(New York) — A large crowd of mourners packed a public funeral service for Gabby Petito, the slain 22-year-old travel blogger, on Sunday afternoon in Long Island, near where Petito grew up in Blue Point, New York.
The service was live-streamed online and showed the full length of a wall in a chapel at Moloney’s Holbrook Funeral Home, decorated with photos of Petito. An altar at the front of the chapel was covered in flowers and memorial candles.
Petito’s parents and relatives sat in the front row of the chapel accepting condolences from friends, family and strangers.
A prayer card handed out to mourners contained a poem title “Let it be,” a phrase Petito had tattooed on her arm.
“Do not grieve for me for I am free. I am traveling a path the Lord has taken me,” the poem reads. “Be not burdened with times of sorrow. I wish for you the sunshine of tomorrow. Perhaps my time seemed too brief. Do not lengthen it with undue grief. Lift up your hearts and share with me the memories that will always be.”
During the service, Petito’s father, Joseph, and her stepfather, Jim Schmidt, former chief of the Blue Point Fire Department, spoke.
Joseph Petito described his daughter as having “ridiculously blue eyes” and told mourners that “her nature was always to smile and treat everybody kind.”
“I want you to take a look at these pictures, and I want you to be inspired by Gabby,” Petito said. “If there’s a trip you guys want to take, take it now. Do it now while you have the time. If there is a relationship that you’re in that might not be the best thing for you, leave it now.”
Jim Schmidt added that throughout his career as a firefighter he has had to arrange funerals and give eulogies but added, “not one of them has prepared me for this moment.”
He pointed out a photo behind him of Petito as a little girl and said, “I still see Gabby as this.”
“Parents aren’t supposed to bury their children. This is not how life is supposed to work,” Schmidt said.
He added, “Gabby, at 22 years old, helped teach me that you can always make money but you can’t make up for lost time. Gabby loved life and lived her life every single day. She is an example for all of us to live by, to enjoy every moment in this beautiful world as she did. To love and give love to all like she did.”
Petito’s mother spoke out the night before the funeral with a heartfelt message to supporters.
Nicole Schmidt posted a message on Facebook late Saturday night following a 12-day silence.
“As I scroll through all the posts, my heart is full of love,” Schmidt wrote. “I wish I could reach out and hug each and every one of you!!! Your support has been so overwhelming, and we are so filled with gratitude.”
Schmidt also posted a series of family photos of her daughter as well as images of Petito traveling, telling supporters, “Please know what you are all doing for us does not go unnoticed, and with all of you by our side, we will get #justiceforgabby.”
Petito’s body was discovered a week ago Sunday in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming after her family reported her missing on Sept. 11. She vanished while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, who authorities are still searching for and have named a “person of interest” in her death, which has been ruled a homicide.
An arrest warrant has been issued for Laundrie stemming from his alleged unauthorized use of a debit card to withdraw $1,000 during the period in which Petito was missing, according to the Associated Press. The FBI has not disclosed whose card Laundrie allegedly used.
Joseph Petito announced Saturday the creation of The Gabby Petito Foundation, which he said will provide resources and guidance to families of missing children.
“No one should have to find their child on their own,” he wrote on Twitter, “we are looking to help people in similar situations as Gabby.”
A vigil was held Saturday night in Florida for Petito.
People who were touched by her story gathered in North Port, Florida, outside the Laundrie home, attempting to convey a message to the family that they want justice for Petito.
Residents of Blue Point honored Petito on Friday night by lining streets in the city with thousands of memorial candles.
(DENVER) — The 6-year-old girl who died on a ride at a Colorado amusement park earlier this month was never strapped into her seat — and two operators failed to notice even after a monitor alerted them to a seatbelt safety issue — before the ride plunged 110 feet, according to a state investigation.
Wongel Estifanos was visiting Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park, located atop Iron Mountain in Glenwood Springs, with her family on Sept. 5 when she went on the Haunted Mine Drop ride, a free-fall drop down a pitch-black shaft.
After reviewing video surveillance and operating manuals, investigators with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety determined that when Wongel got on the ride, she sat in a previously unoccupied seat on top of two already-locked seatbelts, and that “multiple operator errors” and “inadequate training” contributed to the fatal accident, according to a report released Friday.
The girl was only holding the tail of one seatbelt across her lap, but when checking her seat, a ride operator “did not notice that the seatbelts were not positioned across her lap,” according to the report.
