Author: Reporter

Tears flowed amid heartfelt embraces as Mexican families were allowed brief reunions at the border on May 7 with relatives who migrated to the United States. As a mariachi band played the popular song “Las Mañanitas,” about 150 families passed over the Rio Grande to meet with loved ones they had not seen for years. Margarita Piña could not hide her emotion as she waited to greet her son, whom she hadn’t seen since he left home two years ago in the middle of the pandemic to seek a better future in the U.S. “It’s very hard because we...

As President Joe Biden’s administration prepares for the end of asylum restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is offering some new legal options for people, especially families, to come to the United States. The administration said it will admit at least 100,000 Latin Americans seeking to reunite with family members in the United States, but it has released almost no details. The plan was announced as restrictions tied to a public health law, known as Title 42, were set to expire on May 11. A look at the new legal pathway for Latin Americans to join their relatives...

President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version. Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel. The...

This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years. The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health. The end of Title 42’s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the Mexico-United States border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants. A look at what Title 42 is...

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, refugees from the threatened nation started showing up at Mexico’s border with the United States. Roughly 1,000 Ukrainians a day flew to Tijuana on tourist visas, desperate to reach U.S. soil. The volume was overwhelming the nation’s busiest border crossing in San Diego. In Tijuana, thousands of Ukrainians slept in a municipal gym hoping for a chance to cross into the U.S. In response, the administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainians for two years — if they applied online, had a financial backer and entered through an airport. At the same...