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As soon as the Governor enacts a bill to change the Law to Protect Rights and Support of Immigrants a state agency will take care of immigrant unaccompanied minors.
The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Alcibíades García, mandates that all unaccompanied children deported from the United States will be under custody of the state’s Family Development agency (or DIF in Spanish) that leads the state’s first lady.
In case minors cannot be reunited to their families, the agency will keep immediate custody of these children and avoid keeping them in migratory centers but in shelters and childcare centers, the bill mandates.
Assemblyman García said in recent years an increase of unaccompanied minors, either Mexican or from other countries, who seek to cross to the United States has been observed in the state.
Three years ago 1,297 children were deported to the state without a companion. Of those, 961 were deported to Tijuana and 336 to Mexicali.
The state’s DIF took custody of 1,317 unaccompanied children and teenagers, of whom 582 were transported to the agency’s facilities and 735 to a shelter.
The lawmaker denied a crisis has been detected in this case, but the situation might escalate in the future if the issue is not properly addressed through legislation.
The bill was approved unanimously.
Craft beer permit bill approved
Assembly members approved Thursday a bill that, if enacted, would regulate the way craft beer companies operate in the state.
The bill was sent by the Legislative of Border Affairs and Economic Development.
Lawmakers expect the bill becomes an engine for the craft beer industry, tourism and economy in the state.
As of today, Baja California produces 90 percent of the nation’s wine and lawmakers hope a similar path will be created for craft beer with the new law.
According to figures from the Secretary of Economic Development, the state is home to 78 craft beer producers who produce 30 percent of craft beer nationwide. The industry’s revenue is estimated at 200 million pesos annually, or $11.7 million, and has 200 direct job employees and 400 indirect job workers.
The bill includes a provision that would leave municipal governments the regulation of the amount and permit cost for craft beer producers.
Trade increases in April
A report from a Mexican agency said retail and wholesale trade increased in April in terms of sales, jobs and salaries.
The National Institute of Statistics and Geography, or INEGI in Spanish, said sales in wholesale trade in Baja California increased 12.1 percent, while jobs opened jumped 8.7 percent and salaries did by 4.0 percent during April of this year compared to the same month of 2015.
In sales, the state was twelfth nationwide, fifth in job creation and fourteenth in salary increase.
Retail trade observed a better performance, increasing 29.0 percent in sales, 12.6 percent in jobs and 2.3 percent in salaries.
Baja California was fifth in Mexico in terms of sales, sixteenth in jobs and twenty-second in salary increase.
Lawmakers criticize federal government
Two lawmakers criticized Mexico’s federal government for their handling of the teacher issue in the southern state of Oaxaca.
Assemblyman Roberto Dávalos, a Tijuana member of the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, showed support for the teachers who have been protesting for several days against the education reform that suspends teachers and their payments for classroom nonattendance.
In response, the federal government has attempted to disassemble blockades.
At least nine people have died during the protests, according to media reports.
Assemblyman Dávalos recalled the state legislature did not approve the education reform after being considered as a measure impacting teacher’s labor rights.
The lawmaker said neither bullets nor killings would provide a solution to the issue, but dialogue and agreement.
Assemblyman Armando Reyes, an Ensenada member of the Worker’s Party, asked opponents to the education reform to avoid the movement’s radicalization.
He also said by accusing opponents of suspected criminal acts that have not been proven a perception is generated both inside and outside the country of a “selective repression of dissidents and criminalization of social protests.”
