Author: Elliot Spagat
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Immigration judges union, a frequent critic, is told to get approval before speaking publicly
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A union of immigration judges has been ordered to get supervisor approval to speak to anyone outside the Justice Department, potentially quieting a frequent critic of heavily backlogged immigration courts in an election year
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Illegal border crossings from Mexico plunge after a record-high December, with fewer from Venezuela
Authorities say arrests for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico fell by half in January from record highs in December to the third lowest month of Joe Biden’s presidency
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U.S. is allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the country to work legally
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WASHINGTON • The Biden administration says it’s granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who are already in the country — quickly making them eligible to work — as it grapples with growing numbers of people fleeing the South American country and elsewhere to arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border. The move —…
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U.S. will resume border wall construction at San Diego park
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SAN DIEGO • The Biden administration agreed to lower part of a border wall planned in the southwest corner of the continental United States, advocates said Thursday, dismissing the concession as a token gesture. Opposition prompted a construction pause in August at Friendship Park, which was inaugurated in 1971 by then-first lady Pat Nixon as…
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Mexico draws more asylum-seekers despite grisly violence
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TIJUANA, Mexico • Albert Rivera knows well how dangerous Mexico can be: He sometimes wears a bulletproof vest around the compound of bright yellow buildings that he built into one of the nation’s largest migrant shelters. His phone stores more evidence in the form of stomach-churning videos that gangs sent migrants to warn of consequences…
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Asylum wait lists at U.S. border frustrate, confuse migrants
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PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico • Opaque waiting lists at the Mexico border to gain a chance at obtaining asylum in the United States have persisted under President Joe Biden, leading many migrants to give up and cross illegally or languish for months in border towns. U.S. preparations in late April to end pandemic-related limits on asylum…
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U.S. official: Migrants who died cleared inland checkpoint
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SAN ANTONIO • The tractor-trailer at the center of a disastrous human-smuggling attempt that left 53 people dead had passed through an inland U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint with migrants inside the sweltering rig earlier in its journey, a U.S. official said Thursday. The truck went through the checkpoint on Interstate 35 located 26 miles northeast…
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Migrant deaths climb to 51 after trailer abandoned in San Antonio heat
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SAN ANTONIO • Desperate families of migrants from Mexico and Central America frantically sought word of their loved ones as authorities began the grim task Tuesday of identifying 51 people who died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning in the sweltering Texas heat. It was the deadliest tragedy to claim the lives…
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White House plays up summit initiatives amid major no-shows
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LOS ANGELES • The White House on Wednesday pushed back against the notion that the absence of several key leaders from this week’s Summit for the Americas amounts to a backslide for democracy as administration officials sought to play up efforts on food security, climate and other areas to be discussed at this week’s summit.…
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U.S. quietly expands asylum limits while preparing to end them
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SAN DIEGO • The Biden administration has begun expelling Cubans and Nicaraguans to Mexico under pandemic-related powers to deny migrants a chance to seek asylum, expanding use of the rule even as it publicly says it has been trying to unwind it, officials said Wednesday. The U.S. struck an agreement with Mexico to expel up…