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  • Federal judge to think about a partial end to unique court oversight of kid migrants

    Federal judge to think about a partial end to unique court oversight of kid migrants

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — For 27 years, federal courts have actually held unique oversight over custody conditions for kid migrants. The Biden administration desires a judge to partly raise those powers.

    U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee will think about the demand at a hearing in Los Angeles on Friday, hardly a week before brand-new safeguards work that the administration states fulfill, and in some methods surpass, requirements stated in a landmark settlement called for Jenny Flores, a kid immigrant from El Salvador.

    The administration wishes to end the Flores arrangement at the U.S. Health and Human Being Provider Department, which takes custody of unaccompanied kids within 72 hours of arrest by the Border Patrol. It would stay in result at the Border Patrol and its moms and dad firm, the Department of Homeland Security.

    Flores is a policy foundation, requiring the U.S. to rapidly launch kids in custody to household in the nation and setting requirements at certified shelters, consisting of for food, drinking water, adult guidance, emergency situation medical services, toilets, sinks, temperature level control and ventilation. It outgrew prevalent claims of mistreatment in the 1980s.

    Court oversight provides supporters representing kid migrants broad authority to go to custody centers and carry out interviews with personnel and other migrants. They might sign up problems with Gee, who can purchase modifications.

    Attorneys for kid migrants strenuously oppose the relocate to roll back court guidance, arguing in part that the federal government has actually stopped working to establish a regulative structure in states that withdrawed licenses of centers looking after kid migrants or might do so in the future.

    Texas and Florida — led by Republican guvs who are crucial of extraordinary migration streams — withdrawed licenses in 2021, leaving what supporters refer to as a space in oversight that threatens kid security.

    The Justice Department argues brand-new safeguards that work July 1 render Flores unneeded at Health and Human being Providers centers. It states HHS will need shelters to comply with state licensing requirements, even if they are unlicensed, and will increase website sees in those states to ensure they comply.

    Keeping court oversight for the Homeland Security Department would keep crucial parts of Flores undamaged, consisting of a 20-day limitation on holding unaccompanied kids and moms and dads taking a trip with a kid. Border Patrol holding centers have actually experienced severe overcrowding as just recently as 2021.

    When Flores worked in 1997, looking after kid migrants was within the complete domain of the U.S. Migration and Naturalization Service, which dissolved 6 years later on with the development of Homeland Security. Considering that 2003, Health and Human being Providers has actually taken custody of unaccompanied kids within 72 hours of arrest.

    The split ended up being a headache in 2018 when the Trump administration separated countless kids from their moms and dads at the border and computer systems for the 2 departments weren’t effectively connected to rapidly reunite them.

    In 2014, a rise of unaccompanied kids at the border brought increased examination of the federal government. Ever since, arrests of kids taking a trip alone at the Mexican border have actually increased, and in 2015 topped 130,000. Health and Human being Providers launches the huge bulk of unaccompanied kids to close loved ones while migration judges weigh their futures.

  • Are Idaho’s famous potatoes vegetables or … grains?! Senators take a stand in food debate

    Are Idaho’s famous potatoes vegetables or … grains?! Senators take a stand in food debate

    Potatoes might be reclassified as a grain, but not if Idaho’s senators have their way.

    U.S. Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo, along with a bipartisan group of 12 other senators, have called on the departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to keep the potato classified as a vegetable. Their letter concerns the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is published every five years by the USDA and HHS. A recent report from The Wall Street Journal said the advisory committee for the guidelines is considering reclassifying the potato as a grain.

    The letter, which was addressed to Secretary of Agriculture Thomas Vilsack and Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra, argues that potatoes should keep their vegetable classification because they’re a good source of potassium, calcium, vitamin C, vitamin B6 and fiber.

    “In fact, potatoes have more potassium than bananas, a food that is commonly associated with being high in potassium,” the letter said.

    Don’t just take the senators’ word for it, though. The letter cited a 2013 study published by the National Library of Medicine saying that “potatoes should be included in the vegetable group because they contribute critical nutrients.”

    Idaho U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo, left, and Jim Risch. Both are members of the Republican Party.
    Idaho U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo, left, and Jim Risch. Both are members of the Republican Party.

    What would a change mean?

    Potatoes are by far the most eaten vegetable in the U.S., according to the USDA. A 2019 study found that the average American eats 49.4 pounds of potatoes a year, compared to 31.4 pounds of tomatoes, the second-most-eaten vegetable, and 9.4 pounds of onions, which came in third.

    A change in their classification would mean that vegetable consumption across the country would go down, technically, although the nutrients in potatoes wouldn’t magically disappear.

    The senators aren’t so sure.

    “If potatoes were to be reclassified, consumers would miss out on vital nutrients,” the letter warns.

    Classifying potatoes as a grain would especially affect school lunch programs, which need a cheap way to offer meals that meet vegetable intake guidelines.

    “Schools already struggle to meet vegetable consumption recommendations at a reasonable cost, and potatoes are often the most affordable vegetable,” the letter said.

    On a more ominous note, the senators warn that classifying potatoes as a grain would “immediately confuse consumers, retailers, restaurant operators, growers, and the entire supply chain.”

    But it’s really about the economy, right?

    The senators also could be worried about the economic impact that a reclassification would have on their home states. Idaho produces a third of the potatoes grown in the U.S., according to the state agriculture department. Potato farms in the state brought in $1.3 billion in 2023, per a University of Idaho study. According to Jamey Higham, the president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, reclassifying the food would affect how much funding the potato industry receives.

    “It would affect our funding from different agencies in the government that would now put us in the same basket as the grains,” Higham said. “We would no longer be a specialty crop, which would mean a whole different set of guidelines.”

    A change in the food’s classification would offer meal programs that aim to meet federal vegetable consumption guidelines, such as school lunches, less incentive to buy potatoes.

    It also would affect individual consumers, according to Higham, especially those facing food insecurity. Classifying potatoes as a grain could lead to people who rely on government meal programs spending more on vegetables.

    “Whenever this comes up, the next topic is almost inevitably food insecurity. … I think it has some severe economic impacts on all of the feeding programs, whether it’s WIC, school lunch, school breakfast, because it just messes up the food pyramid a little bit,” Higham said.

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