Coffee Prices Hit Record High amid Brazilian Drought

Coffee Beans

An ongoing drought in Brazil coupled with bad weather in Vietnam has contributed to a significant spike in the price for Arabica and Robusta coffee beans, according to reports.

Arabica beans, now selling for more than $3.44 a pound have increased more than 80% this year, and Robusta beans also hit a high in September, marking a record high for international commodity markets.

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Auto Giants Scrambling to Slash Costs as Massive Bet on EVs, Self-Driving Fizzles

Auto Factory

Major automobile companies are attempting to cut costs associated with electric vehicle (EV) lines and autonomous cars after spending heavily on both, according to CNBC.

Companies such as General Motors (GM), Stellantis and Ford are taking drastic measures aimed at reducing costs, such as enacting layoffs and making production cuts, according to CNBC. Automakers have invested billions of dollars into self-driving cars and EVs, with many now facing prolonged returns on their investments and slow EV adoption, CNBC reported.

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Nicaraguan Ortega Regime Bans Priests from Public Hospitals

Priest

In a harsh escalation against religious freedom in Nicaragua, the regime of Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo prohibited Catholic priests from entering public hospitals to give patients the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick.

“They are prohibiting the entry of priests into hospitals to carry the Holy Oils for the Anointing of the Sick,” said lawyer and author Martha Patricia Molina, who wrote, “Nicaragua: a persecuted Church?”

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Trump Will Need Cooperation from Maduro Regime for Mass Deportations, Experts Say

Illegal Immigrants

President-elect Donald Trump could reach an immigration agreement with the Maduro regime, in an attempt to advance his mass deportation plans, according to experts.

Venezuela is not currently accepting deportees from the United States, but Trump’s plans could force Maduro to reach a deal, said Ryan Berg, who directs the Future of Venezuela Initiative, a Washington, D.C. think tank at the Center for Strategic & International Studies.

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Illegal Migrants Rush Across U.S. Border Before President-Elect Donald Trump Takes Office

More than 100 migrants crossed the border in Eagle Pass, Texas, just two hours after President-elect Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election on a promise to end illegal immigration.

The migrants, who mostly came from Central and South America, along with two others from Africa, arrived in the United States after crossing the Rio Grande River. There were a dozen unaccompanied children in the group, including two younger brothers.

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Hispanic Americans Among Key Groups That Helped Reelect Trump as President of the United States

Donald Trump

A shift in Hispanic American voters in key swing states helped reelect former Republican President Donald Trump to the White House over his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and that expansion was critical to his victory, according to several reports.

The Democrats spent much of their time building a campaign strategy that depicted the former Republican president as a dangerous threat to democracy while polls repeatedly reported that their key issues were inflation and the escalating cost of living.

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Bipartisan Legislators Seek to Stop Venezuelan Oil Exports Until Maduro Leaves Power

Venezuela Bill

Florida Reps. María Elvira Salazar (Republican) and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Democrat) presented a new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, in a bipartisan effort to increase pressure on the communist Venezuelan regime of Nicolás Maduro.

The main objective of the Law to Repeal Venezuelan Oil Exemptions to Stop Autocratic Repression (REVOCAR Act) is to prohibit new licenses for transactions with the Venezuelan state oil company (PDVSA).

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Maduro Accuses Elon Musk of Spending $1 Billion to Orchestrate Anti-Communist Coup in Venezuela

Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro accused American businessman Elon Musk of investing at least $1 billion to attempt a coup in the South American country.

“Elon Musk invested in the coup d’état, the fascist outbreak, the violence against the electoral process in Venezuela for no less than 1 billion dollars,” Maduro said during his weekly program ‘Con Maduro+’.

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Poll: Trump Would Win the Florida Hispanic Vote with Strong Support from Cuban Americans

Cubans for Trump

A survey published this Tuesday shows how Cuban-American voters in Florida would become a key support for Republican candidate Donald Trump a few weeks before the general elections in the United States.

The revelation came to light after a survey conducted by Telemundo Station Group and Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy, Inc. in the Sunshine State, revealing the decisions Latino voters would make in this year’s presidential election.

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Cuban Intelligence Exploited Sister Cities Partnerships in an Attempt to Influence Public Officials

Cuba

The Cuban regime could be trying to exploit sister city partnerships to influence U.S. policy throughout the United States and advance its agenda, an ADN investigation cross-referencing documents and public records shows. Sister Cities International is registered as a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit that was founded by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956 and serves as the national membership organization for individual sister cities, counties, and states across the United States.

