is one stage in the way of a healing journey,” Delorme said.”This was a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nations,” said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations in Saskatchewan. He said he expects more graves will be found on residential school grounds across Canada.”We will not stop until we find all the bodies,” he said.From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, the majority of them run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages. 
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One of Haiti’s most powerful gang leaders warned this week he was launching a revolution against the country’s business and political elites, signaling a likely further escalation of violence in the impoverished Caribbean nation. Violence has spiked in Haiti’s capital in recent weeks to what the United Nations has called “unprecedented levels” as rival groups battle with one another or the police for control of the streets, displacing thousands and worsening the country’s humanitarian crisis. Jimmy Cherizier, alias Barbecue, a former police officer, heads the so-called G9 federation of nine gangs formed last year. Surrounded by gang members wielding machetes and guns, he gave a statement to local media outlets in the slum of La Saline on Wednesday, saying the G9 had become a revolutionary force to deliver Haiti from the opposition, the government and the Haitian bourgeoisie. FILE – A protester holds a sign with a message to stop supporting gangs during a protest in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Dec. 10, 2020.Human rights activists say Cherizier is actually not targeting the government but the opposition. The government has not publicly commented on his statements and was not immediately available for comment. A suspect in several massacres of citizens in recent years, among other crimes for which he was sanctioned late last year by the United States, Cherizier depicts himself as a community leader filling the void left by weak institutions. Cherizier said his gang members sparked the looting at multiple stores in Port-au-Prince last week, and the broader population followed suit because they were hungry. “It is your money which is in banks, stores, supermarkets and dealerships, so go and get what is rightfully yours,” he said in comments that went viral on social media in Haiti. Armed groups have become increasingly powerful in Haiti in recent years due to political unrest, growing poverty and a sense of impunity, say rights organizations such as the nonprofit Center for Human Rights Analysis and Research. FILE – Internally displaced people sit inside a shelter at the Center Sportif of Carrefour in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, June 8, 2021, in this handout released June 15, 2021, by UNHaiti.The presidential and legislative elections slated for later this year could be a factor in the recent uptick in violence committed by gangs often linked to local politicians, they say. Haiti’s police are not equipped to deal with gang members who have acquired ever-more sophisticated weapons, partly financed by kidnappings for ransom. Many officers have died in confrontations with armed bandits in recent months, including one in a fight with Cherizier last weekend, according to the police. The violence is exacerbating a humanitarian crisis in a country in which nearly half the population is facing “high acute” food insecurity, according to the United Nations, and coronavirus infections are surging. The president of Haiti’s supreme court died from COVID-19 on Wednesday even as the country has yet to start its vaccination campaign. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said earlier this month the displacements were “creating a host of secondary issues, such as the disruption of community-level social functioning … forced school closures, loss of livelihoods and a general fear among the affected populations.” 
 
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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday there is a likely association between two COVID-19 vaccines and a rare heart condition in boys and young men. The federal health agency said more than 1,200 people who had received either the PfizerBioNTech or Moderna vaccines developed myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle. The condition was more prominent in men than women, and was detected more after the second dose than the first.   The CDC said the side effects, which include fatigue and chest pain, have been mild and that the vast majority of those diagnosed with myocarditis have fully recovered.  The agency concluded that despite the “likely association” between the two vaccines and myocarditis, the benefits of receiving the vaccine far outweigh the risks.   FILE – Health care workers prepare doses of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine before administering them to staffers of Japan’s supermarket group Aeon at the company’s shopping mall in Chiba, Japan, June 21, 2021.Both the Pfizer and Moderna two-shot vaccines were developed using messenger RNA, which is a single-stranded RNA molecule that is complementary to one of the DNA strands of a gene, according to the FILE – Health workers treat a COVID-19 patient at the emergency unit of a field hospital set up to treat COVID patients in Ribeirao Pires, greater Sao Paulo area, Brazil, April 13, 2021.A White House official said “scientific teams and legal and regulatory authorities” from both nations collaborated to secure the arrangement. Brazil has posted 507,109 COVID-19 deaths, second only behind the United States, which has 602,837, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.    
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is planning to visit the U.S.-Mexico border Friday as part of her effort to curb the surge in migrants attempting to enter the United States, while examining the root causes of migration from Central America.Her office said Wednesday that Homeland Security chief Alejandro Mayorkas would accompany her to El Paso, Texas, one of the main migrant entry points.Harris visited Guatemala and Mexico earlier this month, pointedly telling migrants “do not come” to the U.S.But thousands of migrants from those two countries, along with those from Honduras and El Salvador, have been making the trek to the border, many on foot, trying to escaping poverty and crime in their homelands, they say.U.S. border agents are facing the biggest number of undocumented migrants in two decades. They apprehended more than 180,000 at the border in May, mostly single adults. The figure was up slightly from the 170,000-plus numbers in both March and April.Most of the migrants are coming from Latin America, but many also are from Ecuador, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti and some African nations.The surge has grown since President Joe Biden and Harris took office in January, with Biden saying he was adopting what he called a more humane stance on migration than that of the Trump administration. Biden picked Harris to oversee efforts to curb the migration by addressing the root causes in Latin America for people to leave their homelands.Wall construction stopsBiden has ended construction of former President Donald Trump’s border wall, and unlike his predecessor, who expelled the migrants to their home countries, he is allowing unaccompanied children to enter the U.S. But like Trump, Biden is refusing to allow families and single adults to enter.U.S. Customs and Border Protection said the average daily number of children in its custody has now dropped to 640. U.S. health authorities are holding another 16,200 migrant children, though, while the government attempts to place them with relatives already living in the U.S. or with vetted caregivers.Republicans have blamed Biden for the border surge. Before meeting with Harris in early June, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei also told CBS News that when Biden took office, “the very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.”Harris faced frequent questions on her foreign trip, her first as the U.S. second-in-command, about why she had not visited the border. Frustrated at the questions, she told NBC News she also had not visited Europe since taking office.Opposition Republicans have criticized her lack of a visit to crowded migrant holding facilities at the border, at one point posting a mock-up of a milk carton with her picture that was captioned “Missing at the border.” 
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A journalist was found stabbed to death Tuesday in the northern Mexico city of Ciudad Acuna, across the border from Del Rio, Texas.  Saul Tijerina Rentería was the fourth journalist killed in Mexico this year.  Tijerina Rentería reported for various web-based news outlets, including La Voz de Coahuila.  La Voz reported that Tijerina Rentería went missing after leaving his job at a maquiladora assembly plant in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday. His body was later found stabbed to death in the trunk of a car.  Journalists in provincial Mexico make so little money that many work other jobs.  The Article 19 press freedom group called on authorities to investigate whether he was killed because of his reporting. 
La Voz quoted state police as saying two suspects had been found with a knife and had been detained in connection with the killing. Last week, reporter Gustavo Sánchez Cabrera was shot to death in the southern state of Oaxaca, and another journalist was killed just west of Mexico City. In May, online journalist Benjamín Morales Hernández was abducted and killed in the northern state of Sonora. Two other reporters have disappeared in Sonora this year.  Press groups say nine journalists were killed in Mexico in 2020, making it the most dangerous country for reporters outside of war zones. 
 
