Biden administration reinstates fast-track deportation flights
30 July 2021
The Biden administration on Friday resumed fast-track deportation flights to Central America, the Department of Homeland Security announced.
The big picture: Officials said Monday that they were planning to resume "expedited removal flights" following an increase in the number of migrants crossing into the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas, the Washington Post reports.
- DHS said that families apprehended by Customs and Border Protection were returned to their countries in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Details: Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement flights departed from Texas with 73 people, less than the 147 adults and children who were originally set to travel, the Post notes, citing DHS officials.
- Several families were unable to travel after testing positive for the coronavirus or having been in contact with someone infected, per the Post.
What they're saying: "Irregular migration to the United States is dangerous and may carry long-term immigration consequences. The journeys is especially dangerous for families and children, including teenagers," DHS said in a press release.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.