News in Brief

Anticipation and Anger on Texas Border after Supreme Court Lets Strict Immigration Law Take Effect

Written by Valerie Gonzalez – AP

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A Supreme Court decision that lets Texas arrest and deport migrants – at least for now – on charges of illegally entering the country could have a dramatic impact on the U.S.-Mexico border but its immediate effect was muted.

Sheriffs and police chiefs who will put the law into effect were largely circumspect about when, where and how migrants may be arrested. Before a divided court on Tuesday let the state law take effect while a legal challenge plays out, some sheriffs were ready to relish an unprecedented state expansion into border enforcement, while others were reluctant.

Texas was silent in the hours after the ruling on whether and when state troopers or Texas National Guard soldiers — who have the most interaction with migrants —- would begin enforcement.

Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary said in a sharply worded statement that it would refuse to take anyone back who is ordered to leave the country under the state law and that it “categorically rejects” any state or local government enforcement of immigration laws.

Netanyahu Agrees to Send Israeli Officials to Washington to Discuss Prospective Rafah Operation 

Written by  AAMER MADHANI, ZEKE MILLER AND JULIA FRANKEL

WASHINGTON (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday agreed to send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss with Biden administration officials a prospective Rafah operation as each side is looking to make “clear to the other its perspective,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.

The agreement to hold talks about Rafah came as Biden and Netanyahu spoke Monday, their first interaction in more than a month, as the divide has grown between allies over the food crisis in Gaza and Israel’s conduct during the war, according to the White House. Sullivan said the talks will happen in the coming days and are expected to involve military, intelligence and humanitarian experts.

The White House has been skeptical of Netanyahu’s plan to carry out an operation in the southern city of Rafah, where about 1.5 million displaced Palestinians are sheltering, as Israel looks to eliminate Hamas following the militant group’s deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Sullivan said Biden in the call once again urged Netanyahu not to carry out a Rafah operation. At the coming talks, he said U.S. officials will lay out “an alternative approach that would target key Hamas elements in Rafah and secure the Egypt-Gaza border without a major ground invasion.”