Transcript of Christmas In Bethlehem, Honduras Election Result, Immigration Crackdown

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That's plus. Npr. Org. On this Christmas morning, we start in Bethlehem, where for the first time since the start of the war in Gaza, the Christmas festivities are back. This is the birthplace of Jesus Christ. So we came here to see where he was born. How does it feel to celebrate again? I'm Leila Fadel, and this is up first from NPR News. Election officials in Honduras have announced the winner, and the next President is a Trump-backed construction entrepreneur. The results come after weeks of vote counting and allegations of fraud. What's behind President Trump's support for the next Honduran leader? And in a year of record-breaking immigration enforcement, deportations and detentions are separating families. And in some cases, that means the oldest child becomes the family breadwinner. Before going to or after work, I just feel stressed because of everything, and then I just start crying there. Stay with us for the news you need to start your day. Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working to restore a balanced relationship between people and planet.

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After two years of not celebrating because of the war in nearby Gaza, Christmas festivities have returned to Bethlehem. The city is nestled in the Israeli occupied West Bank and is a place where people from around the world have long gathered to celebrate Jesus's birth. And Pierre Saadil Al-Shalchi was at the Christmas Eve celebrations and joins us now from Bethlehem. Good morning. Good morning. Okay, so set the scene for us. What was it like?

I mean, what a day. First of all, it felt like summer. The sun was shining. It got pretty hot also. And Manger Square was packed with Hundreds of people, many were wearing their Sunday best, kids holding balloons. There were all these kiosks selling corn and nuts, people wearing Santa Claus hats. And of course, the huge Bethlehem Christmas tree with red and gold bobbles and twinkling lights, even though it was daytime, loomed over our heads. Bethlehem has a tradition of holding a scouts parade on Christmas Eve. We just heard a little bit from them. Young men and women played the backpipes drums. They did a few tricks with their batons, throwing them in the air. There's also a tradition where Jerusalem Latin patriarch marches behind the parade and then gives a speech at the end of it. And indeed, Italian Cardinal Pizzabala showed up, flanked with an enormous amount of security, and gave his message. But today I see in Bethlehem light.

So really a message of hope. What did you hear from people in Manger Square?

People were just really happy. It's been more than two years of a devastating war in Gaza. And then also since the war started, it has been really restrictive to live as a Palestinian in the West Bank, which is where Bethlehem is. The Israeli military has set up so many new checkpoints, and military raids have increased in cities where it says it's routing out militants. I talked to a 22-year-old Asil Jhaja, who said that the festivities were just what Bethlehem needed. She says people needed to let off some of the pressure they felt since the war started. But it wasn't just Palestinians here. There weren't as many tourists as before the war, but there were some Americans, Germans. I heard Italian. I even spoke to a couple from Malawi, a pastor and her husband. They were wearing full-on festive Christmas jammies in the middle of the day. Pastor Matyoda said they were encouraged to come after she heard that a ceasefire was brokered in Gaza last October.

This is the best breath of Jesus Christ. So we came here to see where he was born. Hadeel, you mentioned there how restrictive it's been in the West Bank. Did people talk about that?

Absolutely. People were happy, but it was top of mind. I met Basal Awad, he's a 30-year-old, and he was manning a coffee kiosk his family has set up in Manger Square at Christmas for his whole life. Now, Leila, he described living in the West Bank with this one Arabic word..

Sijan, prison.

Exactly. He says that it's self-eccating to live in the West Bank today, that a simple trip to a neighboring city feels like an ordeal, and that they could easily expect the Israeli military, even in Manger Square, without notice. I also spoke to 46-year-old Hanane Harish. She said it took her three and a half hours to get from Ramallah to Bethlehem because of the checkpoints. And that's a trip that normally takes half an hour in a car. But she said, even though they can be intimidated, she was determined.

Since morning, I decided not to make myself nervous because at the end, I want to come.

And really, that was the atmosphere here. People were defiant, daring to allow themselves a moment of hope in what has been a very dark time.

A moment of hope in what has been a very dark time. A powerful message on this Christmas morning, Hadeel. That's NPR's Hadeel El Shalchi in Bethleham. Thank you.

Of course. You're welcome.

Election officials in Honduras have finally named the winner of the country's presidential election after more than three weeks of counting the votes. That winner is construction entrepreneur, Nasri Asfora, a conservative candidate, backed by President Trump. He won by less than 1% of the vote. The election has been clouded by claims of fraud, and the loser is refusing to concede. This is the latest swing toward the right in Latin America after Chile elected a far-right President earlier this month. For more on this, NPR's Eider Peralta joins us from his base in Mexico City. Good morning. Hey, good morning, Leila. What were the dynamics at play in this race?

Well, look, the President in power now, Xiomara Castro, is a leftist who had promised to fight corruption and to make the lives of Hondurans better. After four years, Hondurians are still struggling. Her party lost. The The polls leading up to the election showed a preference for a man called Salvador Nasrallah. He's a centrist, he's a former TV show host, and he's widely seen in Honduras as the least corrupt of the politicians. But Hondurans went to the polls on November 30th, and that same night, the problems began. The counting software went haywire. At times, the counting would stop for days at a time. And it wasn't long before the candidates started claiming that the elections were being rigged. There were three electoral commissioners One of them quit on Tuesday night, saying the process was fraudulent. And then last night on Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, which is a day where most Hondurans are out partying, not thinking about politics, the Electoral Commission got on Zoom, and they declared that Nasseri Asfuda had won the presidency.

