Mexican Carlos Jesús González Mendoza's photo was recently included in a shrine to fallen soldiers fighting in Ukraine that has developed in Kyiv's Maidan Square. His photo is in the center, showing him holding his phone as if to take a selfie. (Gia Santos/X)
A man in his early 20s from Guanajuato, Carlos Jesús González Mendoza, was killed in action while fighting as a volunteer in the Ukrainian army against Russian forces, Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE) confirmed Wednesday.
Before joining up, he reportedly had been part of the Mexican National Guard and made money by working informally in a parking lot in his hometown, Juventino Rosas, a municipality about 40 km southwest of San Miguel de Allende in the state of Guanajuato.
The SRE said in a press release that it is providing consular assistance to his family and working with the Ukrainian government to repatriate his body to Mexico. The ministry also clarified that he was not a member of the Mexican armed forces.
Upon the news of González Mendoza’s death, many people took to social media to express their condolences to his family and to praise his bravery for volunteering to fight for Ukraine’s freedom.
His family expressed its gratitude for the support received from the Mexican government. In a statement released to the media, they described him as a loving and caring person who was passionate about helping others.
Carlos Jesús González Mendoza, in his early 20s, was from the state of Guanajuato in a municipality near San Miguel de Allende. According to his family, he told them he was helping the elderly and orphans impacted by the Russian invasion. (Gia Santos/X)
“Carlos was a wonderful son, brother, and friend,” his family noted. “He was always willing to lend a helping hand and was always there for us when we needed him. We will miss him dearly.”
A video of González Mendoza’s grandmother talking about the family’s loss was posted on social media.
Interviewed on Grandparents’ Day on Wednesday, Edith García said the family was informed a week ago of his death, which occurred on Aug. 22, according to some sources.
“He was on a mission. He really wanted to help people,” his abuela said. “He said he wanted to go help people, and recently when he arrived [in Ukraine] he contacted his mother and told her that he was helping a lot of elderly people, children who had been orphaned. That was all we knew…until they gave us the news [of his death].”
Earlier this year, various news sources, including the New York Times, reported that over 20,000 foreign volunteers from 52 countries had joined Ukraine’s fighting forces.
The New York Times led a 2022 article with an anecdote about a Mexican army veteran named Luis who was inspired to join up after he “saw a photo of a wounded pregnant woman being carried out of a Ukrainian maternity hospital after a Russian airstrike and was reminded of his sister.”
The digital news outlet Infobae, citing reports from the Russian Embassy in Mexico, reported that eight Mexicans had taken up arms for Ukraine from the beginning of the conflict through March 14 of this year. The newspaper Excelsior said the figure was 16, based on Russian media reports, and that three of the Mexicans had been confirmed dead as of March.
The news of González Mendoza’s death first emerged on a Telegram platform dedicated to information about the war. The channel included links to his social networks, where he reportedly described himself as an “experienced killer.”
The Juventino Rosas community noted that a rosary and mass will be held on Saturday for González Mendoza, who was 21 years old according to some news sources and 20 according to others.
“He was a young volunteer soldier who gave his life for Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” noted journalist Gia Santos, a contributor to UkraineToday and other media outlets. “May his sacrifice be remembered forever.”
There has been a lot of coverage of Harris' family roots from both India and Jamaica, but did you know she also has a Mexican cousin? (Kamala Harris/X)
It is well known that Kamala Harris’ mother was from India and her father is from Jamaica.
What is less well known is that the United States vice president and Democratic Party presidential nominee has a Mexican cousin.
Sharada Balachandran Orihuela was born in Mexico City to a Mexican mother, Rosamaría Orihuela, and an Indian father, Gopalan Balachandran, the maternal uncle of Harris.
Balachandran Orihuela, an academic in the United States, grew up between Mexico and India, but moved to Oakland, California, in 2001.
While a student in the United States, she reconnected with her cousin — an Oakland native — after moving in with her aunt, Harris’ mother Shyamala Gopalan.
In an interview with the EFE news agency, Balachandran Orihuela described the current U.S. vice president as a “loving” and “warm” person who was like her “big sister” when she moved to California. Harris even took her cousin to her first punk rock concert.
Balachandran is an associate professor of English at the University of Maryland. (University of Maryland)
“When I think of Kamala, I see a person who has a lot of values — values of the importance of the family, of justice, of wellbeing of the common person,” Balachandran Orihuela, an associate professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of Maryland, told EFE.
“She’s a person with very strong principles and values that have to do with justice, also economic justice,” she said.
According to EFE, Harris and Shyamala Gopalan, a biomedical scientist, played a key role in helping Balachandran Orihuela adapt to life in the United States and integrate into society.
