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February 26, 2021
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Migration News: February 26, 2021
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Migration News
U.S. moves to speed up releases of unaccompanied migrant children
Ted Hesson, Reuters
The U.S. government is taking new steps to speed up releases of unaccompanied children to parents or other sponsors as the Biden administration grapples with a growing number of underage migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. President Joe Biden, a Democrat, earlier this month reversed a policy put in place by former Republican President Donald Trump that allowed U.S. authorities to rapidly expel migrant children caught at the border without their parents. The expulsion policy is still in place for most migrants, including families and individual asylum seekers.
The facts about how the U.S. processes unaccompanied migrant children at the border
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, CBS News
The treatment of migrant children taken into custody along the U.S.-Mexico border has become a focal point of the national debate over immigration policy. Over the past decade, Democratic and Republican administrations have struggled to adequately and safely process large numbers of unaccompanied minors, who have special legal protections under U.S law. Since 2013, U.S. authorities along the southern border have taken into custody more than 445,000 unaccompanied children, including 72,000 in 2014 and 80,000 in 2019, according to Department of Homeland Security data.
UN agencies begin registering asylum seekers at US-Mexico border
UN News
According to the agencies involved, an initial group could be allowed to enter the US this week, pending approval by authorities there. In a joint news release, the UN agencies said that the US and Mexican governments prioritized the Matamoros camp due to the difficult humanitarian conditions there. Other individuals with active MPP cases living outside the Matamoros camp will also be processed, they added. An estimated 25,000 applicants being processed in the US, were returned to Mexico under the policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP). After the policy was terminated, a first group with active MPP cases entered the US on 19 February at the San Ysidro port of entry between Tijuana (Mexico) and San Diego (US).
Asylum seekers, desperate for help, camp outside Tijuana port of entry
Kate Morrissey, The Los Angeles Times
The Tijuana plaza just outside the San Ysidro Port of Entry has once again become a hub for asylum seekers looking for a chance at requesting refuge in the United States. As of Wednesday morning, there were more than 50 tents pitched in the Chaparral plaza, where the western pedestrian crossing of the port of entry connects with San Diego’s southern neighbor. The western part of the port of entry has been closed during the pandemic, and the once-bustling plaza where asylum seekers gathered every morning amid commuting workers and tourists became mostly deserted until last week.
Sick father in ICE detention faces deportation despite Biden's new immigration priorities
Nicole Acevedo, ABC News
The family of a Latino father of three is worried that his health condition will worsen if he remains in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. The family has been voicing concerns for nearly a month, and assisted by the immigrant rights group Make The Road New York, has been calling for his immediate release from detention and for his deportation to be stayed. Their calls intensified this week after Edward Alonso-Castillo, 48, a small-business owner in New York City who has a standing order of removal against him following several charges, was hospitalized with severe chest pains while in ICE custody.
Adolfo Flores and Hamed Aleaziz, BuzzFeed News
As millions across Texas endured freezing temperatures without running water or electricity this week, immigrants detained by ICE said they have endured their own misery with not enough to drink, toilets full of human excrement that couldn’t be flushed, and days without being able to shower. At the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, Adrian, a Honduran man who was seeking asylum in the US, said there hasn’t been running water at the ICE detention facility since Monday.
Exclusive: Hundreds of kids held in Border Patrol stations
Stef W. Kight and Jonathan Swan, Axios
More than 700 children who crossed from Mexico into the United States without their parents were in Border Patrol custody as of Sunday, according to an internal Customs and Border Protection document obtained by Axios. Why it matters: The current backup is yet another sign of a brewing crisis for President Biden — and a worsening dilemma for these vulnerable children. Biden is finding it's easier to talk about preventing warehousing kids at the southern border than solving the problem.
Further Reading
The Global Cost of Inclusive Refugee Education, January 2021
Relief Web
Joe Biden’s Immigration Acid Test
The New Republic
Former KKK Member and Syrian Muslim Refugee Form Inspiring Friendship
WABC-TV
WKYC Cleveland
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