The ride’s control panel alerted the operator to an error with one of the seatbelts on Wongel’s seat, indicating that that seatbelt had not been properly unlocked after the previous ride cycle, according to the report. The operator returned “multiple times” to check the seatbelt and buckle it to no avail, but “did not believe the error because they were convinced the restraint had been cycled,” the report stated.
A second ride operator then unlocked the seatbelts using a manual switch, clearing the error on the ride’s control system, “without unloading passengers to determine what the issue was,” the report stated. This decision did not resolve the problem — that Wongel was not wearing the seatbelts — and demonstrated that the operator “did not have a complete understanding” of the control system’s safety indicators, according to the report.
The second operator also checked the girl’s seatbelts but “did not notice that neither of the seatbelts were positioned across her lap,” according to the report.
With no error on the control panel, the second operator was then able to dispatch the ride.
“Because Ms. Estifanos was not restrained in the seat she became separated from her seat and fell to the bottom of the [Haunted Mine Drop] shaft, resulting in her death,” the report stated.
Operators were not formally trained to unbuckle all seatbelts following each ride, though it was common practice and one that the first operator performed “inconsistently” on earlier rides, according to the report.
The operators are supposed to buckle the seatbelts for each of the ride’s six passengers and confirm the restraints are over their laps, per the manufacturer’s operating manual, as “passengers cannot be expected to know or correctly execute the safety procedures for this ride,” the report stated. Both operators failed to follow these procedures, according to the report.
The report also determined that the operators’ training “did not appear to emphasize the inherent risks of the ride,” and that the manufacturer’s operating manual “does not instruct operators on how to properly address errors.”
The Haunted Mine Drop is currently closed, and future plans for the ride are “undetermined,” the amusement park said.
“Safety is, and always has been, our top priority,” Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park founder Steve Beckley said in a statement following the release of the report. “Since opening our first ride just over 15 years ago, Glenwood Caverns Adventure Park has delivered more than 10 million safe and enjoyable rides.”
“We have been working closely with the Colorado Division of Oil and Public Safety and independent safety experts to review this incident,” he continued, noting that the amusement park will review the report “carefully for recommendations.”
“More than anything, we want the Estifanos family to know how deeply sorry we are for their loss and how committed we are to making sure it never happens again,” he added.
In a statement to Denver ABC affiliate KMGH-TV, Dan Caplis, an attorney for the Estifanos family, said that Wongel’s parents had received the report and called on people who have “experienced problems” with the Haunted Mine Drop to come forward.
“Wongel’s parents are determined to do everything in their power to make sure that no one ever dies this way again,” said Caplis, who told the station he intends to file a lawsuit against the park on behalf of the family.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — At least three people are dead after an Amtrak train derailed in remote northern Montana on Saturday.
Seven cars on the train, Empire Builder 7/27, derailed at about 4 p.m. local time near Joplin, according to Amtrak. The rail line confirmed there were injuries in the accident, but offered no more details.
The three deaths were confirmed by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Department. Officials did not say how many total were injured.
There were approximately 146 passengers and 16 crew members on board the train, Amtrak said. The train was traveling from Chicago to Seattle.
Several passengers on the train shared images of the front cars off the track, with some tipped on their sides.
Amtrak said in a statement that anyone with questions about friends or family who were traveling on the derailed train should call 800-523-9101.
It was not immediately clear what caused the derailment.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it is launching a “go team” to investigate the derailment.
Liberty County is an extremely rural part of northern Montana, with only a few thousand residents despite being larger than the entire state of Rhode Island.
Great Falls is the largest nearby city, about 100 miles south of Joplin. The state capital of Helena is about three hours south of Joplin by car.
ABC News’ Stefan Joyce and Matt Foster contributed to this report.
(MOSCOW) — As the Hispanic and Latino population grows throughout the U.S., New Mexico has established itself as a haven for people of Latin American and Hispanic descent.
That culture can be seen throughout the streets — in the Pueblo- and Spanish-style architecture, the traditional santeros and the Mexican artistry.
“The Land of Enchantment” is the most Hispanic and Latino state in the country, with 49% of its population identifying as such, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. But this population can’t be so easily defined.
“We see ourselves as multicultural: Mexican, American, Latino, Chicano, Indigenous — We’re what we call ‘mestizaje,’ a mixture of blood and culture,” said Denise Chavez, a Chicana writer and playwright. “There’s no place quite like it.”
This state has a turbulent history of colonialism that led to diverse traditions, a blend of cultures, a complicated clashing of identities.
Indigenous and Native communities have occupied now-New Mexico for centuries. It wasn’t until the late 1500s that Spanish colonizers created their first settlements.
