Mexico

I still remember the goal that made me feel lucky for living in Los Angeles during the era of Carlos Vela.

It was a cool Wednesday night in August 2019, and I was standing in the 200-level section of what is now known as BMO Stadium, trying to process what I had just seen. In the 41st minute of the match against the visiting San Jose Earthquakes, Los Angeles Football Club winger Diego Rossi fed Vela the ball a few yards outside the opponent’s box. The Mexico-born player effortlessly avoided a sliding tackle from behind, dribbled past a helpless defender and juked the keeper out of position, who fell to the ground, leaving the goal wide open. Another Quakes defender tried desperately to prevent the inevitable, but Vela easily sidestepped him and casually tapped the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the night, and his 26th of the season.

It was the textbook definition of a golazo.

LAFC would go on to win 4-0, another victory in the team’s historic run to clinch the Supporters’ Shield, the first ever piece of hardware for the expansion team. Vela would finish the 2019 season with 34 goals (a single-season Major League Soccer record that still stands), 15 assists and MVP honors, delivering what many consider to be the single greatest individual performance in a season in league history.

On Tuesday, Vela, 36, announced his retirement from professional soccer. After nearly two decades of playing in four different countries; after representing Mexico at the international level in 72 matches; and after helping LAFC win two Supporters’ Shields and an MLS Cup, Charlie Candle is hanging up his cleats and calling it quits.

“Helping to build LAFC and winning trophies for the club is a highlight of my career,” Vela said via a statement released by the team. “This club means so much to me and my family, and I am proud of everything we have accomplished together with the great fans of Los Angeles.”

LAFC also announced that Vela would remain with the team as a club ambassador.

Learning of Vela’s retirement made me reflect on the feeling of excitement I felt that evening. I remember pulling up the highlight on YouTube and watching it over and over again. He was a wizard on the pitch, making the impossible look so easy and effortless. With each viewing, my admiration gave way to appreciation. I was thankful that the most gifted footballer in Mexican history was playing in my city, and that I could witness his greatness firsthand.

I didn’t always feel this way.

When LAFC announced in 2017, months before its inaugural season, that Vela would be its first star player, I was disappointed. Like most fans of the Mexican men’s national team, I interpreted his decision to leave Spanish club Real Sociedad for a U.S. team with no legacy or history as strictly a business move. Since launching in 1996, MLS has frequently attracted some of the biggest Mexican soccer legends. Cuauhtémoc Blanco, Rafa Marquez, Jorge Campos, Luis Hernandez, Carlos Hermosillo, Hugo Sanchez all played for MLS clubs during the waning years of their careers.

Vela, who was 28 at the time, was still in his prime. His successful multiyear stint in La Liga proved that he could go toe to toe with the likes of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. I wanted him to stay where he was, or at least move to a bigger European club. I felt that it was his obligation to sharpen his skills against the world’s best so that he could give Mexico a better chance at winning the World Cup, or, at the very least, move past the Round of 16 stage of the tournament. Never mind that Vela had already opted out of playing at the 2014 World Cup because of a strained relationship with the Mexican federation for non-soccer reasons.

Vela was the chosen one. He was a key member of the Mexico squad that won the 2005 FIFA under-17 World Cup (Vela was the tournament’s top goalscorer), and was at one point signed to English Premier League club Arsenal, which saw the young striker/winger as a potential heir to French superstar Thierry Henry.

For many, Vela choosing to play in the U.S. felt like a betrayal, and it further legitimized the accusation that Vela was perfectly fine squandering his talent. The prevailing narrative was that he treated soccer as nothing more than a job. The enigmatic footballer didn’t help his case by telling the press that he would much rather “watch a basketball game than a soccer one.”

My very strong feelings about what Carlos Vela should do with his career and his life didn’t stop me from going to LAFC’s home opener months later. Did I think he was slumming it? Absolutely. But he was still in his prime! And it just so happened that the small pond Vela chose to be a big fish in was a few miles from my house.

As the season progressed, my curiosity turned into casual interest, which quickly morphed into fandom. I even bought merch, a line I told myself I would never cross. Vela single-handedly made someone who had always looked at MLS with suspicion all of a sudden care about what happened in the league. My biggest soccer loves will forever be Club América and Liga MX, but Vela forced me to make some room in my heart for the black and gold.

None of this would have been possible if Vela had mailed it in. In all the times I watched him play, whether in person or on television, I never got the impression that he was going through the motions. He always fought hard for the ball and constantly tried to be the best player on the pitch. It was as if Vela derived pleasure in being a human highlight reel.

Los Angeles FC’s Carlos Vela hoists the trophy alongside teammates after defeating the Philadelphia Union in a penalty-kick shootout to win the MLS Cup soccer match Nov. 5, 2022, in Los Angeles.

(Marcio Jose Sanchez / Associated Press)

When LAFC finally won the MLS Cup in 2022, defeating the Philadelphia Union in penalties, it was an overjoyed Vela who lifted the trophy. He didn’t look like someone who was just clocking in and out. Vela embraced living in Los Angeles, and Los Angeles immediately embraced him back. I imagine that living in a universe full of stars afforded him some reprieve from the media scrutiny he has been subjected to for two decades. I’m sure it made it easier to love the game.

MLS and LAFC are deeply indebted to Vela. His move to L.A. helped an expansion club become one of the best teams in the league, as well as the most valuable soccer franchise in North America. According to Sportico, a news outlet specializing in the intersection of sports and business, LAFC has a $1.2-billion valuation, making it the 16th most valuable soccer franchise in the world.

“From the beginning, Carlos has been more than just a player — he has been the heartbeat, the captain, and the face of LAFC,” John Thorrington, the team’s co-president and general manager, said via a statement. “Carlos arrived in Los Angeles with a shared vision of building something truly special, and he delivered on that promise in every way. From unforgettable goals to historic victories, Carlos helped make LAFC what it is today.”

