DELUGING AGENTS CROSSING TO U.S., · 2019-11-12 · Alabama sky and was bound for d. arBeaureg In...
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VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,258 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019 U(D54G1D)y+#!z!%!#!} The number of migrant families crossing the southwest border has once again broken records, with unauthorized entries nearly dou- bling what they were a year ago, suggesting that the Trump admin- istration’s aggressive policies have not discouraged new migra- tion to the United States. More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without au- thorization in February, an 11-year high and a strong sign that stepped-up prosecutions, new controls on asylum and harsher detention policies have not re- versed what remains a powerful lure for thousands of families flee- ing violence and poverty. “The system is well beyond ca- pacity, and remains at the break- ing point,” Kevin K. McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told reporters in announcing the new data on Tuesday. The nation’s top border enforce- ment officer painted a picture of processing centers filled to capac- ity, border agents struggling to meet medical needs and thou- sands of exhausted members of migrant families crammed into a detention system that was not built to house them — all while newcomers continue to arrive, sometimes by the busload, at the rate of 2,200 a day. “This is clearly both a border security and a humanitarian cri- sis,” Mr. McAleenan said. President Trump has used the escalating numbers to justify his plan to build an expanded wall along the 1,900-mile border with Mexico. But a wall would do little to slow migration, most immigra- tion analysts say. While the exact numbers are not known, many of those apprehended along the southern border, including the thousands who present them- selves at legal ports of entry, sur- render voluntarily to Border Pa- trol agents and eventually submit legal asylum claims. The main problem is not one of uncontrolled masses scaling the fences, but a humanitarian chal- lenge created as thousands of mi- grant families surge into remote areas where the administration has so far failed to devote suffi- cient resources to care for them, as is required under the law. The latest numbers stung an administration that has over the past two years introduced a rash of aggressive policies intended to deter migrants from journeying to the United States, including sepa- rating families, limiting entries at official ports and requiring some asylum seekers to wait in Mexico through the duration of their im- migration cases. More than 50,000 adults are RECORD NUMBERS CROSSING TO U.S., DELUGING AGENTS ‘WELL BEYOND CAPACITY’ Surge in Migrant Families Shows Trump Policies Aren’t a Deterrent By CAITLIN DICKERSON Continued on Page A18 WASHINGTON — A formal condemnation of anti-Semitism that is up for a vote in the House this week has touched off a furious debate between older House Democrats and their young liberal colleagues over whether Repre- sentative Ilhan Omar is being sin- gled out for unfair treatment over her statements on Israel. The resolution, likely to be voted on Thursday, grew out of Ms. Omar’s suggestion last week that pro-Israel activists were pushing “for allegiance to a for- eign country” — a remark that in- furiated leading Jewish members of the House, who say it played into the anti-Semitic trope of “dual loyalty.” It comes just weeks after Ms. Omar apologized for tweeting that support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins baby,” a reference to hundred-dollar bills that critics said echoed a common anti-Se- mitic belief that Jewish money is controlling foreign policy. But progressives in the House and their allies have rallied to the defense of Ms. Omar, a freshman Democrat from Minnesota and one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, who was hailed as a trailblazer. Speaker Nancy Pelosi told top Democrats on Tuesday evening that the reso- lution would include language condemning anti-Muslim bias as well — a move advocated by the Congressional Progressive Cau- cus. The rift emerging around Ms. Omar is easily the most serious since Democrats swept to House control in November, an ideolog- ical and generational divide that has grown fierce in recent days and threatens to overshadow the party’s legislative agenda. On one side