New Mexico’s capital, Santa Fe, is the oldest in the U.S., since it was designated 400 years ago. It became the 47th state in 1912, about five weeks before Arizona gained statehood.
“Spanish is the first [European] language we spoke in what is today the United States, so it’s not a foreign language,” said Rob Martinez, a state historian.
With the region dominated by Spain before Mexico governed it the 1800s, those Indigenous roots run deep, Martinez explained.
“It’s never pleasant to be on the receiving end of conquest and colonization,” Martinez said. “I like to tell people: Our culture and our history are brilliant, they’re magnificent, but history is also violent and scary, and you have to be brave to study your history.”
This culture represented in the lively traditions seen throughout the streets.
Art is a major part of the culture — Mexican retablos, paintings of saints on wood, and santeros, the painted and carved images of saints, can be seen at historical sites, churches and homes throughout New Mexico.
“This is a tradition from the late 1700s and early 1800s — it’s truly New Mexican,” Martinez said. “It’s a combination of Roman Catholicism and folk Catholicism. It’s a very beautiful, very stark and straightforward art form. People love this religious and cultural expression.”
And when in New Mexico, Chavez said, visitors must have a dish featuring the state’s prized vegetable: chile. It’s used to add a pungent, smoky kick to stews, sauce, tamales, sandwiches and more — and is a staple of New Mexican cuisine.
“We’re just at the end of chile season, which is an incredible time in New Mexico,” Chavez said. “The smell of green chile, the harvest, going out to the farms, getting your chile and roasting it … a lot of our traditions have to do with food.”
Another integral, and controversial, piece of New Mexican culture is the Fiesta de Santa Fe.
The annual celebration commemorates the reconquest of Santa Fe in 1692, according to Martinez. The city was “founded” by Spanish colonists in 1610, but in 1680 Pueblo natives fought back, burning down the city and driving out the Spanish, who fled to present day Juarez, Mexico.
“They didn’t want to get rid of their languages, they did not want to lose their religion, they did not want to lose their culture,” Martinez said. “So there’s a revolt — the first revolution in what’s today the United States.”
In 1692, the king of Spain ordered a resettlement mission. The Spanish retook those lands and began oppressing the natives, said Patricia Marie Perea, the Hispanic and literary arts educator at the National Hispanic Cultural Center.
“There’s always some tension between the Indigenous communities and those who are celebrating the Spanish and the conquest into New Mexico,” said Perea. “It’s such a hard thing to contend with.”
For this reason, Perea said, celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month — Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 — can be a bit complicated.
“Hispanic” refers to people who descend from Spanish-speaking countries. Considering the state’s long history of Spanish colonialism, many New Mexicans denounce the term.
And while the population has expanded to include so many people of many Latin American cultures, the state’s history adds to the intensity and passion with which New Mexicans defend their roots.
“There is hope here,” Chavez said, “and that’s what makes New Mexico so wonderful — the never-dying hope of its people.”
(FORT BLISS, N.M.) — The FBI is investigating after a female U.S. service member reported she was assaulted by a group of male Afghan evacuees at Fort Bliss in New Mexico.
The woman, who was helping to support the evacuees brought from Afghanistan to the United States in the wake of the Taliban reclaiming the country, reported she was assaulted by a small group at the Doña Ana Complex on Sept. 19, according to Lt. Col. Allie M. Payne, the director of public affairs for Fort Bliss.
“We take the allegation seriously and appropriately referred the matter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” Payne said in a statement. “The safety and well-being of our service members, as well as all of those on our installations, is paramount. We immediately provided appropriate care, counseling and support to the service member.”
The base also said it is adding security measures, like increased lighting, safety patrols and enforcing a buddy system.
“We received the referral from Fort Bliss and our office is investigating the allegation,” FBI El Paso said in a statement.
There were no further details about the incident.
The Doña Ana Complex, which is about a half hour north of Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, across the New Mexico border, is used as a firing range, but was converted into a sprawling, air conditioned tent city for incoming evacuees.
The Biden administration chose Fort Bliss two weeks ago when it granted access to the media to one of the facilities housing the tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees who were flown out of Kabul in a frenzied, chaotic process prompted by the Taliban reasserting control of the country much sooner than anticipated.
About 10,000 evacuees are staying at the facility until they can be processed and resettled, according to U.S. officials. All of the evacuees were subject to a thorough vetting process before they were flown to the U.S., according to U.S. officials.
News of the investigation of the assault on a female service member follows the arrests of two Afghan evacuees at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin this week.
