San Antonio

Migrants Sue Florida Governor Over Martha’s Vineyard Flights

By Maura Sirianni

and Associated Press
September 21, 2022

The lawsuit alleges that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, and were induced with perks like McDonald’s gift cards.

Venezuelan migrants flown from San Antonio, Texas, to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha’s Vineyard are suing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary for engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, “which was completely false,” and were induced with perks such as $10 McDonald’s gift certificates.

“No human being should be used as a political pawn,” said Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of Lawyers for Civil Rights, which is seeking class-action status in the lawsuit filed on behalf of several migrants who were aboard last week’s flights and Alianza Americas, a network of advocacy groups.

“It is opportunistic that activists would use illegal immigrants for political theater,” said Taryn Fenske, DeSantis’ communication director, in a statement late Tuesday.

The lawsuit, which also names Florida Transportation Secretary Jared W. Perdue as a defendant, alleges that migrants were induced to cross state lines under false pretenses, a line that some Democratic officials are using to urge a federal investigation.

On Monday, Javier Salazar, the sheriff of Bexar County, which includes San Antonio, opened an investigation into the flights, but the elected Democrat did not say what laws may have been broken. California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio, have asked the Justice Department to begin a probe.

Guesswork was rampant among government officials, advocates and journalists Tuesday about DeSantis’ next move, consistent with the element of surprise that he and another Republican governor, Greg Abbott of Texas, have sought to achieve by busing and flying migrants across the country to Democratic strongholds with little or no notice.

Asked Tuesday about speculation that DeSantis may send migrants to his home state of Delaware, President Joe Biden said: “He should come visit. We have a beautiful shoreline.”

DeSantis declined to confirm speculation, based on flight-tracking software, that more migrants were on the move. He again defended his decision to fly about 50 Venezuelans to Martha’s Vineyard, saying their decisions were completely voluntary and, without evidence, that they were in awful condition when Florida got involved.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Texas Opens Investigation Into Migrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard

and Associated Press
September 20, 2022

Attorneys say migrants were misled before they boarded flights to the wealthy Massachusetts island.

An investigation is now underway in Texas after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sent two flights of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard last week.

Attorneys say migrants were misled before they boarded flights to the wealthy Massachusetts island.

The controversy comes as Republican governors continue to transport migrants to Democratic-led states in protest of the Biden Administration’s polices at the southern border.

Migrants have told journalists and immigration attorneys they were singled out and recruited under false pretenses, and given promises of jobs, shelter and aid.

Those 48 asylum seekers, mostly from Venezuela, were looking for safety and security after fleeing a country in economic and political turmoil.

They arrived at the southwest border in Texas, were processed by federal immigration authorities and released. Some ended up at a shelter in San Antonio, where they informed their attorneys that a crew and a blonde haired woman in particular made promises to them that they could to another city, get shelter, a job and aid, all at no expense.

They were transported on a private jet, paid for by the State of Florida which has apportioned money for immigrant removals in this year’s budget.

When the news broke last week, the governor of Florida took credit, giving the news first to conservative news outlets. Governor Ron DeSantis was eager to frame this as highlighting liberal hypocrisy on immigration. But as the story trickled out about the migrants arrived and who in effect recruited them, it caught the attention of local law enforcement in San Antonio.

“We want to know what what was what was promised to them,” said Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar. “What, if anything, did they sign? Did they even understand the document that was put in front of them if they signed something? Or was this strictly a predatory measure, somebody coming and preying upon people that are here, minding their own business and are here legally, not bothering a soul, but somebody saw fit to come from another state, hunt them down, prey upon them, and then take advantage of their desperate situation just for the sake of political theater, just for the sake of making some sort of a statement and putting people’s lives in danger?”

The migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard sued Gov. DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a “fraudulent and discriminatory scheme” to relocate them.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Texas Sheriff Investigating Migrant Flights To Martha’s Vineyard

By Associated Press

and Newsy Staff
September 20, 2022

A San Antonio-area sheriff is investigating two flights out of his county last week, which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis claimed responsibility for.

A Texas sheriff on Monday opened an investigation into two flights of migrants sent to Martha’s Vineyard by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but did not say what laws may have been broken in putting 48 Venezuelans on private planes last week from San Antonio.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar, an elected Democrat, railed against the flights that took off in his city as political posturing. But he said investigators had so far only spoken to attorneys representing some of the migrants and did not name any potential suspects who might face charges.