Sounds like the club ought to build Vela a statue. They can certainly afford it.

Do I still wish that he had played more for Mexico, or tried to max out his potential in Europe? Absolutely.

But I also can’t begrudge another Mexican for finding his bliss in our fair city. That would make me a hypocrite.

New music we’re vibing to: ‘Gorgeous,’ by Isabella Lovestory

Beginning this week, the Latinx Files will feature a section that highlights new releases that have caught our ear.

In fusing Y2K-era bubblegum with racy reggaetón coqueteo, Honduran singer-producer Isabella Lovestory has successfully captured the femme fatale spirit of the modern Latina baddie. She garnered ample buzz for her neo-perreo fusion in 2020’s “Mariposa,” and continues the momentum in her new single “Gorgeous,” a confidence-boosting track sung in Spanglish. Evoking the slinky pop-adjacent bounce of R&B legends like Aaliyah and Destiny’s Child, “Gorgeous” will appear on Lovestory’s upcoming album “Vanity,” out June 27.

— Suzy Exposito

Comic: Good immigrant, bad immigrant.

Periodically, the newsletter will feature a comic strip from a contributing artist. This week’s offering comes courtesy of Julio Salgado, a queer Mexicano-born artist who grew up in Long Beach, Calif. Through the use of art, Salgado has become a well-known activist within the DREAM Act movement. Salgado uses his art to empower undocumented and queer people by telling their story and putting a human face to the issue.

(Julio Salgado/For De Los)

Stories we read this week that we think you should read

How “Uvalde Mom” director Anayansi Prado captured the heart of a town in trauma

The director of new documentary “Uvalde Mom” spoke with The Times about capturing a Texas community shaken by a mass shooting.

In Vietnam, an unlikely outpost for Chicano culture

An outpost for Chicano culture in Vietnam attracts community — and occasional concerns among older generations inclined to associate tattoos with gangs.

Esai Morales is the bad guy in “Mission Impossible.” He’s embracing it

The Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican actor discusses his villainous role in “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning,” and speaks on his legacy.

For rising corrido star Óscar Maydon, humility is key

On the heels of his performance at Chicago’s Sueños Festival, the Mexican singer-songwriter talks about his upcoming album, his first headlining U.S. tour and the true meaning of his big hit, “Tu Boda.”

From the beginning, the reforms were controversial. Thousands of court workers went on strike to protest the constitutional amendment. Some protesters even stormed the Senate building.

Critics accused the Morena party of seeking to strengthen its grip on power by electing sympathetic judges. Already, the party holds majorities in both chambers of Congress, as well as the presidency.

Opponents also feared the elections would lead to unqualified candidates taking office.

Under the new regulations, candidates must have a law degree, experience in legal affairs, no criminal record and letters of recommendation.

Candidates also had to pass evaluation committees, comprised of representatives from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.

And yet, some of the final candidates have nevertheless raised eyebrows. One was arrested for trafficking methamphetamine. Another is implicated in a murder investigation. Still more have been accused of sexual misconduct.

Arias suspects that some candidates slipped through the screening process due to the limited resources available to organise the election.

She noted that the National Election Institute had less than 10 months to arrange the elections, since the reforms were only passed in September.

“The timing is very rushed,” she said.

One of the most controversial hopefuls in Sunday’s election is Silvia Delgado, a lawyer who once defended the cofounder of the Sinaloa Cartel, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzman.

She is now campaigning to be a judge in Ciudad Juarez, in the border state of Chihuahua.

Despite her high-profile client, Delgado told Al Jazeera that the scrutiny over her candidacy is misplaced: She maintains she was only doing her job as a lawyer.

“Having represented this or that person does not make you part of a criminal group,” she said.

Rather, she argues that it is Mexico’s incumbent judges who deserve to be under the microscope. She claimed many of them won their positions through personal connections.

“They got in through a recommendation or through a family member who got them into the judiciary,” she said.

President Sheinbaum has likewise framed the elections as part of the battle against nepotism and self-dealing in the judicial system.

“This is about fighting corruption,” Sheinbaum said in one of her morning news briefings. “This is the defence of the Mexican people for justice, for honesty, for integrity.”

Relatives of five members of the band Fugitivo, aged between 20 and 40, received ransom demands after their abduction.

Drug cartel members are suspected of murdering five Mexican band members, who went missing after being hired to perform a concert in a crime-ridden city in the northeast of the country.

The Diario de Mexico newspaper said on Thursday that the bodies of the five musicians had been discovered after they went missing on Sunday, and nine suspects were arrested in connection with their abduction and killing.

According to authorities, the nine suspects are part of the “Los Metros” faction of the Gulf Cartel, which operates in the city of Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, near the United States border.

“Law enforcement arrested nine individuals considered likely responsible for the events. They are known to be members of a criminal cell of the Gulf Cartel,” Tamaulipas Attorney General Irving Barrios told a news conference.

Tamaulipas is considered one of Mexico’s most dangerous states due to the presence of cartel members involved in drug and migrant trafficking, as well as other crimes, including extortion.

The announcement of the arrests came hours after officials said five bodies had been found in the search for the men, who were members of a local band called Fugitivo.

The musicians were hired to put on a concert on Sunday but arrived to find that the location of their proposed performance was a vacant lot, according to family members who had held a protest urging the authorities to act.

Relatives had reported receiving ransom demands for the musicians, who were aged between 20 and 40 years old.

Mexican musicians have been targeted previously by cartel members amid rivalry, as some receive payment to compose and perform songs that glorify the exploits of gang leaders.

Investigators used video surveillance footage and mobile phone tracking to establish the musicians’ last movements, Barrios said.

