ah, a new horizon for visually impaired the or the keys. they finally have their own football team. training course launching in october in the city of karbala. this specially designed to both was donated by a japanese charity. it creates a cracking sound to allow players to locate these players hope to join football clubs and represent their country in competition. but other iraqi provinces don't have their own teams because there are only 5 elise specially designed bold. ah,

i'm sammy's a dan in doha. and these are the top stories and al jazeera, now us republican leader kevin mccarthy has been elected speaker of the us house of representatives. the vote went into a 5th day after a group of ultraconservative republicans blocked his election. and now the hard work begins. what we do here today, next week, next mob, next year, we'll set the tone for everything that follows. tonight. i want to talk directly to the american people. that speaker the house, my ultimate responsibility is not to my party, my conference, or even our congress. my responsibility, our responsibility is to our country. alan fisher has more from capitol hill in

washington d. c. that is a concern that a small knob of ultra conservatives will dictate how is it in publican party operates in congress. and there's a concern that if kevin mccarthy wants to get his agenda pushed through and he's got a big agenda that he wants to to accomplish in the next 2 years. that his biggest problem might not be the democrats, but will be the people who are sitting behind them in the chamber of the house of representatives. also dogs, christians in ukraine, a celebrating christmas under the shadow of rushes wor, oh, this sum gathered in kids 1000 year old monastery. the service was held in the ukrainian language for the 1st time. ukraine efficiently spent from the russian orthodox church in the step towards establishing an independent church. 30000000 ukrainians identifies orthodox christians and celebrate christmas on the 7th of

january. and this was the scene on christmas eve in the east and don bath region where one church held mass in the basement seas fire ordered by russian president vladimir putin did not stop soldiers on both sides from exchanging fire or to mentally they'll be proclaimed that over the past 24 hours the enemy launched one miss sign of attack and made 20 attacks from multiple rocket launch systems. the danger of air and messiah strikes remains throughout ukraine. the benefits of the enemy are focused on attempts to completely capture the don, yet region. within the administrative border, it conducts offensive operations in the back much direction. in russia, president putin attended christmas last in a cathedral on the grounds of the kremlin senior government officials also to pop moscow and post the 36 hours. these 5 following calls from the influential head of russia's orthodox church patriot kid. iran is hang to men for crimes committed

during nationwide protest over the death of martha. i mean me. the men found guilty of killing a security officer in november 22 year old master. i mean, he died in police custody in september. she'd been detained for violating the countries dress code. commas, return to the mexican city of korea can, after a day of violence. 30 say 29. people were killed when members of the powerful sinaloa cause hell confronted. security forces. the government has deployed an additional $1000.00 troops to the city. violence broke out when police arrested a drug kingpin on 1st day or video was man, is the son of imprison drunk load and chapel. and an important figure in the city of cartel. police have detained a 6 year old boy, shot a teacher in a school in the us state of virginia. police say the boy 5 has gone during an argument in the classroom. the teacher suffered life threatening injuries,

but is reported to be improving. portugal and the netherlands have become the latest countries to require cope with 900 checks for travelers from china. this week, the strongly recommended test before departure. as china struggles with the surgeon cases, chinese financial tact john the an group says found the jack mar is no longer in control. the company says the entropy is voting rights will be reduced as it reorganizes it shareholding structure. as the headlines, the news continues after the bottom line. stay with us here and i'll just era. ah, i am steve clements. i have a question. if americans agree that immigration is one of their biggest problems, why can't they just fix it? let's get to the bottom line. ah,

on his 1st day in office, president joe biden promised to revolutionize immigration, coming in from the country's border with mexico. but even though he reverse some of the anti immigration policies, a former president, donald trump, this white house still hasn't gotten very far. the crisis at the border persists and asylum backlogs persist. things aren't going to be easier in 2023 either whenever bite and proposes less deportations and more pathways. the citizenship he gets blocked by republicans who argue that immigration is just out of control. and whenever he proposes more strict enforcement of immigration laws, he gets attacked by his own progressive base. in the last few days of last year, the supreme court ruled that biden couldn't lift what's called title 40 to a law created by trump in 2020. that's used to block migrants and prevent the spread of cove it. so can anything be done about the muddy status quo at the southern border of the united states. and what's supposed to happen to the millions