Mohammad Haroon Imaad, 32, was charged with strangling and suffocating his wife in an incident that took place Sept. 7, according to the indictment, and Bahrullah Noori, 20, was charged with attempting to engage in a sexual act with a minor.
Court documents say 13,000 people related to the resettlement are being housed at Fort McCoy.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 682,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 45, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 6:12 pm
VA begins offering booster shots to veterans
The Department of Veterans Affairs said it is already doling out booster shots to veterans at its medical centers and clinics on Friday, just hours after Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky approved the third shots.
“These booster doses are an important step forward in the fight against COVID-19,” VA Secretary Denis McDonough said in a statement. “With the authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech booster for eligible individuals, VA can provide Veterans an opportunity to maximize their protection, continuing our work to keep people safe and save lives during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The boosters, so far only authorized for the Pfizer vaccine, are to be administered six months after an individual receives their initial vaccines.
It also said in a statement that it continues to reach out to veterans who have not been vaccinated at all.
Sep 24, 4:37 pm
US reaches vaccine milestone
Seventy-five percent of those eligible (12 years and older) have received at least one dose of a COVID vaccine, the White House’s COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar posted on Twitter Friday.
Calling the statistic a “milestone,” Shahpur also tweeted, “Let’s add more!”
Sep 24, 3:51 pm
Millions of federal contractors must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8
The White House said Friday millions of federal contractors must get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8.
The announcement came in a document issued Friday by the White House’s budget office, the Office of Management and Budget, following up on an executive order President Joe Biden signed Sept. 9 that mandated vaccinations for federal contractors, Reuters reported.
The formal guidance also says that after Dec. 8 “all covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by the first day of the period of performance on a newly awarded covered contract.”
An OMB spokesperson told ABC News that “millions” of people would be covered but didn’t share more exact numbers.
Earlier this month, the White House said that federal government employees and contractors will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will create a rule for private businesses with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, and Justin Gomez
Sep 24, 3:34 pm
Nurses laud CDC decision to include front-line workers as eligible booster shot group
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, is lauding CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s inclusion of front-line and health care workers in her recommendations for who may now get a third Pfizer booster dose — a decision which overruled the agency’s independent panel conclusion.
The CDC’s advisory group had rejected the idea of third Pfizer doses for “high risk” workers like nurses and teachers, saying that without further data it wasn’t comfortable with automatically adding younger, healthier people simply by occupation.
The nurses’ union urged Walensky to bypass what her advisory panel had said — which is what she ultimately did.
“Nurses across the country are beyond relieved today to wake up to the news that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky prioritized the health and safety of health care and other essential workers most at risk of contracting Covid-19,” NNU president Deborah Burger told ABC in a statement Friday.
“It takes courage to do the right thing, especially when it involves going against the CDC’s own advisory panel,” Burger added. “We applaud this bold decision-making that prioritizes the health and safety of workers on the front lines of this ongoing crisis, and we know that her decision will absolutely save lives.”
Walensky however, insisted that she did not overrule the CDC’s advisory panel’s decision on booster shots for at-risk, front-line workers. She defended the decision as a “scientific close call” saying that she would advocate for the boosters if she was in the room.
“I want to be very clear that I did not overrule … the advisory committee,” she said. “I listened to the votes. I listened to the comments on the vote and this was a scientific close call … It was my call to make. If I had been in the room, I would have voted ‘yes.'”
She also said that boosters were not a solution for ending the pandemic.
“I want to be clear we will not boost our way out of this pandemic. Infections among the unvaccinated continue to fuel this pandemic rise, resulting in a rising number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths where people are in vaccinated,” Walensky said.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Matthew Vann
Sep 24, 2:28 pm
CVS says it will make Pfizer booster available today
On the heels of pharmacy retail chain Walgreens’ announcement that it is now ready to give third booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine to newly eligible groups, CVS announced it too will be ready “later today.”
“We are reviewing the CDC guidance and will be ready to provide the booster dose at CVS Pharmacy and select MinuteClinic locations that offer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine later today. We strongly encourage customers to schedule an appointment in advance at to ensure they are able to access the correct vaccine at a convenient time and location,” the drugstore chain said in a statement Friday.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 1:08 pm
COVID-19 outbreaks increase in school districts without masking policies: CDC study
School districts without a universal masking policy in place at the start of the school year saw a significant increase in COVID-19 outbreaks, according to three new studies released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, school districts in those counties saw more than double the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases during this same period, the studies, released Friday, also found.
