Central American asylum seekers denied US entry for 2nd day
TIJUANA, Mexico — About 200 people in a caravan of Central American asylum seekers waited on the Mexican border with San Diego for a second straight day on Monday to turn themselves in to U.S. border inspectors, who said the nation’s busiest crossing facility did not have enough space to accommodate them.
After a monthlong journey across Mexico under the Trump administration’s watchful eye, the asylum seekers faced an unexpected twist Sunday when U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing facility had “reached capacity.” The agency said in a statement on Monday that it had no estimate when the location would accept new asylum application cases.
About 50 people, many of them women and children, camped overnight on blankets and backpacks in Tijuana outside the Mexican entrance to the border crossing. The crowd grew Monday, assembled behind metal gates that Mexican authorities erected to avoid impeding the flow of others going to the United States for work, school and recreation.
Another 50 asylum seekers were allowed past a gate controlled by Mexican officials Sunday to cross a long bridge but were stopped at the entrance to the U.S. inspection facility at the other end. They waited outside the building, technically on Mexican soil, without word of when U.S. officials would let them try to claim asylum.
Irineo Mujica, a caravan organizer, said asylum-seekers who crossed the bridge remained in a waiting area on Mexican soil Monday. He alleged that U.S. authorities were refusing entry in an effort to dissuade people from trying.
Israel says documents prove Iran lied about nuclear program
JERUSALEM — Israel’s prime minister on Monday unveiled what he said was a “half ton” of Iranian nuclear documents collected by Israeli intelligence, claiming it proved that Iranian leaders covered up a nuclear weapons program before signing a deal with world powers in 2015.
In a speech delivered in English and relying on his trademark use of visual aids, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the material showed that Iran cannot be trusted, and encouraged President Donald Trump to withdraw from the deal next month.
“Iran lied big time,” Netanyahu declared.
In Washington, Trump said it vindicated his past criticism of the nuclear deal.
Later in the day, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the “information provides new and compelling details about Iran’s efforts to develop missile-deliverable nuclear weapons.”
Detroit released from active state oversight of finances
DETROIT — Detroit reached a key step in fiscal redemption on Monday by reclaiming control of its own finances roughly three years after exiting the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.
A state review commission unanimously agreed to release the city from state financial oversight after Detroit delivered three consecutive years of audited balanced budgets. The city was about $12 billion in debt and unable to deliver basic services like prompt responses to 911 calls and park maintenance when the state took financial management.
“Detroit is once again finally a city of full self-governance,” Mayor Mike Duggan said following the commission’s vote.
The change means that when contracts are approved by the City Council, Detroit won’t have to wait for the commission to approve them. But the city must still submit monthly financial reports to the commission, which will continue to monitor Detroit’s fiscal health for the next 10 years and could resume oversight if a budget deficit occurs.
Gov. Rick Snyder placed the city under state receivership in early 2013, angering local officials and some residents because the move essentially stripped power from the City Council and mayor’s office. The Republican governor also appointed turnaround expert Kevyn Orr as an emergency manager to oversee Detroit’s finances. The city, under Orr, filed bankruptcy the same year.
CDC chief asks for, and gets, cut to his record $375K pay
NEW YORK — The new director of the top U.S. public health agency has asked for — and will receive — a cut to his record-setting pay, federal officials said Monday.
Dr. Robert Redfield Jr.’s new salary was not revealed.
The 66-year-old HIV researcher, who was picked in March to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, had been set to earn $375,000 a year.
That sum was at least $150,000 more than any previous CDC director had received. It also was well above the compensation of other top federal health officials — including Redfield’s boss, Secretary Alex Azar of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
After The Associated Press reported last week that Redfield was making almost twice his predecessor, a U.S. senator opposed to his appointment wrote a letter to Azar asking why he was earning so much.
More questions than answers in teen’s death inside minivan
CINCINNATI — Sixteen-year-old Kyle Plush was apparently reaching for his tennis gear in the back of his minivan when he became helplessly pinned in the fold-away third-row seat. He knew he was in serious trouble.
Using the voice-activated feature on his cellphone, he had Siri dial 911 and warned: “I’m going to die here.” He called again minutes later, this time describing his vehicle: a gold Honda Odyssey.
Two police officers drove around at the boy’s high school looking for him but left after 11 minutes, one of them reporting dubiously: “I don’t see nobody … which I don’t imagine I would.”
Kyle’s father would discover the body nearly six hours after the first call.
The teen’s death April 10 from what the coroner said was suffocation from compression of his chest has led to accusations of bungling on the part of Cincinnati police and the city’s 911 emergency center, contributed to a City Hall shakeup and raised questions about the safety of the Honda vehicle.