Harris — who was elected as district attorney of San Francisco not long after her cousin arrived in the U.S. — took her shopping, to concerts, and to protests, which led to a “political awakening” for Balachandran Orihuela.
Kamala Harris (left) with her younger sister, Maya, and their mother in a photo Harris posted to X. (Kamala Harris/X)
The Mexico City native recalled that Harris took her to see the Californian punk rock band Bad Religion in San Francisco.
“Bad Religion was one of my favorite bands. I went to high school in India, there weren’t many punk rock concerts there. So I listened to music on my walkman and when I moved to the United States, I thought that now I would be able to go to all those concerts,” she told EFE.
Balachandran Orihuela noted that the family of Harris — and by extension her family — is very diverse. Such diversity “is characteristic” of the United States, she added.
“Our family is basically [representative of] the history of the United States. It’s an American family that represents a a lot of Americans — African American people, Latino people, people from India,” Balachandran Orihuela said.
If she defeats Donald Trump in the Nov. 5 presidential election, Harris — like Claudia Sheinbaum in Mexico — will become the first female president of her country.
The two countries — each other’s largest trade partner — collaborate on a range of shared challenges, including immigration and drug and arms trafficking.
What do you need to get your Jalisco driver's license renewed? Quite a lot, it turns out. (John Pint)
At age 83, I had grave doubts that my Jalisco driver’s license would be renewed. This was not due to a lack of agility but to my waning eyesight, caused by macular degeneration and cataracts.
Still, I decided to give it a try, since I only planned to drive within my fraccionamiento.
A major problem when dealing with the government is, of course, figuring out in advance exactly what documents you have to bring with you. Too many times I have stood in a line for hours with a sheaf of papers in my hand, only to be told:
“Sir, you didn’t bring your birth certificate with an apostilled translation attached. I’m sorry!”
This is probably not the first time these people have stood in the queue today. (Guillermo Perea/Cuartoscuro)
Frustrating net searches
Step number one for tasks like these is to search the internet to find out what’s required — and what do we find first? A detailed list of steps needed for getting a “licencia de conducir”… in Bolivia or Argentina!
Once you’ve managed to find a list for your own state in Mexico, you have to sort out:
Information that’s 20 years old, given that on the internet few people bother to put a date on anything!
Information from online newspapers, which — unlike this one — may simply have copied data from one of those 20-year-old sources.
Conflicting information from legitimate local and national government websites, each offering a different version of documents required, cost of service and other details.
To save you from all that confusion, here is my Aug. 29, 2024, list of what you must bring to Tránsito Guadalajara — as the Guadalajara office of the state Transportation Ministry is known — to renew a Jalisco automovilista driver’s license.
Of course, as an expat, the list of things you need is likely to be a lot longer than just an INE card. (Isaac Esquivel/Cuartoscuro)
Documents to bring as a foreigner
Up-to-date ID. Alert! For a foreigner, this means not one but two IDs: both your passport and your immigration card.
Your CURP. This a unique identity code assigned to all Mexican citizens and residents. You can download a copy of yours for free online or go to any Registro Civil, where they will happily make you a copy.
Anyone over 75 must bring a one-page health certificate that can be signed by any doctor. You can download this form as a PDF here. Then you must print it and convince your doctor to fill it out and sign it. Should this be iffy, just walk — or roll your wheelchair — into any pharmacy and they’ll do the job for you.
Proof of address, known in Spanish as a comprobante de domicilio.This is a utility bill with your name and address on it, less than 90 days old.
Copies of absolutely everything listed above.
Foreigners beware! If you — as I — aren’t receiving utility bills in your own name, you won’t fulfill requirement No. 4 above. When I pointed this out, the clerk very kindly tried to help me.
“What about your bank account? Is it in your name?”
My eyes lit up. “Yes, and the statements have my address!”
This might look like a simple office, but there is evidence to suggest it is actually a portal to bureaucratic hell. (Secretaría de Transporte Jalisco)
My bank account goes public
I couldn’t quite believe what happened next. I didn’t have any sort of bank document with me, but I did have the bank’s app on my telephone. Naturally, I had no idea how to get the app somehow to produce the printed bank statement that the clerk wanted.
“Don’t worry, we’ll get the bank to send a statement to your email, you’ll remail it to our email, and then our copy center will print it out.”
Easier said than done.
And so it was that my smartphone, with the bank app open, ended up being passed around to dozens of helpful souls at the Transportation Ministry and several of its internal copy centers, all vigorously swiping and tapping my phone in hopes of sending my bank statement to a local printer.
