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CARL AZUZ: Welcome to "CNN 10."
I'm Carl Azuz.
The issue of immigration is first up at today's
down-the-middle coverage.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration
announced plans to eliminate an immigration
rule called Title 42.
It was put in place two years ago during the Trump
administration as the COVID pandemic was taking
hold in the United States.
Title 42 is a public health policy.
It was intended to keep migrants who
might have been sick with coronavirus
from entering America.
And it did that by allowing the US government to expel migrants
mostly by land to Mexico, though the US has flown some back
to their home countries in Central and South
America and the Caribbean.
The US says there have been more than 1.7
million expulsions under Title 42 since it was put in place.
Most of those occurred under the Biden administration.
But it now says Title 42 is no longer necessary because COVID
conditions have improved, and the US has
more tools to fight the virus.
So starting May 23, the government
plans to eliminate the rule.
That will make it easier for migrants to enter America
if they're seeking asylum, if they
say they've been discriminated against in their home
countries.
But it's expected to lead to a major increase
in the number of people trying to cross
the border into the US.
And critics are concerned that could overwhelm America's
ability to deal with them.
Republicans say last year, more people entered the US
illegally than ever before.
They say that problem will get worse without Title 42
in place.
Some Democrats say the rule was illegal to begin with
and that it unfairly kept asylum seekers out of America.
But several other Democrats say before the Biden administration
removes the rule, it needs to have a plan in place
for a potential surge in immigration.
And a bipartisan group of lawmakers
is asking the government to delay
its plans to remove Title 42.
- This park in downtown San Antonio
has turned into a waiting area.
How many days have you been in San Antonio?
- Seven.
- Seven days.
For migrants, who are exempt from Title 42,
the pandemic order that allows immigration agents to swiftly
return migrants to Mexico.
The city mayor, a Democrat, recently sending a letter
to the Biden administration, sounding
the alarm about the unsustainable increase
of migrants.
His administration warning that if Title 42 lifts,
the city's ability to meet the humanitarian need
could be limited.
DHS estimates that thousands more migrants
could arrive at the border.
Would you be ready to serve that many more migrants?
KATIE MYERS: It's daunting.
- Katie Myers, from Interfaith Welcome Coalition
says that on average, between 150 and 200 migrants arrive
at this bus station every day, many with cell phones,
the migrants say, issued and geolocated
by the US government.
He said take a picture of yourself.
Some migrants confused about how to use the devices to check
in with immigration officials using facial recognition
technology, an alternative to detention
rolled out by the Biden administration.
Another 300 to 500 migrants being
dropped off at the airport every day, says Myers.
The latest spike, she says, started in mid-March.
How many of you had money to buy a ticket
to get to your destination?
- No.
- And it came with a new challenge.
Migrants are arriving with no plan and no money.
The result?
Sleeping at the park.
About how many people have slept in the park.
KATIE MYERS: There might have been 20 or 25.
- Per night, says Myers.
That's why Pastor Gavin Rogers says
he recently opened a shelter at Travis Park Church.
You see mostly men here because women with children
are placed in hotels, he says.
GAVIN ROGERS: They can shower.
They can eat.
They can receive the proper food.
And they can wait safely until they get through San Antonio.
- On average, between 50 and 150 migrants
sleep here every night, says Rogers,
a nonprofit filling in the gaps for the federal government.
GAVIN ROGERS: It falls onto nonprofits and municipalities
that really are kind of indifferent
to the local or national politics
but have to find a local solution.
- US Congressman Henry Cuellar represents this area,
and he's bucking his party on Title 42,
saying the Biden administration's
intent to end the policy--
HENRY CUELLAR: --would be a mistake.
- So when you ask the White House for a plan,
what do they say?
HENRY CUELLAR: Well, they said they have a plan.
And I saw--
- Did they share the plan?
HENRY CUELLAR: They said, we're going
to notify the not-for-profits that more people are coming.
That's not a plan.
That's just a notification.
They said, we're going to bring some of the agents
from the northern border over here.
That's only temporary.
- Most migrants stay in San Antonio a few nights.
