• In Eagle Pass, a Tense Border Standoff Between Texas and the Federal Government Is Reaching a Crescendo

    By Uriel J. García

    A park on the Rio Grande is the new focus of a long battle over border enforcement that’s reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Under federal law, the federal government has sole authority to enforce immigration laws — a power that’s been affirmed by Supreme Court decisions, but Gov. Greg Abbott, in the past three years, has convinced state lawmakers to spend more than $10 billion in an attempt to deter hundreds of thousands of migrants who have crossed the Rio Grande into Texas, many of whom are seeking asylum.

  • Tough New Immigration Rules Risk Empowering the Cartels

    By Will Freeman

    It’s undeniable that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, irregular migration—primarily from crisis-stricken countries in Latin America and the Caribbean—has reached unprecedented, unmanageable proportions. But it should be recognized that tight restrictions on asylum and parole will drive migration further underground, where criminal groups profit.

  • EU Migration Control: Morocco's Growing Role

    By Jennifer Holleis

    Morocco intensifies its gatekeeper role in EU migration, stopping 87,000 migrants in 2023. Key to the deal is European acceptance of Morocco’s claim to disputed Western Sahara.

  • Some Cities See Migrants as a ‘Lifeline.’ Policy Could Follow, Experts Say.

    By Tim Henderson

    As congressional leaders wrestle with potential solutions as part of a larger spending agreement, a former top national immigration official offered a proposal: Fund basic help for migrants at the border and in destination cities, send them where they’re wanted and can get jobs, and make quick decisions on asylum to discourage mass entry.

     

  • Three Migrants Drowned Near Eagle Pass Park After Border Patrol Was Denied Access

    By Sneha Dey

    Texas officers took control over Shelby Park against the city’s wishes on Wednesday and have since blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents from entering.

  • Republicans Are Pushing for Drastic Asylum Changes – an Immigration Law Scholar Breaks Down the Proposal

    By Jean Lantz Reisz

    There is bipartisan agreement for the need for immigration reform and stark disagreement on what that reform should be. Conservative Republicans in Congress are now proposing legal changes that would make it harder for most applicants to get asylum. The Republicans’ plan is similar to both a similar rule that the Department of Homeland Security adopted in 2019 and a policy that President Joe Biden is trying to push through. The proposed changes would make it almost impossible for a migrant entering through the U.S.-Mexico border to get asylum, even if that migrant has a legitimate fear of returning to his or her home country.

  • NYC Sues Bus Companies that Texas Hired to Transport Migrants

    By Uriel J. García

    More than 33,000 migrants have arrived from Texas since August 2022. The city wants the 17 bus and transportation companies twhich contracted with Texas to take the migrants to New York City to pay more than $700 million in damages.

  • Growing Number of Migrants Highlights Border Crisis

    By Rob Garver

    U.S. officials processed an estimated 300,000 people at the U.S. border with Mexico in December, which would be the highest number ever recorded, according to multiple news organizations. While DHS will release the December numbers later this month, Reuters and other news organizations estimate that 300,000 people attempted to cross the border in the final month of 2023, with about 50,000 of them coming through designated points of entry.

  • Chinese Migration Up at Border as U.S. Marks Anniversary of Repeal of Exclusion Act

    By Aline Barros

    As the U.S marks the 80th anniversary of the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Act, thousands of Chinese immigrants are crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, mostly for the same reasons as their countrymen did more than a century ago.

  • Immigrant Rights Groups Sue Texas to Halt New Law Allowing Arrests of Migrants

    The lawsuit asks a judge to prevent the state from enforcing Senate Bill 4, which will authorize Texas police to arrest immigrants suspected of crossing the border illegally.

  • Trump’s Remarks That U.S. Immigrants Are “Poisoning the Blood” Harshly Criticized

    By Anita Powell

    Former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent comments that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States is drawing sharp rebukes from his critics, who note that these very same words were used by European dictators in the 1920s-1930s.

  • Why Pakistan Is Deporting Afghan Migrants

    By Megan Fahrney

    Pakistan’s decision to deport undocumented migrants over perceived security risks is poised to affect almost two million Afghans.

  • Stricter French Immigration Bill Causes Uproar

    By Lisa Louis

    President Emmanuel Macron wants to reform immigration law with stricter deportation measures. But migrants and refugees in France protesting against the reform say the severity of the new measures is unprecedented.

  • Texas Must Remove Floating Barrier from Rio Grande, Fifth Circuit Court Orders

    By Kevin Vu

    The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas on Friday to remove the floating barrier it deployed in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass this summer, affirming a lower court’s ruling. The appeals court upheld an earlier ruling by an Austin federal judge to remove the 1,000-foot-long barrier the state deployed near Eagle Pass.

  • Venezuela Voters Back Territorial Claim on Region in Guyana

    Venezuela’s government pressed ahead with the non-binding referendum despite the UN’s top court urging restraint in a territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana. Venezuelan voters also supported the formation of what Venezuela’s government describes as a new state whose inhabitants would be given Venezuelan citizenship.