He also did not mention DeSantis in a news conference that appeared to mark the first time a law enforcement official has said they would look into the flights.

“I believe there is some criminal activity involved here,” Salazar said. “But at present we are trying to keep an open mind and we are going to investigate to find out what exact laws were broken if that does turn out to be the case.”

DeSantis’ office responded with a statement that said the migrants had been given more options to succeed in Massachusetts.

“Immigrants have been more than willing to leave Bexar County after being abandoned, homeless, and ‘left to fend for themselves,’” DeSantis spokesperson Taryn Fenske said. “Florida gave them an opportunity to seek greener pastures in a sanctuary jurisdiction that offered greater resources for them, as we expected.”

The Venezuelan migrants who were flown to the wealthy Massachusetts island from San Antonio on Wednesday said they were told they were going to Boston. Julio Henriquez, an attorney who met with several migrants, said they “had no idea of where they were going or where they were.”

He said a Latina woman approached migrants at a city-run shelter in San Antonio and put them up at a nearby La Quinta Inn, where she visited daily with food and gift cards. She promised jobs and three months of housing in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, according to Henriquez.

Salazar said the migrants had been “preyed upon” and “hoodwinked.”

Some Democrats have urged the Justice Department to investigate the flights, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, whose district includes San Antonio.

A federal investigation might be complicated, however. It’s not clear whether anyone boarded buses or planes unwillingly, or that their civil rights were violated. The rights of asylum seekers arriving to the U.S. are also more limited because they are not citizens. The Constitution, though, does protect them from discrimination based on race or national origin and from improper treatment by the government.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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The Almost-Mass Shooter: Man Reflects On Stepping Away From The Edge

Aaron Stark discusses his emotions and circumstances that drove him to buy a gun and nearly go on a rampage at 16 years old.

Aaron Stark is a dad, husband, full-time worker and self-described nerd. But life wasn’t always so normal.

“I grew up in a really dark and violent and chaotic life,” Stark said.

Stark says from a young age, adults around him turned life into a Stephen King horror story.

“I never went to school more than six months,” Stark said. “I was constantly the new kid. I was dirty, fat and smelly. I adopted that early on as my persona. I was told I was worthless by everybody in my life, and when you’re told you’re worthless enough, you will believe it.”

He tried to get help but says the system repeatedly failed him. He came close to a point of no return: almost becoming a mass shooter.

NEWSY’S CLAYTON SANDELL: What was the tipping point that made you want to shoot up your school?

AARON STARK: I saw a therapist, and I don’t really remember much of that conversation because all I remember is the end of it. The young lady, early 20s or so, said, “I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t help you.” As I walked out of that door, my brain shattered.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all profile of a mass shooter, Stark ticked a few boxes. According to the Violence Project study of nearly 180 mass shootings, 98% were committed by men, about half are white and many are under 30 years old.

Of all the shootings in the database, only four were committed by women. Psychiatrists say young males are more prone violence.

“It’s not just about mass shootings,” said Jonathan Metzl, director of Vanderbilt University’s Department of Medicine, Health and Society. “Young men between 15 and 25 make up the vast majority of people who die in fights, in car accidents.”

Brain chemistry is part of the reason. Scientists say the prefrontal cortex that helps humans understand consequences of actions isn’t done growing.

“The male mind is not fully developed in terms of this kind of impulse control, probably until the mid-late 20s,” Metzl said.

For psychiatrists like Metzl, it’s one of the biggest arguments for limiting gun sales to people 21 and older.

“In the U.S., we’ve gone exactly the opposite direction we keep pushing,” Metzl said. “Even in spite of all this data, we push the age limit down to 18 pretty much everywhere.”

Only a few pictures of that period of Stark’s adolescence have made it to present day.

“I lived in a very dark and angry life,” Stark said. “I spent my whole life hating myself. In that time I also snuck into the family members’ photo albums and destroyed all the pictures of me before 15 years old. I was trying to annihilate my own existence.”

He was on the brink of not only annihilating himself, but as many others as he could take with him.

“Instead of talking about girls or sports or movies, we talked about killing people,” Stark said. “If you’re going to kill 10 people, what would you do? If you’re going to kill 20 people, what would you do?”

Stark says he was ready to die. Then, his life changed again. One of the few friends he had left reached out.