The studies further emphasize that school mask requirements, along with other prevention strategies, are critical to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Other key findings from the studies include:
– Schools in Arizona that opened without a school mask requirement had a 3.5 higher likelihood of having a COVID-19 outbreak than schools that opened with a school mask requirement.
-During the early part of the 2021-2022 academic school year, almost 2,000 schools have been closed and more than 900,000 students in more than 40 states have been impacted.
– Pediatric cases during the start of the 2021-2022 school year were about half in U.S. counties with school mask requirements than in counties without school mask requirements.
To prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, the CDC recommends a multi-layered strategy including vaccination, universal indoor masking, testing and physical distancing.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Sep 24, 12:18 pm
Walgreens announces its doors are open for new Pfizer booster group
Walgreens announced Friday morning that its participating stores are ready to start giving third booster doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to newly eligible groups.
The CDC green-lit Pfizer booster shots on Thursday.
As of Friday morning, those newly eligible groups can walk into any Walgreens location offering the Pfizer shot, the company said.
Also, as of Friday, people can begin scheduling appointments online or over the phone.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 12:11 pm
Pfizer booster shot available ‘literally right now’ in NYC: Mayor
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a third Pfizer booster shot is available to eligible New Yorkers, “literally right now.”
“As of now, as of this exact moment, New Yorkers in a number of categories are eligible for the 3rd booster shot, Pfizer only, for the COVID vaccine,” the mayor told radio station WNYC Friday.
Eligible New Yorkers include anyone who got their second shot six months ago and are 65 or older; in a long-term care facility or nursing home; are between 18 and 64 years old with an underlying medical condition; or are between 18 and 64 years old and a front-line or health care worker doing direct work with the public, the mayor said.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine six months after their second dose.
“Literally now you can go online, vax4nyc, either make an appointment right now for the coming days or you can get a list of all the city-run sites and you can walk in today if you are in those categories,” de Blasio said.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 24, 6:23 am
CDC endorses Pfizer boosters for older and high-risk Americans
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency’s advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren’t comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.
In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.
“In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good,” Walensky said. “While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world.”
With Walensky’s final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.
Sep 23, 8:40 pm
Leaving nurses out of booster recommendation ‘unconscionable,’ union charges
The nation’s largest union of registered nurses pushed back against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel’s vote on COVID-19 booster shots, calling not including front-line workers like nurses in its recommendations “unconscionable.”
National Nurses United is urging CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to bypass what the advisory panel, ACIP, recommended and add nurses and other health care workers to the list of eligible booster recipients.
“Nurses and other health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated because of their high risk of exposure to the virus,” Deborah Burger, the union’s president, said in a statement. “Why leave them out of booster shots?”
“It is unconscionable that ACIP would not vote to keep us safer from death, severe Covid, and long Covid,” Burger continued. “We must do everything possible to ensure that the health of our nurses and other health care workers will not be put even more at risk.”
ACIP voted Thursday to recommend a third Pfizer dose for people aged 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 if they have an underlying medical condition.
In its authorization Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration did agree to make the shots available to front-line workers. But ACIP said there was not yet enough data to support providing booster shots automatically to young people because of their jobs.
(DEL RIO, Texas) — After more than a week of growing controversy, immigration authorities in Del Rio, Texas, on Friday finished clearing out an encampment of mostly Haitian migrants that at one point expanded to about 15,000 people.
“As of this morning, there are no longer any migrants in the camp, underneath the Del Rio International Bridge,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at a White House briefing Friday afternoon.
Five flights departed Del Rio for Haiti on Thursday carrying 548 Haitians, officials said.
So far, more than a dozen flights have taken about 2,000 people back to Haiti, according to the Department of Homeland Security. About 3,900 have been moved from the camp for processing or expulsion.
The U.S. government has not accounted for all the migrants in the camp, but officials on Thursday said “several thousand” had returned to Mexico. Other government officials who spoke directly to ABC News but were not authorized to officially provide the information said “thousands” more have been placed in “removal proceedings” and released in the U.S.
Those proceedings can take time, officials said, in part because migrants in removal proceedings are legally allowed to make a claim of asylum. Asylum cases can take anywhere from six months and several years with the massive case backlog at immigration courts across the country.
The administration is also employing a controversial process of rapid removal or “expulsion” known as Title 42 — a reference to a section of U.S. public health code that the government says requires them to immediately expel unauthorized migrants at the border.
Immigrant advocates have raised concerns about Title 42 cutting off access to legal means of obtaining asylum.
