5 Arrested in Connection With Mexican Migrant Fire
Mexican officials have arrested five people for their alleged connection to a fire earlier this week at a Mexican immigration detention center that killed 39 migrants. The announcement of the arrests Thursday came a day after Mexico’s attorney general’s office announced a homicide investigation into the blaze after video surveillance footage appeared to show guards doing nothing to help migrants escape the fire engulfing their cell. Authorities said one migrant is believed to be responsible for igniting the fire. A private security company, Grupo de Seguridad Privada CAMSA SA de CV, was responsible for security at the center in the border town of Juarez, according to a Reuters report that says federal agents will now be responsible for the center’s security concerns. Some information in this report came from Reuters. …
Refugee Rights Advocates Express Concern Over New US-Canada Border Deal
Human rights activists and immigration advocates expressed concerns over a new immigration deal between Canada and the United States that allows either country to turn away asylum-seekers who reach the border at unofficial crossings. Since U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement on March 24, the agreement has received a strong reaction from refugee and immigration rights advocates. Critics of the deal say asylum-seekers will still attempt to cross the border but now will try to do so undetected and in more dangerous ways. Yael Schacher, director for the Americas and Europe at Refugees International, said via email that this agreement erases access to protection for people seeking safety in North America. “The expansion of the U.S.-Canada Safe Third Country agreement was kept a secret for a year and now is being implemented without opportunity for comment on its implications on refugee protection in the hemisphere, including the possibility that it will incentivize entries at ever more remote parts of the border in order to evade detection. … Additional legal pathways Canada reportedly may provide to some refugees will not make up for this cutting off of access to asylum at the U.S.-Canada border,” …
Mexican President Vows to Deliver Justice for Migrants Killed in Fire
Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Wednesday vowed to bring to justice whoever was responsible for the deaths of 38 migrants in a fire at a migrant holding center in the northern border city of Ciudad Juarez this week. Authorities believe the fire late on Monday, which killed mostly men from Guatemala and other Central American countries, was started by migrants setting alight mattresses in an act of protest when they discovered they would be deported. An investigation is underway to determine what happened at the center, which Lopez Obrador said employed staff from the government’s National Migration Institute (INM) as well as personnel from a private contractor. “There’ll be no attempt to hide the facts, no attempt to cover for anyone,” he told a news conference. All the victims were male, and Mexico’s government is under pressure to find out why they died after officials said that the women migrants at the center were successfully evacuated. A short video circulating on social media on Tuesday – appearing to be security footage from inside the center during the blaze – showed men kicking on the bars of a locked door. Three uniformed people can be seen walking past …
US Justice Department to Go on Hiring Spree for Immigration Judges
The U.S. Justice Department is going on a hiring spree for immigration judges in hopes of easing an intractable case backlog. In its budget proposal for the fiscal year 2024 that starts October 1, the department is seeking $1.46 billion for the Executive Office for Immigration Review, a subagency within the department tasked with adjudicating immigration claims. The request represents an increase of nearly 70% in funding and will enable the agency to hire 965 new judicial staff, including 150 new immigration judges, Attorney General Merrick Garland said in written testimony before a Senate appropriations subcommittee. “Then we’d be placing them in areas of the highest number of cases,” Garland said. In recent years, the agency has deployed newly hired immigration judges to Southwestern states to deal with an influx of migrants. In fiscal year 2023, Florida, Texas, California and New York had the largest number of pending immigration cases. There are currently about 600 immigration judges in the country, more than double from just a few years ago, handling more than 2 million cases. In addition to hiring more judges for immigration courts, Garland said, the Justice Department plans to expand virtual hearings at the U.S.-Mexico border as …
At Least 39 Dead After Fire at Mexico Migrant Facility
At least 39 people are dead after a fire broke out before dawn Tuesday at a Mexican immigration detention facility along the U.S. border. The fire broke out at the center run by the National Migration Institute in Ciudad Juarez, just across from El Paso, Texas. Photos from the scene showed the parking lot of the facility lined with several bodies covered with blankets. Officials at the institute say 29 people were injured in the blaze. At least 68 men from Central and South America were being housed at the facility at Ciudad Juarez, which is a major crossing area for migrants or asylum seekers wishing to enter the United States. The cause of the fire is under investigation. …
Navajo Tech First Among US Tribal Universities to Offer PhD
