Death Toll Rises to 53 in San Antonio Smuggling Incident
Since the discovery Monday of 67 people crammed into an abandoned truck on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas, the death toll has risen. The investigation continues while survivors fight for their lives at local hospitals and authorities try to identify the dead. VOA News reporter Jaime Moreno has the story from San Antonio. Camera: Jaime Moreno …
US Visa Called Too Expensive for Afghan Students
For Breshna Salaam, the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan last year meant a return to the same extreme poverty she and her mother had experienced under the Taliban’s first time in control of the country. In 1996, the Taliban fired Salaam’s mother from a public service job, denying the widow and her daughter their only source of income. In August 2021, with her mother retired, the Taliban fired Salaam from a job at the Ministry of Agriculture. Deprived of work and education in her own country, she applied for graduate programs abroad and was offered a scholarship at New York University. “I cried out of happiness when I received news of the scholarship,” Salaam told VOA. But her happiness did not last long. First, she had to pay more than $2,000 in bribes to get a new passport and a short-term visa to Pakistan, where she needs to submit a student visa application at the U.S. embassy. The embassy in Afghanistan remains closed since the Taliban entered Kabul last year. “I had to literally beg relatives and friends for money to pay for the passport and the Pakistani visa,” she said. And, …
US Supreme Court Backs Biden in Bid to End Trump ‘Remain in Mexico’ Policy
The U.S. Supreme Court sided with President Joe Biden on Thursday as he seeks to end a hardline immigration policy begun under his predecessor Donald Trump that forced tens of thousands of migrants to stay in Mexico to await U.S. hearings on their asylum claims. The justices, in a 5-4 ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, overturned a federal appeals court decision requiring Biden to restart Trump’s “remain in Mexico” policy after the Republican-led states of Texas and Missouri sued to maintain the program. The ruling is a victory for Biden, who appealed the lower court’s decision, and his plan to implement a more “humane” approach at the southern border. Trump’s administration adopted the policy, formally called the “Migrant Protection Protocols,” in 2018 in response to an increase in migration along the U.S.-Mexican border, changing longstanding U.S. practice. It prevented certain non-Mexican migrants, including asylum seekers fearing persecution in their home countries, from being released into the United States to await immigration proceedings, instead returning them to Mexico. Biden suspended the “remain in Mexico” policy in January 2021 shortly after taking office and acted to rescind it five months later. Roughly 68,000 people fell under the policy from the …
Toll Rises to 53 in Texas as Migrant Families Wait for Answers
In the chaotic minutes after dozens of migrants were found dead inside a semitrailer sweltering under the Texas sun, the driver tried to slip away by pretending to be one of the survivors, a Mexican immigration official said Wednesday. The driver and three other men remained in custody as the investigation continued into the tragedy that killed 53 people — the nation’s deadliest smuggling episode on the U.S.-Mexico border. Federal prosecutors said two of the suspects, including the driver, face charges that carry a potential sentence of life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. Two more people died Wednesday as the death toll slowly climbed since the discovery of 46 bodies Monday at the scene near auto salvage yards on the edge of San Antonio. The truck had been packed with 67 people. Among the dead were 27 people from Mexico, 14 from Honduras, seven from Guatemala and two from El Salvador, said Francisco Garduno, chief of Mexico’s National Immigration Institute. Officials had potential identifications on 37 of the victims as of Wednesday, pending verification with authorities in other countries, according to the Bexar County Medical Examiner’s Office. Forty of the victims were male, it said. Hard to …
Families Fret Over Fate of Migrants Trapped in Texas Truck
Before he began the journey that ended in disaster, Jose Luis Vasquez lived in a remote mountainous community in southern Mexico, where a single telephone connects a few indigenous families to the outside world, local residents said. Now the 31-year-old is in a hospital in San Antonio, Texas, after becoming severely dehydrated in a sweltering semitrailer in which at least 53 migrants died in the deadliest human smuggling tragedy in recent U.S. history. Vasquez had recently left the Mexican army, according to his uncle Aquilino Guzman, who said he had seen his nephew several weeks before he left for the United States. But Vasquez had not shared those travel plans with his uncle, Guzman said. “I guess it was the same story as always,” Guzman told Reuters. “Looking for better opportunities.” Guzman belongs to one of dozens of families awaiting word of loved ones, after the government said 27 Mexicans had died in Texas. Nearly two dozen Central Americans also died, according to the Mexican government. Oaxaca’s government is seeking a humanitarian visa for Vasquez’s mother to be with her son while he recovers in Texas. Vasquez, whose condition and hospital stay were announced by the Mexican government, could …
Groups in Spain, Morocco Push for Border Deaths Inquiry
Human rights organizations in Spain and Morocco called on both countries to investigate the deaths of at least 18 Africans and injuries suffered by dozens more who attempted to scale the border fence that surrounds Melilla, a Spanish enclave in North Africa. Moroccan authorities said the casualties occurred when a stampede of people tried to climb the iron fence that separates Melilla and Morocco. In a statement released Friday, Morocco’s Interior Ministry said 76 civilians were injured along with 140 Moroccan security officers. Local authorities cited by Morocco’s official MAP news agency said the death toll increased to 18 after several migrants died in the hospital. The Moroccan Human Rights Association reported 27 dead, but the figure could not immediately be confirmed. Two members of Morocco’s security forces and 33 migrants who were injured during the border breach were being treated at hospitals in the Moroccan cities of Nador and Oujda, MAP said. Traffickers blamed Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Saturday condemned what he described as a “violent assault” and an “attack on the territorial integrity” of Spain. Spanish officials said 49 Civil Guards sustained minor injuries. “If there is anyone responsible for everything that appears to have taken …