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U.N. Human Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet warns increasingly repressive measures by the Nicaraguan government against its political opponents are undermining prospects for free and fair presidential and parliamentary elections in November. Bachelet’s warning came as she submitted her report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.
Nicaragua has been mired in a human rights crisis for years. U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet says the situation is getting worse, making it unlikely that Nicaraguans will be able to fully exercise their political rights in the elections.  Bachelet says the government of President Daniel Ortega is using newly adopted criminal laws to get rid of its political opponents.  She noted security forces have arrested 15 people this month who declared their intention to run for president in November under ambiguous criminal offenses and without sufficient evidence.  “There are ongoing investigations against peoples’ rights and against the presumption of innocence. This is preventing persons from participating in general elections, not only undermining [the] political rights of persons to vote for the person of their choice,”  she said.The high commissioner’s report documents cases of arbitrary arrests, attacks, and harassment by the National Police against human rights defenders, journalists, and perceived opponents of the Ortega government. As of mid-June, civil society sources report nine women and 115 men, who had been detained during protests, remain in prison.  Bachelet says Nicaraguan authorities are squashing peoples’ rights of freedoms of expression and assembly, and political participation. “Authorities have been stigmatizing the opposition, threatening them on social media… This leads to a climate of fear. There is no right of enjoyment of freedom of association. There is no guarantee of a credible electoral process,” she said.In response, Nicaragua’s minister of foreign affairs, Samuel Santos Lopez, accused North American countries and Europe of seeking to maintain their colonial dominance over his country. Santos Lopez urged the council not to fall prey to their disinformation strategy, calling it an immoral attempt to coerce Nicaragua that should be denounced.  
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Thousands of asylum-seekers whose claims were dismissed or denied under a Trump administration policy that forced them to wait in Mexico for their court hearings will be allowed to return for another chance at humanitarian protection, the Homeland Security Department said Tuesday.Registration begins Wednesday, June  23, 2021, for asylum-seekers who were subject to the “Remain in Mexico” policy and either had their cases dismissed or denied for failing to appear in court, The Associated Press has learned.Under that criteria, it is unclear how many people will be eligible to be released into the United States pending a decision on their cases, according to a senior Homeland Security official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not been made public.FILE – A group of migrants mainly from Honduras and Nicaragua wait along a road after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, in La Joya, Texas, May 17, 2021.But Michele Klein Solomon, the International Organization for Migration’s director for North America, Central America and the Caribbean, told the AP that she expected at least 10,000. Her organization is working closely with the administration to bring people to the border and ensure they test negative for COVID-19 before being allowed in the country.The estimate could be low. There are nearly 7,000 asylum-seekers whose cases were dismissed — the vast majority in San Diego — and more than 32,000 whose cases were denied, mostly in Texas, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. It is unknown how many cases were denied for failure to appear in court.Many are believed to have left the Mexican border region, thinking their cases were finished, raising the possibility that they will make the dangerous trek to return. The official said the administration is aware of those dangers and considering bringing people to the United States, as it is doing to reunite families that remain separated years after Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy on illegal crossings.The move is another significant effort at redress for Trump policies that Biden administration officials and their allies say were cruel and inhumane and defenders say were extremely effective at discouraging asylum-seekers from coming to the U.S.Biden halted the policy his first day in office and soon allowed an estimated 26,000 asylum-seekers with active cases to return to the United States while their cases play out, a process that can take years in a court system backlogged with more than 1.3 million cases. More than 12,300 people with active cases have been admitted to the U.S. since February, while others who have registered but not yet entered the country bring the count to about 17,000.That still leaves out tens of thousands of asylum-seekers whose claims were denied or dismissed under the policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols.” Advocates have been pressing for months for them to get another chance, but the administration has been silent, leaving them in legal limbo. 
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Brazil’s Congress passed a bill Monday paving the way to privatize the biggest electric utility in Latin America, state-controlled company Eletrobras, in a victory for far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s privatization agenda. The bill, which sets up a share issue that will dilute the government’s stake in the company, passed the lower house by a vote of 258 to 136. Lawmakers must still vote on a series of amendments before sending it to Bolsonaro. It had already passed in the Senate. The legislation will reduce the government stake in Eletrobras from 51.82% to 45% via a share issue penciled in for early next year that the state estimates will raise around $5 billion (25 billion reais). The government will, however, retain a “golden share” in the company, giving it the final say on strategic matters. Created in 1962, Eletrobras is one of Brazil’s “big four” state-controlled firms, along with oil company Petrobras and banks Banco do Brazil and Caixa Economica Federal. Bolsonaro’s ultraliberal economy minister, Paulo Guedes, has said the privatization will save Brazilians up to 7.4% on electricity. 
 
