Tag: southern border

Biden DHS Hands Out Cellphones to over 255,000 Illegal Aliens

Admin

Over the course of the last year, the Biden Administration’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has given out free cell phones to at least 255,000 illegal aliens who either crossed the border or were captured and released into the United States.

Breitbart reports that the data was published by the DHS, as part of the department’s broader Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program, which seeks other methods of handling illegals besides simply apprehending and deporting them. The DHS claims that the purpose of the cell phone scheme was to be able to track their locations using the phones.

Read More

Democrat-Run Sanctuary Cities Brace for Busloads of Migrants from the Southern Border

Admin

An elite liberal enclave and several Democrat-run sanctuary cities are scrambling to support illegal migrants, fearing they could be the next destinations for Republican governors’ transports from the southern border.

Nantucket, Massachusetts, Denver and Philadelphia are all making preparations for illegal migrants. However, they don’t have any official confirmation that any illegal migrant transports are bound for them.

Read More

Three More Counties Want Texas to Declare Invasion at Southern Border; Total at 32

The Center Square

Three more counties are the latest to express support for Texas declaring an invasion at the southern border, bringing the total to 32.

The judge and county commissioners of Ector County, in the Permian Basin, signed a Declaration of Local State of Disaster on Sept. 27 stating the “health, safety, and welfare of Ector County residents are under an imminent threat of disaster from the unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling coming across the U.S. border from Mexico.”

Read More

Two More Texas Counties Declare Invasion at Southern Border, Bringing Total to 29

The Center Square

Two more Texas counties have declared an invasion at the southern border, bringing to 29 the total that have done so so far, with more expected to follow.

The judges and county commissioners of Wharton and Burnet counties this week signed resolutions calling for “additional measures to secure the border, stop the invasion at the border, and protect our communities.”

Read More

Four More Texas Counties Declare Invasion at Southern Border, Bringing Total to 22

The Center Square

The judges and commissioners of four more Texas counties have declared an invasion at the southern border, bringing to 22 the number of counties that have done so.

Jasper, Madison, Throckmorton and Wichita counties are the latest to declare an invasion.

Read More

17 Texas Counties Have Declared an Invasion at Southern Border

The Center Square

The judges and county commissioners of seven more Texas counties signed resolutions declaring an invasion at the southern border this week, citing unprecedented levels of illegal immigration, human trafficking, and drug smuggling occurring at the U.S. border with Mexico under the Biden administration.

The seven counties – Chambers, Ellis, Hardin, Johnson, Liberty, Orange, and Wilson – also expressed support for Gov. Greg Abbott to protect the sovereignty of Texas and secure the border.

Read More

Trump: ‘America Is on the Edge of an Abyss’

Admin

Donald Trump on Saturday delivered stinging rebukes of the Biden administration at the Dallas Conservative Political Action Conference, one of a continuing series of indications that the still-popular former president has set his sights on a return to the White House for 2024.

Trump during his speech declared that the U.S. “is being destroyed more from the inside than the out,” and that the country “is on the edge of an abyss, and our movement is the only force on earth that can save it.”

Read More

DC Mayor’s Request for Help with Influx of People Bused from Southern Border Remains Unanswered

The Center Square

Nine days ago, Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser asked the Secretary of Defense to activate the D.C. National Guard to help manage the influx of people being bused to her sanctuary city from the southern border from Texas and Arizona.

She’s still received no answer.

Read More

Biden Admin Reducing Illegal Border Crossing Prosecutions: Report

Admin

Prosecutions of illegal border crossings under the Biden administration have significantly decreased amid historically high migrant encounters, according to an internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) memo The Washington Free Beacon obtained.

There were only 2,896 migrants transferred to the U.S. Marshal’s custody in the 2021 fiscal year, compared to 13,213 during the previous fiscal year and 20,604 in fiscal year 2019, according to the memo.

Read More

‘There’s No Money’: ICE Is Set to Run Out of Funding Amid Record Migrant Surge

Minnesota Sun Staff
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.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is set to run out of funding as the southern border continues to be overwhelmed by migrants making illegal crossings, according to Axios.

