Texas Governor Greg Abbott begins dispatching buses to take migrants to DC

 The governor of Texas has said there is already a high demand for buses to take migrants from his state to Washington DC, in a move he said was designed to show Joe Biden the scale of the problem, and 'take the border to him'.

Greg Abbott, a Republican facing re-election in November and being challenged by Beto O'Rourke, announced on Wednesday that migrants who opted into the scheme would be bused from his state to DC, and left on the steps of the Capitol.

On Friday, Abbott said that his team had received multiple calls from communities in the Rio Grande Valley requesting buses to transport the migrants.

'Overnight there were multiple communities in the Rio Grande Valley asking us to provide buses for them, maybe even planes,' said Abbott.

Greg Abbott, the governor of Texas, on Friday told Fox News that there had been a flurry of requests for buses to take migrants to Washington DC

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Asylum-seeking migrants cross the Rio Bravo river from Ciudad Juarez in Mexico to El Paso, Texas, on Wednesday

He told Fox News hosts Dana Perino and Bill Hemmer: 'When they come across the border, it's not like they want to stay in the Rio Grande Valley.

'They are moving across the entire country.

'What better place to go to than the steps of the United States Capitol - they get to see the beautiful Capitol, and get closer to the people making the decisions.'

The scheme has been condemned by Democrats, with Sheila Jackson Lee, whose constituency encompasses parts of Houston, calling it an 'act of hysteria and grandstanding'.

She added: 'Those are not problem solving. They are adding to the grand march of hysteria.'

But Abbott insisted that it was legitimate.

Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, said that Abbott's scheme was 'hysteria' and did not solve the problem

Abbott defended the scheme, noting that the migrants did not want to remain in the Rio Grande Valley

Since Biden took office in January 2021, CBP has encountered more than 2.2 million migrants and the border – and that number could as much as triple with the end of Title 42 next month

'Joe Biden has refused to come to the border to see the chaos that he has created by his open border policies,' he said.

'So we are going to take the border to him by transporting the people that he is dropping off in these local communities in the state of Texas, and sending them to Washington by plane or by bus.

'What is happening is there is an increased number of people coming across the border. They, the federal government, are processing them and letting them loose.

'What has been happening so far is that these people are getting on buses and going to San Antonio, or Houston, or other places like that.

'So I think they just need longer bus rides.'

Gov. Abbott says he'll send illegal immigrants in buses to capitol

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Migrants are pictured on Wednesday crossing into El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez

Migrants from Central and South America board a U.S. Customs and Border Protection bus after they crossed the Rio Grande river on Thursday

Abbott said the scheme had 'been happening for weeks if not months now.'

He added: 'We know the process works.

'It's just a matter of relocating the drop off point.'

The Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) confirmed to Fox Digital that they have dispatched an unspecified number of buses to small Texas communities.

'In the last 24 hours, TDEM has dispatched buses to areas where communities have expressed concerns about the federal government dropping off migrants and has the capability to send as many as is necessary to fulfill the requests from mayors and county judges,' said Seth Christensen, chief of media and communications for TDEM.

'From the [Rio Grande Valley] to Terrell County, a large majority of the communities that originally reached out for support through this operation have now said that the federal government has stopped dropping migrants in their towns since the governor's announcement on Wednesday.'

Christensen said each bus 'has the capacity and supplies necessary to carry up to 40 migrants.'

None of the buses have yet set out for Washington DC. 

The announcement comes as the Biden administration said it would drop Title 42, the pandemic-era border restriction that immediately expels migrants back to Texas, which was enacted by Donald Trump.

Psaki dismisses Abbott's plan to bus immigrants to DC

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott, pictured Wednesday, has announced a plan to bus illegal immigrants who cross into the Lone Star State straight to Washington DC 

Ukrainian migrants seeking asylum are pictured in Mexico on April 6. Abbott says anyone crossing into Texas illegally will now be deposited on the steps of the US Capitol building 

Nim Kidd, the chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (pictured in white shirt to right of Abbott) said as many buses as necessary would be filled, and cited prior disasters where 900 of the vehicles have been called into action 

In a statement on April 1, Abbott called ending Title 42 'reckless' and said Biden's 'open-border policies' have caused the state to take drastic measures like sending out Department of Public Safety troopers and more than 10,000 Texas National Guard members to arrest migrants at the border. 

And on Wednesday, Abbott warned that dumping Title 42 would lead to 18,000 illegal migrants crossing the border every day - equivalent to 500,000 a month.

He cited Obama-era Homeland Security Chief Jeh Johnson's 2019 claim that 100,000 migrants crossing the border in a month could be considered a crisis in any circumstances.

And Abbott warned that the flow expected after Title 42 is axed would effectively add the number of people living in LA - four million - to the United States' population by Christmas.

He explained: 'We have more people potentially crossing our border by the end of this year than live in Los Angeles, America's second-largest city.'

On Wednesday, Abbott also announced enhanced checks on all cars crossing the southern border into Texas, to try and cut down on cartel smuggling.

He warned of advanced wait times for people coming into the US.

