Las Notis is a daily news column that gets you up to speed on the political, media + other going ons in Latin America and the diaspora—all in one quick digest.
- Here’s your glimpse at what’s going on today:
- On Thursday, President Biden is set to propose various executive actions that aim to stop gun violence. These regulations will focus on home-assembled firearms and “ghost guns.” He’s also planning to nominate David Chipman, a gun-control advocate and 2011 mass-shooting survivor, to be head of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. According to a senior administration official, the president could issue more actions and regulations in the future as well. [WaPo]
- With a newly approved $2.1 billion fund, the state of New York will offer one-time payments of up to $15,6000 to undocumented immigrants who lost work during the pandemic. New York was a coronavirus epicenter and is home to a significantly large number of immigrants. Undocumented individuals were ineligible to receive previous pandemic aid like unemployment insurance and federal stimulus checks. [NYT]
- Texas and Louisiana sued the federal government on Tuesday, claiming immigration authorities have declined to take convicted criminals that could be subject to deportation into custody. The states suggest immigration policy changes from the Biden Administration allowed “dozens” of immigrants that are convicted of crimes to be released after their sentences, instead of being held for deportation proceedings. [AP]
- A 10-year-old boy from Nicaragua was found alone at the U.S.-Mexico border. The boy, captured on video, is one of the over 18,5000 unaccompanied minors that have crossed the border since March. Traveling without family and separated from his group, the child was taken to a Customs and Border Patrol facility. [BBC]
- Brazil continues to be overwhelmed by surging COVID-19 infections. Many in the medical and scientific community are calling for a nationwide lockdown in the hopes of slowing the virus. More than a year into the pandemic, President Jair Bolsonaro continues to claim that such action is all politics, and that the potential damage to the economy outweighs benefits that would come from finally imposing strict lockdown restrictions. [NPR]
- A 104-year-old Colombian woman is being celebrated for beating the coronavirus, twice. Carmen Hernandez was initially diagnosed in June of 2020 and treated in her nursing home. Her second brush with the virus led her to be admitted to intensive care for a 21-day hospital stay, which ended in a standing ovation as she was discharged on Monday. [BBC]
- Selena Gomez shouted out the LGBTQ community and talked about how much it meant to her that her 2009 song “Naturally” was “played in gay bars before anywhere else.” “I would hear from older friends that they heard it when they went out,” she said. “I was so jealous that I was too young to be out and dancing to it with everyone.” [Yahoo]