“He’s like, ‘Dude, you’re gonna be okay,'” Stark said. “He would always tell me, ‘You’re a good kid in the crap world.” He brought me in, sat me down, and we had a movie and had a meal and gave me a shower and treated me like I was a person when I didn’t feel human at all. I felt like I was a walking ball of destruction, like I was just death walking on the street, and he treated me like I was just a kid in pain. It was like a splash of water in my face.”

Stark now travels the country telling his story.

“If I can help some person, anybody else, out of their own depression by talking about it, I’m going to keep talking until I don’t have a voice,” Stark said.

Newsy caught up with him in San Antonio, Texas.

“Today I will be presenting my story to a whole convention of teachers and administrators,” Stark said. “It’s going to be a very intense day. These were the teachers that specifically were in the Uvalde school district.”

Stark said he deeply recognized some of the Uvalde’s shooter’s story.

“The biggest thing that made me see myself in his story was a couple weeks before it happened,” Stark said. “He showed up to school with his face covered in razor marks. To me, that’s the biggest sign of someone saying, ‘I’m hurting me. Help me.’ I don’t think anyone could have stopped his slide at that point, but maybe we can stop the next one.”

Stark says he never thought he’d live past 30 years old. Now at 43, he’s dedicating his life to helping stop a cycle of violence.

“Everybody’s pain is individual, and the key of it is to see the person as an individual to break through that barrier,” Stark said. “I somehow managed to now be able to use my darkest time to help someone else out of theirs. If anybody listening can get one message: Just give love to the people you think deserve it the least, because they need it the most.”

Newsy’s mental health initiative “America’s Breakdown: Confronting Our Mental Health Crisis” brings you deeply personal and thoughtfully told stories on the state of mental health care in the U.S. Click here to learn more.

: newsy.com

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Uvalde Teacher Shot Says She’s Not Returning To The Classroom

A teacher injured in the Robb Elementary School shooting will not be returning to a classroom this year, while she recovers from being shot.

Decorations that once brought life to Elsa Avila’s fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary School now sit in brown boxes.

“Every year, you know, I was there,” said Avila.

She would be in class preparing for the school year, just like her siblings — a family of educators.

“She teaches first grade at UDLA and this is my other sister that she teaches fifth grade at Florence Elementary,” she said.

But after a 30-year teaching career, this year Avila is focused on recovering physically, mentally and emotionally from a mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead at her school, and paralyzed her passion.

“It’s different this year. I sleep with my light on. You know, I can’t handle the dark because we were in the dark for an hour,” said Avila.

On May 24, after an award ceremony, Avila and her students headed back to room 109.

“They were all just so happy, laughing and smiling,” she said.

That excitement quickly vanished when students heard screams coming from the hallway.

“I heard a teacher yelling. ‘Get in your rooms. Get in your rooms.’ We heard the gunshots. I stood for my crouched position to motion to them to come come nearer to me. And as I stood is when I felt the impact on my lower abdomen. I felt the gunshot.” she said.

She texted her family and the school vice principal.

“I told her, I’m shot. The two little girls that were closest to me would come and they would tap on my shoulder, you know, they would try to move me and they would say, you’re going to be okay, miss. It’s okay. We love you. We love you,” said Avila.

Help finally arrived an hour after she was shot.

“My biggest fear was like, I’m going to die in front of my students. You know, I don’t want them to see me, to see me die. I was there to protect them but they ended up having to protect themselves, trying to help me,” she continued.

She’s still haunted by the terror that swept across campus.

Avila was flown to a hospital in San Antonio and later found out one of her students was injured by shrapnel.

It was a heartwrenching reality and trauma that’s now holding her back from teaching.

“My biggest fear is that I won’t be able to handle it, that I won’t, you know, have a meltdown or an anxiety attack or panic attack,” said Avila.

NEWSY’S ADI GUAJARDO: What message do you have for kids going back to school this week?

ELSA AVILA: That they can move forward. They are strong. They’re brave. They’ve already been through the hardest thing that anyone can go through.

Avila tells Newsy she’s considering returning to teaching in the spring, but says it’s just too early to make that decision.

: newsy.com

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Border Patrol: 9 Migrants Die Crossing Swift Texas River

The CBP said U.S. crews rescued 37 others from the river and detained 16 more, while Mexican officials took 39 migrants into custody.

Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border searched for more victims Saturday after at least nine migrants died while trying to cross the rain-swollen Rio Grande river, a dangerous border-crossing attempt in an area where the water level had risen by more than 2 feet in a single day.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Mexican officials discovered the victims near Eagle Pass, Texas, on Thursday, following days of heavy rains. U.S. officials recovered six bodies, while Mexican teams recovered three, according to a CBP statement. It is one of the deadliest drownings on the U.S.-Mexico border in recent history.

The river, which was a little more than 3 feet deep at the start of the week, reached more than 5 feet on Thursday, and the water was flowing five times faster than usual, according to the National Weather Service.

“There was much more water in the river after that rain, and there was more rain upstream, which adds to the flow,” said NWS meteorologist Bob Fogarty.

The CBP said U.S. crews rescued 37 others from the river and detained 16 more, while Mexican officials took 39 migrants into custody.

CBP did not say what country or countries the migrants were from and did not provide any additional information on rescue and search operations. Local agencies in Texas that were involved have not responded to requests for information.

The Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, is fast becoming the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. Agents stopped migrants nearly 50,000 times in the sector in July, with Rio Grande Valley a distant second at about 35,000. Eagle Pass is about 140 miles southwest of San Antonio.

The area draws migrants from dozens of countries, many of them families with young children. About six of 10 stops in the Del Rio sector in July were migrants from Venezuela, Cuba or Nicaragua.

The sector, which extends 245 miles along the Río Grande, has been especially dangerous because river currents can be deceptively fast and change quickly. Crossing the river can be challenging even for strong swimmers.

In a news release last month, CBP said it had discovered bodies of more than 200 dead migrants in the sector from October through July.

This year is on track to break last year’s record for the most deaths on the U.S.-Mexico border since 2014, when the U.N. International Organization for Migration began keeping track. The organization has tallied more than 4,000 deaths on the border since 2014, based on news reports and other sources, including 728 last year and 412 during the first seven months of this year, often from dehydration or drowning. June was the fourth-deadliest month on record, with 138 fatalities.

The Border Patrol has not released official tallies since 2020.

In June, 53 migrants were found dead or dying in a tractor-trailer on a back road in San Antonio in the deadliest documented tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico.

Some of the busiest crossings on the border — including Eagle Pass and Yuma, Arizona — were relatively quiet two years ago and now largely draw migrants from outside Mexico and Central America’s ‘Northern Triangle’ countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico has agreed to take migrants from the ‘Northern Triangle’ countries, as well as its own nationals, if they are expelled from the United States under Title 42, the pandemic rule in effect since March 2020 that denies rights to seek asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.

People from other countries are likely to be released into the United States on humanitarian parole or with notices to appear in immigration court because the U.S. has difficulty flying them home due to costs, strained diplomatic relations or other considerations. In the Border Patrol’s Del Rio sector, which includes Eagle Pass, only one of every four stops in July were processed under the pandemic rule, compared to about half across the rest of the border, according to government figures.

Venezuelans were by far the most common nationality encountered by Border Patrol agents in the Del Rio sector in July, accounting for 14,120 of 49,563 stops, or nearly three in 10. They were followed by Cubans, who were stopped 10,275 times, and then by Mexicans, Hondurans, Nicaraguans and Colombians, in that order.

As more people crossed into South Texas in the 2010s, Brooks County became a death trap for many migrants who tried walking around a Border Patrol highway checkpoint in the town of Falfurrias, about 70 miles north of the border. Smugglers dropped them off before the checkpoint and made arrangements to pick them up on the other side, but some perished on the way from dehydration.

The Baboquivari Mountains in Arizona and ranches in Texas’ Brooks County still draw Border Patrol agents and grief-stricken families hoping to rescue migrants or, if not, find corpses, but the deceptively strong currents around the Texas towns of Eagle Pass and Del Rio have become increasingly dangerous as the area has become one of the most popular spots to enter the United States illegally.

Not all victims are migrants. In April this year, the body of a Texas guardsman was recovered from the Rio Grande. He had jumped in to try to help a migrant who was struggling in the water.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Why Are Border Encounters At An All-Time High?

CBP estimates show one in four people agents encountered in May were caught crossing the border more than once.

2022 has been a record year along the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Customs Border and Protection data shows monthly encounters have nearly doubled month to month from last year.

In 2021, there were a total of 1.7 million migrants. CBP has already seen more than 1.5 million encounters this fiscal year.

