Tag: Migrants

20 Republican States Sue Biden Admin over Migrant Parole Program

Just the News

A group of 20 Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration over its migrant program that allows a set monthly amount of migrants to enter the U.S. from select countries. Texas, supported by 19 other states and America First Legal, filed the suit asserting that the Department of Homeland Security had effectively created a visa program without congressional approval “by announcing that it will permit up to 360,000 aliens annually from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela to be ‘paroled’ into the United States for two years or longer and with eligibility for employment authorization.”

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More than 200,000 Migrants Came to U.S. in December amid Mounting Border Crisis: CBP

Admin

Authorities encountered 216,162 migrants at the southwest land border in December of last year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. That figures marks an 11 percent increase in unique encounters from November of the same year. The federal agency attributed the surge to influx of Cuban and Nicaraguan individuals fleeing authoritarian regimes in those countries.

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Biden Admin Expands Ways for Migrants to Avoid Trump-Era Border Policy

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration’s new border policy makes it easier for migrants to circumvent Title 42, a major Trump-era public health order used for expulsions to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, by exempting many from expulsion.

President Joe Biden announced Jan. 5  an expanded legal pathway for migrants that would otherwise be expelled under Title 42 so long as they can prove they have a legitimate need for protection. He recently began expelling Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians, while providing a legal pathway if they have a U.S. sponsor and apply via a phone application known as “CBP [Customs and Border Protection] One.”

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Sex, Alcohol and Drugs: Migrants ‘Destroy’ New York Hotels

ADN America

A New York luxury hotel is being “vandalized” by immigrants, who have been accused of drinking all day, smoking marijuana, having sex on the stairs and starting fights, an employee told Fox News on Thursday.

“The chaos we see on The Row today is [caused] by immigrants who are drunk, drinking all day, smoking marijuana [and] doing drugs, ” Row NYC employee Felipe Rodriguez said of what he called “shameful.”

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Feds Lost Track of 150k Migrants due to Biden’s ‘No Processing’ Policy, Training Video Shows

Just the News

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials lost track of 150,000 migrants that entered the United States due to the Biden administration’s “no processing” immigration policy, a training video from the federal agency shows. 

The Biden administration launched “Operation Horizon” in November 2021 to try to locate 150,000 migrants that were released in the summer earlier that year, but the training videos published Tuesday by Fox News show that officials had difficulty tracking down the migrants due to a lack of identifying information.

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U.S. District Judge Rules Title 42 Rule Used to Expel Migrants Is Unlawful

Just the News

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan on Tuesday ruled that the Trump-era Title 42 immigration rule was “arbitrary and capricious in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.”

Sullivan’s 49-page opinion said the rule, which has been used to deport migrants at least 2 million times under the auspices of COVID-19-related health concerns.

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NYC to Spend More than Half a Billion Dollars Supporting Illegal Migrants

Admin

New York City is expected to spend nearly $600 million to support illegal migrants over the course of one year, according to a report released Sunday by the city’s Independent Budget Office (IBO).

The city is expected to spend close to $580 million on shelter accommodations, public school, health care, legal assistance and other forms of aid, according to the IBO report. Approximately 23,000 illegal migrants have arrived in the Big Apple since April.

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Big Tech-Funded Nonprofit Gives Migrants ‘Literal Roadmaps’ on Ways to Reach the U.S. Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — Doctors Without Borders, a medical aid nonprofit which is funded by a number of prominent tech companies, is publishing and distributing maps to migrants showing routes through Central America that reach the U.S., according to a copy of the map seen by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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Commentary: Biden’s Migrant Policy Worsens Central America’s ‘Root Causes,’ Critics Say

RealClearWire

When Vice President Kamala Harris visited Mexico last year, she cited poverty, crime, and political instability as “root causes” driving millions of migrants to cross the U.S. border. 

But some critics with regional expertise say Biden administration policies, which migrants have interpreted as an invitation to travel north, have severely worsened those root causes, destabilizing large swaths of Central America and Mexico. The torrent of people moving across the region has delivered billions of dollars to the coffers of human smuggling rings and the drug cartels that have taken advantage of America’s overwhelmed border patrol to deliver fentanyl and other deadly substances to the United States.  

