Migration News

Texas man charged in connection with deadly migrant crash
Acacia Coronado, AP/The Washington Post
A Texas man who drove a pickup truck involved in a deadly head- on crash near a Texas border city following a police chase that left eight migrants dead was named in a criminal complaint, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday. The collision happened weeks after one of the deadliest highway crashes involving migrants entering the U.S. without permission and amid rising crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border. Sebastian Tovar, 24, of Austin, has been charged with “transporting illegal aliens resulting in death,” according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Shane Folden. According to the federal complaint, Tovar was traveling north on Highway 277 on Monday in a maroon pickup truck near Del Rio, Texas, when a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper attempted to stop him for speeding.

More migrant families make it into United States, but thousands are still being expelled
Maria Sacchetti, The Washington Post
The Biden administration allowed the majority of migrant families surrendering at the U.S.-Mexico border to enter the United States in February instead of expelling them under a public health order imposed early in the pandemic, a move officials signaled is due to Mexico’s inability to care for them and not a major U.S. policy shift on the border. While much attention has been focused on the rush of children and teens arriving at the border without their parents, the administration is also struggling to shelter and quickly process a rapidly increasing number of families.

Asylum Seeker Opens Up About Immigration Process, Legal Expert Warns of Difficulties
Jack Highberger, NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth
The legal process of seeking to stay in America will likely begin in the first few days that thousands of teenage boys arrive in Dallas. But when it comes to seeking asylum, legal experts say the odds are not in their favor. “The law is set against these folks, even those who come in and apply, if they are from Central America their chances of success are like one to two percent,” said immigration attorney Josh Turin. Turin says the historical difficulty of the process combined with recent changes led by the Trump Administration, make it almost impossible for refugees from Latin American countries to be granted asylum. In order to be granted asylum, a refugee has to prove past or imminent persecution and current laws preclude criminal organizations such as gangs from this definition. In Central American countries like Honduras and El Salvador, it is criminal violence that is the primary driver of the refugee crisis.

Community sponsorship key to increasing refugee resettlement in the United States
Kathryn Libal and Scott Harding, The CT Mirror
The destabilization of the refugee admissions program by Donald Trump over the past four years means that significantly increasing resettlement will be challenging. Successfully reviving USRAP following its near demise will be predicated on a strong public education campaign, reinstating support for the voluntary and state agencies which administer it, and considering alternative models, such as community sponsorship, to build public support and successfully integrate refugees into U.S. society.

Afghan interpreters languish in visa limbo as US coalitions return home
Monica Campbell, The World
When the US goes to war, it rarely fights alone. In Afghanistan, the US military has for years leaned heavily on hiring people locally, often as interpreters. Yet, as coalition forces return home, the vast majority of Afghans who stay behind can face deadly threats.

This is what we're seeing at the border
Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN
Children and families rafting across the Rio Grande. Overcrowded detention facilities. Camps where desperate migrants wait to cross. These are some of the scenes playing out now at the US-Mexico border, where the number of migrants crossing is already so high that the head of Homeland Security says officials "are on pace to encounter more individuals on the Southwest border than we have in the last 20 years." The number of kids in custody is growing at a rate that has alarmed advocates, but the big numbers are only part of the story.

Further Reading

Multilingual team helps Berlin immigrants fight coronavirus
ABC News

The people we left behind: How closing a dangerous border camp adds to inequities
The Texas Tribune

Border Refugee Assistance Fund continues to meet needs of Migrants arriving at US-Mexico Border
El Paso Herald-Post