US to Cancel $6 Billion in Student Loans for 200,000 Defrauded Borrowers
The United States will cancel $6 billion in student loans for 200,000 borrowers who claimed they were defrauded by their colleges, the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden said. A settlement agreement between the borrowers and the U.S. Department of Education was filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Wednesday and must be approved by a federal judge. Student debt cancellation has become a priority for many liberals and one that could shore up popularity with younger and more highly educated voters, who lean Democratic, before November’s midterm congressional elections. About 43 million Americans have federal student loan debt, according to educationdata.org. The loans of those borrowers will be fully eliminated, and any payments they made will be refunded, according to the court filing of the settlement deal. The lawsuit from borrowers had accused the administrations of Biden and former President Donald Trump of illegally delaying for years any action on the applications that borrowers had filed with the Education Department seeking debt relief. In a statement on Thursday, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona described the settlement as “fair and equitable for all parties” and said it will deliver “billions of dollars of automatic relief” …
US Health Officials Ban Juul E-Cigarettes Tied to Teen Vaping Surge
Federal health officials on Thursday ordered Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the U.S. market, the latest blow to the embattled company widely blamed for sparking a national surge in teen vaping. The action is part of a sweeping effort by the Food and Drug Administration to bring scientific scrutiny to the multibillion-dollar vaping industry after years of regulatory delays. The FDA said Juul must stop selling its vaping device and its tobacco- and menthol-flavored cartridges. Those already on the market must be removed. Consumers aren’t restricted from having or using Juul’s products, the agency said. To stay on the market, companies must show that their e-cigarettes benefit public health. In practice, that means proving that adult smokers who use them are likely to quit or reduce their smoking, while teens are unlikely to get hooked on them. The FDA noted that some of the biggest sellers like Juul may have played a “disproportionate” role in the rise in teen vaping. The agency said Thursday that Juul’s application didn’t have enough evidence to show that marketing its products “would be appropriate for the protection of the public health.” Juul said it disagrees with the FDA’s findings and will seek …
World Refugee Day: More than 100 Million People Seek Safety Worldwide
On Monday (June 20) the United Nations will mark World Refugee Day in the shadow of what the United Nations says is the largest displacement crisis since World War II. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer has more. …
World Refugee Day: Afghan Accountant Teleworking from California
June 20 is World Refugee Day. As part of VOA’s coverage, Genia Dulot spoke with an Afghan accountant who fled the Taliban takeover and took his family to California. Camera: Genia Dulot …
UK Cancels First Flight to Deport Asylum Seekers to Rwanda
Britain has canceled its first deportation flight to Rwanda after a last-minute intervention by the European Court of Human Rights, which decided there was “a real risk of irreversible harm” to the asylum-seekers involved. The flight had been scheduled to leave Tuesday evening, but lawyers for the asylum-seekers launched a flurry of case-by-case appeals seeking to block the deportation of everyone on the government’s list. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss had said earlier in the day that the plane would take off no matter how many people were on board. But after the appeals, no one remained. The decision to scrap the Tuesday flight caps three days of frantic court challenges as immigration rights advocates and labor unions sought to stop the deportations. The leaders of the Church of England joined the opposition, calling the government’s policy “immoral.” Earlier in the day, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had emphatically defended the plan. “We are going to get on and deliver” the plan, Johnson declared, arguing that the move was a legitimate way to protect lives and thwart the criminal gangs that smuggle migrants across the English Channel in small boats. The prime minister announced an agreement with Rwanda in April in …
Britain Defends Its Plan to Send Migrants to Rwanda
With the first plane set to take off Tuesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson emphatically defended Britain’s plan to send asylum-seekers of various nationalities to Rwanda, despite an outcry from the United Nations, human rights activists and religious leaders. “We are going to get on and deliver” the plan, Johnson declared, arguing that the move is a legitimate way to protect lives and thwart the criminal gangs that smuggle migrants across the English Channel in small boats. The prime minister announced an agreement with Rwanda in April in which people who enter Britain illegally will be deported to the East African country. In exchange for accepting them, Rwanda will receive millions of dollars in development aid. The deportees will be allowed to apply for asylum in Rwanda, not Britain. Johnson’s government this week beat back a series of legal challenges seeking to block the first deportation flight. Opponents have argued that it is illegal and inhumane to send people thousands of miles to a country they don’t want to live in. Britain in recent years has seen an illegal influx of migrants from such places as Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Iraq and Yemen. Activists have denounced the policy as an attack …
DACA US Immigration Policy Marks 10 Years With Future Unclear