Abbott went on to say that state troopers would be given riot gear to push back any orchestrated plans to overwhelm border crossings by caravans, and that they'd be conducting rehearsals in the coming days.

Explaining the measures he is enacting, Abbott said: 'We're deploying boat blockades at appropriate regions in the Rio Grande, deploying razor wire in low water areas and creating container blockades to drive people away from low water areas

'There will be mass-migration rehearsals from tomorrow – troopers will be equipped with riot gear in case of violence.

'The border region is going to be lit at night in prominent smuggling areas to make it easier to detect any illegal activity that is taking place.

'If you're a caravan organizer, and you think you can overwhelm a site of entry, we'll be waiting for you.' 

Abbott noted that Texas had become 'the first state to ever build a wall to secure our border.'

Abbott also said he is implementing a 'zero-tolerance policy' for smuggling in migrants in vehicles at the border. He said that agents would conduct 'safety inspections' on every vehicle trying to cross the border.

Abbott said the vehicle checks and migrant bussing would be in addition to blockades the state is implementing along the border. 

He said that boats blockades, shipping container blockades and razor wire would be erected at high-traffic areas and low water crossings. 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10701801/Texas-Governor-Greg-Abbott-begins-dispatching-buses-migrants-southern-border-DC.html

Abbott: ‘enhanced’ commercial truck inspections at border

 The Texas Department of Public Safety will immediately begin “enhanced safety inspections” of commercial vehicles crossing into the state from Mexico in an effort to reduce migrant and drug smuggling, Gov. Greg Abbott announced Wednesday.

Abbott also pledged to use charter buses to voluntarily transport migrants from the border to Washington, D.C., moves he said were due to the Biden administration’s decision to lift Title 42, a Trump-era public health rule that has allowed federal immigration authorities to expel millions of migrants crossing the southern border to Mexico without letting them to seek asylum.

Abbott acknowledged that the stricter vehicle inspections will “dramatically slow traffic from Mexico into Texas,” but said they are necessary to combat cartel-led smuggling.

Republican lawmakers have warned that ending Title 42 on May 23 could lead to a massive influx in migrants arriving at the border, and have fought to keep the measure in place through stalling ongoing coronavirus relief funding negotiations in the U.S. Senate. The attorneys general of Missouri, Louisiana and Arizona sued the Biden administration on April 3 over its decision to end the policy.

A press release from Abbott’s office cited a projected increase of up to 18,000 migrant apprehensions a day linked to the policy’s end, a figure that comes from the Department of Homeland Security.

DPS Director Steve McCraw offered few details on the enhanced inspections, other than to say DPS is “going to ensure that every commercial vehicle that enters the state is safe.”

He said DPS troopers would direct truckers to the inspection points.

In 2019, approximately 792,440 trucks crossed into El Paso through its two commercial ports of entry, the Ysleta-Zaragoza International Bridge and the Bridge of the Americas, according to a 2021 Texas Department of Transportation report. That year, more than $76 billion in U.S.-Mexico trade passed through El Paso’s ports.

Abbott’s press release noted that charter bus transportation to Washington D.C., will be voluntary for migrants.

https://elpasomatters.org/2022/04/06/texas-governor-announces-enhanced-commercial-truck-inspections-at-border/

Woman faces Texas murder charge after self-induced abortion

 A 26-year-old woman has been charged with murder in Texas after authorities said she caused “the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” in a state that has the most restrictive abortion laws in the U.S.

It’s unclear whether Lizelle Herrera is accused of having an abortion or whether she helped someone else get an abortion.

Herrera was arrested Thursday and remained jailed Saturday on a $500,000 bond in the Starr County jail in Rio Grande City, on the U.S.-Mexico border, sheriff’s Maj. Carlos Delgado said in a statement.

“Herrera was arrested and served with an indictment on the charge of Murder after Herrera did then and there intentionally and knowingly cause the death of an individual by self-induced abortion,” Delgado said.

Delgado did not say under what law Herrera has been charged. He said no other information will be released until at least Monday because the case remains under investigation.

Texas law exempts her from a criminal homicide charge for aborting her own pregnancy, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladeck told The Associated Press.

“(Homicide) doesn’t apply to the murder of an unborn child if the conduct charged is ‘conduct committed by the mother of the unborn child,’” Vladeck said.

A 2021 state law that bans abortions in Texas for women who are as early as six weeks pregnant has sharply curtailed the number of abortions in the state. The law leaves enforcement to private citizens who can sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion.

The woman receiving the abortion is exempted from the law.

However, some states still have laws that criminalize self-induced abortions “and there have been a handful of prosecutions here and there over the years,” Vladeck said.

“It is murder in Texas to take steps that terminate a fetus, but when a medical provider does it, it can’t be prosecuted” due to U.S. Supreme Court rulings upholding the constitutionality of abortion, Vladeck said.

Lynn Paltrow, the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women also noted the state law exemption.

“What’s a little mysterious in this case is, what crime has this woman been charged with?” Paltrow said. “There is no statute in Texas that, even on its face, authorizes the arrest of a woman for a self-managed abortion.”

