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P E N I N S U L A
Monday, November 26, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 49
$1 newsstands daily/$1.50 Sunday
US agents fire tear gas at protesting migrants By CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN Associated Press
TIJUANA, Mexico — U.S. border agents fired tear gas on hundreds of migrants protesting near the border with Mexico on Sunday after some of them attempted to get through the fencing and wire separating the two countries, and American authorities shut down the nation’s busiest border crossing from the city where thousands are waiting to apply for asylum. The situation devolved after the group began a peaceful march to appeal for the U.S. to speed processing of asylum claims for Central American migrants marooned in Tijuana. Mexican police had kept them from walking over a bridge leading to the Mexican port of entry, but the migrants pushed past officers to walk across the Tijuana River below the bridge. More police carrying plastic riot shields were on the other side, but migrants walked along the river to an area where only an earthen levee and concertina wire separated them from U.S. Border Patrol agents. Some saw an opportunity to breach the crossing. An Associated Press reporter saw U.S. agents shoot sever-
by the wind toward people who were hundreds of feet away. “We ran, but when you run the gas asphyxiates you more,” Zuniga told the AP while cradling her 3-year-old daughter Valery in her arms. Mexico’s Interior Ministry said around 500 migrants tried to “violently” enter the U.S. The ministry said in a statement it would immediately deport those people and would reinforce security. As the chaos unfolded, shoppers just yards away on the U.S. side streamed in and out of an outlet mall, which eventually closed. Throughout the day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection helicopters flew overhead, while U.S. agents held vigil on foot beyond the wire fence in California. The Border Patrol office in San Diego said via Twitter that pedestrian crossings were suspended at the San Ysidro port of entry at both the East and West facilities. All A migrant woman helps carry a handmade U.S. flag up the riverbank at the Mexico-U.S. border after getting past Mexican police northbound and southbound at the Chaparral border crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, as a group of migrants tries to reach the U.S. The mayor of Tijuana traffic was halted for several has declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city and says that he has asked the United Nations for aid to deal with the ap- hours. Every day more than 100,000 people enter the U.S. proximately 5,000 Central American migrants who have arrived in the city. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) there. Homeland Security Secreal rounds of tear gas after some images of migrants climbing also said she saw migrants point U.S. agents fired tear gas tary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a migrants attempted to penetrate over fences and peeling back opening a small hole in concer- at them. tina wire at a gap on the Mexiseveral points along the border. metal sheeting to enter. Children screamed and statement that U.S. authorities Honduran Ana Zuniga, 23, can side of a levee, at which Mexico’s Milenio TV showed coughed. Fumes were carried See PROTEST, page A3
Borough mayor’s office reports progress in DC By VICTORIA PETERSEN Peninsula Clarion
The Kenai Peninsula Borough’s Mayor’s Office attended an Alaska-focused meeting in Washington, D.C., a couple of weeks ago. At Tuesday’s assembly meeting, Chief of Staff John Quick gave a report about the meeting, which included other groups from Alaska. Quick said the mayor’s office was invited by the Trump administration to meet with several officials, including President Trump, to go over issues facing Alaska. “President Trump took 30-40 minutes to really dialogue with folks from Alaska,” Quick said at Tuesday’s assembly meeting. “During the meeting, as issues would come up, he would literally call his EPA director or the secretary of transportation and actually solved issues during the meeting. I think it was a very fruit-
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NASA weighs in on petroleum development in Arctic Ocean ANCHORAGE (AP) — The federal agency that oversees offshore petroleum leasing has received comment on Arctic Ocean drilling from a surprise source — NASA. Alaska’s Energy Desk reports that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management asked for
comment as the Trump administration considers a 2019 lease sale in the Beaufort Sea. A letter from NASA says Beaufort Sea drilling rigs could be affected by launches from its only high-latitude rocket range. The space administration funds Poker Flat Research
Range outside Fairbanks. The high-latitude rocket range for decades has been operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks. “What we’re known for is doing research on the aurora,” Poker Flat director Kathe Rich See NASA, page A3
Alaska sues feds over ownership of land under Fortymile River Kenai Peninsula Borough Mayor Charlie Pierce speaks at the Homer Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center’s luncheon on May 8 at the Best Western Bidarka Inn in Homer. (Photo by Michael Armstrong/Homer News)
ful time.” Quick said the mayor’s office received direct contacts in the Trump administration after the meeting.
“So if issues come up in our borough,” Quick said. “We have someone in the administration we can reach out to contact.”
FAIRBANKS (AP) — Alaska has sued the federal government in a bid to get it to recognize the state’s ownership of the land beneath two forks of the Fortymile River in the eastern Interior. The river’s Middle and North forks run mostly through U.S. Bureau of Land Management lands. The federal government owns a large section of the Fortymile River region, which is Alaska’s oldest gold
mining district. Assistant Attorney General Jessie Alloway said the lawsuit filed earlier this month followed a letter from Fortymile miners that asked the state to pursue its interest in the two forks, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reported Friday. “Both rivers are within a (federally designated) Wild and Scenic Corridor, so there are differences between state and federal management,” Alloway
said. When Alaska became a state, it was given ownership of lands below navigable waterways within state boundaries, but Alaska and the federal government have disagreed about the definition of “navigable.” The Bureau of Land Management is required to follow a narrower definition defined in case law, said Erika Reed, a director for land and cadastral See FEDS, page A3
Juneauites remember transgender lives lost BY BEN HOHENSTATT Capital City Weekly
Juneau’s LGBTQ community held a candlelight vigil Tuesday night in honor of the transgender lives claimed by violence in the past year. The vigil was part of a Transgender Day of Remembrance event held at the Gold Town Nickelodeon. It also included a screening of a documentary about transgender young adults and speeches from members of the community. The event was organized by Southeast Alaska LGBTQ Alliance. “Certainly the attacks of the Trump administration on the trans community is certainly on the forefront of everyone’s mind,” James Hoagland, event
not. We want to signal the feeling toward trans folks is getting better and better.” There were at least 29 deaths of transgender people as a result of violence in the U.S. in 2017, according to the Human Rights Campaign, and so far this year there have been 22. Casey Harris, a non-binary — someone who does not exclusively identify as one gender — and co-owner of Game On, said while the number of transgender people killed may pale in comCasey Harris, the non-binary co-owner of video game store parison to the number of lives Game On, was emotional when speaking during the Transgen- lost in car wrecks, the differder Day of Remembrance speak out event and film screening ence is intent; those who died in Tuesday in Juneau. (Ben Hohenstatt | Capital City Weekly) car accidents were not targeted, hunted or harassed. organizer and former SEAGLA hard to know if it’s signalling “We honor the brave who reboard member, told the Capital a change in the broader atmo- fused to be crushed,” Harris said. City Weekly beforehand. “It’s sphere. Our perception is it’s The names of transgender
people who have been killed in the U.S. were read during a nondenominational, secular vigil. “They asked me if I would lead the candlelight part of it,” said openly gay Methodist pastor Karen Dammann. “I’m honored. I’m going to be careful because so many people have been hurt by religion.” She was joined in reading names of the deceased by Resurrection Lutheran Church’s Karen Perkins. Kyla Stevens, a Thunder Mountain High School student and past co-lead of the school’s Gay Straight Alliance, rang a bell during the reading. Members of Juneau’s LGBTQ community also spoke during the event.
See LIVES, page A3