NATION & WORLD
Sunday, August 17, 2014 THE NEW MEXICAN
A-7
With some aid doctors gone, Possible immigration rift Ebola fight grows harder for Obama with Democrats African doctors left to battle disease as health workers leave By Sheri Fink The New York Times
When people started dying of Ebola in Liberia, Clarine Vaughn faced a wrenching choice: Should she send home, for their own health and safety, four American doctors working for HEARTT, the aid group she led there? Or should she keep them in the country without proper supplies or training to fight the virulent, contagious disease, which was already spreading panic? After much agonizing, Vaughn, who lives in Liberia, pulled the doctors out and canceled plans to bring in more. The African physicians and nurses left behind told her they understood, but felt abandoned. They said, “We need you guys here,” she recalled. Since then, Vaughn has wondered if the American doctors
might have made a difference, and she asked the aid group AmeriCares to help. It sent in a planeload of supplies that landed in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, last Sunday. The departure of many Western development workers from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, the West African countries hit hardest by Ebola, has further weakened the region’s decrepit, understaffed health systems at the very moment they are facing one of the gravest public health crises ever. “The locals’ seeing this mass exodus of expatriates has contributed to the sense that there’s an apocalypse happening and they’re in it on their own,” said Raphael Frankfurter, executive director of the Wellbody Alliance, which provides clinical services in Sierra Leone. Frankfurter, too, sent his four American volunteers home for fear they might fall ill. They left behind 160 national staff. “It’s certainly not in line with our values, because it’s just such a glaring inequality,” he said. But “it’s a very scary place to get
sick right now.” As an array of international organizations, wealthy countries and charitable groups gear up to provide desperately needed resources to fight the outbreak, the absent doctors and volunteers are a reminder of the daunting practical obstacles. Many African health workers battling Ebola are contracting it themselves. At least 170 workers have gotten the disease, according to the World Health Organization, and more than 80 have died. Even as some leave, other international workers are arriving in the affected areas. Still, fear is complicating the huge increase in aid that is needed: food for people in areas that have been cordoned off; laboratory supplies to test for the disease; gloves, face masks and gowns to protect health workers; body bags for the dead; bedsheets to replace those that must be burned. Airlines have canceled flights that could have carried in such supplies.
Russian aid convoy waiting for security pass to cross border on Saturday, hearing that safe passage had not been secured The Associated Press from the separatists for the delivery of Russian aid. The KAMENSK-SHAKHTINSKY, two agreed that Russia’s conRussia — Hundreds of trucks tinued provision of advanced in a Russian aid convoy waited weapons to the separatists was Saturday near the Ukrainian inconsistent with any desire to border as complicated proceimprove the humanitarian situdures dragged on to allow them ation in eastern Ukraine, it said. into eastern Ukraine to help Fighting continued in eastern civilians suffering amid fighting Ukraine, where government between Ukrainian forces and troops have been steadily takseparatists. ing back rebel-held territory. The main holdup was a lack Andriy Lysenko, a spokesman of security guarantees from all for Ukraine’s national security sides in the conflict, said the council, told reporters in Kiev International Committee of the that three servicemen had been Red Cross, which would have killed in the past day. responsibility for distributing Lysenko reiterated the claim the aid. made a day earlier by President Ukrainian officials are conPetro Poroshenko that Ukraicerned that the mission, includ- nian forces had destroyed most ing around 200 trucks, could of a column of Russian milibe a guise for Russia to send tary vehicles that had entered in equipment for the rebels, eastern Ukraine on Thursday whom Kiev and Western coun- evening. tries claim are backed by MosRussia sharply denied that cow. But Russia and Ukraine any such incursion had taken reached an agreement under place and the White House which the trucks could enter said it was looking into what it with Red Cross accompaniment called unconfirmed reports that if Ukrainian border guards and Russian military vehicles were customs agents approve the destroyed. cargo. Pascal Cuttat, head of Nonetheless, the reports the ICRC delegation for Russpooked global markets and sia, said agreement on how overshadowed optimism about the cargo would be inspected the aid convoy. and cleared was reached on Fighting has escalated since Saturday during several hours the insurgency arose in April of talks between Russian and and conditions for countless Ukrainian customs and border civilians are deteriorating. service officials. The city of Luhansk is “The challenge is we absoencircled by Ukrainian forces lutely need security guarantees and is reportedly suffering from from all parties concerned severe electrical outages and before we can start moving,” shortages of food and medicine. Cuttat told reporters, adding Donetsk, the largest rebelthat it was unclear how long held city, is also suffering this could take. through fighting including He said they were also waitfrequent shelling. Four people ing for a reply from the Ukraiwere killed in shelling that nian government to a formal occurred Saturday afternoon, request for the cargo to be the mayor’s office said in a processed. statement. The Ukrainian officials met Lysenko said Ukrainian with their Russian counterparts in the Russian border town of Donetsk, some 125 miles east of the Ukrainian city with the same name. Cuttat said the cargo inspection would take place there. The trucks have been parked since Thursday in the town of Kamensk-Shakhtinsky, 17 miles F I L T E R S Y S T E M S from the border. According to the White www.goodwatercompany.com House, U.S. Vice President Joe 933 Baca Street 471-9036 Biden spoke with Poroshenko By Alexander Roslyakov and Jim Heintz
forces are not using artillery or air strikes against either Luhansk or Donetsk. Ukrainians have blamed rebels for the shelling, while the insurgents say Ukrainians are firing on civilian targets. While the Russian aid convoy remained stalled near the border, Ukraine has mounted a smaller but substantial aid mission to parts of the east recently freed from rebel control. Trucks sent from the eastern city of Kharkiv were unloaded Friday at warehouses in the town of Starobilsk, where the goods were to be sorted and transported further by the Red Cross. Starobilsk is 60 miles north of Luhansk. Other Ukrainian aid was taken to the town of Lysychansk, which was retaken by Ukrainian forces late last month but has seen sporadic clashes until earlier this week. The foreign ministers of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany are expected to meet Sunday in Berlin to discuss the crisis. Poroshenko met Saturday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who had met with Russian President Vladimir Putin a day earlier. Finland has close trade ties with Russia and Putin’s recent move to ban food imports from the European Union could hit its economy severely. But as a Western country that is not a NATO member, Finland could also carry weight as an intermediary in the crisis. “We have had open discussions about the convoy,” Niinisto said after the meeting, but didn’t elaborate.