For over two years, border agents have sent millions of people back from the border under Title 42.

The health policy allows officials to turn away asylum seekers under the justification that there is “serious danger of the introduction of disease into the United States.”

Officials say this has led to repeat crossers.

CBP estimates show one in four people agents encountered in May were caught crossing the border more than once.

Title 42 is tied up in the courts as the Biden administration seeks to end the order.

A second Trump administration immigration policy may soon come to an end.

The Supreme Court in late June sided with the Biden White House in its effort to end the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

The rule required migrants from a third country to wait in Mexico while their asylum application moves through the courts.

Politicians, like Republican governor Greg Abbott of Texas, point the blame of the ongoing surge at the Biden administration.

Most migrants illegally crossing the border have landed in Texas. Agents say the influx has left them overburdened.

The Biden administration says it has maintained its message that the border is not open.

Vice president Kamala Harris, who is tapped to lead the white house’s response to border challenges, says more needs to be done to address the root causes as to why so many migrants are arriving at the border.

Pew Research Center findings show most migrants are coming from countries other than Mexico, predominantly from the northern triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, high rates of domestic violence, poverty and gang activity have contributed to more families fleeing north.

The passage is risky. More than 50 migrants died inside an overheated semi truck in San Antonio.

And the Missing Migrants Project recorded more than 1,200 migrants who went missing or died along the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021.

The White House says it is focusing efforts on its new anti-smuggling campaign.

The president says officials have made over 2,400 arrests in the three months since its creation.

In Washington, Democrats and Republicans agree action is needed. But there is no agreement on what needs to change.

Democrats are split on Title 42, with some wanting the policy to stay in place until there is a full plan to deal with increased activity at the border. Republicans want the policy intact, and construction on president Trump’s border wall to resume to stem the flow of people heading north.

But as both sides look for answers, the surge in migration shows no signs of ending soon.

: newsy.com

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2 People Indicted In Migrant-Trailer Case That Left 53 Dead

By Associated Press
July 21, 2022

Homero Zamorano Jr. and Christian Martinez both face up to life in prison for the deaths while attempting to illegally smuggle migrants.

Two men were indicted Wednesday in the case of a hot, airless tractor-trailer rig found last month with 53 dead or dying migrants in San Antonio, officials said.

A federal grand jury in San Antonio indicted Homero Zamorano Jr., 46, and Christian Martinez, 28, both of Pasadena, Texas, on counts of transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in death; and transporting and conspiring to transport migrants illegally resulting in serious injury.

Both remain in federal custody without bond pending trial. Martinez’s attorney, David Shearer of San Antonio, declined to comment on the indictments. A message to Zamorano’s attorney was not immediately returned.

Conviction on the death counts could result in life sentences, but the Attorney General’s Office could authorize prosecutors to seek death penalties. The serious bodily injury counts carry sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives of migrants smuggled across the border from Mexico. The truck had been packed with 67 people, and the dead included 27 from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, said Francisco Garduño, chief of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute.

The incident happened on a remote San Antonio back road on June 27. Arriving police officers detained Zamorano after spotting him hiding in some nearby brush, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. A search of Zamorano’s cellphone revealed calls with Martinez concerning the smuggling run.

Surveillance video of the 18-wheeler passing through a Border Patrol checkpoint showed the driver matched Zamorano’s description, according to the indictment. One survivor of the journey, a 20-year-old from Guatemala, told The Associated Press that smugglers had covered the trailer’s floor with what she believes was powdered chicken bouillon, apparently to throw off any dogs at the checkpoint.

The tragedy occurred at a time when huge numbers of migrants have been coming to the U.S., many of them taking perilous risks to cross swift rivers and canals and scorching desert landscapes. Migrants were stopped nearly 240,000 times in May, up by one-third from a year ago.

Of the 73 people in the truck, those who died included people from the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, Zacatecas, Queretaro, Morelos and Mexico City. Migrants from Honduras and Guatemala also were among those who died in the deadliest known smuggling attempt in the United States.

In 2017, 10 people died after being trapped inside a truck parked at a San Antonio Walmart. In 2003, the bodies of 19 migrants were found in a sweltering truck southeast of the city.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press.

: newsy.com

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Western Temperatures Are Hitting Triple Digits This Summer

Temperatures are hitting triple digits in western states all the way from Vegas to Oklahoma, and San Antonio to Montana.