Alas, nothing worked, but I’m happy to report that my bank account was not emptied during the process!
“Why don’t you physically go to your bank? There’s a Bancomer just two blocks from here,” suggested yet another kindly official.
I did that and finally came back to Tránsito with proof that I lived in a house and not under a bush!
Sorting out all these problems, however, literally took hours, while the actual procedure for getting the license took minutes.
Whizzing through license renewal
Success! Two new driver’s licenses were acquired. (John Pint)
Everything is streamlined nowadays: in a world of digital fingerprints and signatures, even the eye exam is electronic. No longer do you have to identify E’s and Z’s. I merely gazed at my own reflection in a little black screen — and after this narcissistic experience, they took my photo and sent me off to pay. To my amazement, I had passed the eye test!
The normal automovilista license renewal costs 716 pesos and is good for four years. If you’re a senior, you pay only half.
While investigating the requirements for renewing a driver’s license, several questions came to my mind and may possibly come to yours. To save you time hunting among the many contradictory sources on the internet:
No, you don’t have to take a written or driving exam to renew your license.
No, you don’t need an appointment for license renewal. Just go during their working hours: 8:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
No, you don’t need to pay in advance or to pay via internet or app, no matter how many websites suggest you must.
As long as you have all the required documents, renewing a driver’s license is far simpler than investigating the subject on the internet. So don’t be shy: hit your local papelería for all those copies, get yourself and your paperwork to the transit office and you’ll be back on the road in no time.
John Pint has lived near Guadalajara, Jalisco, for more than 30 years and is the author of “A Guide to West Mexico’s Guachimontones and Surrounding Area” and co-author of “Outdoors in Western Mexico.” More of his writing can be found on his website.
More than just a bookstore, Punto y Coma was conceived as a space for creativity and community. (Punto y Coma/Instagram)
This past March, Querétaro city became home to a new literary space. Punto y Coma, located on the second floor of what used to be an old house in Colonia Álamos, is much more than just a bookstore. Owner Emilia Pesqueira intended for it to be a space of relaxation, reflection, companionship and creativity.
A writer herself, Pesqueira has been leading writing workshops since 2018, both online and in person, and Punto y Coma has provided a physical space for her to host them in an environment that is fully her own.
Punto y Coma occupies the second story of a remodeled residential home. (Punto y Coma/Instagram)
Aside from writing workshops, there are book clubs that meet weekly, drink-and-write sessions, book presentations and even spaces where you bring your own book and read alongside others.
The cultural and literary project of Punto y Coma is mainly to support independent publishing. Most books you will find there come from small publishers or even self-published authors, mainly Latin American, with the exception of some editorial houses that do independent translation as well, including Almadía, Sexto Piso, Chai Editoras, Antílope, Elefanta and Gris Tormenta.
Aside from supporting local publishing, Pesqueira’s intent was to provide a creative space to brings in younger audiences in Querétaro. These spaces are abundant in a city like Mexico City, for example, but pretty scarce in smaller cities. When they do exist, they can be hard to find or have trouble publicizing themselves.
MND interviewed Pesqueira to hear more about her intentions and hopes for the bookstore.
Punto y Coma primarily sells books put out by Latin American publishers. (Montserrat Castro)
What’s behind the name?
“Punto y coma” is the Spanish term for a semicolon. Grammatically, a semicolon separates two ideas that could exist independently with a dot in between, but not a comma. This is because both ideas are distinct enough from each other to exist separately but not similar enough that they exist together. So a semicolon is the idea that there could have been a dot here, but continuity was chosen instead.
“When you read out loud, commas, dots and other punctuation marks give you a moment to breathe. A text that has no punctuation marks is hard to read out loud in its entirety because you run out of breath. So it’s also a pause, a breath and a meeting point for things that at first glance don’t seem likely to meet, but here they do.”
Why a bookstore?
My love for books and growing up in houses where books were as ordinary parts of the house as furniture was. It’s also the classic teenage girl dream: having a bookstore that is also a coffee shop that is also a bar that is also a record store. To me it feels like a very feminine dream, I think.
I also imagined it to be something I would have when I was older, many years down the line. Like, for a fifty-year-old me. But I went on a trip where I visited a ton of bookstores and I started to wonder why it had to be so many years down the line, and why not now.
Especially because of [my] workshops, I’d already built a community there so I didn’t find it so crazy or that it would be too challenging to bring people in.
Owner Emilia Pesqueira describes owning a bookstore as a teenage dream. (Punto y Coma/Instagram)
Why independent publishing?
I think reading is a deeply political act and to me it’s important to have a bookstore whose catalog is full of independent publishers that pull for texts that are out of the norm or the literary canon.