are veteran Demo- crats like Representatives Eliot L. Engel, Nita M. Lowey and Jerrold Nadler — all of whom lead major Rift Over Israel Has Democrats Divided by Age Anti-Semitism Motion Rattles the House By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG Continued on Page A17 ASHLEY GILBERTSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES In Dakar, Senegal, exercise is a way of life. But pollution levels are daunting as the city expands rapidly. Dakar Dispatch. Page A6. Breathing In Danger WASHINGTON — On a busy day at the White House, President Trump hosted senators to talk about tax cuts, accused a Demo- cratic congresswoman of distort- ing his condolence call to a sol- dier’s widow and suffered another court defeat for his travel ban tar- geting Muslim countries. And at some point on Wednes- day, Oct. 18, 2017, Mr. Trump took the time to sign a $35,000 check to his lawyer, who had made hush payments to prevent alleged sex- ual misconduct from being ex- posed before the 2016 presidential election. It was one of 11 occasions that Mr. Trump or his trust cut such checks, six of which were provided this week to The New York Times. At the heart of last week’s con- gressional testimony by Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former law- yer, was the sensational accusa- tion that the sitting president of the United States financed an ille- gal cover-up from inside the White House. The dates on the newly Sway Senators, Pay Fixer: Check Dates Hint at Parallel Lives of a Sitting President By PETER BAKER and MAGGIE HABERMAN On Oct. 18, 2017, a busy day at the White House, the president signed a check to his personal fixer. Continued on Page A16 VALERIO MEZZANOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES The fashions of the designer, who died Feb. 19, drew lots of praise, and tears, on Tuesday in Paris. Karl Lagerfeld’s Last Show Michael R. Bloomberg, the for- mer New York City mayor who joined the Democratic Party last year to crusade against President Trump, announced he would not seek the White House himself in 2020, discarding plans to mount a maverick campaign that would have tested the party’s openness to a wealthy centrist with a cha- meleon-like approach to partisan politics. Mr. Bloomberg’s decision ap- pears to reflect a recognition of the long odds he would have faced as a moderate newcomer in an un- apologetically liberal party, and his own unsentimental calculus about the trade-offs involved in running. After conducting polling and other research, Mr. Bloom- berg’s advisers concluded he would have a real but narrow path to the nomination — and that it could all but vanish if Joseph R. Biden Jr., the former vice presi- dent, entered the race. “I believe I would defeat Donald Trump in a general election,” Mr. Bloomberg wrote, in a Bloomberg News column announcing his de- cision. “But I am cleareyed about the difficulty of winning the Dem- Bloomberg Says He Won’t Jump Into 2020 Field By ALEXANDER BURNS Continued on Page A15 GENOA, Italy — Long before the Morandi Bridge collapsed in Genoa, Italy, last year, killing 43 people, an economics professor named Marco Ponti took aim at the private company that man- aged the structure, raising two fundamental concerns. One was money. Mr. Ponti ar- gued that Autostrade per l’Italia, or Highways for Italy, which man- aged the bridge and over half of It- aly’s 4,000 miles of toll roads, made “abnormal” profits. The other was the lopsided power balance between Autostra- de and the Italian government. Mr. Ponti, who served on an ex- pert panel advising the govern- ment, said ministries did too little to regulate the company. Taxpayers were being shorn “like flocks of sheep,” Mr. Ponti said in a newspaper interview in 2003. It was a pointed dig. The Be- nettons, the Italian family famous for wool sweaters and a global clothing empire, controlled Auto- strade. If Mr. Ponti hoped to shame them, it didn’t work: He says he was forced to resign from the panel and the Benettons later threatened him with a multi- million-dollar lawsuit before back- ing off. The calamity in Genoa is now the subject of a criminal inquiry, with 21 people under investiga- tion, including nine employees of Autostrade and three officials from the Ministry of Infrastruc- ture and Transport. The authori- ties are sorting through years of email exchanges and documents, and the contents of a few dozen mobile phones, to try to determine