Oh, wow. I'm sure that was an unexpected Christmas present. Yeah. So who is Asfura, and why did Trump support him?

Asfuda is a former mayor of the capital, Tegucigalpa, and the candidate for the conservative National Party. The US doesn't tend to endorse candidates, but here, President Trump not only endorsed Asfuda, he said, If anyone else won, Honduras would face consequences. And look, in a lot of ways, this makes sense. Honduras is important to the US. The US has a big military base in the country, and for decades, It has been a staging ground for US operations in the region. The current President, Xiomara Castro, has a tense relationship with the US. When Trump began his immigration crackdown, she threatened to shut down the US base in the country. It seems that Trump made a cold calculation that the most robust US ally in Honduras would be the National Party, Asfudas Party. Now, this may seem odd because the US has had major problems with the National Party. The last National Party President, Juan Orlando Hernández, was extradited to the US and convicted of drug trafficking. But just before this election, Trump pardoned Hernández and endorsed his ally, Nasser Asfuda. In a statement yesterday, the State Department congratulated Asfuda and said that they looked forward to working with the new Honduran government.

Meanwhile, the losing candidate, Salvador Nasrallah, says he won't accept the results. Why?

He says this election was rigged. And let's be clear, when it takes more than three weeks to count some 4 million votes, it doesn't exactly create a whole lot of confidence. But do we know for sure that it was rigged? We don't. Nasrallah was demanding a vote-by-vote recount, and he never got that. He says he doesn't accept the results, but he hasn't detailed what he plans to do about it. Honduras is a country that has faced electoral violence in the past, so that's also a worry. We've yet to hear from President Castro, who has said the process was flawed.

That's NPR's Eider Peralta in Mexico City. Thank you, Eider, and Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you, Leila.

It's been a year of unprecedented immigration enforcement across the US. The Trump administration says it has deported more than half a million undocumented immigrants. More than 65,000 people are currently in immigration detention more than ever before. Pr's Jasmine Garce spent this year talking to families affected by these policies. And she joins us now. Good morning. Good morning. Jasmine, as we approach the end of the year, I think about all the stories you've told. Is there one that sticks out for you, that illustrates for you what the deportation campaign looks like on the ground?

Yeah, absolutely. Earlier this year, I got a call about a pastor who was in detention in Florida. His name was Pastor Marillo Ambrosio from Guatemala. Now, he lived in the US for about 30 years. No criminal record. He's a church leader. He runs a landscaping business. And across the country, we're seeing this. Records show 74% of those being detained are like Pastor Ambrosio. They have no criminal conviction. For the most part, their violation is crossing into the country illegally, which is a misdemeanor demeanor. Now, he was detained and deported back to Guatemala. This is the family separation I've been seeing all year, which is wreaking economic havoc on these families. I spent time with Pastor Ambrosio's daughter, Ashley Ambrosio, who is 20 years old, and now she's the breadwinner of a family of six.

Before going to work or after work, I just feel stressed, a case of everything, and then I just start crying there.

So all these teens having to go to work, carrying some, or if not all, of the burden of the financial strains of a household. What are parents who are undocumented doing to prepare for the possibility of separation from their US-born children?

Well, immigration lawyers are advising that undocumented parents set up emergency guardianship for their US citizen children. What that means is legally designating someone who can step in as a guardian if the parents are detained. Over the summer, I spoke to an American mom in Washington, DC, who asked to remain anonymous because she didn't want to put the Honduran family she's friends with at risk. She had just signed this paperwork to become the emergency guardian for her teenage son's best friend in case his parents were deported to Honduras.

My husband and I just looked at each other and we were like, yes, of course. Not a question, not a moment's hesitation. It's not something we entered into lightly at the same time. We love them. President Trump says these deportations will open job opportunities for Americans. It's been almost a year now. Is that accurate?

Well, the most recent labor report showed unemployment rising to the highest. It's been in four years and job growth slowing. Economists I have spoken to say it could be a combination of tariffs and immigration policy. We do know this. The US has an aging population, and this year we're expected to have lost about 1. 2 million workers from the labor force between January and July. That's according to preliminary census data analyzed by Pew. What I think is that the economic impact of these policies is going to be one of the biggest stories of next year.

That's NPR's Jasmine Gar. She covers immigration for us. Thank you so much for all this reporting and for your reporting all year.

Thanks for having me.

That's up first for this Christmas Day, Thursday, December 25th. Merry Christmas. I'm Leila Fadel. For your next listen, Consider This from NPR. We, Here at Up First, give you the three big stories of the day. Our Consider This colleagues take a different approach. They dive into a single news story and what it means to you. Learn about a big story of the day in less than 15 minutes. Listen now on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts. Today's episode of Up First was edited by James Hyder, Dee Dee Skanky, Eric Westerveld, and Lisa Thompson. It was produced by Zeead Batch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas. We get engineering support from Zo Van Ginnhoven. Our technical director is David Greenberg, and our Deputy Executive Producer is Kelly Dickens. Join us again tomorrow, and again, Merry Christmas.

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