If the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) doesn’t step in, the agency could run out of money before October, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the situation. To solve the issue, DHS would have to pull funding from other organizations and allocate it to ICE.

Read More

Texas Offers $30 Million More to Local Law Enforcement for Border Security Efforts

The Center Square

An additional $30 million in Operation Lone Star (OLS) grant money is available to Texas cities and counties to enhance border security operations, the governor’s Public Safety Office (PSO) announced.

The announcement came two days after six county judges and sheriffs asked the governor to declare an invasion at the southern border, and to do more to help them thwart illegal activity in their counties after experiencing a surge of drug and human smuggling and other criminal activity resulting from the Biden administration’s border policies.

Read More

Commentary: Biden’s Border Policies Guarantee Death and Destruction

Admin

It’s no secret that President Biden has been dismantling the U.S. immigration system since he took office. Under his all-but-named open-border policies, an estimated 794,112 illegal immigrants have escaped into the United States. The crisis is accelerating as roughly 476,000 such crossings have been in the first six months of 2022.

The “successful” crossings at the U.S. border will continue to skyrocket, as more immigrants attempt to enter, with agents encountering a record 239,416 migrants in May alone.

Read More

No Judge Has Ever Declared Invasion Before in U.S. History: Cuccinelli

Minnesota Sun Staff

U.S. judges declaring an invasion at the southern border hasn’t occurred before until this week, Ken Cuccinelli, former U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director and deputy secretary of Department of Homeland Security, said.

On Tuesday, four county judges in Texas declared an invasion citing Article 4, Section 7 of the Texas Constitution and Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution. They called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to “immediately prevent and/or remove all persons invading the sovereignty of Texas and that of the United States.”

Read More

Cartels Using Video Games to Recruit Scouts for the Border

Admin

New reports claim that Mexican cartels are now turning to online video games to recruit potential new scouts for the southern border.

According to the Daily Caller, the Mexican cyber police claim that there have already been at least 30 confirmed cases of attempted recruitments on video games. Cartels are targeting gamers and bribing them with cash payments, using a careful assortment of letters and numbers to spell out key words without facing bans for using the words directly. For example, they will use “n4arc0” instead of “narcos,” “c4rt3ls,” instead of “cartels,” and “zic4ri0s” instead of “sicarios.” Such recruiters also wait for confirmation that the gamers are alone, without their parents nearby, before approaching them.

Read More

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.

Read More

Nearly 10,000-Person Caravan Heading to U.S. from Mexico, Saying Biden Will Give Them Asylum

The Center Square

A caravan of thousands of people heading to the U.S. has reportedly left from Tapachula, Mexico, a city located less than 10 miles from the Mexico-Guatemala border.

The timing of their departure was planned to coincide with the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, which began Monday. President Joe Biden, who’s still not been to the U.S. southern border, spoke at the summit Wednesday.

Read More

Migrant Caravan Traveling to Southern Border Could Become the Largest Ever

Admin

Yet another caravan of illegal aliens is approaching the border between Mexico and the United States, with its numbers rising at such a rate that it could soon become the largest caravan of its kind ever seen.

As reported by Just The News, this caravan started off at a size of between 6,000 and 11,000 illegals when it departed the city of Tapachula, near the border between Mexico and Guatemala, on Monday. This caravan is being organized and led by a radical amnesty advocate named Luis Garcia Villagran, who has previously tried to organize similar caravans in the past that never came to fruition.

Read More

Arizona U.S. Senate Hopeful Jim Lamon: I Will Shut Down Senate Until Border Fixed

Julie Carr

Neil W. McCabe, the national editor of The Star News Network, covered the Sun City, Arizona, town hall hosted by Republican Senate hopeful Jim Lemon, with his special guest Thomas Homan, who was President Donald J. Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Read More

Flood of Illegal Aliens from Peru Heading to Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Biden Administration’s plans to end the Title 42 immigration policy are continuing to result in a spike in illegal aliens preparing to flood the southern border, with the latest wave coming from Peru.

