Santa Barbara County News and Events

En enero, el DHS defendió rápidamente los tiroteos fatales de ICE. Ahora sus declaraciones parecen estar cambiando

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Por Danya Gainor y Annette Choi, CNN

Tras el asesinato de Renee Good y Alex Pretti a manos de agentes federales de inmigración en enero, el Departamento de Seguridad Nacional (DHS) emitió rápidamente comunicados defendiendo el uso de la fuerza letal, alegando que las víctimas intentaban asesinar a agentes del orden. El juicio precipitado de la agencia sobre los incidentes provocó pedidos de investigaciones imparciales por parte de funcionarios locales y una oleada de protestas. Algunas de las versiones del DHS fueron posteriormente refutadas por videos, fallos judiciales y otras pruebas.

La dirección del DHS se enfrentó a cambios estructurales relativos a la rendición de cuentas tras las muertes de Good y Pretti, incluyendo la destitución de la secretaria Kristi Noem. Su sucesor, Markwayne Mullin, ha favorecido públicamente un estilo discreto de control migratorio que se basa más en operaciones selectivas que en las redadas a gran escala e indiscriminadas que caracterizaron el mandato de Noem.

Este mes, tras el asesinato de dos personas más en Estados Unidos a manos de agentes del ICE, las declaraciones públicas de la agencia han cambiado notablemente: el DHS se ha tomado mucho más tiempo para pronunciarse sobre los tiroteos y, si bien parte del lenguaje se ha mantenido similar o idéntico, la agencia ha suavizado otros detalles.

CNN se ha puesto en contacto con el DHS para obtener comentarios al respecto, pero hasta ahora no ha obtenido respuestas.

A continuación, CNN ha anotado algunos de los detalles clave de las primeras declaraciones públicas de la agencia tras los asesinatos de Good, Pretti, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo y Joan Sebastián Durán Guerrero.

Con información de Michael Williams y Priscilla Alvarez, de CNN.

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Former Obama White House attorney Kathy Ruemmler said ‘it was a mistake’ to deal with Epstein and she regrets it

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By Annie Grayer, Andrew Kaczynski, Em Steck, CNN

(CNN) — Former Obama White House counsel Kathy Ruemmler said she regrets interacting with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and believes now it was a mistake, according to opening remarks she delivered to House committee investigators as part of a closed-door interview.

“If I knew then what I know now about who Epstein really was, I never would have accepted an initial meeting with him. It was a mistake to deal with him, and I regret it,” Ruemmler said, according to prepared remarks provided to CNN. “But many people assume that given everything we know now about Epstein, everyone who dealt with him before his 2019 indictment must have known everything then. In my case, that assumption is completely wrong.”

Ruemmler was called to testify voluntarily by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee for a closed-door interview as part of the congressional probe into Epstein after numerous news stories scrutinized her ties to the disgraced financier. Reporting from CNN’s KFILE detailed the extent of her relationship with Epstein, including that she was among a small group of advisers to help him ward off legal and reputational risk during the final years of his life.

Ruemmler did not specifically address how she sought to help Epstein protect his reputation in her opening remarks but did say, “even though I wasn’t his lawyer, he sought my advice from time to time, as many people do. I was friendly with him in that context, and I dealt with him in my ordinary course — casually, informally, and sometimes irreverently.” She also said that Epstein was never her client.

She said that she first met Epstein in 2014 — and explained how she came to learn about how Epstein pled guilty in 2008 to charges that included the solicitation of a minor for prostitution along with other offenses and why she continued to engage with him.

“Epstein told me that, while a small number of the women he had solicited for prostitution turned out to be under the age of consent, he had not known that any of them were underage. Epstein appeared to be quite open about the conduct leading to his conviction, or so he led me to believe. He expressed remorse, embarrassment, and regret for his conduct, which he described as paying money for sex to women he believed to be over the age of 18,” Ruemmler said in her opening statement.

“Notwithstanding his conviction, by the time I met him, he had active relationships with an extensive group of respected professionals in business, academia, politics, and the arts. And given the nature of my law practice, I routinely dealt with compromised or controversial people, including those facing criminal or other allegations of wrongdoing,” she said, while adding that she “at no time” endorsed or excused the conduct to which Epstein pled guilty.

She called Epstein a “masterful liar” — and also said that she “did not see any evidence of ongoing criminal conduct or misconduct of any kind by Epstein.”

She said that, “if I had seen or heard any evidence suggesting that he was abusing women or girls, I would have immediately reported him to law enforcement.”

Ahead of the interview, Ruemmler told CNN, “I will answer any questions that they think will help their inquiry. So, again, I’m looking forward to meeting with the committee members today.”

House Oversight Chair James Comer said prior to the start of the interview, “she’s a very powerful person that was probably more involved in working with him to rehabilitate his image, which I would argue has made it more difficult for him to be held accountable. So, very concerning. We want to know what she

What we know about the 26-year-old father from Colombia who was fatally shot by an ICE officer in Maine

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By Maria Santana, Anabella Gonzalez and Fernando Ramos, CNN

(CNN) — A simple memorial of flowers and candles has gone up near the spot on a Maine street where Joan Sebastian Durán Guerrero’s partner fell to her knees and his 3-year-old daughter cried after he was fatally shot by an ICE officer on Monday.

Durán Guerrero, a 26-year-old food delivery driver from Colombia, died Monday in the historic Atlantic coast city of Biddeford, where neighbors remembered him as a good man and hard worker.

“Immigrants make Biddeford great,” read a sign at the makeshift memorial.

