check on trump policy as democrats deliver border aid bill ... · senate. and the house bill faces...

VOL. CLXVIII . . . No. 58,370 © 2019 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26, 2019

C M Y K Nxxx,2019-06-26,A,001,Bs-4C,E2

The first Democratic debate isWednesday. How do the candi-dates differ? The Times got an-swers from almost all of them.

Special Section

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ELY, Minn. — In the waningmonths of the Obama administra-tion, a Chilean conglomerate waslosing a fight with the UnitedStates government over a coppermine that it wanted to build near apristine wilderness area in Minne-sota.

The election of PresidentTrump, with his business-friendlybent, turned out to be a game-changer for the project.

Beginning in the early weeks ofMr. Trump’s presidency, the ad-ministration worked at a high lev-el to remove roadblocks to the pro-posed mine, government emails

and calendars show, overrulingconcerns that it could harm theBoundary Waters, a vast land-scape of federally protected lakesand forests along the border withCanada.

Executives with the miningcompany, Antofagasta, discussedthe project with senior adminis-tration officials, including theWhite House’s top energy adviser,the emails show. Even before an

interior secretary was appointedto the new administration, the de-partment moved to re-examineleases critical to the mine, eventu-ally restoring those that theObama administration had de-clined to renew. And the ForestService called off an environmen-tal review that could have re-stricted mining, even though theagriculture secretary had toldCongress that the review wouldproceed.

An Interior Departmentspokesman said it simply workedto rectify “a flawed decisionrushed out the door” before Mr.Trump took office. Several seniordepartment officials with previ-

Mine Plan Was Stalled Until Trump Stepped InBy HIROKO TABUCHI

and STEVE EDER

One of the largest untapped copper deposits lies in and around Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.TIM GRUBER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Policy Reversals Benefita Copper Project in

the Wilderness

Continued on Page A21

WASHINGTON — In Septem-ber 1994, as President Bill Clintonsigned the new Violent CrimeControl and Law Enforcement Actin an elaborately choreographedceremony on the south lawn of theWhite House, Joseph R. Biden Jr.sat directly behind the president’slectern, flashing his trademarkgrin.

For Mr. Clinton, the law was animmediate follow-through on hiscampaign promise to focus morefederal attention on crime preven-tion. But for Mr. Biden, the mo-ment was the culmination of hisdecades-long effort to moreclosely marry the DemocraticParty and law enforcement, and totransform the country’s criminaljustice system in the process. Hehad won.

“The truth is,” Mr. Biden hadboasted a year earlier in a speechon the Senate floor, “every majorcrime bill since 1976 that’s comeout of this Congress, every minorcrime bill, has had the name of theDemocratic senator from theState of Delaware: Joe Biden.”

Now, more than 25 years later,as Mr. Biden makes his third runfor the White House in a crowdedfield of Democrats — many callingfor ambitious criminal justice re-form — he must answer for hisrole in legislation that criminaljustice experts and his critics sayhelped lay the groundwork for themass incarceration that has dev-

Biden ReckonsWith a HistoryOf Filling Jails

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERGand ASTEAD W. HERNDON

Continued on Page A18

SHANGHAI — United Stateschip makers are still selling mil-lions of dollars of products toHuawei despite a Trump adminis-tration ban on the sale of Ameri-can technology to the Chinesetelecommunications giant, ac-cording to four people with knowl-edge of the sales.

Industry leaders including Inteland Micron have found ways toavoid labeling goods as American-made, said the people, who spoke

on the condition they not benamed because they were not au-thorized to disclose the sales.

Goods produced by Americancompanies overseas are not al-ways considered American-made.The components began to flow toHuawei about three weeks ago,the people said.

The sales will help Huawei con-

tinue to sell products such assmartphones and servers, and un-derscore how difficult it is for theTrump administration to clampdown on companies that it consid-ers a national security threat, likeHuawei. They also hint at the pos-sible unintended consequencesfrom altering the web of trade re-lationships that ties together theworld’s electronics industry andglobal commerce.

