migrants

An immigrant family wades through the Rio Grande while crossing from Mexico into the United States on Sept. 30, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Trump immigration policies set tone for most of the GOP presidential field

BY: - November 21, 2023

This is one of an occasional series comparing the Republican presidential candidates’ positions on issues. WASHINGTON — Most of the candidates in this year’s 2024 Republican race for the presidential nomination mirror hard-line immigration policies set by the front-runner, former President Donald Trump. What were once considered far-right policies are now common talking points among […]

Main Street in Noel, Missouri, on Sept. 23, 2023. (Clara Bates/Missouri Independent)

Refugees came to Noel for opportunity. Tyson’s plant closure leaves their futures uncertain

BY: - October 30, 2023

NOEL, Mo. — On a Sunday afternoon in rural southwest Missouri, dozens of friends and family gather at a modest one-story home to sing and celebrate in the language of their homeland, more than 8,000 miles away. Some arrive from church, crowding into a living room to celebrate two brothers — one turning 7 and […]

Group of people with backpacks backlit by the sun.

Biden’s go-ahead for added border wall draws criticism from Democrats in Congress 

BY: - October 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. congressional Democrats are frustrated with the White House’s decision to allow for the construction of additional border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. “Walls don’t work. It’s that simple,” Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal of Washington state wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “If we really want to take steps to solve the […]

Jheanpiere Contreras, Genesis Contreras and Daniel Soto, who two days ago arrived from Venezuela after crossing the U.S. border from Mexico, wait in line for dinner at a hotel provided by the Annunciation House on Sept. 22, 2022 in El Paso, Texas. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

Biden administration offers temporary protection to Venezuelan migrants 

BY: - September 21, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced late Wednesday that the agency will expand protected status to nearly half a million Venezuelan nationals, allowing them to live and work in the United States. The move comes after multiple requests from cities that have struggled to house asylum seekers and calls from […]

Migrants board a border patrol bus.

Labor exploitation of unaccompanied migrant children probed at U.S. House hearing

BY: - April 18, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House members in a hearing on Tuesday questioned the head of a federal agency in charge of unaccompanied migrant children about multiple reports of their exploitation as workers in U.S. meatpacking plants and elsewhere. Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight & Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs […]

Kids at work: States try to ease child labor laws at behest of industry

BY: - April 7, 2023

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers in 11 states have either passed or introduced laws to roll back child labor laws — a push that’s come from industry trade organizations and mostly conservative legislators as businesses scramble for low-wage workers.  In the past two years, those states have moved to extend working hours for children, eliminate work permit […]

Brandon Dunn, co-founder of Forever 15 Project, testifies in front of an urn containing the ashes of his son Noah, who died from a fentanyl overdose, during a hearing on U.S. southern border security on Feb. 1, 2023 in Washington, DC.

U.S. House Judiciary’s debut hearing on the border centers on blame for fentanyl crisis

BY: - February 1, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee blamed the Biden administration for fentanyl drug smuggling at the U.S.-Mexico border during a Wednesday hearing. Chair Jim Jordan of Ohio also blamed U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas for the number of migrants at the border, and said there are already hundreds of […]

Vice President Kamala Harris looks on as President Joe Biden delivers remarks about border security policies in the Roosevelt Room in the White House on Jan. 5, 2023. Biden is planning to visit the U.S.-Mexico border while on a two-day summit meeting in Mexico City. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Biden administration to rapidly expel more migrants at the border, add legal pathways

BY: and - January 5, 2023

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden on Thursday announced dual immigration strategies that would increase expulsions of migrants who attempt to cross the Southern border, while also expanding opportunities for migrants from several countries to legally enter the United States. But the sweeping new immigration plan brought condemnation from advocates who said he should not broaden […]

House Minority Leader speaks Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) speaks with House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) during a press conference on the 2023 Fiscal Year at the U.S Capitol on Dec. 14, 2022. During the news conference, House Republicans called on Congress to vote on a short-term spending bill for the government, which would allow them to pass further funding in the 118th Congress when Republicans hold the majority. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

1.7 trillion spending package passes in U.S. Senate, backed by both parties

BY: - December 22, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate passed a massive $1.7 trillion funding package Thursday that carries emergency aid for natural disaster recovery and the Ukrainian war effort, pushing past disputes over immigration policy and barely meeting a Friday deadline when current funding runs out. The bill, supported by both Democrats and Republicans, now goes to the […]

U.S. Supreme Court building. (Jim Small/Arizona Mirror)

U.S. Supreme Court temporarily keeps Title 42 immigration program in effect

BY: - December 19, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court is keeping Title 42 in place until the justices can review whether the pandemic-era program should be lifted or continue. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in an order on Monday stayed a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed the program, which was put in place by the […]

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., blocked the Biden administration Tuesday from using Title 42, a controversial rule to send asylum seekers back to Mexico to await a decision on their status. Here an asylum (right) waits outside the San Ysidro Port of Entry in March 2022 in Tijuana, Mexico. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

U.S. district court strikes down use of Title 42 to expel migrants

BY: - November 15, 2022

WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday blocked the government from continuing Title 42,  a controversial pandemic-era health policy used by both the Trump and Biden administrations to expel nearly 2 million migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. The request to halt the use of Title 42 had been filed by immigrant advocacy groups and the […]

Venezuelan migrants stand in line for food provided by Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas, in September 2022.

New plan for Venezuelan migrants will accept some into the U.S., send others to Mexico

BY: - October 13, 2022

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration on Wednesday night announced new guidelines for Venezuelan migrants, under which some will have a pathway to temporary residence in the United States and others who crossed the border without authorization will be sent back to Mexico. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas announced an agreement between Mexico […]