• Supreme Court Asked to Review DHS’s Warrantless Searches of International Travelers’ Phones, Laptops

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union, and the ACLU of Massachusetts on Friday filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to hear a challenge to the Department of Homeland Security’s policy and practice of warrantless and suspicionless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at U.S. airports and other ports of entry.

  • Money Alone Can’t Fix Central America – or Stop Migration to U.S.

    By Luis Guillermo Solis

    To stem migration from Central America, the Biden administration has a $4 billion plan to “build security and prosperity” in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – home to more than 85 percent of all Central American migrants who arrived in the U.S. over the last three years. The Biden plan is based on a sound analysis of Central America’s dismal socioeconomic conditions. As a former president of Costa Rica, I can attest to the dire situation facing people in neighboring nations. As a historian of Central America, I also know money alone cannot build a viable democracy.

  • Colombia Gives Nearly 1 Million Venezuelan Migrants Legal Status and Right to Work

    By Erika Frydenlund, Jose J. Padilla, and Katherine Palacio

    Colombia will grant legal status to all Venezuelan migrants who fled there since 2016 to escape their country’s economic collapse and political crisis. The bold new policy – which will give nearly 1 million undocumented migrants rights to legal employment, health care, education and Colombian banking services for 10 years – is driven by both empathy and pragmatism, says Colombian president Ivan Duque.

  • U.S. Immigration Courts Brace for Flood of Asylum Claims

    By Aline Barros

    U.S. immigration courts, already swamped with a backlog of 1.3 million cases, are ill-prepared to handle a crush of new asylum claims filed by a rising number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, especially children traveling alone, current and former immigration judges told VOA.

  • The Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border Is a Crisis – but Is It New?

    By Randi Mandelbaum

    The media create the impression that there is an unprecedented crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, with droves of children arriving alone, as well as families flooding to the border. There is a crisis. But as a law professor who studies child migration, I can tell you that it’s nothing new.

  • Increased Migration at U.S. Border Linked to Climate Change, Violence in Central America

    Thousands of families and children from Central America continue to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border, as the Biden Administration is developing strategies to address these migration challenges. Given that the number of migrants is expected to increase, policy research and analysis on the drivers for migration are vital for implementing long-term solutions.

  • Why Central American Migrants Are Arriving at the U.S. Border

    By Paul J. Angelo

    Thousands of people are arriving at the U.S. southern border after fleeing the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. President Biden is reviving efforts to tackle the problems that are prompting them to migrate.

  • U.S. Officials Reject Claims Terrorists Trying to Enter from Mexico

    By Jeff Seldin

    U.S. homeland security officials are pushing back against claims that known and suspected terrorists are trying to sneak into the country from Mexico, calling such incidents “very uncommon.” The U.S.-based news site Axios, citing a congressional aide briefed on correspondence from CBP, reported late Tuesday that, since October 2020, four people on the FBI’s terror watchlist were caught trying to enter the U.S. from the southern border — including three people from Yemen and one from Serbia.

  • Surge in Migrants at U.S.-Mexico Border Reignites Washington Debate

    By Ken Bredemeier

    Thousands of unaccompanied children crossing the Mexican border into the United States have quickly reignited the contentious immigration debate in Washington, with Republicans and Democrats at odds over who is to blame. The Biden administration has stopped short of calling the influx of migrants, including nearly 30,000 unaccompanied children that arrived from Central America between October and the end of February, a crisis, preferring to call it a challenge.   

  • Biden Ends U.S.-Mexico Border Emergency

    President Joe Biden has rescinded a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border and halted the diversion of more federal funds for constructing a wall along the boundary. Biden also ordered that “no more American taxpayer dollars be diverted to construct a border wall” that ranked among Trump’s highest priorities.

  • Improving Air Domain Awareness at the Northern Border

    The northern border between the U.S. and Canada serves as an important conduit for trade and travel into the country. However, safeguarding and securing this vital point of entry presents unique challenges.

  • Joe Biden to Pause Border Wall Construction, Issue Protections for DACA Recipients, Roll Back Other Trump Immigration Policies

    By Julián Aguilar

    On the same afternoon he’s sworn in as the nation’s 46th president, Joe Biden will take multiple executive actions that will undo several of former President Trump’s immigration policies, his transition team announced Wednesday. The incoming president also plans to send a comprehensive immigration reform plan to Congress after he takes office.

  • U.S. Immigration Policy Changes Expected Under Biden

    By Aline Barros

    The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden could swiftly reverse an array of President Donald Trump’s immigration policies, many of which remain among the most contentious initiatives of his administration.

  • Policy Approaches to Climate Migration: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean

    As climate change has gained more attention and governments have developed policies to reduce carbon emissions and manage increasing environmental risks, climate migration—the movement of people primarily due to changes in the environment that result from climate change—has become a key issue for research and policy.

  • Attitudes of Mexicans in Mexico toward the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election

    A Data Intelligentsia survey explores the attitudes of Mexicans in Mexico on key issues pertaining to immigration, migration, and border security, and the results of the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. The highlights: Survey respondents support robust border security; want the United States to adopt a more compassionate approach to the deportation of undocumented immigrants; and believe, by considerable margins, that Joe Biden would do a better job than Donald Trump on a range of issues.