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Biden Admin Weighing Plan to House Migrants in Guantanamo: Report

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration is weighing a plan to house migrants at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, according to NBC News.

The White House National Security Council asked the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for the number of Haitian migrants apprehended at sea that would require them to designate a third country for them to stay while they await processing to enter the U.S., NBC reported, citing two U.S. officials and an internal document. If there is an overwhelming number of Haitian migrants for a third country, the Biden administration is considering Guantanamo Bay as a holding center.

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Most Americans Believe Migrants Should Be Sent to Sanctuary Cities, Poll Finds

Admin

The majority of Americans believe illegal immigrants should be sent to sanctuary cities, a new poll from Scott Rasmussen and RMG Research Inc found.

Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent 50 migrants last week to Martha’s Vineyard, which advertises itself as a sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, last week, sparking widespread backlash. The new poll suggests that ordinary Americans are actually supportive of the decision despite the media’s negative response.

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Migrants Whom DeSantis Flew to Martha’s Vineyard File Class Action Suit Against Him

Just the News

Some of the migrants whom Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis flew to Martha’s Vineyard have filed a lawsuit against him and state officials.

These migrants allege that the group boarded the planes under false pretenses. The governor sent two planes of illegal migrants to upper crust liberal enclave Martha’s Vineyard late last week, prompting horror from the area’s residents and outrage from Democratic politicians. Authorities promptly relocated the migrants from the wealthy area to a military base near Cape Cod.

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Report: NYC Wants to Relocate Migrants Bused in from Texas to Florida

Minnesota Sun Staff

New York City officials are thinking about flying illegal immigrants out of the Big Apple to Florida after officials in Texas bussed 11,000 border crossers to the sanctuary city, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.

Manuel Castro, NYC’s Commissioner of Immigration Affairs, said that most of the migrants are from Venezuela, and they want to go to the Sunshine State because it has a large community of Venezuelans.

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Four Charged in Connection to Botched Smuggling Operation That Killed Dozens

Minnesota Sun Staff

Four individuals are charged in connection with a deadly human smuggling event in San Antonio, Texas, where dozens of migrants were found dead in a tractor trailer, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas announced Wednesday.

Homero Zamorano Jr., 45, of Brownsville, Texas, was arrested Wednesday and charged with one count of alien smuggling resulting in death, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. Christian Martinez, 28, was arrested Tuesday in Palestine, Texas, and charged with one count of conspiracy to transport illegal aliens resulting in death.

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Commentary: Biden Is Nowhere to Be Found After Unleashing Total Chaos at the Southern Border

Admin

I was at the border just this week. If President Joe Biden cared, he’d be there too. His Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly released its latest batch of catastrophic border numbers.

More than 239,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended in May — the highest monthly total in DHS history. Taking a step back, this means a shocking 3.5 million illegal immigrants have now crossed into the U.S. since Biden took office. This is not normal, nor is it accidental. It is a cataclysmic destruction of our sovereign borders at the expense of the American people.

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Supreme Court Dismisses GOP Lawsuit to Make It Harder for Migrants to Stay in the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Supreme Court dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday that sought to increase restrictions on illegal aliens entering or seeking to stay in the U.S.

The lawsuit argued that Republican Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich and 12 other states suing had the right to defend the rule, which was reversed by the Biden administration. The Supreme Court’s dismissal means the high court is not willing to weigh in on whether the states can fight to reinstate the Trump-era rule, leaving in place a lower court ruling that favored the Biden administration.

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Cartels Selling Fentanyl to Migrants, Locals in Northern Mexico

Minnesota Sun Staff
Fentanyl

As cartels continue to devastate American communities with fentanyl, they’re now finding more customers for the drug in northern Mexico, Noticias Telemundo reported.

Migrants and locals just south of the border, in areas like Tijuana, Mexico, are seeing more users on the streets turning to the drug, the report detailed.

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‘Federal Government’s Failure’: Democrats Join Forces with Republicans to Reverse Biden’s Migrant Decision

Minnesota Sun Staff

Moderate Senate Democrats joined Senate Republicans on Thursday in an effort to block President Joe Biden from lifting Title 42, a measure enacted during the pandemic that allows for the quick expulsion of migrants.

