HOLIDAY TRAVEL

As Christmas and New Year’s approaches, AAA is forecasting more than 5.9 million Floridians will travel for the year-end holidays.

The official start of the holiday travel period kicked off Friday at the Orlando International Airport.

Orlando International Airport wheelchair agents said they will strike on Thursday to protest for better wages and benefits.

A seven-page memo by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas marked the end of the "Migrant Protection Protocols," which returned about 70,000 asylum-seekers to Mexico from January 2019 until it was halted on President Joe Biden's first day in office two years later. The policy coincided with a sharp decline of asylum-seekers at the border, but critics noted that people were hampered by violent conditions in Mexico, lack of access to lawyers and difficulty making it to court. Mayorkas acknowledged those concerns by noting the high rate of denied claims for failing to appear in court and the lack of housing, income and safety in Mexico. The administration has yet to say if tens of thousands more whose cases were either dismissed or denied will get another chance. The secretary pointed to a new docket in immigration court announced Friday that aims to decide asylum cases at the border within 300 days.

Holiday Travel Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks about aviation security ahead of the summer travel season during a news conference at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Tuesday, May 25, 2021, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) (Patrick Semansky)WASHINGTON — (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says people traveling for Memorial Day weekend should be patient because there will be long lines at U.S. airports. “People will see lines because there’s going to be a tremendous amount of people traveling this weekend,” Mayorkas said. “Patience is required.”Also required are masks, he added. “The mask mandate is a federal mandate in airports and on airplanes," he said. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.