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Millions of people across Mexico on Monday took part in earthquake simulation drills for the first time since they were suspended last year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The resumption of the emergency exercises follows a steady decline in new COVID-19 cases and deaths in Mexico, one of the countries worst hit by the virus. The drills, held regularly before the health crisis, aim to prepare the country for the inevitable next major tremor to strike one of the most seismically active regions on Earth. This year the authorities urged people to wear face masks and socially distance to avoid infection with the coronavirus, which the government says has killed more than 231,000 people in Mexico. People take part in an earthquake drill, the first since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Mexico City on June 21, 2021.In the capital, the exercises simulated an 8.1-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter off the coast of the southern state of Guerrero that was strongly felt in Mexico City. According to the authorities, around 6 million people participated in the capital, many of them evacuating buildings and pouring into the streets after warnings over the city’s more than 12,000 loudspeakers. About 200 of the devices failed, according to authorities. The warning system uses seismic monitors with the aim of giving Mexico City’s 9 million residents advance warning of earthquakes with epicenters along the Pacific Coast. “We must be prepared whenever earthquakes happen. Since we practice often, we already knew what to do,” Jose Ramirez, a 32-year-old head waiter, told AFP. On Reforma avenue, home to major hotels, corporations and government offices, thousands of people evacuated buildings when the alert sounded. People take part in an earthquake drill, the first since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, in Mexico City on June 21, 2021.Civil Protection helicopters flew overhead, and firefighters deployed as part of the simulation in a country sitting atop five tectonic plates, including three major ones. On September 19, 1985, an 8.1-magnitude quake killed more than 10,000 people and destroyed hundreds of buildings in Mexico City. Shortly after residents held a practice drill on the anniversary of that earthquake in 2017, a 7.1-magnitude tremor left 370 people dead, mainly in the capital. In other states with no seismic risk, such as Nuevo Leon in northern Mexico, Monday’s exercises simulated a fire. 
 
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U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi says he looks forward to boosting global refugee resettlements after sharp declines caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and drastic cuts to resettlements in the United States under the former Trump administration.
 
“The whole pace will pick up in a few months,” Grandi told VOA’s Celia Mendoza Sunday in an interview coinciding with World Refugee Day. “In the whole of 2020, we only resettled 34,000 people (globally). The year before was more than 100,000. The drop was enormous.”
 
Grandi hailed the Biden administration’s lifting of the U.S. refugee cap from 15,000 in 2020 to 62,500 for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30. But the U.N. refugee chief added that boosting the flow of refugees to receiving nations like the United States takes time.
 
“I don’t know if we’ll be able to get there (62,500 resettlements) that quickly. What is important is that there is an intention to get there,” Grandi said.
Grandi spoke as the global community observed World Refugee Day, designated by the United Nations to honor and celebrate the resiliency of those fleeing war, famine, ecological devastation and other life-threatening situations.  Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 19 MB720p | 40 MB1080p | 75 MBOriginal | 222 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioU.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday, “On this day, we reaffirm our sacred commitment to alleviate suffering through humanitarian relief and redouble our efforts to achieve lasting solutions for refugees—including through resettlement. We also recommit to engaging in diplomatic efforts to bring an end to the ongoing conflicts that compel refugees to seek safety elsewhere.”
 
There are more refugees today than there have ever been, according to UNHCR. In a statement, the organization said, “the number of people fleeing wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations in 2020 rose to nearly 82.4 million,” a 4% increase from 79.5 million at the end of 2019, which was then a record.
 
“And what is quite shocking,” UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Gillian Triggs told VOA, “is that over the last 10 years the numbers of people who are refugees or forcibly displaced has more than doubled. Something like 48% are children or youths, so we really have generations of children who are separated from their countries of origin.”
 
World Refugee Day was held globally for the first time on June 20, 2001, commemorating the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees. It was originally known as Africa Refugee Day, before the U.N. General Assembly officially designated it as an international day in December 2000.
 