of immigrants who are already here without any documents, giving them legal residency rights. today we're talking with alan or junior, the founder of or immigration law firm and former president of the american immigration lawyers association, any real garcia, the immigration reporter for the texas tribune. your, let me start with you, you're in the near ground, 0 of the immigration devil that's going on. you're in el paso and would love to just get your sense of the temperature of things right now. and also whether you've seen any big shifts between, you know, the trump era, presiding over our immigration issues at the border and the biden era. yeah, i mean, right now, and certain parts of downtown no pass. are there migrants were sleeping in the street still there, depending on volunteers and g. o to find them a plane, a warm place to stay and get, get them some food as far as what the differences are between the binding administration and trump administration? i think and part, i think it's the rhetoric as far as policy. you know,

some of the same policies that the trump administration had divided and ministration was still applying, including title $42.00. but when you say that people are sleeping in the streets and seem desperate, why are they there? well um there's been an increase of number of migrants, particularly of people coming from ne, got our venezuela cuba and a border patrol, processing them as fast as they can in border patrol. doesn't have the infrastructure to hold them on, and so they're releasing them to shelters and, and g o n d n g, else and shelters are active passively right now. so border patrol has been having to release a lot of the people onto the streets and some of them are sleeping under a parking garage or just out in the opened. and so it's, it's a lack of like

a re infrastructure and, you know, and one of the things that i've been paying attention to, and we're interested in, you know, doing this conversation with both of you today. was the action taken recently by the supreme court to keep the pie to ministration from ending? what's called title? 42 and for our audience. title $42.00 is essentially a public health provision that came out during coven, worried about the spread of cobra. to block immigrants from coming in the united states, the, by the ministration, tried to have that expire to remove that provision. the supreme court said no, leave it in place. can you explain this and unpack why the supreme court of the united states is leaving in place a health provision that many health practitioners, including the center for disease control, are saying is no longer needed. the lawyer is not very clear in the water, keeping it in place legally. it should not be there in an executive command that controls the cdc. and the cdc said it's denied that the more people keep referring to it. a title $42.00, but in the immigration world we know it as the steven miller special. so that tells

you right there wasn't about cobit it was about immigration and harm. and the weather supreme court has basically done understanding is a procedural question. and the question whether supreme court is, can the state, the 17th, they intervene in this case, the late in the argument. it's procedural. so the decision that we will receive in june is not with regard to the merits of title $42.00 can continue to. but whether these individuals can actually enter the case, so therefore higher $42.00 will be around for a very long time. but in this space, it is important to know as miguel will tell you even with 42 in play, people are still being allowed to the country because there's so many exceptions. but i don't want you to let me ask you to explain to our audience why you label this the steven miller bill or the steven miller provision. what tell us about steven miller? so stephen lewis plan in coming in from us from the department of immigration to run into government was to basically shut down us immigration to halt it. not just at the border but even for business. immigration, yes,

we got was basically said that the truck administration slowed the green card process to allow more us workers to return the market. so everything that's the, the miller get. an immigration with belt and suspenders. you have remaining mexico . yeah. family separation. yeah. title 42, category 2 has been around since 1942 in the united states has never used it at any other time, even with a bullet. so therefore, you see that it's really not about the cdc, but something else. but you know, what are your thoughts on it? i know you're a reporter reporting on what you see, but i just love to get your personal thoughts on why you see this is has having been so intractable. well, i mean, it's a good campaign talking point, right? i mean, republicans will always use immigration as an, as an issue of you know, both for me because i'm going to stop illegal aliens coming into the country. i'm going to stop criminals and drugs, right. democrats, on the other hand, we'll use the same talking point from the, brought from different perspective and say, well, what for me and i will continue with some immigration benefits and always promise some sort of immigration reform. at the same time, you know, there, there are

a lot of the detention centers that hold immigrants. a lot of them are private. so they, they also benefit with the high number of undocumented immigrants in the country because it creates a pipeline to having, having detention centers filled up with people being accused would be in in the country illegally. alan would love to get your thoughts on the same question. i think it's one of the struggle of our federalism right now is the understanding of ration or plays. and if we are really the united states, or if we are blue and red states and that has played out in the courts continually, even in the apartment ministration, restore them and the target ministration was doing them. so each state attorneys, i've been going back and forth. so the problem is it is, is playground. and the tell you that we have is the dog that we see with everything else in this country, the congress to act. congress has not passed any immigration bill in 30 years that