It was the second fatal shooting by an federal officer within a week, leading Immigration and Customs Enforcement to make a major reversal and direct officers to largely suspend vehicle stops until further notice, according to a source familiar with the guidance.

An ICE officer fired his weapon “fearing for public safety” as Durán Guerrero, in a vehicle, “attempted to flee the scene,” the Department of Homeland Security said in its first official statement nearly 12 hours after the shooting. He was not the target of the enforcement operation.

To neighbors in Biddeford, however, Durán Guerrero was not seen as a public safety threat. Instead, the young man who lived with his partner and daughter was described by neighbors as quiet and reserved.

“We just ask for justice for his family. It was hard to see his wife sitting there just crying and screaming,” neighbor Nelson Elias said.

“I watched a little girl crying with a little pink backpack on because she’s never going to see her father again,” Mary Hayes, who lives near the intersection where the shooting occurred, told The Associated Press.

On Monday Durán Guerrero’s partner, Karolina Rojas, and the mother of their child, posted a photo tribute to him on social media writing in Spanish there are no words for her pain, she has many outstanding questions and her “soul aches.”

On one of the images showing the couple, Rojas wrote “Give me great strength, my love—I beg you. Stay with me every step of the way; Don’t leave us alone, I beg you.”

Durán Guerrero had authorization to work in the United States and had obtained a Social Security number, according to Mufalo Chitam, director of the Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition. Federal officials have not confirmed those details.

About 7 a.m. on Monday, Durán Guerrero left his his home on his way to work, according to a neighbor. Video surveillance obtained by The Associated Press appears to show the car with him inside as it’s being stopped. Once the vehicle has been stopped, agents can be seen pulling the driver from the vehicle and laying the body on the ground.

Agents were not equipped with body cameras, so there is no firsthand video of what happened. The Department of Homeland Security pledged earlier this year to expand its body camera program, but a slow rollout since then means the equipment hasn’t reached all agents, including those involved in the shooting in Maine.

Durán Guerrero was from the city of Bucaramanga, in north central Colombia.

He had emigrated to the United States seeking a better life for his family, his father told Colombian radio station Blu Radio. He said his son had also worked at a veterinary clinic.

“He was a good person … raised with values,” Omar

Johnson revela plan de US$ 95.000 millones para gasto en defensa y la reforma electoral de Trump

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Por Sarah Ferris y Lauren Fox, CNN

El presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de EE.UU., Mike Johnson, reveló el miércoles sus largamente esperados planes para una enorme solicitud de financiación de emergencia de US$ 95.000 millones para pagar gasto en defensa, incluido para la guerra con Irán, y para impulsar el empeño del presidente Donald Trump de endurecer las leyes electorales.

Es una apuesta enorme por parte de Johnson, sin certeza de que pueda aprobarse en la Cámara, y mucho menos en el Senado, con una gran facción del partido aún incómoda con la estrategia de la Casa Blanca en Irán —y con cargar los costos a la tarjeta de crédito de la nación. Pero el Pentágono está ejerciendo una fuerte presión, instando a los legisladores a aprobar la financiación antes del receso de agosto.

El plan de Johnson, que aún necesita pasar por múltiples pasos antes de llegar al pleno de la Cámara, gastaría hasta US$ 73.000 millones en el Pentágono y la seguridad nacional, incluida la reposición de fondos para agencias clave que hasta ahora han financiado la guerra con Irán.

También incluye hasta US$ 12.000 millones en ayuda agrícola para ayudar a agricultores en apuros en medio de la guerra comercial en curso de la Casa Blanca. Incluiría hasta US$ 10.000 millones para subvenciones electorales estatales destinadas a promover la Ley SAVE America de Trump.

Quizá la parte más controvertida es lo que no se incluye en el esquema: los republicanos no planean pagar la legislación con las medidas antifraude que los duros del Partido Republicano alguna vez planearon. El presidente del Comité de Presupuesto de la Cámara, Jodey Arrington, entre otros, había descrito previamente el tercer proyecto de la agenda como una oportunidad, única en una generación, para una renovación de los programas gubernamentales a fin de ahorrar dinero a los contribuyentes y prevenir el fraude. Había estado considerando programas de atención médica, así como el programa del crédito tributario por ingreso del trabajo.

En su lugar, el costo del proyecto de ley se añadirá en gran medida al ya abultado déficit nacional —un enorme punto de discordia para los conservadores de la Cámara y del Senado.

Un duro del Partido Republicano en la Cámara, el representante Warren Davidson, lo dijo sin rodeos en una publicación en X: “Las naciones en bancarrota son difíciles de defender”.

Fuentes del Partido Republicano han dicho a CNN que no pudieron encontrar apoyo político para pagar el proyecto de ley con recortes a programas gubernamentales. También complicaría el camino del proyecto de ley en el Senado, donde apuntar a cualquiera de esos programas de atención médica desencadenaría votaciones difíciles para los senadores republicanos que podrían terminar hundiendo el proyecto de ley.

El líder de la mayoría del Senado, John Thune, advirtió a principios de esta semana que cualquier intento de pagar el proyecto de ley mediante recortes a programas de atención médica podría permitir a los demócratas instrumentalizar el proyecto de ley creando “muchas votaciones de enmiendas muy desafiantes” que podrían aprobarse con unos pocos desertores del Partido Republicano.

Johnson y funcionarios de la Casa Blanca elaboraron el plan tras semanas de discusión, incluida este fin de semana en una cumbre en Camp David. Anunció esta semana que los republicanos seguirían adelante con los planes para un tercer proyecto de ley, denominado la agenda 3.0 de Trump, pero no dijo qué incluiría.

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