A university on the largest Native American reservation in the U.S. launched its accredited doctoral program, becoming the first among more than 30 accredited tribal colleges and universities across the country to offer such a high-level degree. The program at Navajo Technical University will be dedicated to sustaining Diné culture and language. Dine is the Navajo word meaning “the people” and is commonly what tribal members call themselves. A celebration is planned on the Crownpoint campus in western New Mexico in April, and the school already started accepting applications for the fall semester. The offering marks a milestone for the university, which already has more than 30 degree and certificate programs spanning science, technology, engineering, business and liberal arts, Navajo Tech President Elmer Guy said. Guy told The Associated Press on Friday that he believes the program in which students will receive a Ph.D. in Dine Culture and Language Sustainability will have a profound impact on the future of the tribe’s language and culture. He said he’s excited to see how students shape their dissertations. The idea was to create a program that would lead to employment opportunities and effect change for Navajo communities on the reservation that stretches into …
VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, March 19–25
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. Biden, Trudeau Work to Stop Unofficial Border Crossings, Officials Say The United States and Canada reached a deal aimed at stopping asylum-seekers from crossing the shared land border via unofficial crossings, though details still need to be ironed out when the two sides meet, a Canadian government source and a U.S. official told Reuters Thursday. Media Groups Warn Immigration Case Could Affect US Press Freedoms The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a case Monday that some First Amendment experts warn could affect how journalists cover immigration. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros reports. US Flies Migrants Caught at Canada Border to Texas in Deterrence Effort U.S. authorities have been flying migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border to Texas as part of a deterrence effort to tackle a rise in crossings, according to authorities, flight records, and a Reuters witness. VOA Day in Photo Migrants, transferred from Plattsburgh, New York, to El Paso, Texas, disembark from a plane at the airport, in El Paso, Texas, March 21, 2023. Immigration around the world Rohingya Skeptical of Myanmar …
US, Canada Announce Deal on Asylum-Seekers During Biden Trip
U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced an immigration deal Friday to stop asylum-seekers from crossing the U.S.-Canada border at unofficial crossings. The United States and Canada are working to “address historic levels of migration in our hemisphere,” Biden told reporters at a joint news conference Friday in Ottawa during his first visit to Canada as president. The migration agreement allows each country to turn away asylum-seekers who reach the border at unofficial crossings and is aimed at helping Canada limit the rising number of asylum-seekers who have crossed into the country from the United States after entering the U.S. elsewhere. Under the previous migration pact, U.S. and Canadian officials were able to turn back asylum-seekers in both directions at formal points of entry, but this did not apply to unofficial crossings. Canada had been pressing the United States to expand the deal, called the Safe Third Country Agreement, to include unofficial crossings. Trudeau has faced growing pressure to stem the rising number of asylum-seekers coming to Canada, many of them traveling on Roxham Road, a dirt path between New York State and Quebec. Nearly 40,000 asylum-seekers crossed into Canada from the United States in 2022, …
Media Groups Warn Immigration Case Could Affect US Press Freedoms
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear a case Monday that some First Amendment experts warn could affect how journalists cover immigration. The case, United States v. Hansen, stems from the 2017 prosecution of Helaman Hansen, who was convicted in connection with a fraudulent adoption agency that he ran. Hansen is attempting to have parts of his conviction overturned, saying parts of a federal law against encouraging or inducing unlawful immigration to the U.S. violate First Amendment rights. The government asked the Supreme Court to hear the case after a lower court ruled that the law was “overbroad and unconstitutional,” according to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. Media experts agree, saying such broad provisions could leave journalists vulnerable to prosecution if they cover a range of issues, from poor security at the border to commentary on relaxing immigration policy. In the case of Hansen, “what he had done was run a fraudulent adult adoption agency that falsely promised people a path to [U.S.] citizenship,” Grayson Clary, attorney at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, told VOA. In a news briefing, attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union said that under the so-called encouragement provision …
Biden, Trudeau Work to Stop Unofficial Border Crossings, Officials Say
