8, August 2022
Southern Cameroons Crisis: Nigerian immigration arrest, detain 3 gun runners in Cross River 0
Nigeria Immigration Service has arrested and detained three suspected gun smugglers at the Mfum Border Command, near Ikom in Cross River State.
Head of the Service at the border, Mr. Ndubuisi Eneregbu, who confirmed the arrest, said the fourth suspect was at large.
In a press statement in Calabar, Eneregbu said the three suspects were two Nigerians while the third is a Cameroonian migrant.
The third is said to have confessed to being a member of the Ambazonia separatist group, fighting in southwest Cameroon for independence.
The NIS boss further explained that the suspects were intercepted at the weekend on a motorcycle with arms and live ammunition, believed to be heading towards Cameroon.
“The suspects were found with a small bag containing incriminating items such as one barrater pistol, one locally made pistol, three live ammunition, charms and one Tecno BC3 Android phone.
“According to them, they were four and that the fourth person, currently at large, left them with the bag containing the incriminating items.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that one of the suspects, the Cameroonian, is a member of the Ambazonia separatist group in the Republic of Cameroon.
“The three suspects along with the incriminating items have been handed over to the Divisional Police Officer in Etung Division, Etung Local Government Area of the state for further investigation,” he added.
Eneregbu assured that since he resumed duties, there have been efforts to curtail illegal activities within border communities.
The Comptroller said, “The command initiated regular stakeholder meetings with traditional rulers of all border communities to enhance synergy and enshrine trust.
“We have a robust cordial relationship with the border communities. We have had a series of stakeholders’ meetings with the border communities and other security agencies.
“When I came on board this command, my team and I paid courtesy visits to all the traditional institutions within the communities under our command.
“We did that because we understand the need for synergy between security agencies and the communities.
“No security agency can tackle insecurity alone without the support of the community as a whole,” he stated.
He indicated that despite certain logistics challenges, the officers and men were prepared to apprehend anyone found perpetrating illegalities and sabotaging the economy of the country.
Culled from Daily Post Ng
9, August 2022
US lifts policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico 0
The US Department of Homeland Security announced Monday night it will end a Trump-era policy requiring asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico while their applications play out in court.
The DHS announcement comes hours after a judge lifted an injunction that had prevented US President Joe Biden’s administration from ending the so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy.
Under the policy, instituted in 2019 under former president Donald Trump, tens of thousands of asylum-seekers were sent across the border until required to appear in the United States for their immigration hearings.
Critics called the program cruel and dangerous, with vulnerable people sometimes forced to wait in border towns the United States had advised its own citizens against visiting due to violence.
The policy will be rolled back “in a quick, and orderly, manner,” the department wrote in a statement.
No one else will be enrolled and those who cross the border for their court dates will no longer be sent back to Mexico afterwards, the DHS added.
The Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), as the policy is officially called, “has endemic flaws, imposes unjustifiable human costs, and pulls resources and personnel away from other priority efforts to secure our border,” DHS said.
Soon after taking office, Biden attempted to fulfill a campaign promise to end the border measure as part of what he called a more humane approach to immigration.
But a group of Republican-governed states led by Texas sued the administration and a US District Court ordered the policy to be reinstated.
The case eventually ended up before the Supreme Court, which ruled on June 30 that Biden had the authority to end the program.
From the start of the policy in January 2019 until its initial suspension under Biden, at least 70,000 people were sent to Mexico, according to the American Immigration Council.
Human Rights First said there were 1,544 publicly documented cases of murder, rape, torture, kidnapping or other assaults of individuals sent across the border under Remain in Mexico between January 2019 and 2021, with multiple people, including at least one child, dying.
The Trump administration had argued a “zero tolerance” approach was needed to stem illegal immigration to the United States.
Under the resurrected policy, from December 2021 until June 2022, 9,563 people were enrolled in the policy, most of whom were not from Mexico but Nicaragua.
During Biden’s tenure, more than 200,000 people attempting to enter the country illegally have been stopped at the border each month and sent back, either under Remain in Mexico or a separate, Covid-related policy blocking people at the border.
Source: AFP