will address the needs of the american people and the board of concern. we all talk about it, but we really can't do anything about it. and with the other grad, never really having full control. they don't have enough to cared across the line and the other probably have consistently as americans, as we looked at the president to solve a problem. but only the legislation consult if there's no money there. and there's no bill there to get pathway to sort of do what we did with marijuana and what we do with alcohol and all these other to make illegal elation path to sort of regular live it that it will continue, will be t as in blocks. and i think after code it is important, the board was shut down for almost 3 years to the truck ministration in the 1st part of the bio ministration. because the covert and they just reopen it so that the large influx along with the political situation been happening in the north. the northern triangle. do you think allen, that it's going to get worse now? and i want to just preface this with, you know, i deal with a lot of associations in washington, the national restaurant association, the national small business association, the various groups that out there that rely on a labor force that jena raymundo,

the secretary of commerce has said, we're a 1000000 jobs, 1000000 people short a year right now in terms of the normal influx of people. if you look at agriculture in california, most of these places use associations are dominated in majority. not entirely been jordy by republicans. and so i'm, i'm just interested, will this get worse and will there be any sensitivity among those republicans that own these businesses that they're not getting the labor they need? i think so with your back being tab and return to infrastructure, i think it's time for us to return to the reagan platform. immigration, understand that people who have some equity being here for a long time deserve something. and that ever gratian is also an opportunity for this country to sort of build ford. we've seen what happened japan, when they sort of checked out on immigration. and we also see what canada is doing right now with their large job shortage. and the number people they're trying to get into sort of beat inflation. so we know we need workers a little bit. the problem is happening at the southern border that i should also say is really also picking and choosing which immigrants we want the craniums. we

want to 100000 venezuelans. we want, we don't want the haitian, we don't want anybody from nicaragua. so that is a little bit different than the american platform. so when we start to live our values of what we say, we are as american and what we have at current asylum law, right? with, with the supreme court currently bake blocking, then we will do a better job with immigration and fixing what we need to happen. so i think it will solve itself because they can not continue because they've already the cuban. now arriving in florida today, 500 of them in the saying that the crisis, 500 people arriving in florida is not a crisis. urea, how much of what we're seeing at the border in our politics and this in the inaction is from your perspective driven by racism? well, no, it's hard to tell, right? you know, no one has no one in the federal government has come out and said, we're specific. we're picking specific migrants. but i think that when we see stories about when a federal government and what the able to muster up the resources and every

political well to help ukrainian come into the country. you know, that's not suddenly, those resources are, are disappear when we're talking about ministry and sneak ones. cubans and they're coming. and these are people coming from countries in which the u. s. government has described dose dose specific countries as being run by a dictator. so, i mean, i think, i think we can see, based on those stories in base, how we treated ukrainian refugees and desperate treatment to latin american immigrants where you're getting to a point that i think is very important. which is that asylum, our, our country, the united states has been a place for those seeking asylum. those being, you know, threatened their life, threatened their harass, detained, in some cases, murdered. the united states has been a haven for people that were subjected to suppression, as part of the dna and the legal infrastructure of the country and serial. what is

happening. so when you've described as lots of people are banning their countries because of conditions. and i think what is begun to evolve, and i'll just be honest about it is a sense that nobody believes these or asylum cases can you help us unpack the legitimacy or the solvency of those seeking asylum in the scale of that versus being a tactic by people coming up who just want to get into the u. s. and say asylum. right? i mean the migraines have interviewed and just a reports are coming out from latin america. there's, there's dire conditions and it varies under reason why migrants come. i mean, we're talking about climate change affecting farming jobs. were talking about economic suppression, lack of jobs on political persecution and some of these countries. and as some mothers and some fathers have told me that i've interviewed, they said they don't feel safe sending their children to school or to run in there

and around the corner store because they're afraid that they're going to get kidnapped. in some cases i've, some others have told me they've been threatened by drug cartels or organized crime groups. just the quality of life there is not. it's not something that americans are used to living in. so for a lot of them, they're desperate to come to, to a safe haven. and regardless of what are what us immigration policies are for, damn, they just want to get to where they feel that they can have some basic level of quality of life. i want to get to allen in a 2nd about the law to get there. yeah, i want to make it. yeah. i'd like to make a point about that. so it isn't that everybody is entitled to us. is that everybody is entitled to the process, right? so excluding people from having the process to sort them through with the issue that we have a title 42. so maybe everybody's asylum point is not about a claim or doesn't reach the burden that needs to remain in the country. they get