who is to blame. But beyond potential negli- gence, the case has exposed what critics say are deep systemic fail- ings in how Italy privatized road- ways. Autostrade reaped huge profits and acquired so much power that the state became a largely passive regulator. While no evidence has emerged Italy Collapse Brings Infamy to a Fashion Family By DAVID SEGAL and GAIA PIANIGIANI Bridge Inquiry Focuses on Lax Oversight and Benettons’ Profits Continued on Page A8 BEAUREGARD, Ala. — Becky Boyd’s phone alerted her on Sun- day afternoon that a tornado was imminent, but she didn’t think much of it. Warnings had come be- fore, and nothing had happened. Then her sister called: A tor- nado was one road over. Get some- where safe. The ferocious storm — almost a mile wide with winds as powerful as a Category 5 hurricane — struck before she could reach the closet in her mobile home. Its force pushed her into the closet face-first as her entire house rolled onto a shed. She survived. Twenty-three others in eastern Alabama — ranging in age from 6 to 89 — did not. The modern era of pinpoint weather forecasting allowed the government to begin to warn the people of Beauregard last Thurs- day that there was a risk of a tor- nado in three days. On Sunday af- ternoon, sirens wailed and cell- phones erupted with about 12 min- utes of notice that a funnel cloud had dropped from a foreboding Alabama sky and was bound for Beauregard. In forecasting, double-digit lead time is considered an extraordi- nary scientific feat, and officials said the warning was issued as soon as there was data available. But in a place with widespread poverty and few places to hide, the urgent forecast could not save ev- eryone who did not have time to find safe shelter. Others simply More Warning If Not Urgency To Flee Storm By ALAN BLINDER and PATRICIA MAZZEI Continued on Page A14 DECIDING Stacey Abrams weighs a 2020 Democratic bid as Senator Jeff Merkley says no. PAGE A12 Pete Wells reviews Madame Vo BBQ in the East Village, which specializes in beef, but also offers delicacies like broiled sea urchin, below. PAGE D5 FOOD D1-8 A Vietnamese Feast A temporary shrine of sorts to the artist has been set up at the Brant art center in the East Village. PAGE C1 ARTS C1-8 Basquiat in All His Glory One sector of British agriculture illus- trates why an abrupt Brexit would be so disruptive to trade. PAGE A11 INTERNATIONAL A4-11 Whither Surplus Pork Bellies? Scott Gottlieb, known for his tough efforts to regulate the tobacco and e-cigarette industries, gave family reasons for his decision. PAGE A17 NATIONAL A12-18 F.D.A. Commissioner Quits Dow Chemical’s experience with the military is a cautionary tale for technol- ogy companies looking at military contracts, writes Kevin Roose. PAGE B1 BUSINESS B1-7 Lessons From Napalm As political tensions between India and Pakistan mount, a Massachusetts cricket club insists that its multination- al members play nice. PAGE B9 SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-12 A Test Match for Peace Frank Bruni PAGE A25 EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25 The Pritzker Prize has been awarded to Arata Isozaki, who combines Western and Japanese influences. PAGE C1 Japanese Architect Is Honored Analysts say work has resumed at one of the country’s formerly dismantled launching stations. PAGE A4 North Korea Builds Up Site A 10-year look at 600,000 children found no association between the measles vaccine and autism. PAGE A15 More Vindication for Vaccines The parents of a West Point cadet who died in a skiing accident won a court order to retrieve his sperm. PAGE A20 NEW YORK A20-21 The Legacy of a Family Name Late Edition Today, brisk, quite cold, clouds and sunshine, high 28. Tonight, clear to partly cloudy, very cold, low 16. To- morrow, quite cold, partial sunshine, high 31. Weather map, Page B8. $3.00
Transcript of DELUGING AGENTS CROSSING TO U.S., · 2019-11-12 · Alabama sky and was bound for d. arBeaureg In...
VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,258 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 6, 2019
C M Y K Nxxx,2019-03-06,A,001,Bs-4C,E2
U(D54G1D)y+#!z!%!#!}
The number of migrant familiescrossing the southwest border hasonce again broken records, withunauthorized entries nearly dou-bling what they were a year ago,suggesting that the Trump admin-istration’s aggressive policieshave not discouraged new migra-tion to the United States.