The bipartisan group of lawmakers proposed legislation that would halt the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from ending the policy, which the agency announced would cease on May 23, without an adequate plan in place.

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Southern Border Migrant Encounters Increased in February

Minnesota Sun Staff
U.S. Customs and Border Protection operations following the implementation of Title 42 USC 265 at the northern and southern land borders. U.S. Border Patrol agents transport a group of individuals encountered near Sasabe, Ariz. to the U.S. Mexico border on March 22, 2020. CBP Photo by Jerry Glaser

Border officials encountered 164,973 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in February, according to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announcement Tuesday.

The figure represents a 7% increase from January’s encounters, according to CBP.

CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus said in a statement that February’s overall operational numbers result from “the continued economic rebound from the depths of the COVID pandemic, with CBP officers processing more than 2.8 million shipments in legitimate trade valued at more than $236 billion.”

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Republican Lawmakers Demand Answers from Mayorkas Regarding DHS Documents TSA Allows Migrants to Use as Identification

Admin

Republican lawmakers have demanded the Biden administration answer questions regarding alternate forms of identification the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says it accepts from migrants traveling throughout the country.

Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden, along with 21 other Republican lawmakers, sent a letter Wednesday to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas raising concerns over a number of DHS documents migrants can use as identification, including certain arrest warrants, and the methods through which they are vetted.

The letter, exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation, also seeks information on how border patrol agents and others are able to verify a migrant’s identity when issuing the documents in the first place.

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‘Take Migrants at Their Word’: Republicans Criticize Process Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Get Through Airport Security Without ID

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republican lawmakers are raising concerns over illegal migrants without identification traveling on commercial flights throughout the country, according to an email exclusively obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The email revealed that the national vetting center used by TSA processed over 42,000 non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals requesting document validation between the first of the year and mid-October.

Republican Texas Rep. Lance Gooden has been probing the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as part of his office’s investigation into whistleblower documents alleging an operation to move migrants across the country without standard documentation.

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At Least 54 Dead After Migrant Truck Crashes in Mexico

Minnesota Sun Staff

At least 54 people were killed and more than 100 others were injured when a truck full of migrants crashed in southern Mexico on Thursday, The New York Times reported.

The accident occurred when a truck carrying more than 100 people overturned, the head of the state Civil Protection Service, Luis Manuel García Moreno, told Milenio TV, the NYT reported. It is one of the deadliest accidents involving migrants in decades.

The truck contained passengers who were mostly migrants traveling from Central America, and it was moving at an “excessive” speed when it rounded a sharp curve and flipped, a witness told García, the NYT reported. The truck then crashed into a pedestrian bridge and construction close by.

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With Migrant Caravan en Route to Texas, Border Was ‘Not a Focus’ in Biden Talks with Mexican Leader

Minnesota Sun Staff
Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Joe Biden

As another caravan of Central Americans and Haitians heads north to the U.S. southern border, the Biden administration is making little apparent effort to comply with a federal judge’s order to reinstate the Remain in Mexico Policy, while also claiming to be focusing on border security.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who has repeatedly sued the administration over immigration, says the administration is inviting illegal aliens to the U.S. while also making it harder for Border Patrol agents to do their jobs.

A caravan of roughly 2,000 Central Americans and Haitians left Tapachula, Mexico recently — the same day President Biden met with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Instead of sending a clear message to the caravan to turn around, the leaders sent an implicit message that the border is open and the Remain in Mexico Policy remains inoperative.

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Migrants Are Setting Up Camps Across Mexico, Hoping to be Allowed into the U.S.

Minnesota Sun Staff
Group of tents on a sidewalk; homeless people

New migrant campsites have sprung up around Mexico throughout 2021 as migrants have grown uncertain of whether they’ll be able to remain in the U.S., the Associated Press reported Thursday.

Camps are full of migrants, including many children and those who can’t apply for asylum in the U.S. because of Title 42 restrictions, who have to wait in Mexico as their cases proceed through U.S. immigration courts, according to the AP. Title 42 is a Trump-era public health order implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that prevents some migrants from remaining in the U.S. while seeking asylum and allows border officials to rapidly expel most migrants from the country.