(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A massive search is continuing in southern Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed Tuesday as the body discovered on Sunday in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 2:26 pm
Nothing found so far in Friday search
North Port officials said nothing has been found so far in Friday’s search of Carlton Reserve. Details for a Saturday search are yet to be announced.
Police shared video from the search showing swamp buggies riding through dirt roads and around vast swamps.
North Port Police Commander Joe Fussell said Friday that the warrant issued Thursday for Laundrie’s arrest “doesn’t change anything for us.”
“We’re working as hard to find him now as we did on day one,” Fussell said. “We’re not wasting our time out here. We are doing our due diligence to find Brian in an area that intelligence has led us that he could possibly be in.”
Sep 24, 9:42 am
Search for Brian Laundrie continues at Carlton Reserve
The search for Laundrie at the Carlton Reserve near North Port, Florida, is back on after a search Thursday yielded no leads.
Various agencies have been scanning the area throughout the week for signs of Laundrie. Authorities said he was last seen on Sept. 14.
Sep 23, 6:59 pm
Florida police halt search for Laundrie for the day, back Friday
Police in North Port, Florida, have halted their ground search for Brian Laundrie in the Carlton Reserve after another fruitless day.
“Nothing found. We will be back at it Friday,” North Port Police said on Twitter.
Authorities have been combing the massive preserve for any sign of Laundrie since Saturday.
Sep 23, 6:07 pm
Arrest warrant issued for Laundrie in Wyoming
An arrest warrant has been issued for Brian Laundrie in Wyoming following a federal grand jury indictment, authorities announced Thursday.
The U.S. District Court of Wyoming issued the warrant Wednesday “related to Mr. Laundrie’s activities following the death of Gabrielle Petito,” FBI Denver said.
The indictment alleges Laundrie “knowingly and with intent to defraud” used an unauthorized debit card and “obtained things of value aggregating to $1,000 or more” between Aug. 30 and Sept. 1.
The investigation into Petito’s death is ongoing, authorities said. The FBI in particular is seeking information from anyone who was at the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between Aug. 27 and Aug. 30 and may have been in contact with the couple or saw their car.
“We urge individuals with knowledge of Mr. Laundrie’s role in this matter or his current whereabouts to contact the FBI,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Michael Schneider said in a statement Thursday.
(NEW YORK) — A new study analyzing more than 12 million home appraisals between 2015 and 2020 found racial and ethnic disparities across the United States.
The research shows that Black and Latino homeowners are nearly twice as likely as white homeowners to have their homes undervalued.
Some experts, like Andre Perry, a senior fellow with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, say this is a sign that racism in the real estate industry is a major factor in keeping Black and Latino families from accumulating wealth.
“When most people talk about structural racism and racism in general, they generally think of Klansmen in robes carrying torches … but where we still see pervasive discrimination that takes money out of people’s pockets are in these everyday behaviors or practices that strip wealth,” Perry told ABC News.
The report by mortgage giant Freddie Mac shows that 15.4% of appraisals in Latino neighborhoods and 12.5% in Black neighborhoods are valued less than the property’s contract price. That number drops to 7.4% in majority-white neighborhoods.
As Black or Latino populations grow, the total of undervalued appraisals also rose, the study said.
Researchers accounted for many of the potential factors that could lead to a low home appraisal — the home’s structure, the neighborhood’s features. Still, Black and Latino areas were disproportionately given lower appraisals.
Nationwide, 85% of appraisers at the end of 2018 were white, according to the Appraisal Institute.
“An appraisal falling below the contracted sale price may allow a buyer to renegotiate with a seller, but it could also mean families might miss out on the full wealth-building benefits of homeownership or may be unable to get the financing needed to achieve the American Dream in the first place,” said Michael Bradley, senior vice president of modeling, econometrics, data science and analytics in Freddie Mac’s Single-Family division.
Generational wealth represents the assets passed from one generation to the next. This can include things like stocks, investments, businesses and real estate.
Homeownership, Perry said, is one of the primary means of building wealth. Families lose money when their homes are valued lower, which can have a cumulative effect on their family for generations to come.
“If you have less equity in your home, you have less means to uplift yourself,” Perry said. “The equity in people’s homes determines so much. It’s the money people use to send their kids to college, to start a business. Most people start the businesses using the equity in the home, to move to a better neighborhood. It’s used when someone dies or gets married. It’s significant.”
The net worth of an average white family is nearly 10 times greater than an average Black family and eight times greater than an average Latino family. In 2016, those totals were $171,000, $17,150, and $20,600 respectively, according to a Pew Research Center analysis.