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By Julie Pace and Erica Werner The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is facing potential rifts with members of his own party in tough reelection contests as he barrels toward a fall fight with Republicans over his ability to change immigration policies. If Obama takes the broadest action under consideration — removing the threat of deportation for millions of people in this country illegally — the short-term risks appear greatest for Senate Democrats in conservative-leaning states. Weeks before the November vote, they could find themselves on the hot seat for their views not only on immigration but also on Obama’s use of his presidential powers. Wary of what could be coming, some of those lawmakers have said Obama should act with caution. “This is an issue that I believe should be addressed legislatively and not through executive order,” said Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., one of the top targets for Republicans trying to retake control of the Senate. Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., another vulnerable incumbent, said in a statement that he also is “frustrated with the partisanship in Washington. But that doesn’t give the president carte blanche authority to sidestep Congress when he doesn’t get his way.” Such statements have immigration advocates on edge. A coalition of advocacy groups, in a letter to congressional Democrats on Friday, said immigrant families should not have to wait until after the November elections for relief. The organizations said any attempts by Democrats to delay or dilute administrative changes “will be viewed as a betrayal of Latino and immigrant communities with serious and lasting consequences.” The letter was released because of advocates’ concerns that leading Senate Democrats may be shifting their positions
because of political considerations after previously urging Obama to act. A spokesman for Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., declined to say Friday whether Schumer still believes Obama should act by October, as Schumer had said before. A spokesman for Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democrat, said the timing of executive action on immigration was up to Obama. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s spokesman had no comment on timing. Still, Obama looks determined to move forward on his own despite the political risks for Democrats. He is irritated by House Republicans’ inaction on immigration legislation passed last year by the Senate. The crisis over unaccompanied minors arriving in South Texas does not appear to have deterred him, and the slowdown of arrivals at the border may be shifting the issue away from the spotlight anyway. The exact contours of Obama’s plans remain unclear. Advocates and lawmakers who have talked with administration officials anticipate that he could expand a program that granted work permits and deferred deportation to more than 700,000 immigrants brought illegally to the U.S. as kids. It could be extended to include parents of those children, as well as parents of U.S. citizens, or potentially others — groups that could add up to perhaps 5 million people. During a news conference this month, Obama was not specific on his immigration plans. He did say that in the absence of congressional action and in order to address the crisis involving unaccompanied youths, he had to shift resources on his own and exercise prosecutorial discretion. “I promise you the American people don’t want me just standing around twiddling my thumbs and waiting for Congress to get something done,” Obama said.
Some GOP leaders worry that opposition to a comprehensive overhaul will harm their party in the 2016 presidential race, where Latino turnout is higher than in midterm elections. Hispanics are a fastgrowing sector of the presidential electorate and backed Obama overwhelmingly in 2012. But Republicans also see a nearer-term chance to translate Obama’s potential executive actions into electoral success in November. Republicans need to win a net of six seats in order to take control of the Senate for the remainder of Obama’s term. The GOP already is all but assured of maintaining control of the House. As Republicans meet with voters in their districts during the summer break, lawmakers have raised alarms about the scope of Obama’s potential plans. In some cases, they are hearing clamors for impeachment in return. “It is up to Congress to actually go back and restrain this guy,” one voter told GOP Rep. Andy Harris of Maryland at a town hall meeting on the Eastern Shore. Harris had warned that Obama could expand an existing deportation relief program to 4 million or 5 million more people, “competing with Americans for work.” Republicans have tagged Obama as an “imperial president” who goes around Congress rather than working with lawmakers, and House Republicans have moved to sue him over it. The prospect of the president making a unilateral move on a contentious issue such as immigration has Republican consultants salivating. “President Obama’s executive amnesty would inject adrenaline into an electorate already eager to send him a message of disapproval,” said Brad Dayspring, communications director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Also problematic for Obama: His apparent plans to act on his own authority come after years of saying that he did not have the legal justification to proceed without Congress.