Nine firearms and two vehicles were seized, he said.

More than 480,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence and organised crime, and about 120,000 people have gone missing, in Mexico.

Tren de Aragua was a little-known gang in Venezuela – until recently. US President Donald Trump’s focus on the group has thrust it into the spotlight, as hundreds of Venezuelans have been deported from the United States.

Where’s the line between sharing a culture and stealing it? In a globalised world, borrowing is easy – but honoring is harder. We explore everything from re-branded recipes to re-imagined identities. What’s at stake when heritage becomes a trend?

Presenter: Stefanie Dekker

Guests:
Fadi Kattan – Chef and author
Richie Richardson – Professor at Cornell University
Nikki Apostolou – Content creator

Federal prosecutors in the US will not seek the death sentence for Joaquin Guzman Lopez if he is found guilty at trial, court documents show.

Federal prosecutors in the United States said they will not seek the death penalty for the son of Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” if he is found guilty of multiple drug trafficking charges when he goes on trial.

According to media reports, federal prosecutors in Chicago filed a one-sentence notice on May 23, saying they would not seek the death penalty for Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman – the former leader of Mexico’s feared Sinaloa Cartel who is serving a life sentence in a US prison.

The notice did not offer any explanation for the decision by the federal prosecutors, or further details.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez, 38, was indicted in 2023 along with three of his brothers – known as the “Chapitos”, or little Chapos – on US drug trafficking and money laundering charges after assuming leadership of their father’s drug cartel when “El Chapo” was extradited to the US in 2017.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez’s lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press news agency on Tuesday that he was pleased with the federal prosecutors’ decision, “as it’s the correct one”.

“Joaquin and I are looking forward to resolving the charges against him,” Lichtman said.

Joaquin Guzman Lopez has pleaded not guilty to the five charges of drug trafficking, conspiracy and money laundering against him, one of which carries the maximum sentence of death as it was allegedly carried out on US territory.

He was taken into US custody in a dramatic July 2024 arrest alongside alleged Sinaloa Cartel cofounder Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada on a New Mexico airfield.

Zambada has also pleaded not guilty. But his lawyer told the Reuters news agency that he would be willing to plead guilty if prosecutors agreed to spare him the death penalty.

Another of the brothers, Ovidio Guzman, is expected to plead guilty to drug trafficking charges against him at a court hearing in Chicago on July 9, according to court records.

“El Chapo” Guzman is serving a life sentence at a maximum security prison in Colorado.

Deysi Vargas’ daughter was nearly 2½ when she took her first steps.

The girl was a year delayed because she had spent most of her short life in a hospital in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, tethered to feeding tubes 24 hours a day. She has short bowel syndrome, a rare condition that prevents her body from completely absorbing the nutrients of regular food.

Vargas and her husband were desperate to get their daughter, whom The Times is identifying by her initials, S.G.V., better medical care. In 2023, they received temporary humanitarian permission to enter the U.S. legally through Tijuana.

Now in Bakersfield, the family received notice last month that their legal status had been terminated. The letter warned them: “It is in your best interest to avoid deportation and leave the United States of your own accord.”

But doing so would put S.G.V., now a bubbly 4-year-old, at immediate risk of death.

“This is a textbook example of medical need,” said the family’s attorney, Rebecca Brown, of the pro bono legal firm Public Counsel. “This child will die and there’s no sense for that to happen. It would just be a cruel sacrifice.”

A spokesperson for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment.

S.G.V.’s medication is stored in a small refrigerator.

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, where the girl regularly receives treatment, declined to comment. But in a letter requested by the family, Dr. John Arsenault of CHLA wrote that he sees the girl every six weeks.

If there is an interruption in her daily nutrition system, called Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN), the doctor wrote, “this could be fatal within a matter of days.”

“As such, patients on home TPN are not allowed to leave the country because the infrastructure to provide TPN or provide immediate intervention if there is a problem with IV access depends on our program’s utilization of U.S.-based healthcare resources and does not transfer across borders,” Arsenault wrote.

Vargas, 28, is from the Mexican state of Oaxaca; her husband, 34, is from Colombia. They met in Cancun, where they were working. Just before S.G.V. was born, the couple moved to nearby Playa del Carmen so her husband could work as an Uber driver.

The girl was born a month premature and quickly taken to intensive care. After doctors discovered her condition, she underwent six surgeries to fix an intestinal blockage. But Vargas said the doctors cut out too much, and the girl was left with short bowels. She experienced repeated blood infections, including one that nearly killed her.

The girl’s weight fluctuated severely. One month, she would look emaciated, her tiny limbs and bulging stomach incongruous with the family’s relative access to resources. Another month, she was as round-cheeked as any other baby.

When S.G.V. was 7 months old, a doctor suggested that the family relocate to Mexico City, where pediatric care for short bowel syndrome was the best in the country. But although her condition initially improved, the blood infections continued.

Unable to work, Vargas spent all day, every day, at the hospital with her daughter. Some days, she said, nurses would mistakenly administer the wrong medication to S.G.V. Other days, Vargas would arrive to find that her daughter had thrown up on herself overnight and no one had cleaned her up.

As part of her daily routine, Deysi Vargas runs a saline solution through her daughter’s intravenous line.

Vargas tried to keep a watchful eye over her daughter. Even so, she said a nurse once mistakenly sped up S.G.V.’s nutrition system, causing her to quickly pee it out. The girl became dehydrated and her glucose levels skyrocketed before doctors whisked her to intensive care, where her condition stabilized.

S.G.V. as a baby, taken in Mexico before treatment for short bowel syndrome.

(Deysi Vargas)

Vargas had read about children similar to her daughter going on to have normal lives in other countries. In Mexico, her daughter was being kept alive — but at 2, her condition had not improved.