The Commerce Department’smove to block sales to Huawei, byputting it on a so-called entity list,set off confusion within the Chi-

U.S. Companies Sell Tech to Huawei Despite BanBy PAUL MOZUR

and CECILIA KANG

Continued on Page A10

Deals Expose Difficultyof Enforcing a Policy

CLINT, Tex. — At the squat,sand-colored concrete border sta-tion in Texas that has become thecenter of debate over PresidentTrump’s immigration policies, achaotic shuffle of migrant childrencontinued on Tuesday as morethan 100 were moved back into afacility that days earlier had beenemptied in the midst of criticismthat young detainees there werehungry, crying and unwashed.

The transfer came just days af-ter 249 children originally housedat the station in Clint, Tex., hadbeen moved to other facilities torelieve overcrowding. The con-tinuing movement of children andconfusion over housing of the Bor-der Patrol’s youngest detaineespointed to an increasingly disor-ganized situation along the south-ern border and an agency strug-gling to maintain minimal hu-manitarian standards amid an un-precedented influx of migrantfamilies.

“We’ve dipped far below thestandard of care into the realms ofjust utter darkness,” said StateRepresentative Terry Canales ofTexas, a Democrat who contactedBorder Patrol officials to ask whathe and his staff could do to help.“We’re in a dark place as a nation,and it just breaks my heart.”

In Clint, a farm town about 20miles southeast of El Paso withfewer than 1,000 residents, therewas consternation and dismayamong residents at reports fromlawyers who visited the borderstation recently, who said theyfound that children as young as 5months old had been housed withfilthy clothes, dirty diapers and in-adequate food.

“Almost like a concentrationcamp,” said Juan Martinez, whoworks at the Pride Fitness gym inClint and heard about what washappening at the nearby stationfrom news reports. “I mean,they’re not killing them, butthey’re treating them like ani-mals. They need basic hygiene.”

From across the country, dona-tions of diapers and other suppliesbegan flowing in — thoughCustoms and Border Protectionagents said they could not acceptoutside supplies and initially re-fused the growing stockpile. Morethan a dozen people drove intoSouth Texas from as far away asthe West Coast to deliver aid andlaunch protests.

Children Returned toTexas Shelter ThatSet Off an Outcry

By ARTURO RUBIOand CAITLIN DICKERSON

HORROR AND HEARTBREAK The deaths of two migrants who were trying to cross the Rio Grande led to widespread anguish on Tuesday.The bodies of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez and his 23-month-old daughter, Valeria, were found near Brownsville, Tex. Page A23.

JULIA LE DUC/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Continued on Page A23

Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’scommunications director, will replaceSarah Huckabee Sanders. PAGE A26

NATIONAL A12-26

A New Press SecretaryMonths after Carlos Ghosn was ar-rested, Nissan’s chief executive, HirotoSaikawa, is facing questions about hisown competence and probity. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-9

Scrutiny for Nissan’s C.E.O.The Port Authority of New York andNew Jersey wants to raise tolls onbridges and tunnels and add a $4 fee toairport carfares. PAGE A28

NEW YORK A27-29

Another Toll Increase Looms

Yewande Komolafe, who grew up inLagos, shares some recipes. Above,braised goat leg and rice. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

10 Nigerian RecipesA former president has been accused ofrape, and others are coming forward todescribe crimes and abuse. PAGE A4

Gambia Confronts Its Past

A 1971 game is recognized as the firstwomen’s international match, and thepioneers remember it well. PAGE B10

SPORTSWEDNESDAY B10-14

A Soccer Origin Story

The Air Force wants to expand a train-ing zone, closing parts of a wildlife ref-uge with ancient petroglyphs. PAGE A12

Battle for a Nevada Preserve

Facebook said it had signed 27 partnersto its Libra project. But executives atsome of those companies said theywere approaching it warily. PAGE B1