The organization facilitates agreements based on cultural, educational, information, and trade exchanges between two geographically and politically distinct localities, but the concept of sister cities has been used by other organizations as well, and has long been scrutinized by Congress due to concerns about how China might exploit sister-city partnerships in the U.S. for espionage or to gain influence.

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Florida Senators Introduce Legislation to Increase the Reward for Nicolás Maduro to $100 Million

Nicolas Maduro

U.S. Senators Rick Scott and Marco Rubio on Thursday introduced a bill calling for increasing the reward for information leading to the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro.

The Ensuring Timely Payment Opportunities and Maximizing Rewards for Stopping Illegal Regime Officials (STOP MADURO) Act seeks to increase the reward amount from $15 million to a maximum of $100 million.

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UCLA Report: Spanish Language Ads Key to Connecting with Florida Hispanic and Latino Voters

Florida Senate Race

Republican incumbent Sen. Rick Scott and Democratic challenger Debbie Mucarsel-Powell aired Spanish-language ads this week while amplifying their attempts to reach the Latino vote.

Scott, who speaks fluent Spanish, has so far released several Spanish language television and radio ads targeting Latino voters, and a pro-Scott super PAC backing Scott is also airing a Spanish language ad in Spanish in Orlando this week.

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Maduro Regime Requests Arrest Warrant Against Edmundo González Urrutia

Edmundo González Urrutia

Venezuela ‘s Attorney General’s Office asked a court specializing in “terrorism” crimes at midday on Monday to issue an “arrest warrant” against the standard-bearer of the largest opposition coalition, Edmundo González Urrutia , and the greatest rival of dictator Nicolás Maduro .

In a document circulating on social media, prosecutor  Luis Ernesto Dueñez Reyes  requested the arrest of González Urrutia for his “alleged commission of crimes of usurpation of functions” and “forgery of public documents,” conspiracy, sabotage and illicit association.

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Freedom House Report Warns of Growing Repression Against Opponents in Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua

Daniel Ortega

The US NGO Freedom House warned on Wednesday about the growing use of repressive measures against dissidents. On the island, where more than 50 countries are listed, Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela stand out. The document refers, among other issues, to the restriction of freedom of movement of opponents of these regimes.

According to the organization’s annual report, the coercive measures they use include the withdrawal of nationality, travel bans, withholding of identity documents and denial of consular services. The document, which focuses on “transnational repression,” also highlights that these restrictions are less visible forms of repression compared to the killings and kidnappings that also occur.

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Trump Calls for Death Penalty for Sex Traffickers of Minors and Women

Donald Trump

Former US President and Republican candidate Donald Trump (2017-2021) advocated this Thursday for imposing the death penalty for sex traffickers of minors and women and for large drug traffickers.

The New York tycoon said from a rally in  Arizona, on the border with Mexico, that, if he wins the elections on November 5, harsher sentences will be imposed against “illegal foreign criminals.”

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U.S. to Resume Humanitarian Parole ‘As Soon as Possible’, Officials Say

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents with a line of asylum seekers

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Monday that irregularities in the Humanitarian Parole Program processes were detected in the sponsors and not in the beneficiaries.

It was for this reason, according to media reports , that the DHS decided to temporarily freeze travel permits, which generated uncertainty among the beneficiaries of this program. However, the US Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) assured that it is working to resume the processing of applications “as soon as possible, with appropriate safeguards.”

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U.S. Recognizes Edmundo Gonzalez as Winner of Venezuelan Elections

Edmundo González Urrutia

The United States announced on Wednesday that it recognizes opposition candidate Edmundo González as the winner of Venezuela’s presidential election.

The Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs of the United States Department of State, Brian Nichols, told the Organization of American States (OAS) in an extraordinary meeting regarding the situation in Venezuela, that what is happening in the South American country in electoral matters is unacceptable, because the dictator Nicolás Maduro refuses to allow vote revisions.

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Senate Fails to Advance Major Tax Bill That Would Expand Child Tax Credit

CBS News A major tax package that would bolster the popular Child Tax Credit and cut taxes for businesses failed to advance in the Senate on Thursday in the face of widespread Republican opposition, despite clearing the House by wide bipartisan margins earlier this year.  Known as the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024, the legislation would expand the Child Tax Credit to provide relief to lower-income families. Though it’s more modest than a pandemic-era enhancement of the credit, which greatly reduced child poverty and ended in 2021, it could still lift roughly half a million children out of poverty, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The bill also included some revived tax cuts for businesses, like research and development deductions.  The legislation fell short in a vote of 48 in favor to 44 opposed, with 60 votes needed to advance the measure. Three Republicans — Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Rick Scott of Florida — joined with Democrats in favor of moving forward with the bill. Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, independents who caucus with Democrats, were also opposed. READ THE FULL STORY     …

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María Corina Machado Urges the Regime to Hand Over Evidence of Its Alleged Election Results

María Corina Machado

Machado urged those in attendance to “civilly defend the victory of Edmundo González Urrutia” in the July 28 elections, in which the regime committed the worst fraud in the history of the South American country to remain in power for a third term.