Why Querétaro?
I used to live in Mexico City and I considered opening it there, but they have lots of independent bookstores and I was ready to move back to Querétaro. I also thought about the importance of decentralizing culture: not everything that is important and cool has to happen in [Mexico City], even though it seems that way right now.
Initially because I wanted to create a community amongst young people here, but I also want to inspire hunger and curiosity for culture and literature, to create a space that is all about leisure, pleasure and encounters.
I say young people but in general, whoever. Books don’t discriminate, which I think is beautiful. The majority of people who have come to the bookstore and to workshops so far have been young people.
But it’s also for people who want to get out of their routines and create a safe space post-pandemic. Working from home is very comfortable but it can also be a little isolating. I know I’ve felt loneliness that I know is shared by many people. So it’s for anyone who wants to go against that and keep connecting with others and themselves.
Punto y Coma is open every day except Mondays, with varied hours that you can find online. You can find them on Instagram as @puntoycoma.cc, where you can find out about their monthly events and new incoming books.
Montserrat Castro Gómez is a freelance writer and translator from Querétaro, México.
With two PRD politicians joining its ranks (Araceli Saucedo to Claudia Sheinbaum's right and José Herrera to her left), Morena is closing in on a supermajority in the Senate. (Cuartoscuro)
Two soon-to-be senators elected as representatives of the Democratic Revolution Party (PRD) have joined the ruling Morena party, leaving the coalition led by Morena just one vote short of a supermajority in the Senate.
Araceli Saucedo Reyes and José Sabino Herrera Dagdug were presented as Morena senators at a Morena party meeting in Mexico City on Wednesday, prompting spirited applause from other soon-to-be senators.
The leftist PRD, which was part of an opposition electoral alliance that also included the National Action Party (PAN) and the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), recently lost its registration as a national-level political party after failing to get 3% of the vote in all three federal elections held on June 2.
As a result, Saucedo and Herrera — the only PRD candidates elected to the upper house — were left without a party to represent in the Senate. They could have chosen to sit as independent senators, or to join the PAN or the PRI — as might have been expected given that those two parties were in an alliance with the PRD.
Instead, Saucedo and Herrera decided to “jump” to Morena, leading the El Financiero newspaper to call them “senadores chapulines,” or “grasshopper senators” in a headline.
Herrera and Saucedo are from Tabasco and Michoacán, respectively. (Social media)
The practice of switching political parties is known as chapulineo, or “grasshopping,” in Mexico.
President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum met with the Morena party senators at a Mexico City hotel on Wednesday morning.
In a post to X, she said they will form a bloc that “will make history in benefit of democracy, justice, freedoms in our country and the wellbeing of the people of Mexico.”
She congratulated former interior minister and ex-governor of Tabasco Adán Augusto López Hernández for his designation as Morena’s leader in the Senate.
Sheinbaum congratulated Adán Augusto López (left) on his new position as Morena’s leader in the Senate. (Adán Augusto López/X)
Sheinbaum, who will become Mexico’s first female president on Oct. 1, also welcomed Saucedo and Herrera to Morena, saying that they “took the historic decision to join the parliamentary group of our movement.”
Herrera, a native of Tabasco, a rancher and a former state lawmaker, said that he and Saucedo decided to “join the cause of the people” after the PRD lost its registration.
“We will be permanent allies of Claudia Sheinbaum,” he said.
Saucedo pledged to contribute to the success of Morena’s legislative agenda, which includes a raft of constitutional reform proposals President Andrés Manuel López Obrador sent to Congress in February.
Both she and Herrera denied they were “traitors” as a result of their decision to join Morena.
“Treachery is going against your principles,” Saucedo said. “… Being firm with the principles I’ve maintained for 20 years — that’s not treachery. I’m a woman of the left,” Saucedo said.
Sheinbaum advises Morena deputies not to rush judicial proposal
After he and other incoming Morena party deputies met with Sheinbaum on Tuesday, Ricardo Monreal said that the president-elect advised the soon-to-be Morena lawmakers to be “careful with the procedural stage” when considering the judicial reform proposal.
“It’s a correct suggestion,” he said, adding that while the reform proposal may be discussed in the Chamber of Deputies on Sept. 1, it won’t necessarily be approved that day.
Ricardo Monreal said he agreed with Sheinbaum’s suggestion that lawmakers not “rush” the judicial reform bill. (Cuartoscuro)
The likelihood of the reform being approved has caused significant concern among many Mexican citizens as well as foreign investors, and has contributed to a significant depreciation of the Mexican peso since the June 2 elections.