Jesse Amaya has been here 21 days.
He says he's waiting for his wife, who is still in Mexico
waiting to cross.
What's your biggest worry?
JESSE AMAYA: [speaking spanish]
- Her physical safety.
He says he plans to wait for her in San Antonio, the place
they hope to call home.
CARL AZUZ: 10-Second Trivia--
which of these stars is believed to be the smallest, Aldebaran,
the Sun, Sirius, or Betelgeuse?
With a diameter of less than a million miles,
our sun, according to NASA, is an average-sized star
and the smallest on this list.
Space weather is next.
It's heavily influenced by the flares and ejections
of the sun, which is estimated to be a 10,000-degree
ball of helium and hydrogen in the middle of our solar system.
NASA says it has a fleet of spacecraft that studied
the sun's activity, its environment,
and how what happens on its surface
can impact what happens in our atmosphere.
Rachel Crane explains why our nearest star is so mysterious.
RACHEL CRANE: Despite shining down
on the Earth for millennia, there's still a lot
We don't know about the sun.
One of the biggest questions scientists are investigating
now is how our host star's magnetic field affects
its regular cycle of activity.
It's called the solar cycle.
The solar cycle is the roughly 11-year period
of fluctuating activity of the sun's magnetic field.
And over those 11 years, the sun's poles completely flip,
meaning the north pole becomes the south,
and the south the north.
This cycle can be visibly measured
by an increase and decrease of sunspots on its surface.
The least sunspots in the 11-year period
is considered solar minimum.
While the most sunspots signifies the solar maximum.
No two solar cycles are the same and often vary in activity.
RACHEL CRANE: Sunspots appear as dark spots on the solar surface
because they're cooler than the rest of the sun,
at 6,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Cooler doesn't sound like more active, right?
RACHEL CRANE: The reason the temperature goes down
is because the magnetic fields in those areas
are so strong that they create a barrier,
stopping heat from the sun from reaching the surface.
Solar maximum also results in increased
activity in the sun's atmosphere,
known as the corona.
That activity creates bright and active regions that
are rooted in the sunspots below and are
the origin of solar flares, or coronal mass ejections.
RACHEL CRANE: OK.
So it's not like a Nick Cage disaster movie.
But solar maximum can have consequences
in space and on Earth.
The sun impact space weather, which can disrupt satellites,
GPS, and telecommunication systems.
And it can endanger our infrastructure
too, including the power grid.
Plus, radiation from the sun can be dangerous for astronauts
working outside the ISS.
If we could better predict the timing and intensity
of the solar cycle, more measures could be
taken to protect from the sun.
- [laughs]
RACHEL CRANE: But increased solar activity
can also create splendor for us here on the pale-blue dot.
Particles ejected from the sun interact with the gases
in our atmosphere.
That intermingling results in the northern and southern
lights, a beautiful display of colors
close to the Earth's poles.
So what causes the solar cycle?
Well, we still don't know.
But NASA and the European Space Agency
are on the case, sending probes closer than ever
and from new angles, in hopes of filling in as many questions
about the sun as they can.
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CARL AZUZ: Scientists at MIT have been studying cookies?
A researcher in mechanical engineering
there says when she was little, she
got frustrated trying to evenly separate
an Oreo so that both sides had the same amount
of cookie and cream.
A lot of times, one side gets all the cream.
The other side gets none.
So her team built an Oreo-ometer, a device that
used a precise amount of force to try
to split the cookie evenly.
It could not.
Seems there are just too many factors at play,
including adhesion in the cream itself
to perfectly divide an Oreo.
But at least their work was filling, if not fulfilling.
Oreo overall tasty, if Oreo under all performing.
A plan which took a sandwich out of hands, which had a twist.
It satisfies a hunger for sugar if not for answers,
proving they're not all black and white.
I guess it just depends on which way the cookie crumbles.
Burke High School gets today's shoutout,
and it's great to see you watching from Omaha, Nebraska.
Youtube.com/cnn10 is the one-and-only
place to request a shout out.
I'm Carl Azuz.
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