“Let’s not stop, we already have more than 84% of the votes,” he said. “They are irrefutable and irreversible proof that we won. And we didn’t just win, we swept the board! Today Venezuela has its president, the whole world knows what we Venezuelans know.”

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‘We Can Prove It’ Venezuelan Opposition Declares Victory with More than 6 Million Vote Lead

María Corina Machado

Opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate Edmundo González Urrutia said this Monday in a press conference that the coalition obtained a “categorical and mathematically irreversible victory,” after having had access to more than 70% of the minutes of Sunday’s presidential vote.

Machado said that her team worked for more than 12 hours to create a web page that houses the results of the electoral records, where each Venezuelan can consult their record using their identification.

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U.S. and World Leaders Express ‘Serious Concerns’ About Venezuelan Election Results as Both Sides Declare Victory

Both Venezuela’s opposition coalition and communist dictator Nicolás Maduro declared victory in Sunday’s presidential election, setting the stage for a potential showdown in the South American country, according to widespread news reports.

The delay in announcing results, which took place six hours after precincts were originally scheduled to close, created debate within Maduro’s regime about how to proceed since polls continued to show the opposition with a sweeping lead.

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Shelters at Mexico’s Southern Border Overwhelmed as Migrant Housing Costs Triple Amid National Inflation

Mexico Migrant Shelter

Inflation and increased migratory flow are causing the cost of housing migrantsat Mexico’s southern border to triple, according to a calculation by theTapachula branch of the National Chamber of Commerce for Services and Tourism (CANACO) and reported by the EFE Spanish language News Agency on Wednesday.

CANACO are local chambers of commerce in Mexico that are represented on a national level by the National Confederation of the Chambers of Commerce, which reports concerns to the Mexican federal government.

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Panama Closes Three Darien Crossings on the Border with Colombia

Darien River, Panama

Panama has closed at least three of the crossing points used by migrants to cross the Darien River, which marks the border with Colombia, with a “perimeter barrier” in order to “channel” the flow of migrants and exercise greater control over this irregular route used by hundreds of people every day on their way to North America, Panamanian authorities reported on Wednesday.

Panama’s National Border Service (Senafront) said in a statement to which EFE had access that “measures were taken to control the massive irregular migration that the Panamanian State faces” in order to “channel irregular migration” to Bajo Chiquito, the first town that migrants reach after crossing the Darien jungle on foot for days.

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Couple Accused of Using Their Adopted African-American Children as Slaves

Donald Lantz and Jeanne Whitefeather (composite image)

In Kanawha County, West Virginia, Donald Ray Lantz, 63, and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather, 62, face serious charges after being charged with forcing their adopted African-American children to work in inhumane conditions and keeping them locked up in A barn.

Lantz and Whitefeather pleaded not guilty in Kanawha County court on Tuesday  . The charges include trafficking of minors, use of minors in forced labor and child neglect with significant risk of causing serious injury or death.

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Ecuador will Ask Chinese Citizens for Visas Due to an Increase in Illegal Migration

The government of Ecuador will begin requiring visas from Chinese citizens as of July 1, 2024, in response to the significant increase in irregular migration flows of citizens of this country.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility declared that large groups of Chinese citizens have been detected who have not left the country within the 90 days of entry allowed or who use Ecuador as a starting point to reach other destinations in the hemisphere, especially To united states.

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Cotija Mayor Assassinated on Election Night the Latest Casualty amid Growing Cartel Dominance in Mexico

Cotija Mayor Yolanda Sánchez

Monday night, Cotija Mayor Yolanda Sánchez left a gym on a public street, and walked alongside her bodyguard when men armed with assault rifles suddenly shot at them from a moving car.

The pair were seriously injured and transported to a nearby hospital where doctors learned the local town leader had been shot 19 times. She was pronounced dead by 9:30 p.m. local time, according to the EFE Spanish news agency.

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Biden Signs Order to Limit Asylum Requests at the U.S. Border

Asylum seekers

The president of the United States, Joe Biden, signingAn executive order this Tuesday  that will allow him to drastically limit asylum requests on the border with Mexico if the number of migrant arrests exceeds a specific threshold, the EFE news agency reported .