So when Vargas learned that the Biden administration had begun offering migrants appointments with border agents through a phone application called CBP One, she signed up. Those let in received two-year protection from deportation and work permits.

With the appointment set for July 31, 2023, Vargas and her family set out for Tijuana two days earlier. She carefully carried her daughter out of the hospital, her nutrition bags still connected intravenously.

Her husband told agents that he had once been kidnapped by cartel members in Mexico who extorted money and threatened to kill him. They also looked at the girl, whose vulnerable condition was obvious.

“God knew she needed better treatment,” Vargas said. “When we got to the entrance, they saw her and asked us if we needed medical help.”

By that afternoon, the family had been whisked to Rady Children’s Hospital-San Diego.

S.G.V. quickly improved. Although she once was hooked up 24 hours a day to the feeding system that delivered nutrients directly into the bloodstream, doctors began weaning her off as her intestines got stronger.

The Trump administration has revoked the family’s humanitarian parole that they received in 2023 to treat the 4-year-old girl’s short bowel syndrome. Doctors say she could die within days without treatment.

A year later, doctors referred her to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which has one of the top-ranked gastroenterology programs in the country.

Both of her parents worked, holding down odd jobs, and by September 2024, the family had settled in Bakersfield and S.G.V. was discharged from the hospital.

For the first time, S.G.V. experienced the outside world. At Walmart, her eyes widened from the shopping cart and she and her mom strolled the aisles.

“It was incredible,” Vargas said. “I had waited so long for doctors to tell me, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is OK now. She can go home.’”

Now, the girl spends 14 hours each night hooked up to the intravenous feeding system. She wears a backpack to take it on the go.

Four times a day, for an hour, her mom administers a different type of nutrition that goes straight into her stomach through a gastric tube. When the girl goes to preschool, she takes a larger backpack containing the milky fluid, and the school nurse administers her noon feeding.

Before S.G.V. takes a shower, Vargas unplugs her IV tubes, flushes them with saline and tapes a plastic sheet over her chest to keep water from getting in and infecting the area.

On a recent morning, Vargas dressed the girl in pink leggings, a Hello Kitty T-shirt and black Puma sneakers. As they left hand-in-hand for preschool, S.G.V.’s curly black hair was still wet and the adult-size backpack dangled behind her knees as she walked.

S.G.V.’s care is covered through Medi-Cal. But life in the U.S. isn’t cheap.

Their modest living room contains little more than a hot plate on a folding table, a mini-fridge, a single chair and an IV bag stand. With no full kitchen, Vargas mostly makes sandwiches or soups. The fridge is filled with S.G.V.’s nutrition packs.

Vargas recently found steady work cleaning a restaurant. Finally, she thought, the family was achieving a sense of stability.

Then in April she received the notice from immigration authorities. This month, she received a notice terminating her employment authorization.

Vargas said she and her husband sometimes eat just once a day after paying rent and utilities, as well as for diapers and other necessities. Her husband is currently unemployed because of an injury, and she fears that losing her income could leave them homeless.

The thought of being forced by immigration agents to return to Mexico terrifies Vargas.

“I know the treatment they have there for her is not adequate, because we already lived it,” she said. “Those were bad times. Here she is living the most normal life possible.”

If not for her daughter’s medical condition, Vargas said, they probably would still be in Mexico. They want to stay only for as long as the girl needs treatment. Exactly how long that could be is unclear, but the couple are hopeful that their child’s condition will improve enough that she stops requiring supplemental nutrition.

Brown, their lawyer, submitted a petition for a continuation of their temporary humanitarian legal status based on S.G.V.’s medical condition. She believes the family’s legal status was prematurely terminated by mistake.

President Trump lambasted Biden over his broad expansion of programs allowing humanitarian entry, known as parole. On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order to ensure that the discretionary authority be “exercised on only a case-by-case basis” for urgent humanitarian reasons or a significant public benefit.

Deysi Vargas and her daughter, S.G.V., walk about 15 minutes to the child’s preschool.

“This is the intended purpose — to help the most vulnerable who need attention here,” Brown said. “We can avoid having harmed the child and the family.”

Although Trump said on the campaign trail that he would target criminals for deportation, his administration quickly began revoking the legal status of immigrants who have no criminal history.

The Trump administration has stripped humanitarian protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants who entered the U.S. under various Biden-era programs. Thousands of people who similarly entered the country using the CBP One app received notices from the federal government around the same time Vargas did, ordering them to leave voluntarily or face criminal prosecution and other legal actions.

The same phone app that Vargas used to enter the country has since been turned into CBP Home, to help immigrants such as her self-deport. If not, it says, “the federal government will find you.”

Times staff photographer Myung J. Chun in Bakersfield contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — Asylum seekers under the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy whose cases were closed — many for reasons beyond their control, including kidnappings and court rulings against the government — will now be able to come into the U.S. to pursue asylum claims, the Biden administration said Tuesday.

The administration on Wednesday will begin to allow the first of thousands with closed cases to pursue their asylum claims within the United States, the Department of Homeland Security announced. More than 30,000 migrants could potentially be eligible, according to government data.

“As part of our continued effort to restore safe, orderly, and humane processing at the Southwest Border, DHS will expand the pool” of asylum seekers eligible for processing, the department said in a statement, including those “who had their cases terminated or were ordered removed in absentia.”

Facing a policy riddled with administrative errors and questions of illegality, immigration judges across the United States ruled against the Trump administration, closing thousands of cases the government had brought against asylum seekers sent to Mexico to await U.S. hearings.

But when President Biden took office and began winding down the policy that he sharply criticized, his administration allowed only asylum seekers under Remain in Mexico — formally known as Migrant Protection Protocols — whose immigration cases remained open to enter the United States.