United States Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar said last week that he believed that the “popular direct election of judges is a major risk to the functioning of Mexico’s democracy.”
With the re-opening of the Ichkabal archaelogical site near Bacalar, the area is expecting increased tourism. (INAH)
The ancient Maya city of Ichkabal — an archaeological site that is larger and has three more pyramids than Chichén Itzá’s Temple of Kukulcán — is poised to become a major Mexican tourist attraction after its scheduled opening to the public next month.
Although Ichkabal was discovered nearly 30 years ago, this will be the first time visitors will be allowed into one of the oldest Maya archeological sites in Mexico.
Located in the southeastern state of Quintana Roo, in the middle of the jungle 43 kilometers (27 miles) from Bacalar, Ichkabal isn’t as easily accessible from cities such as Cancún, Tulum and Mérida as its more famous counterpart as Chichén Itzá is.
The archeological site, located deep in the jungle near Bacalar, Quintana Roo, will be made somewhat easier to reach from popular tourist destinations on the Yucatán Peninsula by the soon-to-be-completed Maya Train, government officials promise. (Gov. Mara Lezama/X)
But with towering structures that have led it to be dubbed “the Mesoamerican Egypt,” Ichkabal will offer an unparalleled glimpse into a city that played a crucial role in the early development of Maya civilization. And government officials are promising easier access once the under-construction Maya Train finishes work on stations in Bacalar and Chetumal.
Covering 30 square kilometers — a footprint three times larger than Chichén Itzá — Ichkabal is one of the largest of Mexico’s archaeological sites still standing and one of the oldest vestiges of Maya culture.
The site is tentatively scheduled to open to the public on Sept. 14.
Work is being carried out to finalize transportation options from the yet-to-be-completed Maya Train station in Bacalar. The drive from the Bacalar station, however — over small jungle roads — will take approximately one hour and 45 minutes.
The site is also 81 kilometers (50 miles) from the Quintana Roo capital of Chetumal, but driving from the still-under-construction Chetumal station will take about two hours and 30 minutes.
¡Buenos días! Con mucha emoción les comento que #Ichkabal muy pronto detonará el crecimiento económico y de infraestructura del sur de #QRoopic.twitter.com/aDQ3Tezc4U
Some images of the soon-to-open Ichkabal, one of Mexico’s oldest Maya archaeological sites, discovered in 1995 but only now becoming accessible to the general public. (Mexico’s Ambassador to Canada Carlos Joaquin/Twitter)
Still, Alan Maciel Vallejo, a researcher with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), predicts that Ichkabal will attract a significant number of visitors, including cruise ship passengers from Mahahual (a nearly three-hour drive away).
Chichén Itzá, wrote the newspaper El País, “has new competition.”
Ichkabal remained hidden beneath the jungle canopy until its discovery in 1995.
Since then, archaeologists have been working to uncover and preserve its monumental structures, built between 350 B.C. and 50 B.C.
The site’s intricate buildings and advanced hydraulic systems — such as a recently discovered cistern used to store water and corn — reveals the city’s importance as a political and cultural hub.
The site’s restoration has been part of the Program for the Improvement of Archaeological Zones (Promeza), a government initiative aimed at preserving and promoting Mexico’s rich cultural heritage. With the support of the Defense Ministry (Sedena), archaeologists are working feverishly to ensure that the site is ready to open soon.
Also, earlier this year, the Yaxchilan site in Chiapas — in the Lacandon Jungle near the Guatemala border — reopened after being closed for five months due to cartel violence in the region.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, whose state was one of 16 that filed a joint lawsuit against Biden's new Keeping Families Together program, said the program is unconstitutional. (Texas Attorney General's Office)
A federal court in Texas has handed down a ruling that temporarily suspends a United States government program allowing certain undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens to apply for lawful permanent residence in the U.S. without leaving the country.
However, the initiative — which could benefit hundreds of thousands of Mexicans in the U.S. — is not popular among many Republican Party officials, including those in 16 Republican-led states that filed a legal challenge against it.
On Monday — a week after the program began accepting applications on Aug. 19 — Judge J. Campbell Barker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas issued an administrative stay that stops the U.S. government from approving applications to participate in the Keeping Families Together program for two weeks.
The duration of the court order could be extended as the court considers the case.
Barker’s ruling came just one week after the Department of Homeland Security began accepting applications in the program that seeks to benefit some 500,000 undocumented adult noncitizens who have lived in the United States for 10 years, are legally married to a U.S. citizen, don’t have a criminal record and are not considered a security threat.
The White House said in June that the program would also protect approximately 50,000 noncitizen children under the age of 21 with a parent married to a U.S. citizen.