This order will allow US authorities to deport those who do not meet strict asylum standards when the number of 2,500 people detained at the border for an average of seven days is exceeded, senior US officials told the press.

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Migrants Insist on Crossing the Rio Grande into the United States Despite Increasing Deportations

Illegal migrants crossing Rio Grande

Despite the increasing deportations and operations of the United States and Mexico , migrants on the border of the Mexican Ciudad Juárez with the American El Paso insist on crossing the Rio Grande (Grande) border irregularly. This was confirmed by a report from the Spanish news agency EFE this day.

The situation escalated because last week the US authorities expelled 200 migrants who crossed through gate 40 of the wall and handed them over to the Mexican National Migration Institute (INM) in Ciudad Juárez, where it was announced that they would return them to Chiapas , the state of the southern border of Mexico , the outlet said.

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Anti-Narcotics NGO Warns of Fentanyl Addiction Among Migrants Reaching Mexico-U.S. Border

US Border Crossing

An organization that helps those with drug addiction on the Mexico-U.S. border warned that fentanyl consumption has reached migrants arriving in Ciudad Juárez, where some already arrive with drug problems from their countries, according to Mexican government statistics and a report published by the EFE Spanish news agency.

Julián Rojas Padilla, coordinator of Harm Reduction in the Compañeros Program (HRCP), a civil association that supports consumers who want to quit substances, told Spanish language media outlets that fentanyl mixed with other drugs in Juárez has become a popular new and dangerous choice of narcotics reaching the migrant population.

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The Castro Family’s International Businesses Expand Throughout the World

Rogelio Singh Luque

An investigation published by Yucabyte and the investigative journalism outlet Armando.info revealed on Friday  a network of companies ranging from Mexico to Cuba, passing through Miami, with close ties to descendants of the Castro family, including Héctor Santana Castro, Sandro Castro and his cousin, the model Antonio “Tony” Castro.

According to the investigation, Hector Santana Castro,  great-nephew of Raúl and Fidel Castro,  would manage the family business in Europe through his law firm.

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Experts Warn of Iran’s Expansion in Latin America

Iranian Flag

Iran’s strategic expansion in Latin America, by aligning itself with regimes that could represent a threat to democracy and regional stability, has become a concern for the region, according to a Tuesday report published by the Southern Command’s Diálogo Americas magazine. .

While Iran’s influence already extends to Brazil, where on November 8, 2023, Brazilian authorities thwarted a Hezbollah terrorist plot against Jewish targets, the seriousness of Iran’s presence in the region became apparent again on April 14. , when, after an Iranian attack on Israel with more than 300 drones and missiles, the Argentine government raised its terrorist alert level to “high.” As a consequence, Argentina intensified its security measures, especially around Jewish institutions, airports and border areas.

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The Number of Cubans Recruited to Fight for Russia in Ukraine is Approaching 5,000, More than the Media Reports

Russian military

Several media outlets have finally begun to acknowledge what ADN reported last year about young Cubans being recruited and lured to work in Russia, but then forced to risk their lives on the battlefields in Ukraine. Sources from the Cuban community tell ADN that the number of Cubans recruited to fight for Moscow is close to 5,000, not 400, as reported by the international press.

The bait-and-switch scheme was first revealed by ADN on September 6, 2023 as a result of dogged investigation by the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, an international human rights organization dedicated to combating totalitarianism in Cuba and in the Western Hemisphere.

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Anti-Israel Activists Behind Columbia University Protests Trained in Cuba for Years

Cuba-trained activists at Columbia #ShutItDown4Palestine

Some of the anti-Israel protests taking place at U.S. college campuses, including the recent demonstrations at Columbia University, have been supported by organizations that traveled to communist Cuba to receive resistance training, an ADN investigation has uncovered.

ADN’s investigation coincides with a recent Sunday report published by the New York Post that revealed a radical NYC based organization known as The People’s Forum familiarized anti-Israel activists with Black Lives Matter protest techniques just hours before they stormed Hamilton Hall at Columbia University, and that the group was incited by Manolo De Los Santos – a radical activist organizer with deep ties to communist Cuba.

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DeSantis Sends Coast Guard, Police to Guard Southern Waters Against Haitian Emigration to Florida

Haitians on Boat

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is mobilizing an air-and-sea fleet along with a company of 250 law enforcement officials to safeguard southern waters against a potential mass Haitian emigration to Florida.