Temperatures hit triple digits — 100 degrees, from Vegas to Oklahoma City, and San Antonio all the way to Billings, Montana.

“People will dehydrate a lot faster than they every think,” said Stacy Chronister, a medical school professor.

Doctors are warning about health hazards.

“That moment when you feel like you’re kind of moving through mud a little bit, and really dragging, that’s a big sign,” Chronister said.

Programs in places like Tucson are trying to keep the unhoused cool.

Michael Colianni is a firefighter at Tucson Fire Department.

“Not everyone has the luxury that others do when it comes to air conditioning, being able to stay indoors and work indoors,” Colianni said.

The latest wave is part of a brutal summer.

It’s already testing the endurance of livestock and crops.

“With the heat, they’re constantly in the shade,” said Jordan Eidson, a Wagoner County, Oklahoma rancher.

“Not only have we suffered from just drought or lack of rain, but the heat has intensified all that for us,” said George McDonald, a Tennessee farm owner.

It’s straining energy budgets.

“The total bill was $592.09 for two months,” said Veronica Bowleg, a Palm Beach County resident.

Repair shops are full of overheated cars.

“Check your vehicle before you leave, make sure you know whats going on in your car before you hit the road,” said Justin Hopkins, with the Nevada Department of Transportation.

Across the pond, a brutal heat wave stopped flights at a London-area airport after part of the runway started to melt.

The city is forecasted to hit north of 100 degrees Tuesday.

It could be the hottest temp ever recorded in Britain.

“It’s very important to be hydrated, to keep on drinking,” a tourist said.

In Paris, tourists are trying to stay cool.

“This sun and this hot it’s a little hard for our body,” a tourist said.

The relief of Fall still sits more than two months away.

For Parisians and Floridians alike, it’s only going to get hotter.

“It’s comin’, August is the worst. August is — it gets real hot,” said Sean, a postal worker in Palm Beach County.

: newsy.com

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Payment Data Could Become Evidence of Abortion, Now Illegal in Some States

Digital payments are the default for millions of women of childbearing age. So what will their credit and debit card issuers and financial app providers do when prosecutors seek their transaction data during abortion investigations?

It’s a hypothetical question that’s almost certainly an inevitable one in the wake of the overturning of Roe v. Wade last week. Now that abortion is illegal in several states, criminal investigators will soon begin their hunt for evidence to prosecute those they say violated the law.

Medical records are likely to be the most definitive proof of what now is a crime, but officials who cannot get those may look for evidence elsewhere. The payment trail is likely to be a high priority.

HIPAA — which governs the privacy of a patient’s health records — permits medical and billing records to be released in response to a warrant or subpoena.

“There is a very broad exception to the HIPAA protections for law enforcement,” said Marcy Wilder, a partner and co-head of the global privacy and cybersecurity practice at Hogan Lovells, a law firm. But Ms. Wilder added that the information shared with law enforcement officials could not be overly broad or unrelated to the request. “That is why it matters how companies and health plans are interpreting this.”

Card issuers and networks like Visa and Mastercard generally do not have itemized lists of everything that people pay for when they shop for prescription drugs or other medications online, or when they purchase services at health care providers. But evidence of patronage of, say, a pharmacy that sells only abortion pills could give someone away.

a new state law authorizes residents to file lawsuits against anyone who helped facilitate an abortion.

“With the ruling only coming down late last week, it’s premature to understand the full impact at the state level,” Brad Russell, a USAA spokesman, said via email. “However, USAA will always comply with all applicable laws.”

American Airlines Credit Union, Bank of America, Capital One, Discover, Goldman Sachs, Prosperity Bank USA, Navy Federal Credit Union, US Bank, University of Wisconsin Credit Union, Wells Fargo and Western Union did not return at least two messages seeking comment.

American Express, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Wells Fargo have all announced their intentions to reimburse employees for expenses if they travel to other states for abortions. So far, none have commented about how they would respond to a subpoena seeking the transaction records of the very employees who would be eligible for employer reimbursement.

Amie Stepanovich, vice president of U.S. policy at the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit focused on data privacy and protection, said warrants and subpoenas can be accompanied by gag orders, which can prevent companies from even alerting their customers that they’re being investigated.

“They can choose to battle the use of gag orders in court,” she said. “Sometimes they win, sometimes they don’t.”