Hundreds of Mexican law enforcement officials raided an encampment in Tijuana and required migrants to register for credentials or evacuate the area on Oct. 28, the AP reported. The migrants who registered and stayed were soon surrounded by a mile of chain-link fence.

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Biden Administration Says It Doesn’t Release Migrants Without Court Dates … Anymore

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration said it’s no longer releasing migrants into the U.S. without court dates, CNN Politics reported Tuesday.

Migrants will be issued formal notices to appear in an immigration court when released from federal custody instead of notices to report, which direct them to check in with an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office within 60 days, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said, according to CNN.

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Thousands of Migrants Stuck in Between Belarus and Poland as Tensions Flare

Minnesota Sun Staff

Thousands of migrants are stranded at the Belarus-Poland border, with Belarus and Russia performing military demonstrations amid rising tensions in the region, CNN reported Friday.

Up to 2,000 people are trapped between Poland and Belarus, enduring hunger and hypothermia in the freezing forests and camps along the border, CNN reported. The number of migrants at the border has the potential to grow to 10,000 people in the near future if the situation doesn’t change, according to Belarusian authorities.

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Republicans Vow to Fight White House Plan to Pay Migrants Who Entered Country Illegally

The Center Square
U.S. Border Patrol agents assigned to the McAllen station encounter large group after large group of family units in Los Ebanos, Texas, on Friday June 15. This group well in excess of 100 family units turned themselves into the U.S. Border Patrol, after crossing the border illegally and walking through the town of Los Ebanos.

Congressional Republicans say they will fight a White House plan to pay up to $450,000 in reparations to migrants separated from their families under the Trump administration after entering the country illegally.

After The Wall Street Journal reported on the plan earlier this week, President Joe Biden called the report “garbage,” only to be corrected by his spokesperson the next day.

At issue is former President Donald Trump’s policy of prosecuting all adults who entered the country illegally, in accordance with federal immigration law, including those with children. The Biden administration rescinded the policy, along with many other immigration enforcement efforts.

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Border Patrol: 27 Percent of Migrants Arrested at Border Are Repeat Offenders, Many with Other Criminal Convictions

The Center Square

Federal law enforcement officers arrested more than 17,300 migrants with past convictions of other crimes attempting to cross the border illegally last fiscal year. That’s up from 9,447 in fiscal 2020.

The federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30.

An additional 8,979 in fiscal 2021 were of migrants with outstanding arrest warrants against them from other law enforcement agencies.

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Migrants Sleep Outside Immigration Offices to Check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement

Minnesota Sun Staff

Migrants are sleeping outside immigration offices waiting to check in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, the Houston Chronicle reported on Friday.

Migrants started spending the night outside the Greenspoint Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office in Houston, Texas, so they would be guaranteed an appointment the next day, according to the Chronicle. Around a dozen migrants from Central America and Venezuela set up camping chairs or decided to sleep in their cars on Thursday.

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Report: Biden Considering $450,000 Payments to Illegal Immigrant Families Separated at Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden administration is considering paying illegal immigrant families who were separated at the border under former President Donald Trump’s policies up to $450,000 per person, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The illegal immigrants filed a lawsuit claiming the federal government detention resulted in major psychological trauma, according to the WSJ. Most of the families were made up of one parent and child who could receive around $1 million in payouts, though the amount could vary by family depending on the circumstances.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represents some of the families involved in the lawsuit against the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services, the WSJ reported. Around 940 families filed claims and the number of those who might qualify for the settlement is expected to be lower.

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Mexico Commits to Deporting Migrants to Their Home Countries

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Mexican federal government committed to deporting migrants caught traveling north to their home countries, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced on Wednesday.

The Biden administration also plans to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy next month, though the success of the program is largely dependent on Mexico’s cooperation, CBS News reported.

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Two Border Patrol Agents Fired, Dozens More Punished for Involvement in Facebook Group ‘I’m 10-15’

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two U.S. Border Patrol agents have been fired in connection with a probe that found roughly 60 of them committed misconduct while participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers, investigators said Monday.

Most agents’ penalties were significantly reduced from those recommended by an internal agency review board, according to a House Oversight and Reform committee staff report obtained by the Associated Press.