The governments of Texas and Idaho — along with attorney generals from 14 states that include Florida, Georgia and Wyoming — filed a lawsuit against the program last Friday. They filed the suit in a court under the jurisdiction of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which the Associated Press (AP) described as “a favored venue for advocates pushing conservative arguments.”
U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker, seen here in 2018 testifying during his confirmation hearing to become the U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Texas, said that the states’ concerns about the Keeping Families Together program warranted further investigation. (US Senate Judiciary Committee)
The 16 states accused the Biden administration of circumventing Congress and creating the program via executive order for “blatant political purposes” in an election year when illegal immigration is a crucial issue in the contest between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump.
The states specifically challenged the program’s so-called “parole in place” measure, which allows undocumented immigrants to remain in the United States and to apply to work legally before making a formal application for residency, something they must do within three years of being accepted into the Biden administration’s program.
The U.S. government has already had an existing “parole in place” program available to noncitizen family members of active and reserve members and veterans of the U.S. military since 2010 that grants similar benefits — such as the ability to apply for residency from within the U.S., even after having entered the U.S. without authorization, and the right to apply to work legally in the U.S. after being accepted into the program.
The states’ current lawsuit argues that the program is illegal, encourages illegal immigration and amounts to an “amnesty” for undocumented immigrants.
The Texas government — led by staunch illegal immigration opponent and outspoken Biden critic Governor Greg Abbott — said in the suit that it has had to pay tens of millions of dollars per year to cover the expenses stemming from the presence of illegal immigrants in the state, including those related to health care and law enforcement.
In a written ruling, Judge Barker said that the claims filed by the 16 states “are substantial and warrant closer consideration than the court has been able to afford to date.”
He laid out a timetable that could lead to a decision just before the Nov. 5 presidential election in the United States or before the new president takes office in January, AP reported. The judge gave both sides until Oct. 10 to file case briefs.
‘We are going to keep fighting for Texas’
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton acknowledged Barker’s ruling on the X social media platform.
“We have temporarily BLOCKED Biden’s unlawful new ‘parole in place’ program,” he wrote on Monday.
Biden’s unconstitutional scheme would have rewarded over 1 million illegal aliens with the opportunity for citizenship after breaking our country’s laws — and incentivized countless more,” Paxton said.
“This is just the first step. We are going to keep fighting for Texas, our country, and the rule of law,” he added.
In another post, Paxton asserted that “this unlawful scheme is about fast-tracking over 1 million illegal aliens for citizenship and rewarding them with full benefits and voting rights.”
“By federal law, they are NOT ELIGIBLE for parole. That’s why Texas sued,” he said.
The attorney general also contended that the Biden-Harris administration has an “open-borders agenda” that is “destroying this country.”
Migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border. Illegal border crossings have dropped significantly since U.S. President Joe Biden enacted a new border policy in June that no longer allows people who cross illegally into the U.S. and request asylum to stay in the U.S. until their hearing. (Omar Martínez/Cuartoscuro)
‘America is not a country that tears families apart’
President Biden also reacted to the ruling against his Keeping Families Together program.
“America is not a country that tears families apart,” he said in a statement issued by the White House.
“That is why, in June, my Administration announced new action to keep American families together,” Biden said.
“These married couples — in which one spouse is a United States citizen and the other has been living in America for 10 years or more — include our neighbors who have been working, raising their families, paying taxes, worshipping with us and sending their kids to school,” he said.
The president said that “all” he did “was make it possible for these longtime residents to file the paperwork [for residency] here — together with their families.”
The ruling of “a single district court in Texas” is “wrong,” Biden asserted, adding that “these families should not be needlessly separated.”
“They should be able to stay together, and my Administration will not stop fighting for them,” Biden said.
Immigrant advocates decry ‘devastating’ decision
Jessica Cisneros, an attorney for the Texas Immigration Law Council, an advocacy organization, said that the court’s decision to “halt the federal government from providing relief” to undocumented spouses and children of U.S. citizens “is devastating to the thousands of Texas families that could have benefited from this program.”
Karen Tumlin, the director of the Justice Action Center immigrant advocacy organization, called the court order against the Biden administration program an “extreme measure.”
Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, right, said preventing people from obtaining legal status more quickly when they have already been working and paying taxes in the U.S. for long periods is “bad for the economy and against human decency.” (Rebecca Shi/X)
She claimed that Texas “has not been able to provide an iota of evidence” that it would be adversely affected by the program.
“This is heartbreaking for our clients and the thousands of couples who hope to benefit from this process and be able to live without fear that their family will be separated,” Tumlin said.