to make the claim, right? that's the problem of what to do. and that's the problem with our border control. we're saying to some people you can't apply and other people you can't. so but let me get to this, this question then alan and pursue that just for a moment. we've done another show recently with tom nichols in farrah stockman fairs with the new york times tom sparkman with the atlanta tom nichols with the atlantic. and in it, we were sort of asking this question of what is the picture look like for processing these claims and the backlog and the u. s. court is staggering. various dockman wrote an article saying, you know, that that load is not being processed. the resources are not being moved. and my guess my question is promote legal responsibility perspective. why isn't vital ministration putting more resources, money, and support staff to process the claims that are already in hand. because she said, just with what we have now, before you have new entrance into it, that system is, is near collapse. so i think their problem is very clearly that the president has

a pocket, but it's from congress. so congress hasn't given the president of money to authorize that he's asked for to meet those backlog. and i also will say that backlog or a choice, much like we, we wanna airport. we think that the longer it takes to get them where the things we are and that's the problem with immigration across the board. and we're not using modern systems. we're using old system to do handle modern problems. and therefore we have the big delays. the last administration open 300000 and closed cases and put them back into the backlog that we need to do now to sort of sort some of these cases out and they listen. these cases are all they've been here for a long time. the equity that we've talked about in the reagan administration, we're just going to prove those people. it's not worth it to sort of go through them because they've already been here so that we're going to happen is going to happen and then sort of manage it differently. the concept of thing, we're gonna look at every case and scrutinize it and do some betting that doesn't really go to the real world for people who are speaking with a lot. seems remarkably silly to me. you're one of the other quite. we're just going to get back in it for a minute, was to look at what you were talking about, the conditions and some of these countries with autocrat people suffering from

climate change, but also from miserable other human rights conditions where they may be one of commonly harris's jobs given to her by president biden was to go down, spend some time in central america, and look at what could be done to try and support those economies into and to mitigate some of these conditions that were driving so much migration has, has their come anything at all tangible that you've seen from vice president, commonly harris's efforts? no, nothing tangible. i mean the body and ministration has tried to creed. some programs that would allow some people to apply from their home countries for asylum, but nothing tangible that we can say. you know, a crate any, any of the but it ministration separate from crater to certain amount of jobs or has created better, better conditions for people to live. well, thank you. i mean, go ahead. one thing. one thing i do want to point out, as you know,

just because someone does apply for asylum, you know, it, let's say that they're asylum case does open up. it's not another magic thing when one point that people need to understand is that i believe the average wait time for the silent case to be decided at 5 years. so when we talk about the backlog to is, you know, people have to wait for 5 years, and in those 5 years, you know, people are still uncertain if they're going to be able to live in the country or have to go back to their home country so, you know, just to emphasize the point of the lack of resources and the lack of urgency to, to be able to process these claim sooner. and pastor or alan got given those timelines and you kind of connect that to again, to the economic side of what america needs to continue to run its economy. have people come in? does this keep the illegal immigration dimension to our economy kind of

driving? i mean, does america because it can't process things legally or in a timely way, become weirdly dependent, dysfunctional dependent on the presence of illegal immigration? well, i mean, an authorized work is sort of the foundation of the country in some ways. and yes, it does. and i will also say the vice president's office during the very 1st year, her administration did make a private partnership deal that brought billions of dollars to the triangle, which at some point may show a change in the direction and also with the north america. some of that happened in l. a. this year there was a large conversation about migration move and you see canada sort of stepping on the front of that. i think we need people, we're going to facilitate getting that. and you've actually heard me the people at the, at the southern border now that we're just trying to get to canada, what sort of make that happen for us. but the conversation for me, for america shouldn't be about keeping people out. it should be about protecting people because those are our values. and when it comes to a style and we should also remember that those are also our values. and when we do make these things just like with alcohol, when you said it was

a prohibition or with drug, that was a provision, it creates an underground market. so yes, the title 42 in place. all the smugglers are making more money. everyone else is going to bring in these and documented people to get the form the food from the table, from the farm to the table for us to eat are going to thrive. and so it's time for us to meet that need. one of the things that we thought would happen in december was an act bill, because, as you said before, with the bipartisan situation, there are many republican republicans. they think we need workers in a place where vermont has a low number population. our numbers are down, it's time for us to realize that immigration is just one of the other tools we have to survive or allen. let me get right at that. we saw governor abbot, we saw governor de santis of florida governor habit of texas. basically, we had a lot of migrants across the border and they flew them to martha's vineyard. they flew them to washington, d. c. to be led off right outside the vice president house. and i have to tell you there are a lot of progressives. i know i should say, progressives and liberals who said, there is an interesting point behind this,