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Texas Republicans Sound Off On Biden’s ‘Pathetic’ Claim That He’s Too Busy to Visit the Border

Admin

Texas Republicans described President Joe Biden’s immigration policies as reckless and criticized him for claiming that he has been too busy to visit the southern border since taking office in January.

Biden said Thursday night that he “should go down [to visit the border] but the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to,” during a CNN town hall. The last time Biden was near the border was when he flew into an airport in El Paso, Texas, where his motorcade took him to New Mexico for a campaign event in 2008, according to The Washington Post.

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Commentary: Migration Crisis Is a Battle of Americanists Against Transformationists

Minnesota Sun Staff

The ongoing mass illegal migration crisis is best understood as an existential conflict between two forces: Americanists vs. Transformationists. These forces, in turn, represent two competing regimes or ways of life. But first, let us review what has been going on at the U.S.-Mexico border since Joe Biden’s inauguration.

The September surge of thousands of illegal Haitian border crossers from Chile and Brazil camped under an international bridge in Del Rio, Texas is simply the latest debacle in the never-ending migration crisis. Month after month, day after day, the border between the United States and Mexico becomes more porous, more chaotic, more lawless, and more violent. Nine months after January 20 there is no end in sight as record numbers of illegal migrants pour into the United States. In early October both NBC News and the Daily Mail reported that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, up to 400,000 illegal migrants could cross the border this month, doubling the 21-year record set in July. 

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Orchestrated Crisis to Bring Tens of Thousands of People to Southern Border in Coming Weeks

Minnesota Sun Staff
LAREDO, TEXAS – U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended another large number of individuals inside a tractor-trailer during a failed human smuggling attempt in north Laredo, for the second time this week. The event occurred on the evening of July 13, when a tractor hauling a white trailer approached the U.S. Highway 83 checkpoint. During an immigration inspection of the driver and passenger, both U.S. citizens, the driver readily admitted that there were people inside the trailer. Upon opening the trailer, agents found 35 individuals who were illegally in the United States from the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador. The inside trailer temperature was recorded at 126.1 degrees Fahrenheit at the time the individuals were discovered. All were evaluated and offered medical attention by a Border Patrol emergency medical technician. All subjects were placed under arrest, to include the U.S. citizen driver and passenger, pending further investigation by Homeland Security Investigations Special Agents. Despite the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic, smugglers continue to endanger the lives of individuals they exploit and the health and safety of our Nation. U.S. Border Patrol agents strive to prevent the flow of illegal immigration and slow the spread of COVID-19. Photo provided by: U.S. Customs and Border Protection

Tens of thousands of migrants from other countries are making their way north to the southern border, an open border activist and government officials warn.

Irineo Mujica, Director of Pueblo Sin Fronteras, an NGO that provides “shelter and safety to migrants and refugees in transit” and accompanies them “in their journey,” says a new Haitian caravan is making its way to the U.S. border from Tapachula, Mexico.

He also says 800 Haitians and Central Americans are crossing the Guatemalan border every day making their way north.

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Panama Official Says Biden Administration Was Warned About Mass Migration from Haiti, 60k More Coming

Minnesota Sun Staff
Haitian migrants on a boat

Erika Mouynes, Panama’s foreign minister, says the Biden administration was warned in advance about thousands of Haitians heading to the U.S.

About 15,000 migrants recently arrived in Del Rio, Texas. According to the Department of Homeland Security, some were deported but the majority were released into U.S. communities while they await their asylum claim to be adjudicated.

According to Axios, Mouynes said an estimated 60,000 more migrants are making their way to the U.S. Many of the Haitian migrants travel through Panama to get there.

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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Claims at Least 20 Percent of Migrants Have Illnesses

Minnesota Sun Staff
Alejandro Mayorkas

Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced on Monday that the rate of illegal aliens carrying diseases with them into the country is “approximately 20 percent,” even though many such illegals have not been properly tested, as reported by the New York Post.

“When one is speaking of 7,000 or 7,500 people encountered at the border every day,” Mayorkas said at a press conference, “if one takes a look at that system, it is not built for that in a COVID environment where isolation is required.”

