Friday, April 19, 2024

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 […]

Migrant children describe the horrific conditions at the detention centers

A 16-year-old mother sleeps with her baby on a cement floor, a 12-year-old wakes up in the middle of the night from hunger, a 5-year-old is sick and has no socks and an 11-year-old cries in a cell, and is only let outside for a few minutes each day. These are some of the stories […]

ICE wants to implement DNA testing at border locations

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is seeking to implement Rapid DNA testing at seven border locations to identify fraudulent claims of familial relationships by migrants trying to enter the U.S. The agency is seeking help from a contractor in its efforts to administer the DNA tests, which it said in a statement of work should […]

Border Agent used racist slurs and referred to immigrants as “disgusting subhuman s**t” in text messages

A Border Patrol agent in Arizona, who faces federal charges for allegedly hitting an undocumented immigrant with his truck, consistently used profanities and racist slurs to describe immigrants he apprehended at the border, according to federal court documents reported by the Arizona Daily Star. Among a trove of text messages cited by prosecutors, Matthew Bowen […]

Border apprehensions reach new record, immigration officials say they are “overwhelmed”

The number of migrants apprehended by U.S. authorities along the border topped 100,000 for the second month in a row, officials said. April’s tally of 109,144 apprehended border-crossers — many of them families and children — is the highest monthly total since 2007. “Our apprehension numbers are off the charts as compared to recent years,” said U.S. […]

DHS will be seeking a legislative proposal to address border crossings

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen will ask Congress for the authority to deport unaccompanied migrant children more quickly, to hold families seeking asylum in detention until their cases are decided and to allow immigrants to apply for asylum from their home countries, according to a copy of the request obtained by NBC News. […]

Democratic congresswomen commemorated migrant girl who died in U.S. Custody at SOTU

Several freshmen Democratic congresswomen wore pins to the State of the Union address honoring Jakelin Caal Maquin, the 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in the custody of Border Patrol back in December. “We are bringing Jakelin Caal into the room with us during the #SOTU,” Rashida Tlaib tweeted before the speech. “They said 12,800 children are […]

22 immigrants died under ICE detention in the last 2 years

The 22 immigrants who died in the nation’s sprawling network of detention centers over the past two years came to the United States from countries as far-flung as Vietnam, and as close as Mexico. Some had been longtime legal residents, arriving as refugee or students. Many were young — half were not yet 45 years […]

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 […]

Congressman Castro wants top border official to resign

Democratic Rep. Joaquín Castro issued a call for the head of Customs and Border Protection to step down for failing to speedily report the death of a 7-year-old girl while in border officials’ custody. Castro made the demand Tuesday after he and 11 other members of Congress visited border facilities to find out more about […]