Central American asylum seekers denied U.S. entry for second 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.
U.S. risks trade fight with Europe as sanctions delay expires
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration risks igniting a trade battle with Europe just as it’s preparing for tense trade talks in China this week.
Facing a self-imposed deadline, Trump is considering whether to permanently exempt the European Union and five other countries from tariffs that his administration imposed last month on imported steel and aluminum. The White House provided temporary exemptions in March and has until the end of Monday to decide whether to extend them.
If it loses its exemption, the EU has said it will retaliate with its own tariffs on U.S. goods imported to Europe.
The confrontation stems from the president’s decision in March to slap tariffs of 25 percent on imported steel and 10 percent on imported aluminum. Trump justified the action by saying it was needed to protect American metal producers from unfair competition and bolster national security. But the announcement, which followed an intense internal White House debate, triggered harsh criticism from Democrats and some Republicans and roiled financial markets.
At the time, Trump excluded several vital trading partners — the European Union, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Argentina and Brazil — from the tariffs.
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.
Cosby jury: Chief accuser was ‘credible and compelling’
PHILADELPHIA — Speaking out for the first time, the jury that convicted Bill Cosby at his sexual assault retrial said Monday it found the comedian’s chief accuser to be “credible and compelling,” adding its verdict had nothing to do with the #MeToo movement or any another factor outside the courtroom.
The jury wrote in a statement that it had “absolutely no reservations” about convicting Cosby of three counts of aggravated indecent assault. The youngest member of the panel, meanwhile, said in a separate TV interview that the comedian’s own words about giving women quaaludes before sex in the 1970s sealed his fate.
Andrea Constand, now 45, testified that Cosby gave her three blue pills that knocked her out and then molested her at his home in 2004. The defense said it was consensual.
Cosby settled Constand’s civil suit for nearly $3.4 million in 2006, and his lawyers claimed at trial that she had framed him for the money.
But the jury rejected the defense argument.
By wire sources