Migration News

Refugee Flights Canceled as Biden Fails to Lift Trump Cutback
Miriam Jordan, The New York Times
More than 715 refugees from around the world who expected to start new lives in the United States have had their flights canceled in recent weeks because President Biden has postponed an overhaul of his predecessor’s sharp limits on new refugee admissions. Agencies that assist refugees poised to enter the country were notified by the State Department this week that all travel would be…

Migration News

Texas lawmakers to tour detention facility for migrant teens near border
Sandra Sanchez, Fox 40
As criticism about the prolonged detention of undocumented migrant children mounts, at least two Texas lawmakers are scheduled to tour a controversial and newly opened migrant detention facility for teens Friday in the South Texas town of Carrizo Springs. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, told Border Report on Thursday that he will tour the Carrizo Springs facility, which holds…

Migration News

Exclusive: Unaccompanied migrant children staying in Border Patrol facilities an average of 107 hours, internal records show]
Priscilla Alvarez, CNN
Thousands of migrant children who crossed the US-Mexico border alone are being held in US Border Patrol custody for more than four days on average in facilities unfit for minors, a dramatic increase from a week ago, according to internal documents reviewed by CNN. The data, dated Tuesday, is the latest indication of the challenge facing…

Migration News 

Supreme Court dismisses case related to Trump era 'public charge' rule 

Ariane de Vogue and Priscilla Alvarez, CNN 

The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a case concerning a controversial Trump-era rule that makes it more difficult for immigrants to obtain legal status if they use certain public benefits, such as Medicaid, food stamps and housing vouchers, in response to a Justice Department request. The new filing is the latest example of the Biden administration switching…

Migration News 

Mexican camp that was symbol of migrant misery empties out under Biden 

Laura Gottesdiener, Reuters 

A sprawling camp in the Mexican city of Matamoros, within sight of the Texan border, has since 2019 been one of the most powerful reminders of the human toll of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to keep migrants out of the United States. The camp has emptied out in recent days, after hundreds of asylum seekers living there were finally allowed to cross the border to…

Migration News 

ELCA leaders call on Congress to pass US Citizenship Act of 2021 in new letter 

Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Network 

Pastors, bishops and the head of the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States are calling on Congress to support the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, which President Joe Biden proposed on the first day of his administration. In a letter published Thursday (March 4), leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America threw their support…

Migration News 

Texas family detention centers expected to transform into rapid-processing hubs 

Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff and Silvia Foster-Frau, The Washington Post 

The Biden administration is preparing to convert its immigrant family detention centers in South Texas into Ellis Island-style rapid-processing hubs that will screen migrant parents and children with a goal of releasing them into the United States within 72 hours, according to Department of Homeland Security draft plans…

Migration News 

S.U.V. Packed With 25 Passengers Crashes Near California Border, Killing 13 

Miriam Jordan and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, The New York Times 

At least 13 people were killed early Tuesday in what appeared to be one of the deadliest border-related crashes in recent decades, as a big rig slammed into an S.U.V. crammed with more than two dozen people. The crash occurred just after sunrise on the outskirts of Holtville, Calif., in the Imperial Valley, a rich agricultural region and…