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Tag: Immigration

  • Massive immigration detention camp officially opens at Texas’ Fort Bliss

    EL PASO, Texas — The Trump administration’s latest immigration detention camp has officially opened at a major military base in El Paso, Texas, with the goal of becoming the largest facility of its kind as the military embraces an increasingly expansive role in immigration and domestic law enforcement.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Trump administration’s latest immigration detention camp has officially opened at a major military base in El Paso, Texas, with the goal of becoming the largest facility of its kind as the military embraces an increasingly expansive role in immigration and domestic law enforcement
    • Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso area, visited the site Monday for nearly 2½ hours and said migrants began being detained at the facility as early as Aug. 1 and that it now houses nearly 1,000 people
    • She said at a news conference that she was unable to speak to detainees, but saw elderly men detained at the facility and added that, while it was just housing men for now, there are plans to hold women and potentially women with children in the future
    • Democrats and civil rights groups are raising the alarm about the human rights conditions and lack of transparency; one local official described it as a “concentration camp for migrants”

    Rep. Veronica Escobar, a Democrat who represents the El Paso area, visited the site Monday for nearly 2½ hours and said migrants began being detained at the facility as early as Aug. 1 and that it now houses nearly 1,000 people. She said she is pushing federal officials to allow local officials, faith leaders and media to conduct oversight visits to the camp and observe the conditions, expressing concerns the “massive” facility is understaffed and improperly equipped to humanely house the detained migrants. 

    She said at a news conference that she was unable to speak to detainees but saw elderly men detained at the facility and added that, while it was just housing men for now, there are plans to hold women and potentially women with children in the future. 

    “We will finish construction for up to 5,000 beds in the weeks and months ahead,” Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson said earlier this month. “Upon completion, this will be the largest federal detention center in history for this critical mission — the deportation of illegal aliens.” 

    The presently 1,000-bed tent camp officially began operations Sunday with temperatures in the mid-90s and just days after the region saw readings as high as 105 degrees. Democrats and civil rights groups are raising the alarm about the human rights conditions and lack of transparency. El Paso County Commissioner David Stout described it as a “concentration camp for migrants.”

    “I have very, very many doubts about how people are going to be treated in these facilities,” Stout, a former television reporter for Telemundo and Univision, told NewsNation earlier this month. “I think we are going down the road to becoming a fascist country. I think it’s a very slippery slope, and the actions that are taking place at this point in time are comparable to [Nazi Germany].”

    The American Civil Liberties Union noted that Fort Bliss housed an internment camp for Japanese Americans during World War II, imprisoned thousands of Mexican refugees fleeing war earlier in the century and was the site where imprisoned migrant children were separated from their parents during President Donald Trump’s first term and into President Joe Biden’s time in office. A Department of Health and Human Services inspector general’s report published in 2022 found the conditions at Fort Bliss “caused children to experience distress, anxiety, and in some cases, panic attacks” and documented cases of self-harm by children.

    Texas Sen. John Cornyn said after visiting the facility last week that he was told by federal officials that “no families and no children” would be imprisoned at the camp, “just single adults.”

    “We’re not talking about gardeners, housekeepers or people like that,” Cornyn said. “We’re talking about as many as … 291,000 individuals who are called criminal aliens, who are people either with criminal charges pending or criminal convictions, and who have exhausted all of their legal remedies.

    “In other words, there’s no due process issue involved here,” said Cornyn, a Republican with the backing of Senate leadership, but who faces a formidable primary challenge from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

    Escobar disputed Cornyn’s characterization, saying that “there are folks inside the facility who have recently been apprehended, maybe even here at the border, or apprehended as far away as Miami or as far away as LA in enforcement operations that ICE is conducting inside the U.S.”

    The U.S. Army bills Fort Bliss as a military installation that “proudly offers the highest standards of living within the Department of Defense” for soldiers and their families. According to the Army, about 70,000 soldiers and their family members live on the base, which is larger than the state of Rhode Island. 

    Federal officials, the Pentagon and Republicans touted the new detention camp as vital to Trump’s goal of rounding up and deporting millions of migrants, framing the vast majority of those imprisoned and deported as dangerous and criminals, though federal data released publicly shows the vast majority have no criminal conviction and only about 12% of those deported between January and May were convicted of violent crimes or crimes that could be considered potentially violent, according to the Marshall Project. 