Mayorkas did not expand on what he meant by “illness,” and whether he was referring to the Chinese coronavirus or other diseases. However, he did mention that he does not expect to see a “tragic rise in the Delta variant” (also known as the India variant) following the latest surge at the border, which saw over 10,000 illegals, mostly from Haiti, enter the country illegally.

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Border Patrol Requested Additional Aid in Del Rio Months Before Thousands of Migrants Arrived

Minnesota Sun Staff
U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas speaks with Chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Raul Ortiz as he tours the Del Rio Port of Entry in Del Rio, Texas, September 20, 2021.

Border Patrol agents requested additional federal aid in Del Rio, Texas, months before thousands of migrants set up a temporary camp under an international bridge and overwhelmed immigration officials, CNN Politics reported Thursday.

Border officials reported an increase in migrants crossing the Rio Grande River earlier in the summer but didn’t know more than 14,000 migrants would end up setting up camp under the bridge, according to CNN Politics. On June 1, the union representing Del Rio Border Patrol agents asked for additional technology resources to help agents quickly process large groups of migrants in the field before sending them to a station.

“This way, we can at least get part of the process finished before they even get to the station instead of wasting that time,” said Jon Afinsen, president of the National Border Patrol Council in Del Rio, in an email exchange with regional Border Patrol management, CNN Politics reported.

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Over 200,000 Illegal Migrants Encountered at the Southern Border for the Second Month in a Row

Minnesota Sun Staff

Monthly border encounters with migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. decreased slightly in August for the first time since President Joe Biden took office but remain near record highs, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Border officials encountered nearly 209,000 migrants at the southern border in August, down from a record high of 213,500 people in July, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Officials encountered a record-high number of migrants compared to 50,000 in August 2020 and 62,700 in August 2019.

However, a “larger-than-usual number of migrants” are attempting to illegally cross the border several times so “total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border,” CBP announced. Officials encountered 156,600 unique individuals in August and 25% of them had at least one prior encounter in the last 12 months.

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Judge Ruling Prevents Abbott from Closing Planned Entry Points Along Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff
Greg Abbott

A ruling from a federal judge on Thursday led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to abandon his plan to close six entry points on the southern border amid a surge of migrants, the El Paso Times reported.

The U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia blocked President Joe Biden from turning away migrant families with children under 18, citing a health order related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the El Paso Times reported. The order will take effect in 14 days.

Abbott announced Thursday he had directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to close six entry points along the southern border in a statement obtained by Fox News.

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Border Officials Are So Overwhelmed They’re Struggling to Verify Whether Illegal Migrants Are Adults or Minors

Minnesota Sun Staff
border surge

MCALLEN, Texas — Customs and Border Protection agents are so overwhelmed with the number of migrants arriving at the southern border they’re having a hard time verifying whether some illegal migrants are minors or adults, agents told the Daily Caller News Foundation on Tuesday.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials are supposed to conduct extensive interviews with migrants they suspect of lying about their age, a senior agent told the DCNF. The agents spoke to the DCNF on the condition of anonymity since they were not authorized to speak on the matter.

“In the past, our intelligence would interview these subjects until eventually getting them to admit they had falsely claimed to be minors. But now with the sheer volume of people coming in and people that we have to process and move, that part of the equation is just a hindrance and would create a bottleneck,” the senior CBP agent told the DCNF. “In other words, our processing machine has now switched gears to quantity over quality. Sad.”

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Court Rules Against Catch and Release for Migrants

Minnesota Sun Staff

A federal trial court in Texas ruled against the Biden administration’s directives to catch and release some migrants on Thursday.

A Texas federal judge blocked Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials from enforcing the Biden administration’s Jan. 20 and Feb. 18 memoranda prioritizing certain migrants for detention over others, granting Texas and Louisiana’s motion for a preliminary injunction, according to the court opinion.

“The States point out that the priority categories enumerated in these Memoranda omit certain others—namely, aliens convicted of serious drug offenses, aliens convicted of crimes of moral turpitude, and aliens subject to a final order of removal,” the opinion continues.