Rebecca Shi, executive director of the American Business Immigration Coalition, said that “it is bad for the economy and against human decency to prevent people who have been here working and paying taxes, often for more than 20 years, and married to U.S. citizens, from obtaining legal status more quickly.”
Families back ‘in limbo’
Citing two government officials, The New York Times newspaper reported that in just one week, thousands of undocumented U.S. residents filed applications to participate in the Keeping Families Together program.
If they had applied for residency before the program commenced, they would likely have had to leave the United States for an indefinite period while awaiting adjudication. Wait times have sometimes stretched on for years, and undocumented immigrants had no guarantee they would be allowed to return to their lives — and families — in the United States.
One Biden program applicant who has been in the United States since he was an infant told the Times that he “felt both relief and anxiety after years of struggle” when he filed his application last week.
“The Government of Mexico is convinced that both nations must continue to promote openness and a willingness to ensure that there are regular pathways for those who intend to emigrate from their countries of origin, in the understanding that migration today is driven by necessity, and avoiding xenophobic or discriminatory actions at all costs.”
“For years, we’ve been caught in a cycle of legal challenges and financial strain, trying to navigate an immigration system that often seems designed to keep families like mine in limbo,” said 34-year-old Ricardo Ocampo Hernández, a Las Vegas resident who has been married to a U.S. citizen for a decade.
Undocumented immigrants whose applications to participate in the program have already been approved won’t be affected by Monday’s ruling, according to a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman who emailed a statement to the Times.
However, Judge Barker’s ruling means that undocumented migrants all over the United States — including eligible family members who had not yet been accepted into the Biden program — now don’t know when, or even if, they will be able to apply for residency without facing the risk of lengthy separation from their families.
Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry (SRE) said in June that some 500,000 spouses and 50,000 children of U.S. citizens could benefit from the Biden scheme, and highlighted that “the vast majority” of that number are “Mexican or Mexican-American.”
Roberto Velasco, head of the SRE’s North America department, said that as many as 400,000 Mexicans could obtain permanent residency in the U.S. through the program and eventually become American citizens.
Shanni Valeria Mora, 16, and Rosa Mendoza Sosa, 17, accepting their prize at an event for the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in Sweden. (Premio Nacional Juvenil del Agua/X)
Two students from Oaxaca won the diploma of excellence at the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in Sweden during the world’s leading water conference, World Water Week in Stockholm.
Shanni Valeria Mora, 16, and Rosa Mendoza Sosa, 17, designed a filtration system to purify wastewater from textile dyeing and reuse it in vegetable farming in their community of Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. Their invention seeks to promote sustainability, preserve the entity’s cultural traditions and help it transition towards a circular economy.
¡La espera terminó! ⌚
Nuestras representantes mexicanas, Shanni Mora y Rosa Mendoza ya se encuentran en Estocolmo, #Suecia para el #StockholmJuniorWaterPrize 2024.💧🫶🏻
— Premio Nacional Juvenil del Agua (@premiojuv_agua) August 25, 2024
“Shanni and Rosa are a source of pride for Mexico,” said Jorge Arriaga, executive coordinator of the UNAM Water Network and the Regional Center for Water Security (CERSHI), under the auspices of UNESCO. “They not only represent young people, but also women, Indigenous populations and, above all, the future of science with social significance.”
Their project was chosen from over 30 finalists due to its positive impact on environmental and social issues.
Teotitlán del Valle’s main economic activity is textile production, with roughly 70% of the town’s population involved in this artisanal industry. Noticing the environmental impact of dyeing practices and the threat it poses to local water bodies and soil, Shanni and Valeria found a solution that fosters a deeper connection to their community’s textile heritage.
“In our village, textiles are not just products; they are a testament to our traditions, crafted with techniques passed down through generations,” the students said in a statement.
Teotitlán del Valle’s main economic activity is textile production, with roughly 70% of the town’s population involved in this artisanal industry. (Wikimedia Commons)
The homemade filters are designed for natural and synthetic dyes. In their experiment, the filtered water was later used for the germination of spinach and radish seeds, with further experimentation planned for other vegetables.
“The objective of this project is to establish a sustainable system that enhances family economies and nutrition, contributes to environmental conservation, and provides a viable water reuse strategy for the community,” they said. “By reclaiming and reusing water, we can mitigate pollution while preserving our cultural heritage and supporting our local economy,” the students concluded.
The Stockholm International Youth Water Prize is the most prestigious accolade for student research projects addressing water challenges worldwide. It is organized by the Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI), a non-profit institute with a wide range of expertise in water governance.