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There was one word that rolled off migrant Andy Molina’s tongue as he spoke about plans to soon reunite with his wife and son in the United States after two years of separation: “happy.”The 27-year-old from Honduras and his 10-year-old daughter, Eleana Victoria, spent more than a year in Mexico while waiting to be able to apply for asylum in the United States, held back by a Trump-era program that forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for court cases.Molina’s wife and older son had left Honduras several months earlier and entered the United States separately.Molina said he was driven to leave Honduras out of concern for his children. Although he has a university degree, he said the only job he could find was working at a store where he was forced to pay a so-called “war tax” to gangs, who threatened to kill him if he did not comply.”You don’t want that future for your kids,” he said in an interview on Friday shortly before entering Texas from the northern Mexico city of Ciudad Juarez.He and his daughter walked across the international bridge hand-in-hand, part of a group of 74 people allowed into the United States to pursue asylum applications on the same weekend as World Refugee Day, created by the United Nations to honor the courage of people forced to flee their homes.During the wait in Mexico, Molina rented a small apartment in southern Mexico and found odd jobs to provide for himself and his daughter. The months stretched out under the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) that former President Donald Trump enacted to make asylum-seekers wait out their proceedings in Mexico, often in the dangerous northern border cities.President Joe Biden began rolling back the policy upon taking office, and nearly 95% of the thousands of MPP asylum-seekers gathered in Mexico have been able to enter the United States to pursue their cases.Molina, so close to rejoining his family after the long separation, chose to focus on the positive.”Happy, happy, so happy,” he said. “It’s been worth it.” 
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Ahead of World Refugee Day, the World Food Program is appealing for international support for millions of destitute refugees, many of whom are facing hunger because money to feed them has dried up. The World Food Program assists more than 115 million people in 80 countries.  Currently, it has received just 55 percent of the $15.3 billion it needs to implement its life-saving operations this year.To make ends meet, it has been forced to make draconian cuts in food rations for millions of refugees across eastern and southern Africa, as well as the Middle East.  WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says in eastern Africa alone, nearly three-quarters of refugees have had their food rations cut by half.”In Southern Africa, refugees in Tanzania who depend entirely on WFP assistance have had their rations cut by almost one-third,” said Phiri.  “Significant funding shortages for the Syria Regional Refugee Response mean 242,000 refugees in Jordan may be cut off from assistance at the end of August unless more funding is received.”   Phiri says the WFP urgently requires $4.5 billion over the coming six months to restore those benefits.   “If we do not get money, we may be forced to prioritize further or even to suspend activities.  This will affect vulnerable groups depending on WFP support, particularly malnourished children,” said Phiri.  “You have other vulnerable groups or other populations of concern.  Pregnant and expecting mothers, nursing mothers.  They are all parts lumped together in that category that we refer to as refugees.”  The U.N. refugee agency says a record number of more than 80 million refugees and internally displaced people have been forced to flee their homes because of war, violence, and persecution.  It says most of those forcibly displaced live precariously on the margins of society, with little hope of returning home any time soon.As nations prepare to commemorate World Refugee Day, the World Food Program is urging donors not to turn their back on the most vulnerable people when they need their support more than ever.  
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Mexico’s soccer team will play two home games in empty stadiums as part of a FIFA punishment on Friday for fans chanting anti-gay slurs at an Olympic qualifying tournament. FIFA said the Mexican Football Association must also pay a $65,000 fine.Mexican fans persist in aiming the chant at opposing teams’ goalkeepers despite regular FIFA fines and efforts by the FA to curb the insults.The latest incidents were during games against the United States and Dominican Republic in March at the qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics that Mexico hosted in Guadalajara.Mexico’s next two official home games are World Cup qualifiers against Jamaica in September and Canada in October.FIFA said its disciplinary committee also opened a case against Mexico for the same chants at a friendly against Iceland last month in Arlington, Texas.
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Canada will admit more refugees and their families this year as part of its effort to tackle a global crisis, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marco Mendicino said Friday.He said Canada will take nearly double the number of protected persons, defined as people who have applied for and been granted refugee status after arriving in the country, as well as their immediate families abroad. The new target is 45,000, up from 23,500.Mendicino also said the government plans to spend an additional $2.4 million over two years for refugee sponsorship and modestly expand a program blending refugee resettlement with economic immigration. His announcement comes ahead of ahead of World Refugee Day on Sunday.”We hope to be able to facilitate their travel, obviously taking into consideration ongoing travel restrictions,” Mendicino said, referring to refugees’ family members.Canada aims to resettle 36,000 refugees this year — distinct from protected persons in that resettled refugees are referred directly to Canada by an agency like the UNHCR and have refugee status on arrival.Mendicino has said Canada may accept Central American migrants to help the United States, which is struggling to deal with an increase.The backlog of immigration applications for the family members of protected persons had been increasing before the pandemic and nearly doubled to 21,372 in January 2021 from 11,177 in January 2018, according to government data obtained by Reuters.Reuters spoke with refugees waiting months or years to be reunited with family members subject to abuses in their countries of origin.Even as Canada prepares to accept more refugees, it has sought to prevent asylum-seekers from coming into the country via its land border — either through its Safe Third Country Agreement with the United States or through a COVID-19 policy being contested in court.
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Senior veterans of Canada’s intelligence community are publicly advocating for the country to consider whether to enter a sphere it has, until now, largely left to others — foreign espionage.Three retired government officials, all of whom held high-ranking positions dealing with intelligence, argued in Canada’s most prominent national newspaper this month that the government should explore the idea of creating a stand-alone agency akin to America’s CIA or Britain’s MI6.“Has the time come for Canada to develop a capacity to gather foreign intelligence from human sources abroad? … Perhaps it is,” the three wrote in a June 11 op-ed in the Toronto Globe and Mail.Foreign intelligence gathering has never been a priority for Canada, which enjoys the security of broad oceans to the east and west and a friendly neighbor to the south. Even the job of rooting out foreign spies on Canadian soil was long left to the vaunted Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) — better known internationally for their ceremonial red jackets and Stetson hats.The RCMP quit that role in 1984 when Canada established the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or CSIS. But even that agency was largely limited to a counter-intelligence role, with a legislative mandate to operate “within Canada.”China to Canada PM: Stop ‘Irresponsible Remarks’ on Spy Case Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Beijing’s decision to charge two Canadians with spying was linked to his country’s arrest of a Chinese tech executiveWhile CSIS does have some foreign-based personnel, most of what Canada gleans about the intentions of other governments comes from public sources, “Signals Intelligence” or electronic monitoring, and reports from its diplomatic missions.Its primary access to so-called “human intelligence” or HUMINT — essentially spying as opposed to electronic monitoring — has been through its membership in the “Five Eyes,” an intelligence-sharing cooperative that includes the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.