More than 76,000 migrantscrossed the border without au-thorization in February, an 11-yearhigh and a strong sign thatstepped-up prosecutions, newcontrols on asylum and harsherdetention policies have not re-versed what remains a powerfullure for thousands of families flee-ing violence and poverty.
“The system is well beyond ca-pacity, and remains at the break-ing point,” Kevin K. McAleenan,commissioner of Customs andBorder Protection, told reportersin announcing the new data onTuesday.
The nation’s top border enforce-ment officer painted a picture ofprocessing centers filled to capac-ity, border agents struggling tomeet medical needs and thou-sands of exhausted members ofmigrant families crammed into adetention system that was notbuilt to house them — all whilenewcomers continue to arrive,sometimes by the busload, at therate of 2,200 a day.
“This is clearly both a bordersecurity and a humanitarian cri-sis,” Mr. McAleenan said.
President Trump has used theescalating numbers to justify hisplan to build an expanded wallalong the 1,900-mile border withMexico. But a wall would do littleto slow migration, most immigra-tion analysts say. While the exactnumbers are not known, many ofthose apprehended along thesouthern border, including thethousands who present them-selves at legal ports of entry, sur-render voluntarily to Border Pa-trol agents and eventually submitlegal asylum claims.
The main problem is not one ofuncontrolled masses scaling thefences, but a humanitarian chal-lenge created as thousands of mi-grant families surge into remoteareas where the administrationhas so far failed to devote suffi-cient resources to care for them,as is required under the law.
The latest numbers stung anadministration that has over thepast two years introduced a rashof aggressive policies intended todeter migrants from journeying tothe United States, including sepa-rating families, limiting entries atofficial ports and requiring someasylum seekers to wait in Mexicothrough the duration of their im-migration cases.
More than 50,000 adults are
RECORD NUMBERSCROSSING TO U.S.,DELUGING AGENTS
‘WELL BEYOND CAPACITY’
Surge in Migrant FamiliesShows Trump Policies
Aren’t a Deterrent
By CAITLIN DICKERSON
Continued on Page A18
WASHINGTON — A formalcondemnation of anti-Semitismthat is up for a vote in the Housethis week has touched off a furiousdebate between older HouseDemocrats and their young liberalcolleagues over whether Repre-sentative Ilhan Omar is being sin-gled out for unfair treatment overher statements on Israel.
The resolution, likely to bevoted on Thursday, grew out ofMs. Omar’s suggestion last weekthat pro-Israel activists werepushing “for allegiance to a for-eign country” — a remark that in-furiated leading Jewish membersof the House, who say it playedinto the anti-Semitic trope of “dualloyalty.”
It comes just weeks after Ms.Omar apologized for tweeting thatsupport for Israel was “all aboutthe Benjamins baby,” a referenceto hundred-dollar bills that criticssaid echoed a common anti-Se-mitic belief that Jewish money iscontrolling foreign policy.
But progressives in the Houseand their allies have rallied to thedefense of Ms. Omar, a freshmanDemocrat from Minnesota andone of the first two Muslim womenelected to Congress, who washailed as a trailblazer. SpeakerNancy Pelosi told top Democratson Tuesday evening that the reso-lution would include languagecondemning anti-Muslim bias aswell — a move advocated by theCongressional Progressive Cau-cus.
The rift emerging around Ms.Omar is easily the most serioussince Democrats swept to Housecontrol in November, an ideolog-ical and generational divide thathas grown fierce in recent daysand threatens to overshadow theparty’s legislative agenda.