Since February, the Biden administration has permitted entry to some 12,000 asylum seekers with pending Migrant Protection Protocols cases, according to the United Nations refugee agency, the primary organization processing them. At the same time, Biden officials have urged patience from those whose cases were closed, promising a second phase.

Advocates and experts welcomed the move to begin admitting those asylum seekers, but criticized the administration’s slowness on restoring access.

“A delay of that kind would have to be driven by political considerations, not legal or purely administrative ones,” said Austin Kocher, an assistant professor at Syracuse University. “It flags a larger question: Is the Biden administration serious about following its national and international obligations to asylum law?”

For many asylum seekers, it is too late. From January 2019, when the Trump administration first implemented the policy in Southern California, to when Biden froze the program on his first day in office, roughly 70,000 migrants were sent by U.S. officials to wait in some of the world’s most dangerous cities just south of the border.

More than 1,500 of them suffered rape, kidnapping and assault, according to Human Rights First. And those numbers have continued to rise during Biden’s presidency, through a combination of policies that have left tens of thousands stuck on the southern side of the border.

An untold number missed their hearings while abducted, several were killed, and hundreds more made the wrenching decision to send their children across the border alone, believing they’d have a better chance of being allowed to stay under U.S. policies to protect unaccompanied minors. Thousands have given up, according to estimates from officials and advocates.

“Why it’s taken so long is obviously of concern, because those people who are still in Mexico are still suffering and in dangerous situations,” said Judy Rabinovitz of the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued then-President Trump over the policy.

Biden administration officials have acknowledged this grim toll, even as they continue to send asylum seekers — some with Migrant Protection Protocols cases — to Mexico again, invoking a Trump-era coronavirus policy. Citing Title 42, an obscure 1944 public health law, border officials have summarily expelled more than 850,000 migrants, including asylum seekers, this time without a court date or due process.

“Having Title 42 still in place at the same time that the administration is claiming to try and fix cases in Remain in Mexico presents the administration with a fundamental contradiction between what they claim to be doing and the way that border control is actually working on the ground,” said Kocher.

Biden froze Migrant Protection Protocols on his first day in office, though it had already largely been supplanted by Trump’s coronavirus expulsions policy. But the Biden administration did not formally end Remain in Mexico until June 1.

In the memo ending the policy, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas said it had further strained department resources and added to a record backlog in immigration court proceedings.

More than 25% of those subjected to the policy were apprehended by border officials when they attempted to enter again, Mayorkas said, and roughly 44% of cases were completed by judges’ orders to remove asylum seekers who missed their hearings.

That raised questions about whether the program provided them “adequate opportunity” to appear, he said, “and whether conditions faced by some MPP enrollees in Mexico, including the lack of stable access to housing, income, and safety, resulted in the abandonment of potentially meritorious protection claims.”

Still, the current chaos at the border — with thousands of migrants remaining stuck in northern Mexico and monthly border-crossing numbers still among their highest in years — stems in part from confusion over the administration’s continued pledges to undo Trump’s policies, while its promised asylum overhaul has yet to materialize.

Advocates argue that migrants subjected to Migrant Protection Protocols who received final decisions from immigration judges denying their asylum claims also deserve to be given another opportunity to seek asylum in accordance with U.S. law.

On Tuesday, the Homeland Security Department statement reiterated that others who may be eligible to enter in the future “should stay where they are currently located and register online” through a system administered by the United Nations.

Trump administration officials explicitly stated that the goal of the policy was to make it as difficult as possible to seek asylum and as a deterrent to others.

“This is what they wanted, and this is what they got: People couldn’t get asylum,” Rabinovitz said of Trump administration officials. Now with Biden in the White House, she continued, “we’re saying no — in order to unwind it, you need to give people a new opportunity to apply for asylum, free of that taint.”

U.S. border officials frequently committed errors while administering the Remain in Mexico policy, The Times found. That included serving asylum seekers paperwork in languages they did not speak, or writing the phrase “domicilio conocido” — “known address” — or simply “Tijuana” — a Mexican border city of some 2 million people — on their paperwork, instead of a legally required address. That made it nearly impossible for applicants to be notified of changes to their cases or court dates.

These missteps by U.S. border officials also fueled federal judges’ rulings against the policy.

In one ruling, a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge said Homeland Security’s procedures for implementing the policy were “so ill-suited to achieving that stated goal as to render them arbitrary and capricious.”

But the Supreme Court never ultimately ruled on the legality of Migrant Protection Protocols. In early February, the Biden administration asked the nation’s highest court to cancel arguments on the policy. Opponents in several states sued, arguing that the Biden administration cannot end it.

On Monday, the Supreme Court rejected that effort, ordering: “The motion to intervene is dismissed as moot.”

A federal judge ordered the Trump administration late Friday to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man it deported to Mexico in spite of his fears of being harmed there.

The man, who is gay, was protected from being returned to his home country under a U.S. immigration judge’s order at the time. But the U.S. put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead, a removal that U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy found probably “lacked any semblance of due process.”

Mexico has since returned him to Guatemala, where he is in hiding, according to court documents. An earlier court proceeding determined that the man, identified by the initials O.C.G., risked persecution or torture if returned to Guatemala, but said he also feared returning to Mexico. He presented evidence of being raped and held for ransom in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S.

“No one has ever suggested that O.C.G. poses any sort of security threat,” Murphy wrote. “In general, this case presents no special facts or legal circumstances, only the banal horror of a man being wrongfully loaded onto a bus and sent back to a country where he was allegedly just raped and kidnapped.”

Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said O.C.G. was in the country illegally, was “granted withholding of removal to Guatemala” and was instead sent to Mexico, which she said was “a safe third option for him, pending his asylum claim.”