“We contributed to what other countries did but we never felt the need to do it ourselves,” explained Peter Jones, one of the authors of the June 11 op-ed, in an interview with VOA.“There were occasional grumblings from Canada’s allies that because we didn’t have [a foreign intelligence] service we weren’t putting enough things into the pot. I don’t think that was true,” Jones said.But, he added, “I don’t imagine” that creating a foreign intelligence gathering capability would do anything but improve the relationship.Jones is a former senior policy analyst in the Security and Intelligence Secretariat of Canada’s Privy Council Office, a high-level body advising the federal cabinet. His co-authors were Alan R. Jones — a retired CSIS officer who served in numerous operational and policy positions — and Laurie Storsater, who held security and intelligence positions with various government agencies.Graham Plaster, the Washington-based CEO of The Intelligence Community Inc., a national security consulting firm, agrees that the United States would likely be pleased to see Canada develop a more robust intelligence-gathering capability.“The U.S. benefits when our allies invest into national security capabilities,” Plaster told VOA. “A new HUMINT organization in Canada, training and coordinating with U.S. counterparts, would be a strategic benefit to both nations.”Jones cautioned there are limits to what Canada might be willing to do to help its allies.Canada Set to Boost Spy Agency Powers Against Terror ThreatsProposed legislation will allow Canadian Security Intelligence Service to track and investigate potential terrorists traveling abroad, lead to possible prosecution“I do foresee possible issues if some of the allies expect to be able to use Canada’s [foreign intelligence] service to help them access regions or individuals they presently cannot,” he said.“While such collaboration does take place and is productive, Canada will need to think carefully about how and when it places its capabilities at the service of others whose policies in given regions are not the same as our own.”An important decision for Canada if it does decide to develop a HUMINT capability is whether it should expand the mandate of CSIS or create a completely new agency.Former CSIS officer Phil Gurski told VOA he favors an expansion of the existing agency, arguing “it took CSIS years to come up to speed” after it was established in 1984.But others suggest that Canada should follow the example of its intelligence-sharing allies, which for the most part segregate domestic and foreign intelligence gathering into separate agencies.Jones said he is still uncertain which option Canada should adopt.“I think we need to look at it,” he said. “My gut feeling is we probably should think about creating a new agency. … I’m leery about combining the mandates of different intelligence services who do different things.“If America and Australia and Britain and others were creating their intelligence services today, maybe they would have created one combined one … but historically that is not how it’s been done,” he added.The op-ed penned by Jones and his two colleagues did not address one key question. If Canada were to go into the business of foreign espionage, who exactly would they spy on?Jones acknowledged that Canada lacks an obvious geographical niche like its ally Australia, which contributes to the Five Eyes mainly from its principal area of operations in Asia.But when asked what a young Canadian seeking a career in intelligence should study, he said, “I’d learn Chinese, or Russian, or Arabic. There are regions of the world that are going to be an enduring interest to Canada no matter what government is in power.”
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The U.N. refugee agency, which just released its 2020 Global Trends report, said the number of people forcibly displaced last year by wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations hit a record high of 82.4 million, 4% more than in 2019.This is the ninth consecutive year that forced displacement figures have continued to rise. Even lockdowns and border closures because of the coronavirus pandemic have not stopped people from fleeing for their lives in the face of war and atrocities.Of the more than 82 million forcibly displaced, 26.4 million are refugees, who have crossed international borders in search of protection. Most of the rest are people displaced within their own countries because of conflict and violence.U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the number of internally displaced people has doubled over the past 10 years.“We are now in excess of one percent of humanity being forcibly displaced,” Grandi said. “And one of the many figures that to me is quite interesting and striking is that 42% of these people are children.”The report found that more than two-thirds of all refugees who have fled abroad come from just five countries — Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. For the seventh consecutive year, Turkey has hosted the largest number of refugees, followed by Colombia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Germany.Grandi said new crises that have caused fresh displacements include northern Mozambique, where violence by armed groups, poverty, climate change and other factors have displaced up to 700,000 people.He said violence in countries in the Central Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, has prompted 750,000 people to flee their homes.“And then, of course, Ethiopia, where the Tigray crisis has provoked up to — and we are not even sure about that — up to 1 million additional internally displaced people in addition to about 50 to 60,000 that have crossed the border into Sudan.”High Commissioner Grandi said the global trend for displacement crises in 2021 is not looking good. In the first six months of this year, he said, very few refugees have returned home and protracted refugee crises have stagnated.At the same time, he said, new crises are arising, churning out new refugees and internally displaced people faster than solutions can be found.
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Daniella Francois sleeps each night on a small foam mattress in a gymnasium in the Haitian capital that has been converted into an emergency shelter, as she is unable to return to her Port-au-Prince neighborhood, which is in the grips of a gang war.She is one of thousands of residents of the city’s western Martissant district who have become refugees in their own city, living in sports centers or temporary accommodations in private homes.While the gym is just several hundred meters from the  Martissant neighborhood where Francois has lived her entire life, the move has nonetheless been jarring.The 18-year-old orphan, who lives alone with her 4-year-old daughter, had to flee suddenly on June 1.”When the armed men finally arrived on my street, I had no choice, I had to leave,” she said. “The guys don’t play around — whoever is in front of them they do what they want with.”Undermined by insecurity and political instability, Haiti is struggling to emerge from a string of seemingly never-ending crises, which of late have resulted in an upsurge in kidnappings and gang violence.Joining a flood of families attempting to escape the insecurity, Francois ended up at the sports center in Carrefour, a neighboring community where municipal authorities have been providing assistance.”We receive lots of help from the community, churches, associations, individuals who voluntarily bring food, clothes,” said Gutenberg Destin, who coordinates emergency preparedness for the municipality.Aid from humanitarian agencies and other organizations in Port-au-Prince had to be mostly transported by helicopter to Carrefour, with gangs controlling 2 kilometers of the main road through Martissant.An initial count on June 8 found more than 1,100 people staying at the sports center, but the arrival of destitute families has not abated since then.”Just last night, people arrived,” Destin told AFP earlier this week. “Until then, they felt safe in the area in which they lived in Martissant but gradually the hotbed of insecurity is spreading.”The hundreds staying at the center only represent the tip of the iceberg as far as the population of displaced people is concerned.More than 5,100 people are estimated to have taken refuge with host families scattered throughout Port-au-Prince or have otherwise fled to other provinces, a U.N. report released Monday said.The document warns that among the displaced, some who are living with host families are suffering sexual abuse and even rape, including offers of “sex for shelter.”At the Carrefour gym, Kettelene Chateau said she can count on neighbors to look after her children when she leaves during the day to search for new housing accommodations with her husband.”When we fled, my children were really scared — they were shaking, they were crying, they were traumatized,” the 38-year-old said.Due to the noise and overcrowding at the gym, she sent the two youngest of her five to stay with a friend in Carrefour.At the sports center, NGOs organize daily games so that the hundreds of children, who otherwise have little to do except wander among the mattresses, momentarily forget the ordeal they are living through.”My children are smiling again and they are now able to sleep,” Chateau said, somewhat relieved but still worried for the future.”My 6-year-old is very aware and keeps asking me ‘Mom, when are we going to go home? Will we have to live somewhere else?'” she said.”I have to tell her that I do not know. I would like be able to tell her something, but I do not know,” Chateau said.