On one side are veteran Demo-crats like Representatives Eliot L.Engel, Nita M. Lowey and JerroldNadler — all of whom lead major
Rift Over IsraelHas DemocratsDivided by Age
Anti-Semitism MotionRattles the House
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Continued on Page A17
ASHLEY GILBERTSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
In Dakar, Senegal, exercise is a way of life. But pollution levels are daunting as the city expands rapidly. Dakar Dispatch. Page A6.Breathing In Danger
WASHINGTON — On a busyday at the White House, PresidentTrump hosted senators to talkabout tax cuts, accused a Demo-cratic congresswoman of distort-ing his condolence call to a sol-dier’s widow and suffered anothercourt defeat for his travel ban tar-geting Muslim countries.
And at some point on Wednes-day, Oct. 18, 2017, Mr. Trump tookthe time to sign a $35,000 check tohis lawyer, who had made hush
payments to prevent alleged sex-ual misconduct from being ex-posed before the 2016 presidentialelection. It was one of 11 occasionsthat Mr. Trump or his trust cutsuch checks, six of which wereprovided this week to The NewYork Times.
At the heart of last week’s con-gressional testimony by MichaelD. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former law-yer, was the sensational accusa-tion that the sitting president ofthe United States financed an ille-gal cover-up from inside the WhiteHouse. The dates on the newly
Sway Senators, Pay Fixer: Check Dates Hint at Parallel Lives of a Sitting PresidentBy PETER BAKER
and MAGGIE HABERMAN
On Oct. 18, 2017, a busy day at the White House, the president signed a check to his personal fixer.Continued on Page A16
VALERIO MEZZANOTTI FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The fashions of the designer, who died Feb. 19, drew lots of praise, and tears, on Tuesday in Paris.Karl Lagerfeld’s Last Show
Michael R. Bloomberg, the for-mer New York City mayor whojoined the Democratic Party lastyear to crusade against PresidentTrump, announced he would notseek the White House himself in2020, discarding plans to mount amaverick campaign that wouldhave tested the party’s opennessto a wealthy centrist with a cha-meleon-like approach to partisanpolitics.
Mr. Bloomberg’s decision ap-pears to reflect a recognition ofthe long odds he would have facedas a moderate newcomer in an un-apologetically liberal party, andhis own unsentimental calculusabout the trade-offs involved inrunning. After conducting pollingand other research, Mr. Bloom-berg’s advisers concluded hewould have a real but narrow pathto the nomination — and that itcould all but vanish if Joseph R.Biden Jr., the former vice presi-dent, entered the race.
“I believe I would defeat DonaldTrump in a general election,” Mr.Bloomberg wrote, in a BloombergNews column announcing his de-cision. “But I am cleareyed aboutthe difficulty of winning the Dem-
Bloomberg SaysHe Won’t JumpInto 2020 Field
By ALEXANDER BURNS
Continued on Page A15
GENOA, Italy — Long beforethe Morandi Bridge collapsed inGenoa, Italy, last year, killing 43people, an economics professornamed Marco Ponti took aim atthe private company that man-aged the structure, raising twofundamental concerns.
One was money. Mr. Ponti ar-gued that Autostrade per l’Italia,or Highways for Italy, which man-aged the bridge and over half of It-aly’s 4,000 miles of toll roads,made “abnormal” profits.
The other was the lopsidedpower balance between Autostra-de and the Italian government.Mr. Ponti, who served on an ex-pert panel advising the govern-ment, said ministries did too little
to regulate the company.Taxpayers were being shorn
“like flocks of sheep,” Mr. Pontisaid in a newspaper interview in2003.
It was a pointed dig. The Be-nettons, the Italian family famousfor wool sweaters and a globalclothing empire, controlled Auto-strade. If Mr. Ponti hoped toshame them, it didn’t work: Hesays he was forced to resign fromthe panel and the Benettons laterthreatened him with a multi-million-dollar lawsuit before back-
ing off.The calamity in Genoa is now
the subject of a criminal inquiry,with 21 people under investiga-tion, including nine employees ofAutostrade and three officialsfrom the Ministry of Infrastruc-ture and Transport. The authori-ties are sorting through years ofemail exchanges and documents,and the contents of a few dozenmobile phones, to try to determinewho is to blame.