The governor’s decision comes amid a wave of crime and chaos that has swept across the Caribbean country just days after President Ariel Henry relinquished power from Puerto Rico.

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Biden Studies Reducing Asylum Applications by Executive Order to Stop the Migratory Flow

Illegal Immigrants

The Biden Administration is studying the possibility of invoking broad presidential authority to make it more difficult for migrants to pass the initial asylum test at the southern US border, three officials with knowledge of the matter told NBC News.

The actions, which are still weeks away from completion, would be an effort to reduce the number of migrants illegally crossing the border, in what has become an issue of utmost importance in the country ahead of the 2024 presidential elections.

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DOJ Supreme Court Filing Reveals Details Inconsistent with DHS Narrative Blaming Texas for Migrant Drownings

CBP Help

A new Supreme Court filing by the Department of Justice (DOJ) raises new questions that could help exonerate the Texas Military Department after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) English) accuse the state agency of allowing the deaths of three migrants who drowned in Shelby Park last week.

Both the White House and Biden’s Department of Homeland Security blamed state officials after three migrants, including two children, drowned in the Shelby Park area.

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Argentina Makes History, Voters Deliver Clear Mandate with Election of Free Market Libertarian Javier Milei by Double-Digits

Libertarian candidate Javier Milei of the “La Libertad Avanza” (Liberty Moves Forward) party, will become the president of Argentina on December 10. The free market capitalist obtained 55.86 percent of the votes, with 91.81 percent of the polling stations counted, a stunning victory for the right that resulted in the defeat of ruling party candidate Sergio Massa, who only garnered 44.13 percent of the votes.

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Biden to Allow Nearly 500,000 Venezuelans to Work and Reside Legally in America

Joe Biden’s administration announced this Wednesday the renewal and expansion of an immigration permit called Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which would allow some 472,000 Venezuelans to work and reside legally in the United States.

Officials explained that TPS will now be extended to all Venezuelans who have lived continuously in the United States since July 31, 2023. This significantly increases the number of beneficiaries, since previously it only applied to those who were in the country since March 2021.

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Report: Young Cubans Are Being Lured to Russia for Work and Forced to Fight in Ukraine Instead

An anonymous Russian army officer has reported the presence of entire battalions comprising mainly Cubans and Serbians fighting alongside Russia in Ukraine. This revelation comes in the wake of recent news regarding young Cubans in the island who were misled into believing they were signing up for construction work, only to find themselves sent to fight for Russia.

The soldier told The Moscow Times that it was surprising to find “only Cubans and Serbians” who speak little or no Russian in these units deployed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.

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Illegal Immigrant Crossings on the Arizona Border Increase

The number of apprehensions of undocumented immigrants by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents at the US-Mexico border increased between June and July, according to new data released by the agency on Friday.

The number of migrant encounters along the southern border in July increased to 132,652 from 99,545 crossings in June. According to officials, the month-over-month increase was due to the large number of families crossing the border, which nearly doubled between the two months and led to 60,161 arrests. Almost 40% of migrant families came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

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U.S. Legislators Ask to Examine the Coexistence of the Mexican Government with Drug Cartels

A new cross-border conservative coalition is calling on Washington lawmakers to change their policy toward Mexico and scrutinize the neighboring country for its alleged collusion with drug cartels.

The US-Mexico Conservative Policy Coalition states: “The Mexican government and Mexican criminal cartels exist in conscious and voluntary symbiosis, at multiple levels, up to and including the Mexican presidency…the current president of Mexico has expressed openness to a pact with the cartels and has spoken of his willingness to defend them from US action.

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DEI Disaster: Wells Fargo Employees Say Bank Targeted Hispanics with Predatory Lending Practices

Wells Fargo, one of the largest banks in the United States is facing a lawsuit from its Hispanic employees that accuses the centuries old bank of engaging in predatory lending practices against customers of the same ethnic origin.

The lawsuit, filed June 30 in a Texas federal court, accuses Wells Fargo of pressuring Hispanic employees in San Antonio to redirect Latino customers away from home equity lines of credit to more expensive but profitable refinancing options without furnishing the usual disclosures, according to a complaint filed in court.

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Court Strikes Down Florida Law Barring Non-Citizens from Collecting Voter Registration Forms

A U.S. District court judge has blocked a Florida election law that criminalized noncitizens from collecting voter registration forms, a statute some say was aimed at Hispanic migrants and asylum seekers.

The law, which was overruled last week would have gone into effect this month, resulting in fines for as much as $50,000 against non-citizens “collecting or handling” voter registration forms.

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