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The United Nations warns accelerating climate change is causing a dramatic intensification of global drought disasters, which are threatening agricultural production, the world’s safe water supply and other essential aspects of human development.   The U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has launched a “Special Report on Drought 2021.”  U.N. researchers say drought has affected more people around the world in the past four decades than any other natural disaster.  The U.N. report warns the impact of the climate-driven drought emergency on the lives and livelihoods of people across the planet will worsen in the coming years.  The U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction Mami Mizutori says drought has directly affected 1.5 billion people so far this century.  She says most of the world will be living with water stress in the next few years as drought disasters grow.  She says drought is a major factor in land degradation and is responsible for declining yields of major crops.  She adds shifting rainfall patterns and variability pose a risk to the 70 percent of global agriculture that is rainfall-dependent.”A warming planet threatens to multiply the number of people without access to safe water and sanitation, thereby seriously increasing the spread of diseases, the risk of displacement and the potential even for conflict over scarce water resources,” Mizutori said. G-7 Ministers Discuss COVID Vaccines, Climate ChangeForeign ministers of world’s wealthiest democracies are meeting ahead of a summit of the group’s heads of state next month  While droughts always have been part of the human experience, the damage and costs resulting from them are seriously underestimated.  The report estimates the global economic costs arising from drought from 1998 to 2017 of at least $124 billion.The World Health Organization considers drought to be the most serious hazard to livestock and crops in nearly every part of the world.  It says water scarcity impacts 40 percent of the world’s population.  WHO projects as many as 700 million people are at risk of being displaced by 2030 because of drought.Leading co-author of the report Roger Pulwarty agrees the data contained within the report is grim but does not see an apocalyptic picture ahead.  “I do not think that there is in fact this issue surrounding the collapse of civilizations…We are not seeing truly an increase in the frequency of drought,” Pulwarty said. “But we are seeing that where they occur in the different regions in which they do exist, an increase in intensification when they occur and the rapid onset of drought.”   Over the millennia, Pulwarty notes people have found ways to adapt to risks from drought and other natural disasters.  He says lessons learned from over 20 cases around the world – including the Horn of Africa and the Euphrates and Tigris River system in Western Asia  – have been incorporated in the report. However, he says tried and true drought management measures taken in the past must be adapted to meet the challenges of today’s changing nature of drought risk.
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Teresa Marez spent 14 years building a strong clientele base as a hair stylist in San Antonio. When her son, who is autistic, had to switch to virtual learning because of the pandemic, she quit her job to help him.  
It’s been 10 months, and the clients are all gone.  
Marez is one of many Latinas who have been out of work since last year. Latinas have left the workforce at rates higher than any other demographic and have had some of the highest unemployment rates throughout the pandemic, according to a report by the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Initiative, a Latino-focused think tank, provided to The Associated Press before its release on Wednesday.  
That could spell trouble not just for a post-pandemic economic recovery but for the long-term stability of the country as baby boomers continue to retire and women in general are feeling compelled to leave work. And women like Marez, who has used much of her savings, are missing out on years of economic gains.
Before the pandemic, Latinas were projected to increase their numbers in the workforce by nearly 26% from 2019 to 2029 — a higher rate than any other group, the report found. It’s unclear if or how that projection will now change.  
Marez isn’t sure what she’s going to do next.  
“If I did go back to doing hair, I would be starting from the beginning again, really,” she said. “I was kind of burned out anyway and I can’t see myself at like 45 years old starting from the beginning.”  
Marez is thinking about going back to school to study nutrition and Spanish, but she’s still working out a plan.  FILE – In this March 2, 2021, file photo, a woman, wearing a protective mask due to the coronavirus, walks past the signs of an employment agency, in Manchester, N.H. A new report finds that Latinas have left the workforce at rates higher than any…The UCLA study found that Latinas experienced the highest unemployment rate — 20% — of any demographic in April 2020, right after all of the business shutdowns began. By the end of 2020, when businesses were starting to reopen, Latinas and Black women still had nearly double the unemployment rate of their white counterparts, the study found.  
Also troubling: the rate at which Latinas dropped from the workforce altogether, which the government usually considers to be the case when someone hasn’t actively looked for work in four weeks.  
Participation in the labor force for Latinas aged 25 to 54 fell from 71% pre-pandemic to just below 67% in May 2021, according to the latest available data by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That translates to 465,000 fewer Latinas working or seeking work.
Kassandra Hernández, a lead researcher on the UCLA report, said this is crucial to how the economy recovers from the pandemic.  
“If we don’t recognize the complexities or the nuances of these narratives, of what’s happening with Latinas, we might actually be set back,” Hernández said.  
Simply put: The American workforce needs Latinas to fill the many jobs that are slowly starting to come back, and those that will be left behind by retiring baby boomers.  
Sylvia Allegretto, a labor economist at the University of California, Berkeley, said the U.S. economy already faces challenges from slowing birthrates, an aging workforce and declining immigration. Retirements among older Americans have also increased. A growing workforce is a key driver of economic growth.  
“The long-term trend is we don’t have enough workers,” she said. “If you want to make sure you have a vibrant, growing economy, you need more people.”
But Allegretto said businesses also need to offer higher pay and better benefits so that more of those who were laid off or quit jobs during the pandemic can re-enter the workforce. That may take more time as much of the economy is still reopening from the pandemic shutdown. California just lifted all its business restrictions Tuesday, she noted.  
“If (employers) have to start sweetening the deal, maybe with some benefits, maybe with some time off, that’s a good thing,” Allegretto said.
Latinas face many hurdles. Research has shown Latinas are more likely than all other U.S. mothers to stay home with children instead of work. They also tend to do much more work at home than the men in their lives, spending twice as much time on household activities and nearly three times more time caring for household members than Latinos.  
Latinas are overrepresented in low-wage jobs in the hospitality and broader service industries, stifling their upward mobility.
 