A Brooking Institute report also found that homes in predominately Black neighborhoods nationwide are valued $48,000 less than predominately white neighborhoods, which results in a cumulative loss of approximately $156 billion in equity.
These gaps in net worth highlight some of the ways housing discrimination and other forms of systemic racism impede the ability of Latino and Black to accumulate assets and invest in the future of their families.
Solving these gaps, Perry said, can help bridge the racial and ethnic disparities in other aspects of society.
“We don’t want to lay the complete blame on the loss of home values on appraisers,” said Perry. “They are certainly an important trigger but the same attitudes that appraisers have, so do [some] lenders, real estate agents and other people in various markets. So, this is a great first step in identifying the causes for the loss of value in homes and it is a key to understanding how we can restore value to people who’ve been robbed by racism over time.”
Freddie Mac’s Bradley says these problems are “pervasive” and hopes the survey is the latest step toward addressing equity in housing.
“Our research marks the beginning of a comprehensive effort to better understand the key drivers contributing to the appraisal gap,” Bradley said in a statement. “Our goal is to develop solutions to this persistent problem, including appraisal best practices, uniform standards for automated valuation models, enhanced consumer disclosures, improved value processes, and revised fair lending exam procedures and risk assessments.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 682,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 45, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 24, 3:51 pm
Millions of federal contractors must be fully vaccinated by Dec. 8
The White House said Friday millions of federal contractors must get fully vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8.
The announcement came in a document issued Friday by the White House’s budget office, the Office of Management and Budget, following up on an executive order President Joe Biden signed Sept. 9 that mandated vaccinations for federal contractors, Reuters reported.
The formal guidance also says that after Dec. 8 “all covered contractor employees must be fully vaccinated by the first day of the period of performance on a newly awarded covered contract.”
An OMB spokesperson told ABC News that “millions” of people would be covered but didn’t share more exact numbers.
Earlier this month, the White House said that federal government employees and contractors will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will create a rule for private businesses with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Molly Nagle, Sarah Kolinovsky, and Justin Gomez
Sep 24, 3:34 pm
Nurses laud CDC decision to include front-line workers as eligible booster shot group
National Nurses United, the nation’s largest union of registered nurses, is lauding CDC director Rochelle Walensky’s inclusion of front-line and health care workers in her recommendations for who may now get a third Pfizer booster dose — a decision which overruled the agency’s independent panel conclusion.
The CDC’s advisory group had rejected the idea of third Pfizer doses for “high risk” workers like nurses and teachers, saying that without further data it wasn’t comfortable with automatically adding younger, healthier people simply by occupation.
The nurses’ union urged Walensky to bypass what her advisory panel had said — which is what she ultimately did.
“Nurses across the country are beyond relieved today to wake up to the news that CDC Director Rochelle Walensky prioritized the health and safety of health care and other essential workers most at risk of contracting Covid-19,” NNU president Deborah Burger told ABC in a statement Friday.
“It takes courage to do the right thing, especially when it involves going against the CDC’s own advisory panel,” Burger added. “We applaud this bold decision-making that prioritizes the health and safety of workers on the front lines of this ongoing crisis, and we know that her decision will absolutely save lives.”
Walensky however, insisted that she did not overrule the CDC’s advisory panel’s decision on booster shots for at-risk, front-line workers. She defended the decision as a “scientific close call” saying that she would advocate for the boosters if she was in the room.
“I want to be very clear that I did not overrule … the advisory committee,” she said. “I listened to the votes. I listened to the comments on the vote and this was a scientific close call … It was my call to make. If I had been in the room, I would have voted ‘yes.'”
She also said that boosters were not a solution for ending the pandemic.
“I want to be clear we will not boost our way out of this pandemic. Infections among the unvaccinated continue to fuel this pandemic rise, resulting in a rising number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths where people are in vaccinated,” Walensky said.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik and Matthew Vann
Sep 24, 2:28 pm
CVS says it will make Pfizer booster available today
On the heels of pharmacy retail chain Walgreens’ announcement that it is now ready to give third booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine to newly eligible groups, CVS announced it too will be ready “later today.”
“We are reviewing the CDC guidance and will be ready to provide the booster dose at CVS Pharmacy and select MinuteClinic locations that offer the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine later today. We strongly encourage customers to schedule an appointment in advance at to ensure they are able to access the correct vaccine at a convenient time and location,” the drugstore chain said in a statement Friday.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 1:08 pm
COVID-19 outbreaks increase in school districts without masking policies: CDC study
School districts without a universal masking policy in place at the start of the school year saw a significant increase in COVID-19 outbreaks, according to three new studies released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Additionally, school districts in those counties saw more than double the number of pediatric COVID-19 cases during this same period, the studies, released Friday, also found.
