Monday morning news - September 27, 2021

For WORLD Radio, I'm Kent Covington. 

Mayorkas: border camp cleared, more than 10k migrants released in U.S. » A camp along the Texas border once crowded with tens of thousands of mostly Haitian migrants is now empty.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas revealed on Sunday that the Biden administration released many of the migrants inside the United States.

MAYORKAS: Approximately, I think it’s about 10,000 or so, 12,000.

He said thousands more are in custody and the administration may release many of them inside the country as well. Those released north of the border are given orders to appear in an immigration court at a future date.

Republicans note that, historically, many migrants who are released and given such orders never show up in court.

And Texas Governor Greg Abbott said the Biden administration did nothing to prevent the migrants from crossing the Rio Grande into his state.

ABBOTT: I will give you the words of Border Patrol agents themselves in Del Rio when they said that the surge of migrants across the border was stopped only when the Texas Dept. of Public Safety and the National Guard showed up to provide a steel barrier.

But Mayorkas said the administration does not agree with putting up barriers on the border.

MAYORKAS: It is the policy of this administration - we do not agree with the building of the wall. The law provides that individuals can make a claim for humanitarian relief. That is actually one of our proudest traditions.

Republicans say President Biden’s policies are a magnet, encouraging hundreds of thousands of migrants to make the dangerous trek to the border.

More large groups of Haitian migrants, numbering more than 20,000, have reportedly gathered in Central America and are preparing to make their way north to the United States.

Democrats push $3.5T spending bill through committee » Democrats over the weekend pushed a $3.5 trillion spending plan through the House Budget Committee. The Democratic-dominated panel, meeting virtually Saturday, approved the measure on a near party-line vote, 20-to-17.

But one Democrat voted “no.” And that highlights the challenges party leaders face to get the deal done. They’ll need near unanimous support from Democrats because Republicans uniformly believe it’s a bad idea. Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales.

GONZALES: You know, the price of gas is going up, the price of eggs, the price of basic necessities is through the roof. At the end of the day the spending is completely out of control, and we have to stop somewhere because eventually the bill becomes due.

Saturday’s vote checked a procedural box. But more important work has been happening in a series of private phone calls and closed-door meetings.

President Biden and other party leaders are negotiating with more moderate Democrats behind the scenes, hoping to overcome their objections.

The Senate has already passed a roughly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. But the House has held off acting on it, hoping to vote on that bill and the $3.5 trillion spending package, which Democrats call the Build Back Better plan, at the same time. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi:

PELOSI: This is the vision of the president. And he has said that while he wants to pass the infrastructure bill, and we will, that he will not confine his vision of the future to that bill.

Pelosi told fellow Democrats Saturday that they “must” pass both bills this week and a third measure preventing a government shutdown on Friday.

Walensky works to clear up booster shot confusion » CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says she knows many people are confused about who should get COVID-19 vaccine booster shots.

The CDC last week gave the green light for a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine for people 65 and older, high risk Americans with certain health conditions, and “people who live or work in high risk settings.”

WALENSKY: That includes people in homeless shelters, people in group homes, people in prisons, but also, importantly, people who work with vulnerable communities. So, our healthcare workers, our teachers, our grocery workers, our public transportation employees.

No word yet on when or if the FDA might approve booster shots of the Pfizer vaccine for all adults.

WALENSKY: We are evaluating this science in real time. We are meeting every several weeks now to evaluate the science. The science may very well show that the rest of the population needs to be boosted.

She said the FDA will provide guidance on expanded booster shots just as soon as it has the data it needs to make a decision.

NTSB investigation deadly train derailment in Montana » A team of investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board is now on the ground in northern Montana combing the scene of a deadly train derailment.

They’re trying to determine what caused an Amtrak train to jump its tracks on Saturday.

The crash killed at least three people and hospitalized seven others.

Everyone else on the train was treated for minor injuries and released. The train was carrying about 140 passengers and 16 crew members.

The westbound train was en route to Seattle from Chicago, with two locomotives and 10 cars, when eight of those cars left the tracks about 4 p.m. near the town of Joplin.

I’m Kent Covington. For more news, features, and analysis, visit us at wng.org. 

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