Umaar Ehsan is a recent Harvard University graduate. He is from Pakistan but grew up in Fairfax, Virginia. He is not a permanent resident. Nor is he an American citizen. He’s a recipient of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, a policy created in 2012 by the Obama administration. On Wednesday, DACA celebrates its 10th year. In that time, according to the Migration Policy Institute, more than 800,000 people have benefited from DACA, which permits recipients to work and go to school in the United States. “The implications of DACA extend beyond immigration policy into the fabric of American society,” Ehsan wrote in a recent letter to President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden. Ehsan’s father worked for the Pakistani embassy, which allowed the family to move to the United States in 1995, Ehsan told VOA. “But eight years later, his employment term would expire, and it became mandatory for us to return to Pakistan,” Ehsan explained in his letter to the White House. “But there was one problem: This magical place called America offered too much to lose. My father decided to lean into uncertainty, overstay his term, and chose to become ‘undocumented.’ This meant that our primary mission …
Afghan Migration Program Plagued by Rejections
When Ahmad, his wife and three children traveled to Pakistan in November last year, they were hoping to stay there for a short period before migrating to the U.S. through the Special Immigration Visa (SIV) program for Afghans. The chaos that followed the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in August made the family’s trip to the neighboring country extremely expensive, including hefty fees and bribes to get visas and plane tickets to Islamabad. Six months later, the family’s hopes were dashed when they were informed that their SIV application had been denied. Ahmad told VOA that a recommendation letter included in his application had failed authentication, causing the denial. From October to December 2021, more than 1,300 Afghan SIV applicants were denied, according to quarterly data from the U.S. State Department. In the preceding quarter, July to September, 1,462 Afghan principal SIV applicants were denied. Denials are issued for various reasons, such as lack of sufficient documentation, failure to prove valuable service to the U.S. government, and the presence of derogatory information associated with the principal applicant. “I’ve secured a very strong recommendation letter from our chief of mission, which I will submit in my appeal,” said Ahmad, who …
Five Years Later, Work of Reuniting Families Separated at US-Mexico Border Remains Unfinished
In June 2018, family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border made international headlines after audio emerged from a federal detention facility showing scores of sobbing children packed together, screaming for their parents. Though news of the separations came to light in 2018, a pilot program had started in 2017 in the El Paso, Texas, area. Five years later, of the more than 5,000 children who, court documents say, were separated from their parents under former President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance policy for unauthorized border crossers and those who presented themselves legally at ports of entry, about 180 children have yet to be reunited with their parents. Many of those parents were expelled from the United States, an immigration attorney told VOA. Some of the children are in foster care; others are with relatives they had never seen before. Lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union believe the number of children yet to be returned to their parents is much higher. “We believe that more than 1,000 families are still not reunited,” Lee Gelernt told VOA. He’s the lead ACLU attorney who sued to stop the Trump administration policy and represents separated families suing the U.S. government for damages and other types …
Biden Unveils Migration Plan Despite Summit Disagreements
U.S. President Joe Biden, along with other Western Hemisphere leaders, unveiled a host of measures to confront migration despite divisions over Biden’s invitation list at their summit in Los Angeles. The agreement on “The Los Angeles Declaration” came Friday on the final day of the Summit of the Americas, which has been roiled by Biden’s decision to exclude Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela for not being democratic enough. The leaders of Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras skipped the summit over the move while other South American leaders admonished Biden for his decision. Biden said Friday that 20 nations have signed up to take part in the Los Angeles Declaration, which he said is “transforming our approach to managing migration in the Americas.” The declaration includes a series of measures related to migration, including increasing guest worker programs, providing aid to communities most affected by migration and implementing humane border management. “Migration should be a voluntary, informed choice and not a necessity,” the declaration states, adding, “We acknowledge that addressing irregular international migration requires a regional approach.” It includes commitments by nations across the Americas, including a plan for Mexico to increase worker visas for Guatemalans and for Costa Rica to extend protections …
British Plan to Fly Asylum-Seekers to Rwanda Faces Last-Minute Legal Challenge
Refugee support groups have launched a legal case against the British government to block a flight scheduled next week that would take hundreds of asylum-seekers for processing in Rwanda. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, the United Nations has also criticized the policy. …
Spain Ponders US Plan to Accept Latin American Immigrants
Analysts in Spain are divided over an expected request from U.S. President Joe Biden for Spain to begin accepting migrants from Latin America — a move that would ease the pressure along the United States’s southern border. Some commentators said it would relieve Spain’s lack of workers just as the crucial tourism industry is reviving after the pandemic. But others said Spain should welcome more Latin American migrants only if it serves the country’s real political and economic needs, not to ingratiate itself with Washington. Officials were expected to announce the plan to resettle migrants in Spain for the first time at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, where the leaders of the United States, Spain and most Western Hemisphere countries are meeting this week. Axios, a U.S. online news site, reported last week that Biden would ask Spain and Canada to accept more migrants, according to internal planning documents ahead of the Los Angeles conference, which the website said it had reviewed. If the plan goes ahead, it could prove to be politically advantageous to Biden, whose government has faced vast numbers of migrants seeking to enter the United States from Mexico. Neither government has made any …
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