McLaughlin called the judge a “federal activist judge” and said the administration expects to be vindicated by a higher court.

Murphy’s order adds to a string of findings by federal courts against recent Trump administration deportations. Those have included other deportations to third countries and the erroneous deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran who had lived as a legal U.S. resident in Maryland for 14 years while working and raising a family.

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. from a notorious prison in El Salvador, rejecting the White House’s claim that it couldn’t retrieve him after mistakenly deporting him. The White House and the Salvadoran president have said they are powerless to return him. The Trump administration has tried to invoke the state secrets privilege, arguing that releasing details in open court — or even to the judge in private — about returning Abrego Garcia to the United States would jeopardize national security.

In his Friday ruling, Murphy nodded to the dispute over the verb “facilitate” in that case and others, saying that returning O.C.G. to the U.S. is not complicated.

“The Court notes that ‘facilitate’ in this context should carry less baggage than in several other notable cases,” he wrote. “O.C.G. is not held by any foreign government. Defendants have declined to make any argument that facilitating his return would be costly, burdensome, or otherwise impede the government’s objectives.”

Smyth writes for the Associated Press.

Genaro Garcia Luna, formerly a high-ranking government official, is serving a 38-year sentence for accepting bribes.

A Florida court has ordered Mexico’s former head of public security to pay more than $748m to his home country for his alleged involvement in government corruption.

Thursday’s ruling brought to a close a civil case first filed in September 2021 by the Mexican government.

The case centred on Genaro Garcia Luna, who served as Mexico’s security chief from 2006 to 2012. Garcia Luna is currently serving more than 38 years in a United States prison for allegedly accepting millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel.

The Mexican government alleges that Garcia Luna also stole millions in taxpayer funds, and it has pledged to seek restitution, namely by filing a legal complaint in Miami, Florida, where it says some of the illegal activity took place.

On Thursday, Judge Lisa Walsh in Miami-Dade County not only required Garcia Luna to pay millions, but she also ordered his wife, Linda Cristina Pereyra, to pay $1.7bn. Altogether, the total neared $2.4bn.

In its initial 2021 complaint, the Mexican government – led at the time by former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador – accused Garcia Luna, his wife and their co-defendants of having “concealed funds stolen from the government” and smuggling the money to places like Barbados and the US.

“Under the direction of the Defendant GARCIA LUNA, the funds unlawfully taken from the government of MEXICO were used to build a money-laundering empire,” the complaint wrote.

It alleged those funds were used to finance “lavish lifestyles” for Garcia Luna and his co-conspirators, including real estate holdings, bank accounts and vintage cars, among them Mustangs from the 1960s and ’70s.

Separately, Garcia Luna faced criminal charges for corruption, with US authorities accusing him of pocketing millions while in office for working on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel.

Through his work with Mexico’s federal police and as its security chief, US prosecutors say Garcia Luna accessed information that he later used to tip off the Sinaloa cartel, letting them know about investigations and the movements of rival criminal groups.

Garcia Luna was also accused of helping the cartel move its shipments of cocaine to destinations like the US, sometimes using Mexico’s federal police as bodyguards – and even allowing cartel members to wear official uniforms.

In exchange, prosecutors say the cartel left money for him in hiding places, one of which was a French restaurant across the street from the US embassy in Mexico City. Some bundles of cash – offered in $100 bills – totalled up to $10,000.

After leaving office in 2012, Garcia Luna moved to the US. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His defence lawyers have described him as a successful businessman living in Florida.

But in February 2023, a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York, convicted Garcia Luna on drug-related charges, including international cocaine conspiracy and conspiracy to import cocaine. The following year, in October, he was sentenced to decades in prison.

The Mexican government, however, alleged in its civil lawsuit that Garcia Luna also led a “government-contracting scheme” that included bid-tampering and striking dubious deals as a form of money laundering.

Those contracts included deals for surveillance and communications equipment. The Associated Press news agency reported that one such contract was falsified, and others were inflated.

Garcia Luna is the highest-level Mexican government official to be convicted in the US.

The world was shocked when a gunman shot and killed Mexican influencer Valeria Marquez while she livestreamed herself at a beauty salon. President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government says it will investigate the murder as a possible case of femicide. Will it mark a turning point for a nation that has long struggled with staggering levels of gender-based violence?

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada pledges to continue ‘relentless fight against insecurity’.

Two top aides to the mayor of Mexico City have been shot dead in the latest attack against public officials in the Latin American country.

Private secretary Ximena Guzman and adviser Jose Munoz were shot dead on Tuesday in an early morning ambush in the central neighbourhood of Moderna, city authorities said.

Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada condemned the killings and pledged to continue her administration’s “relentless fight against insecurity”.

“Investigating, clarifying and ensuring there is no impunity is our commitment,” Brugada said during a news conference.

Mexico has one of the highest murder rates on the planet, largely due to violence driven by drug cartels, but the capital is known for its relative security compared with the rest of the country.

Reporting from Mexico City, Al Jazeera’s John Holman said there had been 50 political murders in the country in the first three months of the year alone, though political killings are relatively rare in the capital.

“The reasons for this one are still unknown. But there are powerful criminal groups in the capital fighting for territory and control of lucrative rackets,” Holman said.

“Politicians can get in the way, as elsewhere in the country.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, a Brugada ally who previously served as the capital’s mayor, expressed condolences over the killings and said her government would ensure that “justice is served”.

“We express our solidarity and support for the families of these two individuals who have worked in our movement for a long time,” Sheinbaum said.

“We know them, we stand with their families, and we will give her [Brugada] all the support the city needs from the Mexican government.”

In 2020, Mexico City’s security chief, Omar Garcia Harfuch, survived an ambush by gunmen that killed two of his bodyguards and a bystander.