Doubts About Cryptocurrency

Jerome H. Powell underlined the Fed-eral Reserve’s insulation from politicsand kept the door open for interest-ratecuts at a time of uncertainty. PAGE B3

Fed Chief Focuses on Risks

Watching a few episodes of the newHBO show “Euphoria,” two youngrecovering addicts recognized somevery familiar behaviors. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

Seeing Themselves on TV

Eli Broad PAGE A31

EDITORIAL, OP-ED A30-31

WASHINGTON — Robert S.Mueller III, the former specialcounsel, has agreed to testify inpublic before Congress nextmonth about his investigation intoRussia’s election interference andpossible obstruction of justice byPresident Trump, House Demo-crats announced on Tuesdaynight.

Coming nearly three months af-ter the release of Mr. Mueller’s re-port, two back-to-back hearingson July 17 before the House Judi-ciary and Intelligence Commit-tees promise to be among themost closely watched spectaclesof Mr. Trump’s presidency, withthe power to potentially reshapethe political landscape around hisre-election campaign and a possi-ble impeachment inquiry by the

Democrat-controlled House.Mr. Mueller, a strait-laced for-

mer F.B.I. director who has spo-ken publicly only once about hiswork as special counsel, had re-sisted taking the witness stand.He knows he is certain to facequestions from both sides of apitched political fight. Many Dem-ocrats are eager to employ him tobuild a case against Mr. Trump,and Republicans are just as eagerto vindicate the president. His448-page written report, Mr.Mueller asserted, should speakfor itself.

In the end, though, the two com-mittees issued subpoenas compel-ling Mr. Mueller to speak, and heaccepted.

The chairmen of the panels,

Mueller to Testify to Congress,Setting Up a Political Spectacle

By NICHOLAS FANDOS

Continued on Page A26

A rape case involving a 7-year-old girland a video of Arabs and Jews at awedding have driven a wedge betweentwo West Bank communities. PAGE A8

INTERNATIONAL 4-11

Friendly Villages Torn Apart

Late Edition

WASHINGTON — A dividedHouse voted Tuesday to send $4.5billion in humanitarian aid to theborder to address horrific condi-tions facing a crush of migrants,attaching significant rules on howthe money could be spent in thefirst action by Democrats to reinin President Trump’s immigrationcrackdown.

But the package — whichpassed by a vote of 230 to 195nearly along party lines, only afterDemocratic leaders toughened re-strictions on the money to winover liberal skeptics — faces atough path to enactment. A simi-lar measure with many fewerstrings binding Mr. Trump hasdrawn bipartisan support in theSenate. And the House bill faces aveto threat from White House ad-visers, who regard the Senate billas the surest way to speed theneeded aid to strapped agenciesdealing with the migrant influx.

Hours before the House billpassed, Mr. Trump said that he did

not like some of the restrictionsthat lawmakers were seeking toplace on the humanitarian fund-ing, but that he badly needed theresources.

“There are some provisions, Ithink, that actually are bad forchildren,” Mr. Trump said in an in-terview for a coming book abouthis immigration policies. “Thereare a couple of points that I wouldlike to get out of it, but I also haveto get the money to be able to takecare of children and families.”

While the House debated, theadministration again overhauledthe leadership responsible for bor-der policies, naming an immigra-tion hard-liner and former FoxNews contributor as acting com-missioner of Customs and Border

Border Aid Bill Passes,As Democrats DeliverCheck on Trump Policy

A Measure RestrictsHow $4.5 Billion

Can Be Spent

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVISand EMILY COCHRANE

Continued on Page A22

HARD-LINER PICKED Mark Mor-gan will lead Customs andBorder Protection. Page A22.

T.J. KIRKPATRICK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Today, sunny to partly cloudy, verywarm, not as humid, high 88. To-night, clearing, low 72. Tomorrow,mostly sunny, very warm, humid,high 89. Weather map, Page A30.

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