According to the New York Post, over 8,000 Peruvians have been apprehended at the southern border in 2022. In 2021, the number was just under 3,200. In past years, Peruvians have often made up a very small percentage of illegal immigration, as most illegals often come from the countries of Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Read More

Florida U.S. Rep. Gaetz Blasts DHS Sec. Mayorkas at Congressional Hearing

The Center Square

Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz blasted Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a recent House Judiciary Committee hearing on border security.

In his line of questioning, Gaetz asked Mayorkas about the removal process of 1.2 million people who are in the U.S. illegally who’ve been given deportation orders by judges and haven’t been removed.

Read More

Law Enforcement: Border Patrol Agents Have Lost Operational Control, Awareness at Border

The Center Square

While Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claims the southern border is secure and he has a plan in place for increased surges, those in law enforcement say the opposite is true. Not only have Border Patrol agents lost operational control of the border, they’ve also lost operational awareness and have no idea who is coming through, current and former Border Patrol agents told The Center Square.

Read More

Commentary: Impeach Mayorkas

Minnesota Sun Staff

It is clear that the Biden Administration has no intention of doing anything to stop the 15-month invasion by millions of illegal migrants at the southern border. In March, border apprehensions reached 221,000—a 22-year high.  With the impending end of Title 42, the regulation that keeps people out under conditions of pandemic, the administration has figured out how to exacerbate the crisis. When Title 42 expires on May 23, we will have a surge of migrants (who can put together the $6,000 to $8,000 needed to pay cartels) overwhelming the southern border. 

Read More

The World Continues to Flock to Our ‘Porous’ Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

Border authorities are seeing a continued flow of migrants crossing into the U.S. that are from countries beyond Central America ahead of an expected surge when Title 42 ends.

Title 42, the Trump era order, which has resulted in the expulsion of over 1.7 million migrants, will end May 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday.

Read More

Border Patrol Officials Make Massive Fentanyl, Meth, and Heroin Seizures at the Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers recently intercepted two smuggling attempts of millions of dollars worth of deadly drugs at the southern border.

Officers in Laredo, Texas, on March 25 confiscated over $4.3 million in alleged meth they found in a tractor trailer carrying waterproof sealant from Mexico, CBP said in a press release.

Read More

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.”

Read More

Federal Judge Orders Biden Administration to Halt Release of Illegal Alien Minors

Minnesota Sun Staff

On Friday, a federal judge in Texas ordered the Biden Administration to stop its mass releasing of illegal alien minors into the country after they come across the southern border.

Breitbart reports that the ruling came from Judge Mark Pittman of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, who was appointed by President Donald Trump in 2019. Pittman’s order forbids the Biden Administration from releasing any more illegals by declaring them exempt from Title 42, an immigration policy first enacted by President Trump which allowed immigration authorities to immediately deport illegals after apprehending them. The policy was one of several strict immigration measures implemented shortly after the coronavirus outbreak, citing health concerns with regards to the high number of unhealthy people crossing the border and potentially spreading the disease even further.

Read More

Commentary: The Undeniable Common Sense of Border Walls

Minnesota Sun Staff

Although it sometimes may seem as though we live in a complex world and our country is beset with crises on all fronts, it is important to recognize that some of the most effective remedies are elegantly simple. They have worked for centuries and would work again today. We only lack the will as a people to implement them with conviction, and to shun the cacophony of malcontents who would seek to complicate sensible solutions. 

Read More

Over 200,000 Illegal Aliens Have Avoided Border Patrol Since October

Minnesota Sun Staff

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed that well over 200,000 illegal aliens coming across the southern border have managed to completely evade Border Patrol and other border authorities since October.

The New York Post reports that an anonymous DHS official reported as many as 220,000 “gotaways” over the last four months, illegals who were never even stopped by Border Patrol. The official noted that the unusually high number came even during the winter season, which usually sees a slowdown of border crossings due to harsh weather conditions.

Read More

Migrant Encounters at the Border Have Nearly Doubled Since Biden Took Office

Minnesota Sun Staff

The number of migrants encountered at the southern border in January nearly doubled that of January 2021, when President Joe Biden took office, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported Friday.

CBP agents encountered 153,941 migrants in January, according to an agency press release, nearly twice the 78,414 migrants encountered in January 2021.

