Biden's Border Action, Elections in India, Ecstasy and PTSD

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Today, Biden is expected to issue an order that could limit the flow of people across the border. Could this also limit the political fallout for him?

Ami Martinez with Michelle Martin and this is up first from NPR News.

And people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder don't have many treatment options to turn to. Today, the F.D.A. will review whether an illegal party drug could provide relief.

If not MDMA, there really is nothing else out there in the pipeline.

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The large number of asylum seekers at the southern border has become a political headache for President Biden in this election year.

A few months ago, a bipartisan group of senators worked with the White House to negotiate a compromise that would have addressed this issue, but Republicans walked away from the deal.

So today, President Biden is expected to announce actions he will take through executive order. And he has invited several mayors of border cities to join him at the White House. NPR Immigration correspondent Sergio Martinez Beltran is joining us this morning to tell us more about this good morning, Sergio.

Good morning.

Do we have any details yet? Has the White House said anything publicly?

So we don't know much about it yet, but we do know, Michelle, that. Ever since the Senate failed to pass a measure, the White House has said it would consider taking executive action. And the Biden administration has been piecemealing restrictions for the last few weeks. For example, he recently announced a new rule intended to speed up the removal of some migrants who are not eligible for asylum. And what Biden is expected to announce today would also limit asylum claims.

So, Section 212f is a fairly broad provision that grants the president authority to restrict immigration and visitors, non-immigrant visitors from coming into the United States. When he thinks, or she thinks, that they're detrimental to the interests of the United States.

In the past, this section has been used on the grounds of national security. The provision would also allow the president to suspend entries once the number of unauthorized crossings reaches a certain daily threshold. And this could be the most impactful border management policy to come out of this administration so far. But it's widely expected that it will face court challenges.

Hmm, I got it okay. So can you tell us how the southern border looks in terms of unauthorized crossings at the moment?

I mean, it's way different than how it looked last year. Back then, we saw a record number of unauthorized crossings and many of these migrants were seeking asylum. But those numbers have plummeted this year. And the reason for that, according to immigration policy analysts, is Mexico. Mexico has been cracking down on illegal migration at the urging of the U.S.

But at the same time, we know that border communities have been challenged by this influx of migrants. Going back, what is it? Sort of? Some years now you've been talking to mayors of these cities, what are they saying?

Well, I reached out to a bunch of border mayors and some of them have been invited to today's announcement at the White House. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leaser will be there. He told me in a statement that his city is a welcoming place, but that no community can continue the resources expended on this humanitarian crisis. So he says he's looking forward to hearing from Biden. We know that the mayors of San Diego, California, and Yuma, Arizona, were also invited.

Sergio Martinez Beltran is NPR immigration correspondent. Sergio, Thank you.

You're welcome.

After six marathon weeks of voting across India, where nearly one billion people were eligible to vote, to cast a ballot or press buttons on an electronic voting machine, counting is now underway to tally the results.

And initial results suggest that the prime minister, Narendra Modi of the BJP party, will become prime minister for the third time.

On the line with us now to tell us more is NPR's Diya Hadid. She's in the capital, New Delhi. Hello Diya.

Hi, Michel.

How are the numbers looking so far?

Well, so far, a tally by India's Election Commission indicates that Modi's party, it's called the BJP, has won the largest number of seats in parliament. It hasn't won a clear majority, but with its allies, it looks like it will be able to form a coalition government. On the flip side, India's opposition alliance has done better than exit polls expected, but it hasn't won enough seats to form government, according to the count so far.

So, essentially, it's a victory for the BJP and a victory for the prime Minister yet again.

Yes, but you know, I'm on the ground in the capital, New Delhi. And if you were here, just judging by the mood outside each of the campaign headquarters, you would say that Modi's BJP had lost and the opposition won. And that's because, at the outset of these elections, Modi promised that his party would win a super majority. The exit polls predicted Modi's party would nearly hit those numbers. And so outside the BJP headquarters, we saw a man seemingly pray to a Modi-like God, beseeching him to come back to power.

So dear, what does this mean for India going forward?

Well, Michelle. I think it will be harder for Modi and his party to continue their vast recasting of India as a country that elevates its Hindu majority above other citizens. Harder but not impossible. It also appears to have signaled to the opposition, which is led by the Congress party, that power is within reach. That party is led by Rahul Gandhi, the great-grandson of India's first prime minister. It used to dominate Indian politics, but it's waned in recent years.

That is NPR's Diya Hadid in New Delhi. Diya, thank you so much.

Thank you, Michelle.

MDMA is what we're going to talk about now. That's a party drug. It's usually associated with all-night raves. But one company is seeking F.D.A. approval to use it as a mainstream treatment in mental health care.

Yeah. Today, a panel of experts to the Food and Drug Administration will review the evidence behind using MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. What they say could affect whether the agency approves the treatment.

NPR's Will Stone is with us now to tell us more about this good morning.

Good morning.

So this treatment is called MDMA-assisted therapy. How does it work?

Well, it basically combines a form of talk therapy with the psychedelic drug MDMA. So a patient with PTSD gets a dose and then works through their trauma with two therapists. The clinical trial involved several of these dosing sessions, F.D.A. staff have said. Based on that data, participants appear to experience quote rapid, clinically meaningful, durable improvement in their PTSD symptoms. I asked Dr.

So Dr. Marks referred to legitimate questions. What are those questions?

That's right, this is not a done deal because there are questions about whether the findings from the trials are solid. And one big concern is that most people in the trials could tell whether they received MDMA or a placebo, ideally, in clinical trials, people can't tell. Obviously, that's hard to do with psychedelics.

OK, so what are those?

Essentially, there are claims that some therapists and investigators may have pushed patients to report good results and overlooked adverse events. That was emphasized in a recent report from the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review. This is an independent group that did a deep dive into the data and said there were substantial concerns about the validity of the results. Some of that is based on what trial participants have said Sarah McNamee was in one of the trials.

Three months after I was given my first dose of MDMA, I was, for a time, one of the staunchest advocates for MDMA therapy. The problem is that I was also suicidal and clinically decompensating in drastic and unprecedented ways.

And what she means by that is basically she was having worsening symptoms. And McNamee says her therapist played up the idea that she was helping make history. And she says others in the trials have also shared with her negative experiences that did not get fully captured in the published findings. As it turns out, there was a petition calling for this F.D.A. public meeting, in part because of these kinds of concerns.

So what could this mean for possible approval of the treatment?

The drugmaker, LyCos has pushed back on these allegations and said they stand by their results. Therapists in the trials have also said this outside report was based on hearsay and misrepresentations. And there are certainly many who do feel MDMA should be approved, including groups representing military veterans. Here's former Army Ranger Jesse Gould with the non-profit called Heroic Hearts Project. If not MDMA. There really is nothing else out there in the pipeline.

That is NPR's Will Stone will thank you.

Thank you.

And that's up first for Tuesday, June 4th. I'm Michelle Martin.

And I'm Amy Martinez. Listen to consider this from NPR. The Pentagon is trying to cut health care costs by outsourcing service members care to the private sector. What could that mean for the future of battlefield medicine?

Today's episode of Up First was edited by Alfredo Carbajal, John Helton, Jane Greenhall, Allie Schweitzer and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Ziad Butch, Ben Abrams and Milton Guevara. Our technical director is Zach Coleman, and we get engineering support from Arthur Laurent. Join us again tomorrow.

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