Another Texas law prohibits doctors and clinics from prescribing abortion-inducing medications after the seventh week of pregnancy and prohibits delivery of the pills by mail.

Medication abortions are not considered self-induced under federal Food and Drug Administration regulations, Vladeck said.

“You can only receive the medication under medical supervision,” according to Vladeck. “I realize this sounds weird because you are taking the pill yourself, but it is under a providers’ at least theoretical care.”

In Rio Grande City on Saturday the abortion rights group Frontera Fund called for Herrera’s release.

“We don’t yet know all the details surrounding this tragic event,” said Rockie Gonzales, founder and board chair of of the organization.

“What we do know is that criminalizing pregnant people’s choices or pregnancy outcomes, which the state of Texas has done, takes away people’s autonomy over their own bodies, and leaves them with no safe options when they choose not to become a parent,” Gonzalez said.

Nancy Cárdenas Peña, Texas State Director for Policy and Advocacy for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Justice, said in a statement that abortion should be available on the woman’s own terms where she feels most comfortable.

“Allowing criminal law to be used against people who have ended their own pregnancies serves no reasonable state purpose, but may cause great harm to young people, people with lower incomes, and communities of color, who are most likely to encounter or be reported to law enforcement,” Peña said.

https://thehill.com/news/wire/3263343-woman-faces-texas-murder-charge-after-self-induced-abortion/

How to prepare for the financial hit of long COVID

 When Nicole Flecchia contracted COVID-19 in January of 2021, the University of Rhode Island grad student figured she might be looking at a few days or weeks of symptoms.

It is now April of 2022, and the symptoms have never really gone away.

The 26-year-old is among the millions of Americans with so-called long COVID, with the damage from the virus taking a toll on their bodies and finances for months or even years.

Because as much as the virus attacks the body - in Flecchia’s case, with a dry cough, extreme fatigue, and brain fog - it can also attack your financial life.

For example, Flecchia’s student program required her to work 20 hours a week during the school year, and 40 hours a week during the summer. With long COVID, she could only work for an hour or two at a time.

Flecchia tried to tough it out, but this past January she finally went on medical leave from her program. She is living off savings while she waits for the symptoms to recede.

Her story is far from unique. The American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation estimates that of the 79.17 million Americans who survived a bout with the coronavirus, 30% or 23.75 million are dealing with some level of post-acute COVID.

Typical symptoms include headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbance, dizziness, breathing difficulty and persistent brain fog, all of which can affect your ability to make a living.

“People are now realizing that this doesn’t just devastate you physically, it can ruin you financially,” says Diana Berrent, founder of Survivor Corps, the world’s largest COVID grassroots movement with around 200,000 members.

The Biden administration has taken note of the looming health crisis and this week said it would develop a national plan to expand research, care and disability services for Americans suffering from the debilitating condition. read more

DISABILITY COVERAGE

Ideally, prolonged health issues would be covered by workplace disability insurance, which provides a percentage of your earnings while your ability to work is impacted. According to the 2020 benefits report of the Society for Human Resource Management, 71% of organizations surveyed offer long-term disability coverage, and 62% provide short-term coverage.

But since long COVID is a recent phenomenon with more than 200 potential symptoms and little understanding of its underlying causes, sufferers often run up against roadblocks dealing with health insurance companies and government agencies.

And many employers do not offer disability coverage. In addition, growing numbers in the workforce operate on a freelance or short-term contract basis, without access to company benefits.

In such cases, it might be worthwhile to secure disability coverage on your own. The wisdom of that goes beyond COVID, since a quarter of Americans will experience disability at some point in their working lives, according to the Social Security Administration.

A few tips: Typically you might look for a policy that replaces around 60%-70% of your total taxable earnings, according Mark Friedlander, spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute. That could cost 1%-4% of your annual income when it comes to premiums.

The best coverage builds in cost-of-living increases and keeps pace with inflation. Usually, there are waiting periods before benefits are paid out, such as 60 or 90 days, with the first check cut 30 days after that. Look for a coverage period that lasts at least until age 65.

And keep in mind that if you are already dealing with long COVID, you will not be able to take out a new policy to cover it, since it would be considered a pre-existing condition.

There is also the potential for getting disability benefits through Social Security for those who have worked for many years and paid into that system.

However, that is a lengthy process involving both state and federal agencies, which will review the claim. But for those whose COVID symptoms are long lasting, a monthly benefit going forward could certainly help stave off financial ruin.

“I would say the earlier the better for filing, because it is taking a long time to process,” advises T.J. Geist, principal advocate with the firm Allsup, which helps sufferers file such claims. “It also helps to have a representative, since you are dealing with multiple layers of government."

See your doctor on a regular basis, Geist advises, and make sure to get documentation of all your limitations and symptoms.

As for Nicole Flecchia, she still gets winded from ordinary activities like climbing the stairs to her apartment. But she looks forward to the day when she can pursue her oceanography studies.

“I’m trying to stay positive, because it’s really the only thing I can do,” she said. “I have to hope that I will eventually get better and be able to work again.”

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/how-prepare-financial-hit-long-covid-2022-04-07/