Hernández said women need access to child care, better pay and educational opportunities to help them overcome not just the disparities in career opportunities but the setbacks that the pandemic brought.  
The pandemic forced many Latinas to leave work to care not just for their children but also for extended family — “the tios or abuelos or vecinos — you name it,” said Xochitl Oseguera, the vice president of MamásConPoder, the Spanish-language community that’s part of MomsRising, a grassroots organization that works to improve women’s economic security.
Latinos were disproportionately affected by the pandemic. They were more than twice as likely to die from COVID-19 as whites, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Their vaccination rates are much lower, too, so while many Americans feel the coronavirus is behind them, the pandemic lives in Latino communities.  
Oseguera works with Latinas in different industries and hears firsthand why so many haven’t returned to the workforce.
“They’re worried about going back and getting sick,” Oseguera said. “My hope is also that those jobs really reconsider the way that we have been working with essential workers to not only have a secure environment but also have access to paid family leave, paid sick leave, access to fair pay, so that we can really recover from the last year of not being part of the workforce.”
For Ciara Fernandez Faber, going back to work also depends on the work-life balance she needs to care for her toddler. Faber, who lives in Denver, left her job as an attorney when her son’s preschool closed. Her husband is a doctor, and it wasn’t an option for him to stay home with him.  
“To my experience, like, it doesn’t matter what profession it is, it just seems like across the board it’s impacted Latina women more. I don’t know if it’s like values that we place on work-life balance or child care issues. I don’t know,” Faber said. 
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The State Department and Department of Homeland Security announced this week that they are expanding eligibility for legal migration to the U.S. for some minors from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.The Central American Minors (CAM) program allows immigrant parents or U.S.-based guardians with legal status in the country to petition for their children’s resettlement in the U.S. The Biden administration restarted the program in March after a four-year halt.FILE – An activist holds up a pro-refugee image during a demonstration outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Oct. 15, 2019.What is the difference between refugee status and being paroled in the U.S.? Being paroled is a temporary status that allows a migrant to enter the county under humanitarian relief but without a path to permanent residency, also known as a green card. By contrast, admittance as a refugee is permanent.“If you get refugee status, once you arrive in the U.S., you have lawful status so you can adjust to get a green card,” Abaya said, noting that eligibility for refugee status is “very specific” and that many CAM applicants may not qualify.“If you get paroled [into the country], then you don’t necessarily have [permanent] status in the U.S., but you’re allowed to be in the country for a temporary period of time,” she said.According to Abaya, the parole process serves a vital function for children who do not meet the definition of a refugee but are nevertheless in danger in their home countries, allowing them to be united with parents or guardians in the U.S.What impact has the program had since its inception in 2014?Immigration experts say that from the start, the program was slow to process applicants. The first minors began arriving in the U.S. in November 2015, almost a year after CAM’s creation under the former Obama administration.According to a report by the FILE – Children stand in line with some of the thousands of young immigrants at Chicago’s Navy Pier on Aug. 15, 2012.During the Obama administration, parents who had received humanitarian relief were allowed to petition for their children. Forms of relief included temporary protected status, deferred action, deferred enforced departure, parole, withholding of removal and permanent resident status.Under the Biden administration’s relaunching of the program, a parent or legal guardian in the U.S. who has a pending asylum case or pending U visa case can also file a petition. U visas are for victims of certain crimes who have assisted U.S. law enforcement investigations.
 What has been the reaction to the relaunching of the program?Critics of the program note that it is unlikely to significantly reduce the number of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border without authorization.“I’m worried that this effort is going to be somehow passed off as an effort to address the number of migrants at the southern border when it does nothing to stem the flow or address the crisis created by this administration,” Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “There’s no evidence to suggest that arrivals at the southern border or illegal crossings were reduced when the Obama administration tried this years ago, so there’s no reason to think it will have that effect now.”Immigrant advocates, meanwhile, have welcomed the resumption of the CAM program but note that eligibility does not cover the full range of family members who may wish to apply to bring a minor to the U.S.“It’s not just parents and legal guardians that care for children. There are aunts, there’s a grandparent who is in the United States, and those family members don’t have any way to apply,” Abaya said.Even so, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, noted that thousands of youths who would have been ineligible in 2014 may now qualify under the Biden administration’s limited expansion of the program.“The Biden administration’s decision to broaden admissions criteria is potentially transformative in extending a legal pathway to far more people in need,” Vignarajah said in a statement.
 