Read More

Renowned Constitutional Scholar: Ongoing Border Crisis Fits Constitution’s Definition of an Invasion

Zachery Schmidt

A renowned constitutional scholar said what is happening now at the southern border does constitute an “invasion” under the U.S. Constitution.

“The kind of organized entry that we are seeing now where you got some of the gangs down in Mexico facilitating it and getting paid to put people across the border, that does qualify as an invasion even when no arms are involved,” Rob Natelson, the Independence Institute’s senior fellow in constitutional jurisprudence, said.

Read More

In Shadows of Maxwell Trial, Sex Traffickers Continue to Exploit Porous Southern Border

Minnesota Sun Staff

The trial and conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell handed anti-sex trafficking advocates a big victory this week and focused public attention for a short while on a heinous criminal scourge. But in the case’s shadows, a painful reality plays out at America’s southern border, where U.S. Border Patrol agents almost daily encounter bad actors in the illicit sex trades.

The holidays were no exception.

A few days before Christmas, over a 24-hour period, Laredo Sector Border Patrol agents intercepted three human smuggling attempts which resulted in the apprehension of over 70 foreign nationals illegally in the U.S. They also recovered a stolen vehicle, and a methamphetamine seizure north of Laredo, Texas.

Read More

Report: Nearly 10,000 Illegal Immigrants Have Evaded Arrest at the Border Since October

Minnesota Sun Staff

Over 9,500 illegal immigrants have evaded arrest and entered the country in one part of the southern border since Oct. 1, Fox News reported.

The Rio Grande Valley sector of the border in Texas also had 100,000 illegal encounters since the beginning of Oct., a 163% increase since the same time frame in 2020, an anonymous Department of Homeland Security (DHS) source told Fox News.

Migrants continue to cross the border in large numbers. From Oct. 1, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, border agents encountered over 1.7 million at the southern border.

The Biden administration reportedly reinstated former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that requires asylum seekers to apply and await a court date in Mexico.

Read More

Former Spokesperson for Democratic D.C. Mayor Says Became Republican Because of Biden Leadership

Minnesota Sun Staff
Fox News interview with Juan Perez

Aformer spokesperson for Washington, D.C., Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser says he switched political parties after President Biden assumed office and that he voted for Glenn Youngkin in the Republican’s recent, successful bid to become Virginia’s next governor.

Victor Jimenez told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night that until recently he was “lead public information officer at [Bowser’s] office for community affairs” and worked prior to that in a similar role for Latino outreach.

“The reason I switched parties is because of everything that’s going on in the country right now,” Jimenez, an Afro-Dominican immigrant, told Carlson. “We see immigration through the roof right now, and that is affecting a lot of Hispanic families in my home state of Virginia. And those are people who are already struggling with making ends meet.”

Read More

October Southern Border Encounters See 129 Percent Increase over Last Year

The Center Square
Crowd of immigrants

Border Patrol agents encountered 129.7% more people at the southern border this year than last, according to new data published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The greatest number of encounters was in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas and the greatest percentage increase was in Yuma, Arizona.

Illegal border crossings have skyrocketed since President Joe Biden took office in January.

Read More

DEA Directive to Stop Saying ‘Mexican Cartel’ Was the Biden Administration’s Way of ‘Appeasing’ Mexico, Recently Retired Agency Officials Say

Minnesota Sun Staff
Two law enforcement officers standing in the back of a truck

The directive for Drug Enforcement Administration officials to not use the term “Mexican cartel” came directly from the Biden administration to ease relations with the Mexican government, two recently retired DEA officials told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The DCNF exclusively obtained an email in August that instructed DEA officials to “now avoid saying ‘Mexican cartel’” when speaking with the media. The email was sent as drugs continued to surge across the U.S.-Mexico border.

One recently-retired DEA official told the DCNF that when the new administration came in, the Department of Justice (DOJ) required DEA to submit news interview requests for approval. The retired official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the DOJ declined many of the national news requests on top of the language guidance, but eventually eased up and allowed some to do local interviews where he used the term “Mexican drug cartel” and called each by its name.

