• Migration to the U.S. Is on the Rise Again – but It’s Unlikely to Be Fully Addressed During the Summit of the Americas, or Anytime Soon

    Migration in the Americas has dramatically increased over the past decade due to deteriorating political, economic and humanitarian conditions in several countries, particularly in Venezuela, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti. High rates of crime, corruption, poverty, environmental degradation and violence all influence people’s decisions to migrate. The power of drug cartels, which can be embedded in government institutions like the police, also plays a key role in prompting migration.

  • Biden Is Restarting the Trump-Era “Remain in Mexico” Program. Why?

    Tens of thousands of migrants were sent back to Mexico under the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program. President Biden calls it inhumane but has been legally forced to resume it.

  • Deaths of Undocumented Migrants in Southeastern U.S. Cluster in Hot, Dry Areas

    Deaths of undocumented migrants crossing the deserts that span the southern United States border between Mexico and Arizona are disproportionately clustered within regions of greatest physiological stress, including those where dehydration is likely, reports a new study.

  • On the Move: How Nations Address Climate-Driven Migration

    One of the most consequential human responses to climate change is and will continue to be the mass movement of people. Rising temperatures which reduce agricultural opportunities can lead to mass migrations away from struggling communities. As the environmental impacts of climate change increase in scope and severity, more and more people will move to new places to preserve or enhance their lives and livelihoods. How do nations address, and plan to address, the growing wave of migrants fleeing their home countries in search for better living conditions?

  • Report: Economics Drives Migration from Central America to the U.S.

    A new survey underscores how material needs lead to movement within the Americas — at a high cost to those trying to relocate.

  • Family Separation’s Psychological Trauma in Parents, Children Persists After Reunification: Medical Study

    New analysis finds long-lasting psychological harm sustained by survivors of the “zero tolerance” policy. The study finds that forcibly separating parents and children, especially when compounded with pre-migration traumas, produced signs and symptoms of trauma that met the diagnostic criteria for at least one mental health condition such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), or generalized anxiety disorder (GAD).

  • DHS Strategic Framework for Addressing Climate Change

    Two weeks ago, the Biden administration released four reports, by DHS, the intelligence community, the Department of Defense, and the National Security Council, on how climate change-driven developments — among them:  worsening conflict within and between nations; increased dislocation and migration as people flee climate-fueled instability; heightened military tension and uncertainty; infrastructure destruction; worsening public health; food and water shortages; financial hazards, and more – are posing an increasingly more serious challenge to global stability and to U.S. national security.

  • Official Reject Claims of Terrorists Infiltrating U.S. From Mexico

    DHS Counterterrorism Coordinator said that fears the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could reinvigorate terror groups like al-Qaida and Islamic State, and lead to a surge of attempted infiltrations along the southern U.S. border, have not been realized. “It is just factually inaccurate to frame the southern border as a place where we are seeing a significant number of al-Qaida or ISIS-related terrorists or foreign terrorists,” he said.

  • September Saw a Decline in Attempts to Cross into the U.S. from Mexico

    CBP reports that The number of unique encounters with individuals trying to cross into the United States from Mexico in September 2021 was 142,710, a 9 percent reduction in unique encounters from the prior month. Encounters of unaccompanied children decreased 24 percent, with 14,358 encounters in September compared with 18,806 in August.

  • Innovative Air Domain Awareness Technology

    DHS S&T is evaluating an innovative air domain awareness technologies to help protect the airspace along our northern border with Canada.

  • Biden Administration Struggling for Coherent Message on U.S.-Mexico Border: Critics

    The president and his advisers have offered sometimes contradictory assessments of the seriousness of a surge of migrants overwhelming border officials, and have sent mixed messages to the migrants themselves about what would happen if they reached the United States.

  • Migration Is Rising, but So Do Border Barriers

    The global population grew by a quarter over the past 20 years, but the numbers of refugees and asylum-seekers doubled in the same time frame. Today, one in 97 people is forcibly displaced. In 2015, it was one in 175. The trend of rising migration parallels another trend that attempts to halt or at least manage the first, as more and more countries are building, or announcing, various border wall complexes.

  • Democrats Wand to Use Budget Proposal to Legalize Undocumented Immigrants

    Democrats will try to use the budget proposal – and the reconciliation process — to provide a direct pathway to legal status for millions of undocumented immigrants in America. The details of the measure have not yet been released, and passage is far from certain, as there are many political and procedural hurdles to overcome.

  • Citizenship and Bank Access for Immigrants Would Add “Enormous Amount of Money” to U.S. Economy

    Immigrants living in the U.S. illegally have been an “unrecognized driver of the economy for decades,” writes an immigration researcher. By limiting immigrants’ economic options, the U.S. is missing out on additional growth in its own economy — especially with an aging American population, he argues.

  • Supreme Court: Migrants Temporarily in US Ineligible for Permanent Residency

    The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled Monday that 400,000 immigrants from 12 countries living in the United States for humanitarian reasons are not eligible to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the court, said that U.S. immigration law blocks migrants who entered the country illegally from obtaining permanent residency, or “green cards,” although they have Temporary Protected Status.