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The United Nations is urging reforms that make it easier for migrants to send money back to their home countries, as it observes its annual International Day of Family Remittances.
 
“Migrants have shown their continued commitment to their families and communities during the pandemic with more remittances transfers made digitally than ever before,” Gilbert Houngbo, president of the U.N.’s International Fund for Agricultural Development, said in a statement.  “Unfortunately, families in rural and remote areas — where remittances are a true lifeline — battle to access cash outlets or even more convenient alternatives such as mobile money accounts. Governments and the private sector need to urgently invest in rural digital infrastructure to address this.”
 
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres used his own statement to call for remittance fees to be set “as close to zero as possible,” and for those in the industry to “foster the financial inclusion of migrants and their families.”
 
“Looking forward, we must continue efforts to support and protect migrants, who — as the COVID-19 pandemic has made clear — play such an important role in keeping essential services and the economy at large running in many parts of the world,” Guterres said.
 
Data from the World Bank showed remittances to low- and middle-income countries hit $540 billion in 2020, a decline of 1.6% from the previous year.  It said last month it expects the amount of money sent to those countries to increase by 2.6% this year and 2.2% in 2022.
 
Latin America and the Caribbean saw an increase of 6.5% in remittances received last year, according to the World Bank, followed by 5.2% in South Asia and 2.3% percent in the Middle East and North Africa.
 
Remittances declined 7.9% to East Asia and the Pacific, and 9.7% to Europe and Central Asia.  Remittances to sub-Saharan Africa rose 2.3%, not counting Nigeria, which saw the amount of money sent there by migrants plummet 28%.
 
India, China, Mexico, the Philippines, Egypt and Pakistan were the top destinations for migrants to send money in 2020.
 
Migrants working in the United States, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland and Germany sent the most money home, according to the World Bank.
 
Worldwide, the U.N. says there are 200 million migrant workers who send money to support more than 800 million family members, and that in 2020, 75% of that money was spent on “immediate needs.”
 
The United Nations has set a target for those facilitating remittances to charge no more than a 3% fee.  But the World Bank said that at the end of last year, the global average fee to send home $200 was 6.5%.
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