JOJO Siwa has finally reunited with her Celebrity Big Brother co-star Chris Hughes with a romantic trip to Mexico.

The pair got VERY close in pictures shared on Snapchat after three weeks apart.

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Posting on Snapchat about meeting his “soulmate” again, Chris said: “Finally reunited.”

The pair were lying together on the sofa, as JoJo placed her handon Chris’s heart.

Chris flew 12 hours to meet JoJo in Mexico where she was booked for a performance.

It’s the first time they’ve seen each other since JoJo travelled back to America after their stint in the CBB house.

JoJo called herself a “very happy girl” as she touched down in Mexico after a two-hour flight.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams says 19 people were injured in the collision, four of them seriously.

A Mexican Navy sailing ship has crashed into the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, injuring at least 19 people, including four who are in critical condition, according to officials.

The incident took place on Saturday.

Videos posted online show the ship sailing underneath the bridge, connecting the New York City boroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan, as the top of its three masts collide with the iconic structure.

The masts can be seen snapping and partially collapsing as they crash into the deck of the bridge.

The vessel, which was flying a giant green, white and red Mexican flag, then drifted towards the edge of the river as onlookers scrambled away from the shore.

Sailors can be seen aloft in the rigging on the damaged masts.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams said 19 people were injured in the crash, four seriously, but the 142-year-old bridge was spared major damage.

The cause of the collision is under investigation.

Sydney Neidell and Lily Katz told The Associated Press news agency they were sitting outside to watch the sunset when they saw the vessel strike the bridge and one of its masts snap. Looking closer, they saw someone dangling from high on the ship.

“We saw someone dangling, and I couldn’t tell if it was just blurry or my eyes, and we were able to zoom in on our phone and there was someone dangling from the harness from the top for, like, at least like 15 minutes before they were able to rescue them,” Katz said.

They said they saw two people removed from the ship on stretchers into smaller boats.

The Mexican Navy said in a post on X that the Cuauhtemoc, an academy training vessel, was damaged in an accident with the Brooklyn Bridge, which prevented it from continuing its voyage.

It added that the status of personnel and material was under review by naval and local authorities, who were providing assistance.

Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on X that its ambassador to the US and officials from the Mexican consulate in New York were in contact with local authorities to provide assistance to “the affected cadets”, but it did not mention injuries.

The Brooklyn Bridge, which opened in 1883, has a nearly 1,600-foot (490-meter) main span supported by two masonry towers.

More than 100,000 vehicles and an estimated 32,000 pedestrians cross the bridge every day, according to the city’s transportation department, and its walkway is a major tourist attraction.

Mourners gathered to celebrate the life of 23-year-old beauty influencer Valeria Marquez, who was shot dead during a TikTok livestream at her salon in Jalisco, Mexico. Her killing is being investigated as a possible femicide.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement has accused a Mexican woman of furnishing a cartel with grenades and other weapons.

The United States has revealed the first federal charges against a foreign national for providing material support to one of the criminal groups that President Donald Trump has designated a “foreign terrorist organisation”.

On Friday, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) issued a statement identifying the suspect as 39-year-old Maria Del Rosario Navarro-Sanchez of Mexico.

An unsealed indictment accused Navarro-Sanchez of furnishing the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion (CJNG), a Mexican drug cartel, with grenades and helping it smuggle migrants, firearms, money and drugs.

“Cartels like CJNG are terrorist groups that wreak havoc in American communities and are responsible for countless lives lost in the United States, Mexico and elsewhere,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the statement.

“This announcement demonstrates the Justice Department’s unwavering commitment to securing our borders and protecting Americans through effective prosecution.”

The charges stem from a decision early in Trump’s second term in office to apply “terrorism” designations to foreign criminal organisations, including gangs and drug cartels.

On his first day back in office, on January 20, Trump signed an executive order declaring that “international cartels constitute a national-security threat beyond that posed by traditional organized crime”. He directed his officials to begin preparations for implementing the “terrorism” designations.

By February 19, the Federal Register in the US listed eight Latin American criminal groups as “foreign terrorist organisations”, among them the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).

Mexico’s Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generacion was also among that initial group of designated organisations.

Since then, the Trump administration has broadened its scope, adding more Latin American groups to the list. On May 2, for instance, two Haitian gangs – Viv Ansanm and Gran Grif – joined the US’s list of foreign terrorist organisations.

These designations are a departure from the usual use of the “foreign terrorist” label, often reserved for organisations that seek specific political aims through their violence.

Critics, however, warn that this application could have unintended consequences, particularly for civilians in vulnerable situations. The “foreign terrorist designation” makes it a crime for anyone to offer material support to a given group, but criminal gangs often extort civilians for money and services as part of their fundraising activities.

“You could accuse anyone – from a migrant who pays a smuggler to a Mexican business that is forced to pay a ‘protection fee’ – of offering material or financial support to a terrorist organisation,” Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera journalist Brian Osgood earlier this year.

In the case unsealed on Friday, it was revealed that Navarro-Sanchez was arrested on May 4. She had two co-defendants, also Mexican citizens, who likewise faced charges of firearms trafficking and other crimes.

The Mexican government had previously confirmed Navarro-Sanchez’s arrest. A statement ICE released to the media showed multiple firearms and packages of meth and fentanyl allegedly linked to the case.

It also included a photo of a golden AR-15 gun known as “El Dorado” that was reportedly “recovered from Navarro-Sanchez’s possession during her arrest in Mexico”.

“Supplying grenades to a designated terrorist organisation – while trafficking firearms, narcotics, and human beings – is not just criminal,” said ICE’s acting Director Todd Lyons. “It’s a direct assault on the security of the United States.”