The event will take place on June 14 and 15, 2025. (Edgar Negrete/Cuartoscuro)
Mexico’s Daniel Suárez has long dreamed about winning a race at Mexico City’s iconic Hermanos Rodríguez racetrack. Next year, the NASCAR Cup Series driver will get his chance.
“It’s been a dream to come back [to Mexico] as a Cup Series driver,” said Daniel Suárez, a NASCAR driver from Monterrey based in the United States. (@Daniel_SuarezG/X)Suárez, a native of Monterrey, joined NASCAR in 2017 after advancing through the NASCAR Mexico series and NASCAR Xfinity which is the second-tier circuit to the organization’s top-level Cup Series.
“Since I moved out of my country … it’s been a dream to come back as a Cup Series driver,” he told The Athletic before Tuesday’s announcement. “And to be able to [race] and be competitive and have a shot to win … that would be … like winning a championship.”
The historic stock car race will take place on the same track where Formula 1 competes. There will also be an Xfinity Series race on June 14.
Adding an international points race to the Cup schedule has long been a goal for NASCAR as it sought to bring its Cup Series to new markets in major metropolitan areas.
“This has been on our radar for a long time,” said Ben Kennedy, NASCAR executive vice president and chief venue and racing innovation officer. “This is going to be a monumental event for us, the first time we’re going south of the border.”
Though a points-paying race in Mexico will be a first, NASCAR is not new to Mexico.
The Hermanos Rodríguez circuit hosted four races in the Xfinity Series from 2005-2008. (@BenKennedy33/X)
NASCAR — one of the top-ranked motorsports organizations in the world — has sponsored the NASCAR Mexico Series since 2004. The Hermanos Rodríguez circuit has hosted four races in the Xfinity Series from 2005-2008.
Three of Suárez’s contemporaries in the Cup Series won Xfinity Series races at the Hermanos Rodríguez track: Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch.
“I think it’s a great thing for the sport,” Truex, the winner of the inaugural Xfinity race in Mexico City, told The Athletic. “I remember the fans there, it was nuts. They were everywhere. And loud, I could hear them in the car when I won the race. I could hear the air horns and music and whatever the hell they were doing and it was loud. It was crazy how many people were there.”
The Mexico City track, built in 1959, features road course and oval configurations and is considered one of the most popular international racing circuits in the world. Remodeled in 2015, it is 2.67 miles long, boasts 17 turns and sits at an elevation of 7,342 feet. The track was named in honor of racing brothers Ricardo Rodríguez and Pedro Rodríguez.
The bust involved a navy vessel supported by a Panther helicopter. (SEMAR/X)
The largest drug bust of the current government recently occurred when the Mexican Navy seized 5.6 tonnes of suspected cocaine and arrested 15 people after a high-speed chase off the coast of Colima.
A video released by the navy shows go-fast boats speeding across the water before the suspected smugglers were detained. A navy helicopter tracks the vessels.
Approximately 7.2 tonnes of cocaine was seized in two separate drug busts led by the Mexican Navy in Colima and Michoacán. (SEMAR/X)
The Naval Ministry (SEMAR) said in a statement last Friday that personnel on board a navy vessel and supported by a Panther helicopter seized 126 packages containing 5.6 tonnes of “presumed” cocaine after intercepting three speedboats in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Manzanillo, Colima.
That quantity of seized narcotics “represents the biggest confiscation in a single event during the president’s administration,” SEMAR said in reference to the 2018-24 period of government. Photos of the illicit haul were posted to the navy’s social media accounts.
SEMAR said that 1,100 liters of fuel were also seized and 15 “alleged lawbreakers” were detained. The suspects and their illicit cargo were taken ashore and turned over to the Federal Attorney General’s Office, SEMAR said. It didn’t identify the detainees or disclose their nationalities.
In a “second event” outlined in the same statement, the Navy Ministry said that navy personnel seized an additional 32 packages of “presumed” cocaine adrift in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Lázaro Cárdenas, Michoacán.
Mexico's Navy confiscates over seven tons of drugs
Those packages — seen toward the end of the navy video — weighed approximately 1.6 tonnes. Navy personnel also seized a “small vessel” with three outboard motors. No arrests were reported.
SEMAR didn’t specify when the two drug seizures took place, saying only that they occurred in recent days.
In a 2021 report, the Organization of American States outlined seven maritime drug trafficking routes between South America and Mexico or Central America. Five of those routes terminated in Mexico, including in the states of Chiapas, Guerrero and Sinaloa.
!["It’s been a dream to come back [to Mexico] as a Cup Series driver,” said Daniel Suárez, a NASCAR driver from Monterrey based in the United States.](https://mexiconewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/GPlj_E-aUAAa2tx.jpeg)