The studies further emphasize that school mask requirements, along with other prevention strategies, are critical to reducing the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
Other key findings from the studies include:
– Schools in Arizona that opened without a school mask requirement had a 3.5 higher likelihood of having a COVID-19 outbreak than schools that opened with a school mask requirement.
-During the early part of the 2021-2022 academic school year, almost 2,000 schools have been closed and more than 900,000 students in more than 40 states have been impacted.
– Pediatric cases during the start of the 2021-2022 school year were about half in U.S. counties with school mask requirements than in counties without school mask requirements.
To prevent COVID-19 outbreaks in schools, the CDC recommends a multi-layered strategy including vaccination, universal indoor masking, testing and physical distancing.
-ABC News’ Eric Strauss
Sep 24, 12:18 pm
Walgreens announces its doors are open for new Pfizer booster group
Walgreens announced Friday morning that its participating stores are ready to start giving third booster doses of Pfizer’s vaccine to newly eligible groups.
The CDC green-lit Pfizer booster shots on Thursday.
As of Friday morning, those newly eligible groups can walk into any Walgreens location offering the Pfizer shot, the company said.
Also, as of Friday, people can begin scheduling appointments online or over the phone.
-ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik
Sep 24, 12:11 pm
Pfizer booster shot available ‘literally right now’ in NYC: Mayor
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said a third Pfizer booster shot is available to eligible New Yorkers, “literally right now.”
“As of now, as of this exact moment, New Yorkers in a number of categories are eligible for the 3rd booster shot, Pfizer only, for the COVID vaccine,” the mayor told radio station WNYC Friday.
Eligible New Yorkers include anyone who got their second shot six months ago and are 65 or older; in a long-term care facility or nursing home; are between 18 and 64 years old with an underlying medical condition; or are between 18 and 64 years old and a front-line or health care worker doing direct work with the public, the mayor said.
On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine six months after their second dose.
“Literally now you can go online, vax4nyc, either make an appointment right now for the coming days or you can get a list of all the city-run sites and you can walk in today if you are in those categories,” de Blasio said.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 24, 6:23 am
CDC endorses Pfizer boosters for older and high-risk Americans
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has endorsed an independent advisory panel’s recommendation for seniors and other medically vulnerable Americans to get a booster shot of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, six months after their second dose.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, also partially overruled her agency’s advisory panel in a notable departure by adding a recommendation for a third dose for people who are considered high risk due to where they work, such as nurses and teachers — a group which the panel rejected in its recommendation. Some panelists said that without further data, they weren’t comfortable with automatically including younger people because of their jobs.
In a statement announcing her decision late Thursday, Walensky pointed to the benefit versus risk analysis she had weighed, and data rapidly evolving.
“In a pandemic, even with uncertainty, we must take actions that we anticipate will do the greatest good,” Walensky said. “While today’s action was an initial step related to booster shots, it will not distract from our most important focus of primary vaccination in the United States and around the world.”
With Walensky’s final sign-off, booster shots will now quickly become available for millions more Americans at pharmacies, doctors’ offices and other sites that offer the Pfizer vaccine as soon as Friday.
Sep 23, 8:40 pm
Leaving nurses out of booster recommendation ‘unconscionable,’ union charges
The nation’s largest union of registered nurses pushed back against the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel’s vote on COVID-19 booster shots, calling not including front-line workers like nurses in its recommendations “unconscionable.”
National Nurses United is urging CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to bypass what the advisory panel, ACIP, recommended and add nurses and other health care workers to the list of eligible booster recipients.
“Nurses and other health care workers were among the first to be vaccinated because of their high risk of exposure to the virus,” Deborah Burger, the union’s president, said in a statement. “Why leave them out of booster shots?”
“It is unconscionable that ACIP would not vote to keep us safer from death, severe Covid, and long Covid,” Burger continued. “We must do everything possible to ensure that the health of our nurses and other health care workers will not be put even more at risk.”
ACIP voted Thursday to recommend a third Pfizer dose for people aged 65 and older, as well as those as young as 18 if they have an underlying medical condition.
In its authorization Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration did agree to make the shots available to front-line workers. But ACIP said there was not yet enough data to support providing booster shots automatically to young people because of their jobs.