that southern states are feeling the population pressure and the, the challenges in, into, in terms of supporting the costs of those have just recently come across the border . and that the nation which may say, hey, that doesn't make sense, we, you know, we need to be more humane at the border. they aren't coughing up the support as much. are there ways to make any gala carrion environment in which other states have more chips in and more support for what some of the causes you'd like to see the more humane treatment at the border? well, i think the main treatment is who we are as americans and what we've resolved after world war 2. so that's all of us across the board. i also think that the conversation with regards to texas saying that this is a burden when in fact having to order the benefit, right. how much trade, how much money do they generate for texas because they are located at the border. how much, what hasn't brought texas to be at the forefront other than that trade across the border. and you're only seen a couple of places. i mean, in el paso, you saw the community step up and accept people. so i would sort of say, you know, that the blessing is also the curse of trying to battle those situations. and

probably because the people in those situations have been so much about close the border and hurting people than resolving issues that for the bit of the people that that may be the problem. so i don't think that that is necessarily that the states can absorb those people because they accept airplanes every day. all the other ports are fine and they're able to process them. is just people at the southern border, which means it's something very focused. and in a very real hateful manner. and so i think we should stop think about people as problems. that's number one, because the worth, lynn for the life no matter what the situation is, whether they need to sell him or not, deserves the dignity a respect for playing for their lives. and i think we would do the same thing. and so the resolve here should be let live our values and live understand the way. ford is as americans as one thing elections over. so what's better for the people? and i think that the conversation about what led to the truck administration being elected that golden egg saying he was going to solve the border, which he did not. that we should understand enforcement policies only do not lead to a resolution in immigration. we can't build

a wall that will shut us out from the rest of the world, uriel, i'd like to give you the last word and ask you is we kind of talk about this and how to unpack this. i read your, your coverage of this. it's excellent, i recommended every one, a search, serial garcia and texas tribune and, and get your updates. but on this broad side of exporting, you know, the border challenges of immigration at the border to other states which abbott and de santis did. how did that play locally, and what are your thoughts on, on the sensitivities that the rest of the country should have to this immigration problem? look, i think the point that any american should ask themselves says that we have an issue, right? people are leaner countries, and as americans we should ask ourselves, how do we want to handle this issue? do we want to handle this issue by just closing off the border, putting up was sending the military or do we want to be humane and help people who are asking for help? and so for angie wilson, activists and advocates,

we've been working with migrants coming across the border for a lot of them. they're looking for any type of resources to help get the migrants to their final destination. if that comes by governor avid buzzing program, they're okay with it as long as it helps the migrant. i mean, there's rhetoric around that program that they don't agree with. but i think ultimately what they want is help they need resources and they're asking for the rest of the rest of the country to chip. and, and like i said, that's the point that, that i think as americans we should ask ourselves. we have an issue, how do we deal with this issue or immigration lawyer, alan or junior and texas tribune immigration reporter, uriel garcia. really appreciate that conversation. thanks for being with us. you. so what's the bottom line? the immigration crisis in the western hemisphere has been getting worse for decades, and we have to face it both us political parties are complicit. now, even the supreme court has stepped in to permit the distortion of what was supposed

to be an emergency health based regulation to keep immigrants out of the country. congress refuses to budget more money for immigration courts, which means that the courts everywhere are flooded with hundreds of thousands of backlog cases that are going nowhere. think about it, a legal system in the u. s. that's literally too poor to carry out the law. the trumpet, ministration, weaponized the issue, and pushed for a wall to cut off the united states from the rest of the hemisphere. the by the administration has made many promises, but is nowhere near ending. the sad, horrific stories of abuse detentions rapes, human trafficking, and even deaths at the southern border of the country. and now with the opposition in control of congress, the window of opportunity for reform just got a lot smaller. and that sadly, is the bottom line. ah ah

ah, al jazeera, with down to the pit, our coverage of africa is what i'm most proud of. every time i travel back, whether it's east or west africa, people stop me and tell me how much they appreciate coverage. and our focus is not just on their suffering, but also on the more lifting and inspiring story. people trust algebra to tell them what's happening in their community in a clear and unbiased. and that's an african, i couldn't be more proud to be thought of, you know.