A 23-year-old Mexican influencer, Valeria Marquez, was fatally shot while livestreaming on Tuesday.

Marquez, who had more than 113,000 followers on the platform, was broadcasting to her audience when the attack occurred.

According to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office, the case is being investigated under femicide protocols, applied in instances where a woman is killed due to her gender.

What is femicide?

Femicide refers to gender-related killings against women and girls. According to the latest report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and UN Women, femicide is rising around the globe.

In 2023, a woman was intentionally killed every 10 minutes by a partner or family member.

Of the 85,000 women and girls killed across the world in 2023, 60 percent (51,000) were murdered by an intimate partner or a family member.

How common is femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean?

Honduras has the highest femicide rate with 7.2 women killed per 100,000 in 2023, followed by the Dominican Republic (2.4 per 100,000) and Brazil (1.4 per 100,000).

Mexico has the fourth-highest femicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean, alongside Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia – all with 1.3 killings per 100,000 women in 2023.

In terms of absolute killings, Brazil saw the highest number of femicide cases with 1,463 women murdered. It was followed by Mexico, where 852 women were killed as a result of femicide in 2023. Honduras had the third-highest number, with 380 femicide cases.

Femicide is on the rise in Mexico

The rate of femicide is rising on the whole in the country, despite some fluctuations over the years.

It has become a major concern in Mexico with recorded cases rising significantly over the past decade. In 2015, femicides represented 19.8 percent of female homicides. This proportion had increased to 24.2 percent by 2024.

According to the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UNCLAC), in 2015, the rate of femicide in Mexico was 0.7 women per 100,000. In 2023, that number now stands at 1.3 per 100,000 women – though that’s down marginally from a peak of 1.6 per 100,000 in 2021. Gender-based violence against women grew globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, and Mexico was no exception.

While statistics from UNCLAC show the rate of femicide in Mexico has declined over the past three years, it remains a pronounced and often silent issue due to underreporting, say experts.

In Mexico, some 85 percent of women aged 15 and over who have experienced physical or sexual violence did not file a complaint, according to Mexico’s National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships.

Where in Mexico has the worst rates of femicide?

The killing of Marquez took place just days before another woman, a mayoral candidate in the state of Veracruz, was also shot dead during a livestream alongside three other people.

According to Mexico’s National Public Security System (SNSP), the national rate of femicide was 1.18 per 100,000 in 2024.

The state of Morelos, in south-central Mexico, had the highest rate of femicide with 4.7 women per 100,000 murdered, followed by Chihuahua (2.35 per 100,000) and Tabasco (2.22 per 100,000).

In Jalisco state where Marquez was killed, the femicide rate was 0.63 per 100,000 in 2024.

Jalisco is ranked sixth out of Mexico’s 32 states, including Mexico City, for homicides, with 906 recorded there since the beginning of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s term in October 2024, according to the data consultancy TResearch.

Republicans have proposed the remittance tax as part of a broader push to crack down on undocumented immigration.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has denounced a provision in a tax bill being considered in the United States Congress that would impose duties on remittances — a term used to describe the money people send abroad for non-commercial reasons, often as gifts to family and loved ones.

On Thursday, during her morning news conference, Sheinbaum addressed the tax bill directly, calling the remittances proposal “a measure that is unacceptable”.

“It would result in double taxation, since Mexicans living in the United States already pay taxes,” she said.

She added that her government was reaching out to other countries with large immigrant populations to voice concern about the US proposition.

“This will not just affect Mexico,” she said. “It will also affect many other countries and many other Latin American countries.”

According to World Bank data from 2024, India is the top recipient of international remittances, with $129bn coming from abroad, followed by Mexico with more than $68bn.

In Mexico, in particular, experts estimate that remittances make up close to 4 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

But a far-reaching tax bill championed by US President Donald Trump includes language that would impose a 5-percent excise tax on remittances sent specifically by non-citizens, including visa holders and permanent residents.

That bill would affect nearly 40 million people living in the country. US citizens, however, would be exempt from the remittance tax.

Trump has led a campaign to discourage immigration to the US and promote “mass deportation” during his second term in office, as part of his “America First” agenda.

Proponents of that platform say taxing remittances would serve as clear deterrence to immigrants who come to the US looking for better economic opportunities for themselves and any loved ones they hope to support back home.

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, an anti-immigration think tank, told The Associated Press news agency that he believes barriers to remittances can help curb undocumented immigration to the US.

“One of the main reasons people come here is to work and send money home,” Krikorian said. “If that’s much more difficult to do, it becomes less appealing to come here.”

Under the bill being weighed in the House of Representatives, the 5-percent tax would be paid by the sender and collected by “remittance transfer providers”, who would then send that money to the US Treasury.

But President Sheinbaum and other leaders have called on Republicans in Congress to reconsider that provision, given the unintended consequences it could create. Sheinbaum even suggested that the tax could be seen as unconstitutional in the US.

“This is an injustice, apart from being unconstitutional,” she said on Thursday. “But in addition, it is the tax on those who have the least. They should charge taxes to those at the top, not those at the bottom.”

Critics of the measure point out that remittances can help stabilise impoverished areas abroad, thereby limiting the likelihood of undocumented migration from those areas.

Additional barriers to sending remittances could create economic setbacks for those communities, not to mention make the process more difficult for US citizens who are exempted from the proposed tax.

Still, even if the tax bill is defeated or the provision on remittances removed, the Trump administration has signalled it plans to move forward with other measures designed to discourage migrants from sending funds abroad.

On April 25, Trump posted on his media platform, Truth Social, a list of “weekly policy achievements”.

On the final page, the top bullet point under “international relations” was “finalizing a Presidential Memorandum to shut down remittances sent by illegal aliens outside the United States”. Trump called the document a “MUST READ”.