But beyond potential negli-gence, the case has exposed whatcritics say are deep systemic fail-ings in how Italy privatized road-ways. Autostrade reaped hugeprofits and acquired so muchpower that the state became alargely passive regulator.
While no evidence has emerged
Italy Collapse Brings Infamy to a Fashion FamilyBy DAVID SEGAL
and GAIA PIANIGIANIBridge Inquiry Focuses
on Lax Oversight andBenettons’ Profits
Continued on Page A8
BEAUREGARD, Ala. — BeckyBoyd’s phone alerted her on Sun-day afternoon that a tornado wasimminent, but she didn’t thinkmuch of it. Warnings had come be-fore, and nothing had happened.
Then her sister called: A tor-nado was one road over. Get some-where safe.
The ferocious storm — almost amile wide with winds as powerfulas a Category 5 hurricane —struck before she could reach thecloset in her mobile home. Itsforce pushed her into the closetface-first as her entire houserolled onto a shed.
She survived. Twenty-threeothers in eastern Alabama —ranging in age from 6 to 89 — didnot.
The modern era of pinpointweather forecasting allowed thegovernment to begin to warn thepeople of Beauregard last Thurs-day that there was a risk of a tor-nado in three days. On Sunday af-ternoon, sirens wailed and cell-phones erupted with about 12 min-utes of notice that a funnel cloudhad dropped from a forebodingAlabama sky and was bound forBeauregard.
In forecasting, double-digit leadtime is considered an extraordi-nary scientific feat, and officialssaid the warning was issued assoon as there was data available.But in a place with widespreadpoverty and few places to hide, theurgent forecast could not save ev-eryone who did not have time tofind safe shelter. Others simply
More WarningIf Not UrgencyTo Flee Storm
By ALAN BLINDERand PATRICIA MAZZEI
Continued on Page A14
DECIDING Stacey Abrams weighsa 2020 Democratic bid as SenatorJeff Merkley says no. PAGE A12
Pete Wells reviews Madame Vo BBQ inthe East Village, which specializes inbeef, but also offers delicacies likebroiled sea urchin, below. PAGE D5
FOOD D1-8
A Vietnamese FeastA temporary shrine of sorts to the artisthas been set up at the Brant art centerin the East Village. PAGE C1
ARTS C1-8
Basquiat in All His GloryOne sector of British agriculture illus-trates why an abrupt Brexit would beso disruptive to trade. PAGE A11
INTERNATIONAL A4-11
Whither Surplus Pork Bellies?Scott Gottlieb, known for his toughefforts to regulate the tobacco ande-cigarette industries, gave familyreasons for his decision. PAGE A17
NATIONAL A12-18
F.D.A. Commissioner QuitsDow Chemical’s experience with themilitary is a cautionary tale for technol-ogy companies looking at militarycontracts, writes Kevin Roose. PAGE B1
BUSINESS B1-7
Lessons From Napalm
As political tensions between India andPakistan mount, a Massachusettscricket club insists that its multination-al members play nice. PAGE B9
SPORTSWEDNESDAY B9-12
A Test Match for Peace
Frank Bruni PAGE A25
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A24-25The Pritzker Prize has been awarded toArata Isozaki, who combines Westernand Japanese influences. PAGE C1
Japanese Architect Is HonoredAnalysts say work has resumed at oneof the country’s formerly dismantledlaunching stations. PAGE A4
North Korea Builds Up Site
A 10-year look at 600,000 children foundno association between the measlesvaccine and autism. PAGE A15
More Vindication for Vaccines
The parents of a West Point cadet whodied in a skiing accident won a courtorder to retrieve his sperm. PAGE A20
NEW YORK A20-21
The Legacy of a Family Name
Late EditionToday, brisk, quite cold, clouds andsunshine, high 28. Tonight, clear topartly cloudy, very cold, low 16. To-morrow, quite cold, partial sunshine,high 31. Weather map, Page B8.
$3.00
