Thursday, April 25, 2024

Trump says undocumented immigrants can get tested for coronavirus and not fear being deported

Yesterday President Trump said undocumented immigrants should be able to get tested for coronavirus without fear of arrest or deportation. “The answer is yes, we will do those tests,” Trump said during a White House briefing. “You could say illegal alien, you could say illegal immigrant, you could say whatever you want to use your definition of […]

Latino Democrats demand flu vaccines for migrants after the death of a 16-year-old boy in Border Patrol custody

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) demanded yesterday that the Trump administration provide flu vaccines and enhanced medical care for detained migrants in the wake of revelations that a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy in Border Patrol custody died of the flu in May. “This is flu season that we’re going into, and the administration has decided not […]

CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan says arrests at border drop for sixth straight month

Acting Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Mark Morgan said yesterday the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement has shut down undocumented immigration from Central America, amid dropping border apprehension numbers. CBP announced 33,510 people were apprehended crossing the southwest border in November, down from 35,415 in October. A further 9,139 people were turned away at ports […]

House passes Democrat-backed measure to revamp medical screenings for migrants at the border

The House passed a measure yesterday that would revamp medical screenings for migrants in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The Democrat-backed bill, which passed in a 230-184 vote, would establish timelines for medical screenings and improve overall health standards. Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Fred Upton (Mich.) were the only Republicans to vote in favor of […]

Google employees sign petition asking leaders to stop working with immigration agencies

More than 1,000 Google employees have signed a petition as of yesterday asking company leaders to declare they won’t work with U.S. immigration and border control agencies, citing mistreatment of asylum seekers and refugees. The petition calls for Google to withdraw any existing and potential infrastructure, funding or engineering resources for Customs and Border Protection, or […]

U.S. Citizen released from ICE custody after 23 days

Francisco Erwin Galicia, a Dallas-born U.S. citizen, spent 23 days in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in conditions that made him so desperate he almost opted to self-deport. “It was inhumane how they treated us. It got to the point where I was ready to sign a deportation paper just to not […]

Children in detention centers allege sex assault in retaliation for protesting

The poor treatment of migrant children at the hands of U.S. border agents in recent months extends to include allegations of sexual assault and retaliation for protests, according to dozens of accounts by children held in Arizona. A 16-year-old Guatemalan boy held in Yuma, Arizona, said he and others in his cell complained about the taste […]

Ocasio-Cortez says migrant women were told to drink out of toilets at detention center

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said that migrant women at a Customs and Border Patrol facility in Texas were held in cells without water and told by officers to drink out of the toilet. “This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted yesterday, after her visit to a CBP […]

The acting director of ICE, Ron Vitiello, resigns amid immigration crisis

The acting director of ICE, Ron Vitiello, has resigned amid an agency wide restructuring of the Department of Homeland Security. Vitiello had originally been nominated to take over the post permanently, but his nomination was abruptly pulled last week by President Trump, who said he wanted to go in a “tougher” direction. Outgoing Homeland Security […]

An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy dies while in the custody of Border Patrol

An 8-year-old Guatemalan boy died late Christmas Eve in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection, the agency said, the second Guatemalan child to die in the agency’s custody this month. Rep. Joaquin Castro, chairman-elect of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, identified the child in a statement as Felipe Alonzo-Gomez. The boy, who was detained […]