The United States and Canada reached a deal aimed at stopping asylum-seekers from crossing the shared land border via unofficial crossings, though some details still need to be ironed out when the two sides meet, a Canadian government source and a U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday. The revised Safe Third Country Agreement will be discussed Friday at an official face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa, with the announcement likely afterward. Trudeau has been under pressure to stop the flow of asylum-seekers into Quebec, the mainly French-speaking province where he holds his parliamentary seat. As part of the agreement, Canada will take an additional 15,000 migrants over the next year on a humanitarian basis from the Western Hemisphere, the U.S. official said. Biden arrived in Canada on Thursday on his long-delayed visit to express unity on Ukraine and will address Parliament on Friday with Trudeau. The two leaders and their wives met privately at Trudeau’s residence in the evening. Border crossings between the two countries are governed by the STCA, which allows U.S. and Canadian officials to turn back asylum-seekers in both directions at formal ports of entry but does not …
US Flies Migrants Caught at Canada Border to Texas in Deterrence Effort
U.S. authorities have been flying migrants caught illegally crossing the U.S.-Canada border to Texas as part of a deterrence effort to tackle a rise in crossings, according to authorities, flight records and a Reuters witness. U.S. Border Patrol has quietly transported about 100 migrants this month on two charter flights from Plattsburgh, New York, near the border with Canada, to the Texas cities of Harlingen and El Paso. The southbound flights from the northern border are a break from past practice as the United States deals with a sharp rise in migrants crossing illegally from Canada, current and former officials told Reuters. At the same time, asylum-seekers have been crossing from the United States into Canada in record numbers, straining resources. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to raise migration issues with U.S. President Joe Biden during meetings in Ottawa on Thursday and Friday. U.S. Border Patrol apprehended nearly 2,900 people crossing illegally from Canada into the United States in the five months since October, more than all of fiscal year 2022. About half of those were Mexicans, who do not need a visa to travel to Canada. Gil Kerlikowske, a former commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection …
UK Minister in Rwanda Reinforcing Migrant Deportation Plan
Britain’s interior minister arrived in Rwanda Saturday for a visit aimed at reinforcing the United Kingdom government’s commitment to a controversial plan to deport some asylum-seekers to the African country. Ahead of her visit, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the migration policy “will act as a powerful deterrent against dangerous and illegal journeys.” Britain’s Conservative government wants to stop migrants from reaching the U.K. on risky journeys across the English Channel, and a deportation agreement signed with Rwanda last year was part of measures intended to deter the arrivals. More than 45,000 people arrived in Britain by boat in 2022, compared with 8,500 in 2020. Under the plans, some migrants who arrive in the U.K. in small boats would be flown to Rwanda, where their asylum claims would be processed. Those granted asylum would stay in the African country rather than return to Britain. But the 140 million-pound ($170 million) plan has been mired in legal challenges, and no one has yet been sent to Rwanda. The U.K. was forced to cancel the first deportation flight at the last minute in June after the European Court of Human Rights ruled the plan carried “a real risk of irreversible harm.” Human …
Президент Зеленський підписав закон 7198 про компенсації за зруйноване майно
Основні новації закону 7198, який 17 березня 2023 року підписав Президент України Володимир Зеленський: – Компенсації надаватимуть виключно за майно (пошкоджене/зруйноване) з 24 лютого 2022 року; – Закон діє протягом трьох років після припинення або скасування воєнного стану на території, де такий об’єкт знаходиться (знаходився); – Закон не поширюватиметься на об’єкти, що на дату введення воєнного стану були на тимчасово окупованій території; – Компенсацію надаватимуться виключно за пошкоджену або знищену житлову нерухомість: квартири, інші житлові приміщення (наприклад, кімнати у гуртожитках), будинки садибного типу, садові та дачні будинки, об’єкти будівництва, у яких зведені опорні та зовнішні конструкції; – Право на компенсацію отримають фізичні особи – громадяни України, які є власниками пошкодженого/зруйнованого майна; – Не зможуть отримати компенсації особи із санкційних списків, із судимістю за вчинення злочинів проти основ національної безпеки та їхні спадкоємці; – За пошкоджене майно отримати грошову компенсацію буде неможливо – для таких випадків пропонують виключно відновлення через будівельні роботи та/або надання будівельних матеріалів для них; – Власники знищених квартир та інших житлових приміщень одержать житловий сертифікат — документ, що підтверджує гарантії держави профінансувати придбання квартири або іншого житлового приміщення (у тому числі такого, що буде споруджене в майбутньому) в обсязі визначеної грошової суми; – У власників приватних будинків …
Sharp Drop in Illegal Border Crossings into US Continues in February
A sharp drop in illegal border crossings along the Southwest border that started in January after the Biden administration announced stricter immigration measures continued into February, the administration announced Wednesday. The data released by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection paints a picture of who is attempting to enter the country at a time of intense political controversy with Republicans seeing immigration as a potent issue with voters and accusing President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of not doing enough to secure the southern border. U.S. Border Patrol officials encountered migrants 128,877 times trying to cross the border in February between the legal border crossings. That’s about the same as January’s number — 128,913 — and is the lowest number of encounters per month since February 2021, the agency said. The numbers of encounters doesn’t necessarily equate to individual people since some migrants try repeatedly to cross the border. The agency said about 25% of those encountered in February were repeat encounters meaning that at some time during the last 12 months they’d been detained by U.S. officials as they tried to enter the country. In comparison, U.S. officials stopped migrants 221,693 times between the ports of entry …
