Today on AirTalk, we discuss the latest COVID-19 news. Also on the show, we discuss the Supreme Court's decision prohibiting those with Temporary Protected Status from attaining green cards; take a look at what the conditions of the U.S. shelters for migrant children are like; and more.
DOC AMA: National Vaccination Rates Fall Off, New COVID-19 Vaccines Could Debut Soon And More
In our continuing series looking at the latest medical research and news on COVID-19, Larry Mantle speaks with Dr. Kimberly Shriner, infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena.
Today’s topics include:
Vaccination rates fall off, imperiling Biden’s July Fourth goal
“What my COVID-19 vaccine saga taught me about the U.S. healthcare system”
California COVID-19 state of emergency to exceed June 15
COVID-19 vaccines from Novavax and Medicago could debut soon
LA County to shutter its 4 large-scale COVID-19 vaccination super sites
Guest:
Kimberly Shriner, M.D., infectious disease specialist at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena
SCOTUS Decision On People Living In US For Humanitarian Reasons
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status.
The outcome in a case involving a couple from El Salvador who have been in the U.S. since the early 1990s turned on whether people who entered the country illegally and were given humanitarian protections were ever “admitted” into the United States under immigration law. Kagan wrote that they were not. “The TPS program gives foreign nationals nonimmigrant status, but it does not admit them. So the conferral of TPS does not make an unlawful entrant...eligible" for a green card, she wrote.
The House of Representatives already has passed legislation that would make it possible for TPS recipients to become permanent residents, Kagan noted. The bill faces uncertain prospects in the Senate. The case pitted the Biden administration against immigrant groups that argued many people who came to the U.S. for humanitarian reasons have lived in the country for many years, given birth to American citizens and put down roots in the U.S.
In 2001, the U.S. gave Salvadoran migrants legal protection to remain in the U.S. after a series of earthquakes in their home country. People from 11 other countries are similarly protected. They are: Haiti, Honduras, Myanmar, Nepal, Nicaragua, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Monday's decision does not affect immigrants with TPS who initially entered the U.S. legally and then, say, overstayed their visa, Kagan noted. Because those people were legally admitted to the country and later were given humanitarian protections, they can seek to become permanent residents.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Kimberly Robinson, U.S. Supreme Court reporter for Bloomberg Law and co-host of Bloomberg Law’s podcast “Cases and Controversies”; she tweets
Pratheepan Gulasekaram, professor of law at Santa Clara Law, where he specializes in constitutional and immigration law
Thousands Of Migrant Children Are Being Held In U.S. Facilities. What Are The Conditions Inside?
Last month, the Associated Press reported that the Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside.
Confidential data obtained by the AP shows the number of migrant children in government custody more than doubled in the past two months, and this week the federal government was housing around 21,000 kids, from toddlers to teens. A facility at Fort Bliss, a U.S. Army post in El Paso, Texas, had more than 4,500 children as of Monday. Attorneys, advocates and mental health experts say that while some shelters are safe and provide adequate care, others are endangering children’s health and safety.
“It’s almost like ‘Groundhog Day,’” said Southern Poverty Law Center attorney Luz Lopez, referring to the 1993 film in which events appear to be continually repeating. “Here we are back to a point almost where we started, where the government is using taxpayer money to build large holding facilities ... for children instead of using that money to find ways to more quickly reunite children with their sponsors.”
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesman, Mark Weber, said the department’s staff and contractors are working hard to keep children in their custody safe and healthy.
Today on AirTalk, we’re learning more about what is happening to children in federal facilities. Questions? Give us a call at 866-893-5722.
With files from the Associated Press
Guests:
Eileen Sullivan, Homeland Security reporter for the New York Times who has been following this; she tweets
Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center in Southern California, which represents people who would otherwise face immigration judges alone, including unaccompanied minors; she tweets
Celebrating KPCC’s Backbone: Operations Staff
While most of you probably know KPCC by the voices you hear on air every day, our station requires the contributions of so many talented, unique individuals whose names aren’t said at the end of a news story or even in the production credits at the end of the week. These are the people who truly make KPCC -- who keep our broadcast equipment running, who put on our pledge drives and help secure sponsorships and major donations, who put together the pre-recorded spots you hear between shows, who make sure that our facilities at the Mohn Broadcast Center are operating smoothly.
This week on AirTalk, we’re highlighting some of these amazing people who work at KPCC who might not be as familiar with but whose tireless efforts are critical to what you hear on the air every day. Today, we’re featuring a couple of folks from our broadcast and media operations department, whose expertise ensures that all the technical aspects of our radio broadcast are running as they should be and at the highest level.
Guests:
Bianca Ramirez, KPCC broadcast production manager
Aaron McGrath, KPCC media and broadcast technology manager