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‘It’s Everywhere’: Migrants Say They’re Not Responsible for Spreading COVID-19

Minnesota Sun Staff
Acting Executive Officer of the RGV U.S. Border Patrol Sector Oscar Escamilla, left, fields questions from tour participants as Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, right, leads a delegation of Congressional representatives on a tour of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Donna Processing Facility in Donna, Texas, May 7, 2021. Secretary Mayorkas updated the delegation on unaccompanied children arriving at our Southern Border as they viewed conditions at the facility. CBP Photo by Michael Battise

MCALLEN, Texas — Several illegal migrants told the Daily Caller News Foundation that they aren’t responsible for spreading COVID-19 in America.

Migrants who illegally crossed into the U.S. near the Hidalgo Point of Entry on Aug. 10 in a group of about 20 people said they weren’t worried about catching COVID-19 at any point in the journey to their final destinations in America.

“Everywhere people are getting infected,” a vaccinated man from Ecuador told the DCNF after illegally entering the U.S. near the same location on Aug. 7. “It’s honestly not that the migrants are bringing the virus. It’s everywhere.”

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Migrants Coming to America Illegally Say They’re Coming to the U.S. for a Variety of Reasons

Minnesota Sun Staff

MCALLEN, Texas — Some migrants who spoke to the DCNF said they were motivated to come to the U.S. by the Biden administration, while others cited death threats from “narcos” and disaster in their home countries.

“Suddenly, the situations during the previous years weren’t like this one. This year was much more difficult,” a Honduran migrant named Javier told the DCNF after illegally crossing into the U.S. near the Hidalgo Point of Entry early Tuesday morning.

Javier said increasing “crime and a lot of insecurity” including “extortions and death threats from the cartels” motivated him to leave Honduras. He said it took him a little over a month to reach the U.S.

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Migrants Who Entered the U.S. Illegally Say Crossing Legally Is Only for ‘Privileged People’

Minnesota Sun Staff

MCALLEN, Texas — Migrants who illegally crossed the border into the U.S. said immigrating legally is only an option for privileged people.

“We all don’t have the same capacity or the same opportunity,” a Honduran man who had just crossed into the U.S. illegally with a group into La Joya, Texas, told the Daily Caller News Foundation Saturday night. “Only privileged people can cross legally.”

Migrants may pay smugglers between $7,000 and $14,000 to enter the U.S. illegally, and the fee includes multiple tries if the person is deported from the U.S., Reuters reported. Becoming a U.S. citizen, however, takes years and can cost between $4,000 and $12,000 according to the Economic Times.

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Over 800 Illegal Minors Stopped at the Border in One Day

Minnesota Sun Staff
U.S. Border Patrol agents perform a water rescue and assist a migrant family in distress near Eagle Pass, Texas, August 20, 2019, CBP photo by Jaime Rodriguez Sr.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) announced that it had intercepted 834 unaccompanied illegal alien minors at the southern border, the single largest such number of children apprehended under the Biden Administration thus far, the New York Post reports.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had previously estimated that over 19,000 illegal minors were caught at the border over the month of July, surpassing the previous record of 18,877 in the month of March. The months seen then have seen numbers ranging from 14,000 to 17,000, marking a total of over 84,000 from March to July.

In addition, the number of illegal minors being held in CBP custody has more than quadrupled since May, when only around 635 children were being held; by Wednesday, that number has risen to over 2,784. The 30-day average of child apprehensions has increased to 512 per day.

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Biden to Push for Amnesty in Reconciliation Package

Minnesota Sun Staff
Joe Biden and his administration sitting in the Oval Office at the White House

In a meeting at the White House with Democratic lawmakers, Joe Biden reaffirmed his support for the radical notion of including mass amnesty for illegal aliens in the proposed reconciliation bill, according to CNN.

Biden met with 11 lawmakers – five senators and six members of the House – on Thursday to discuss a possible amnesty deal following the latest blow to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. DACA was an executive order signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 to provide blanket amnesty to illegal aliens who came into the country as minors.

Judge Andrew Hanen, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled earlier this month that as the law had been implemented via executive order only after its legislative counterpart, the DREAM Act, failed to pass through Congress, the law was unconstitutional. The order blocks any future illegals from applying for the amnesty, but does not affect current or past applicants.

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