Ukrainian Refugees Processed at US-Mexico Border Can Remain in US For Another Year
The Biden administration announced Monday it will allow many Ukrainians who entered the U.S. at the southern border to remain in the country for an additional year under a program known as humanitarian parole. “As Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis it has caused continue, [the Department of Homeland Security] assesses that there remain urgent humanitarian reasons, as well as a significant public benefit, for extending the parole of certain Ukrainians and family members on a case-by-case basis,” a DHS spokesperson told VOA via email. Humanitarian parole is a temporary immigration status that may be granted to individuals who are otherwise inadmissible to the United States. Individuals may qualify based on circumstances such as a medical emergency or a humanitarian crisis. DHS estimates it will take approximately four weeks to decide to review and decide Ukrainian refugees qualify for the parole extension. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it triggered an exodus of people from the country on a scale not seen since World War II. Though most Ukrainians sought refuge in other countries in Europe, some opted to attempt to reach the U.S. While some Ukrainians had U.S. visas allowing them to enter without …
Hundreds of Migrants Try to Force Their Way Into US at Mexico Border
U.S. officials stopped hundreds of mostly Venezuelan migrants entering the country from Mexico on Sunday after a large group broke through Mexican lines to demand asylum in the U.S., only to be thwarted by barbed wire, barriers and shields. Frustrated with problems securing appointments to seek asylum using a new U.S. government app, the migrants gathered at the frontier in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez but could not breach the crossing connecting the two countries. Many of the migrants had small children with them. At one point, some migrants attempted to hurl an orange, plastic barrier at the U.S. line, Reuters images show. Some people said pepper spray was deployed to repel them. “Please, we just want to get in so we can help our families,” said Camila Paz, an 18-year-old Venezuelan, sobbing heavily. “So I can have a future and help my family.” Neither U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) nor the Mexican government’s national migration authority immediately replied to requests for comment. After some pushing and shoving with the officials, the crowd of migrants eventually withdrew, with some heading down to the banks of the Rio Grande where they were monitored by U.S. immigration officials arrayed …
VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, March 5–11
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com. Ukrainians Who Fled War Face End of Temporary US Sanctuary When U.S. officials at the U.S.-Mexico border stamped the Ukrainian passports of Mariia and her daughter last April and gave them permission to stay for a year, she figured she would return home within months. Now with that year almost up and the war that caused them to flee still raging, their permission to stay in the U.S. — known as humanitarian parole — is set to expire April 23. Virginia Nonprofit Helps Ukrainian Refugees Settle in US More than 113,000 Ukrainians have temporarily resettled in the United States, thanks to the U.S. government program Uniting for Ukraine. But many of these refugees are finding themselves lost in a new country. A Virginia agency is helping them start their new lives. Ksenia Turkova has the story. Judge Orders Halt to Fast Releases at US Border with Mexico A federal judge Wednesday ordered the Biden administration to end the expedited releases of migrants who enter the United States illegally from Mexico, potentially straining already stretched holding facilities. Reported …
Jaded By Education, More Americans Skip College
When he looked to the future, Grayson Hart always saw a college degree. He was a good student at a good high school. He wanted to be an actor, or maybe a teacher. Growing up, he believed college was the only route to a good job, stability and a happy life. The pandemic changed his mind. A year after high school, Hart is directing a youth theater program in Jackson, Tennessee. He got into every college he applied to but turned them all down. Cost was a big factor, but a year of remote learning also gave him the time and confidence to forge his own path. “There were a lot of us with the pandemic, we kind of had a do-it-yourself kind of attitude of like, ‘Oh — I can figure this out,’” he said. Career over college Hart is among hundreds of thousands of young people who came of age during the pandemic but didn’t go to college. Many have turned to hourly jobs or careers that don’t require a degree, while others have been deterred by high tuition and the prospect of student debt. What first looked like a pandemic blip has turned into a crisis. Nationwide, …
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