*By Christian Smith*
A few hundred asylum seekers who [reached the U.S.-Mexico border](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/world/americas/mexico-migrants-caravan-asylum-seekers.html) near San Diego this week as part of a "migrant caravan" will have their asylum applications decided behind closed doors in the immigration court system.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials at the San Ysidro border crossing began accepting requests from some of the hundreds of Central American migrants on Monday after initially turning them away because the processing facility was at capacity.
An application is just the first of many bureaucratic steps in the asylum process, said The Atlantic's Priscilla Alvarez, and the migrants who trekked thousands of miles from El Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, still have a long road ahead.
"What they'll do next after they go through the CBP screening and are processed there is they'll be turned over to ICE custody," said Alvarez, referring to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She said the asylum seekers will then undergo a "credible fear interview," conducted by a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officer, to determine if they face real danger in their home country.
The interview is designed to establish why a person fled his or her home country and the specific danger he or she would face if they were forced to return. If an immigration officer decides a migrant's claim does not meet the standards for granting asylum, he or she would be sent back, though asylum seekers can appeal.
Border inspectors processed 28 applications on Monday and Tuesday in San Ysidro, the nation's busiest border crossing, down from an average of about 50 a day from October 2017 to February 2018.
Under U.S. asylum protocol, people spend up to three days at the border inspection facility before being transferred to longterm detention centers while their case is decided. The immigration court could take several years to decide an asylum case because of a backlog of more than [311,000 cases as of January 21, 2018] (https://www.uscis.gov/news/news-releases/uscis-take-action-address-asylum-backlog).
The group of about 1,200 Central American migrants started their journey on March 25 near the Mexico-Guatemala border. They traveled on foot, by bus, and atop a train known by the migrants as "the beast." Many of them find job opportunities or safety along the way and choose not to complete the trip to the U.S. border.
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/migrant-caravan-reaches-border-but-has-long-road-to-asylum).
Many U.S. consumers say they’ve noticed higher than usual prices for holiday gifts in recent months, according to a a December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. A contributing factor is the unusually high import taxes the Trump administration put on foreign goods. While the worst-case consumer impact that many economists foresaw from the administration’s trade policies hasn’t materialized, some popular gift items have been affected more than others. Most toys and electronics sold in the U.S. come from China. So do most holiday decorations. Jewelry prices have risen due to the cost of gold.
Serbia’s prosecutor for organized crime has charged a government minister and three others with abuse of position and falsifying of documents related to a luxury real estate project linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The charges came on Monday. The investigation centers on a controversy over a a bombed-out military complex in central Belgrade that was a protected cultural heritage zone but that is facing redevelopment as a luxury compound by a company linked to Kushner. The $500 million proposal to build a high-rise hotel, offices and shops at the site has met fierce opposition from experts at home and abroad. Selakovic and others allegedly illegally lifted the protection status for the site by falsifying documentation.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
