Today's D Brief: Border crisis; Afghanistan peace plan; Trust in military declines; Bugs on a sub; And a bit more.
“The crisis at the border is significantly worse than Biden admin has acknowledged,” Nick Miroff of the Washington Post reported Wednesday evening. “There are now 3,500 unaccompanied minors in grim Border Patrol detention cells, [which is] a record,” he tweeted, “and they've been there an average of 107 hours.” Of those 3,500 or so minors, nearly 90% are between the ages of 13 and 17. And that’s on top of the 8,600 minors already in custody with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Now what? First, find new shelters. And that’s why HHS officials are considering shifting some migrants to Virginia’s Fort Lee and “California’s Moffett Field, a former Navy station in Santa Clara County.” Otherwise, an HHS “emergency facility” in Carrizo Springs, Tex., was just re-opened in February. “Officials are also looking into reopening a similar facility in South Florida,” Miroff reports.
“We’ve seen surges before,” said Roberta Jacobson, President Biden’s top coordinator for the Southern Border, in a press conference at the White House on Wednesday. “Surges tend to respond to hope. And there was a significant hope for a more humane policy after four years of pent-up demand.”
Jacobson also said smugglers have “spread disinformation about what was now possible” in terms of migration to the U.S. “But I don’t think anybody would say that coming to the United States in an irregular fashion is a good thing,” she told reporters. “That’s why I’ve tried repeatedly to dissuade people from — from listening to those smugglers. But we’re going to try our best to do everything we can, at each end of this — in the United States, but especially in Central America and Mexico — to ensure we have safe, orderly, and legal migration.” In other words, stay tuned because even after four years of hard-line immigration policy from POTUS45, America’s “crisis at the border” is not going away anytime soon. More from WaPo, here.
From Defense One
‘Not Enough Being Done’ to Counter China’s Growing Aggression, US Military Officials Warn // Patrick Tucker: “We have been trying to convey in Washington a sense of urgency,” said one of two senior U.S. military officials, as the Biden administration reviews Pentagon plans.
The Pentagon Can’t Spend China Into Submission, But Alliances Can Deter It, House Dems Say // Elizabeth Howe: The second hearing in as many days for the INDOPACOM commander turns toward alliance-building.
Americans’ Trust in Military Is Declining, Survey Finds // Marcus Weisgerber: Yet people still trust the military more than six other U.S. institutions.
Defense One Radio, Ep. 88 // Defense One Staff : “2034: A Novel of the Next World War” by Elliot Ackerman and James Stavridis.
How 'Mask Diplomacy' Rescued China's Image in Africa // Dinko Hanaan Dinko, The Conversation: While Beijing was nimbly pivoting, the U.S. continued to let its relationships wither.
Welcome to this Thursday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Send us tips from your community right here. And if you’re not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day just one year ago, the World Health Organization declared a global pandemic after the novel coronavirus had begun killing thousands of people around the world. President Biden is scheduled to address the nation this evening with a message of “hope,” Reuters reports, “even as [Biden] urges people to continue to be cautious to prevent further flare-ups.” The Associated Press has its own preview, here.
Look over a copy of America’s 8-page draft Afghan peace plan that made its way first to Afghanistan’s Tolo News on Sunday and now to the Washington Post, which published the document on Wednesday.
The topline read, via WaPo: “Overall, the document calls for Afghanistan’s current government to be replaced with temporary leaders, a new constitution to be drafted and a cease-fire to be brokered. Within those proposals are elements both sides have described as nonnegotiable, so the plan is unlikely to be implemented in its current form.”
Another POV: This plan is a “Hail Mary pass” from the Biden administration, CNA’s Jonathan Schroden told Vox on Monday.
One possible new date for your calendar: March 27. That’s when a proposed UN-led peace conference could happen in Turkey, according to Tolo News — and state-run Turkish media.
Don’t look now but the Taliban allegedly took control of another district center, Tolo reports separately. This one in northern Faryab province’s Almar district, which is about 25 miles from the Turkmenistan border.
Some 40 Afghan security forces reportedly fled the compound after it was surrounded by Taliban fighters. The Afghan troops are now at a base 200 meters away.
For the record: Kabul’s Defense Ministry says the district hasn’t fallen, and that what actually happened is Afghan troops “conducted an operation in the district and cleared off vast areas from Taliban and the district is under control of [Afghan and not Taliban forces].” A bit more here.
Two more ISIS affiliates in Africa were just designated as foreign terrorist organizations, according to a Wednesday statement from the U.S. State Department. The two groups are the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Democratic Republic of the Congo (aka, “ISIS-DRC”) and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria – Mozambique (“ISIS-Mozambique”). The groups’ leaders, Seka Musa Baluku and Abu Yasir Hassan, were also individually designated as terrorists.
We had heard about ISIS-Mozambique for several months. Defense One’s Patrick Tucker has reported on the groups’ disturbing rise and violent activity in recent months.
ISIS-DRC, however, is somewhat less well-known. That’s where several researchers come in with a new 53-page report (PDF) on the group, published by the George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “The report, which uses a significant amount of primary source information from defectors and locals, seeks to provide the most in-depth look into the Islamic State in the Congo and how the group fits within the Islamic State's global hierarchy,” one of the authors, Caleb Weiss, tells The D Brief.
Why this violence so far from the U.S. matters: “With formal Islamic State affiliates and pro-Islamic State groups dotted across Africa, the potential for transnational collaboration and the migration of increased numbers of regional foreign fighters may threaten regional stability.” Find the full report here.
Extra reading: “ISIS and Al-Qaeda’s Sub-Saharan Affiliates Are Poised for Growth in 2021,” Colin P. Clarke of the Soufan Group and Jacob Zenn of the Jamestown Foundation warned in a Defense One op-ed two weeks ago.
Lastly today: Bedbugs on a sub might be worse than snakes on a plane. Navy Times broke the story of the USS Connecticut’s ongoing, months-long effort to eradicate the little bloodsuckers from the $6 billion attack submarine. And Task & Purpose followed up with an interview with a former submariner-turned-bedbug inspector, who says that the only surefire way to eliminate the pests is to heat the environment up past 135 degrees, which seems unlikely to happen.