Read More

As Washington Shirks Federal Border Enforcement Role, Burden Falls to Frontline Sheriffs

Minnesota Sun Staff
Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels

Acoalition of law enforcement agents, mostly comprised of sheriffs combatting cartel violence along the southern border, in cooperation with Border Patrol agents, is working to bring awareness to Americans of the dangers they face because of the Biden administration’s hands-off border enforcement policies.

“A nation without secure borders cannot stand,” argues Mark Hager, Army veteran and founder of the U.S. First Defense Coalition. “As a republic, the citizens of the United States are the responsible first line of defense,” he says, and sheriffs are “the only law enforcement branch elected by the people,” Hager told Just The News. “They are comparable to the grassroots of law enforcement.”

Also a historian and a professor, Hager notes that sheriffs “hold a special place in American history, and especially along our southern border, where they are protecting citizens when the federal government won’t.”

Read More

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.

Read More

In One Year, Encounters Triple with Migrants Attempting to Cross Southern Border Illegally

The Center Square

In one year, Customs and Border Protection agents encountered triple the number of people entering the U.S. illegally compared to the previous year. From October 2020 to September 2021, 1,734,686 people were encountered at the U.S. southern border.

From October 2019 to September 2020, that number was 458,088.

Read More

Border Patrol Reports 192,000 Border Encounters in September, Says 26 Percent Immigrants Making Multiple Tries

Minnesota Sun Staff
On June 17, 2020, Tucson Sector Border Patrol Agents conduct operations at the Highway 86 checkpoint near Tucson, Ariz. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection photo by Jerry Glaser)

The United States recorded 192,001 encounters with immigrants last month along the country’s southwest border with Mexico, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The agency on Friday reported 1.7 million apprehensions along the entire U.S. southern border in fiscal 2021, which ended Sept. 30.

The agency reported 26% percent of the encounters in September involved individuals who had at least one prior encounter in the previous 12 months. Last month’s overall number marked a 9% decrease compared to August.

Read More

Fiscal Year 2021 Becomes Third-Highest Year on Record in Border Encounters, Reaching 1.7 Million

Minnesota Sun Staff

Border officials encountered the third-highest number of migrants at the southern border on record, reaching more than 1.7 million apprehensions, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Border officials reported 192,000 encounters with migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. through the southwest border in September, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data. A record high of more than 213,500 migrants were apprehended in July and another 209,800 were encountered in August.

“CBP encounters along the Southwest border declined in September from the prior month, and a majority of noncitizens encountered were expelled under Title 42,” Acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said in a statement. “The men and women of CBP continued to rise admirably to the challenge, despite the strain associated with operating during a global pandemic that has claimed far too many lives among our frontline personnel.”

Read More

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.

Read More

Merrick Garland Cites Unexplained Threats of Violence to Involve Authorities in Culture War Issues

Minnesota Sun Staff

Merrick Garland, once hailed as a “moderate” choice for President Joe Biden’s attorney general, has now twice referenced unexplained threats of violence in directing authorities to investigate hot button culture issues.

The attorney general directed the FBI on Oct. 4 to target parents who allegedly threaten violence against public school officials. He also ordered authorities in September to enforce the FACE Act in response to any violence from pro-life activists.

But the Department of Justice has not explained or offered examples of the violence it is referring to in either of these instances. The DOJ did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s many requests for comment on this point.

Read More

Tens of Thousands of Afghan Refugees Set to Be Released in the U.S. Without Set Immigration Status

Minnesota Sun Staff
Afghan women refugee settlment

Tens of thousands of Afghan refugees could be released into the U.S. without a decision about their immigration status, CBS News reported on Thursday.

The refugees came to the U.S. on humanitarian parole instead of with visas, and many of them don’t have a way to obtain lawful permanent residence, according to CBS News. Since August, over 55,000 Afghan refugees were evacuated to the U.S., and around 40% of them qualify for special immigrant visas, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“We evacuated them here. We did that. It’s not very equitable to force people to stay in this limbo state,” Church World Service Policy Director Meredith Owen said, CBS News reported. Church World Service is one of the organizations working with Afghan refugees in the U.S. resettlement programs.

Read More