    Trump’s signature taxes and spending legislation signed into law in July and nicknamed the “big, beautiful bill” included $45 billion for immigrant detention facilities and more than $170 billion total for immigration and border enforcement. Bloomberg and Military.com reported the Fort Bliss facility will cost at least $1.26 billion to construct.

    The new camp is already under investigation by an independent government watchdog for the process its contracts were awarded to private companies, the Army confirmed to NBC News. And a 38-year-old worker, Hector Gonzalez, employed by a subcontractor on the project died in a workplace accident in July, the company Disaster Management Group said. The Army is investigating the circumstances. 

    The camp, officially known as Camp East Montana and dubbed “Lone Star Lockup” by Cornyn, has drawn comparisons to the similarly outrage-inducing “Alligator Alcatraz” tent camp in Florida where the ACLU, detainees and detainees’ lawyers have reported abuse, unsanitary and unsafe conditions, and unconstitutional restrictions of migrants’ legal rights — claims the Department of Homeland Security has denied. 

    During his visit to Fort Bliss last week, Cornyn did not actually go inside the tent camp — “We saw it from a distance” — but assured the public, “These are humane, safe facilities, and in many instances, a vast improvement over what many of these folks are used to.”

    Joseph Konig

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  • Trump administration says driver in Florida crash was in US illegally

    FORT PIERCE, Fla. — The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said Monday that a truck driver accused of making an illegal U-turn that killed three people in Florida was in the country illegally, fueling a verbal tussle with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office over immigration.

    Harjinder Singh made the illegal turn last Tuesday from northbound lanes of Florida’s Turnpike about 50 miles (80 kilometers) north of West Palm Beach, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. A minivan was unable to avoid the truck’s trailer, which was blocking the northbound lanes.

    Two passengers in the minivan died at the scene and the driver died at a hospital. Singh and a passenger in his truck were not injured.

    Much of Singh’s immigration history was not immediately clear Monday, including his country of citizenship and whether and when he obtained legal status. Florida authorities said he entered the U.S. illegally from Mexico in 2018.

    Homeland Security said Singh obtained a commercial driver’s license in California, which is one of 19 states, in addition to the District of Columbia, that issue licenses regardless of immigration status, according to the National Immigration Law Center. Supporters of such policies say driver’s licenses provide a lifeline for people to work, pick up children from school, visit doctors and travel safely.

    Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Homeland Security, said issuing a commercial license to someone in the country illegally is “asinine.”

    Newsom’s press office, which has been in a heated online war of words over congressional redistricting, responded on the X platform that Singh obtained a work permit while Donald Trump was president. McLaughlin disputed that, saying the government denied him a permit during Trump’s first term in September 2020 and granted him one in June 2021, under President Joe Biden.

    Singh is charged with three state counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. The federal government has asked that he be transferred to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody after his criminal case is complete.

    The truck was attempted a U-turn in an area marked for “official use only,” the highway patrol said. Video of the crash was obtained by Breaking911.

    Singh was not listed in the St. Lucie County Jail. No phone number or address for Singh was listed in public records.

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  • Las Vegas tourism is down. Some blame Trump’s tariffs and immigration crackdown

    LAS VEGAS — Tourism in Las Vegas is slumping this summer, with resorts and convention centers reporting fewer visitors compared to last year, especially from abroad, and some officials are blaming the Trump administration’s tariffs and immigration policies for the decline.

    The city known for lavish shows, endless buffets and around-the-clock gambling welcomed just under 3.1 million tourists in June, an 11% drop compared to the same time in 2024. There were 13% fewer international travelers, and hotel occupancy fell by about 15%, according to data from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

    Mayor Shelley Berkley said tourism from Canada — Nevada’s largest international market — has dried up from a torrent “to a drip.” Same with Mexico.

    “We have a number of very high rollers that come in from Mexico that aren’t so keen on coming in right now. And that seems to be the prevailing attitude internationally,” Berkley told reporters earlier this month.

    Ted Pappageorge, head of the powerful Culinary Workers Union, called it the “Trump slump.” He said visits from Southern California, home to a large Latino population, were also drying up because people are afraid of the administration’s immigration crackdown.

    “If you if you tell the rest of the world they’re not welcome, then they won’t come,” Pappageorge said.

    Canadian airline data shows fewer passengers from north of the border are arriving at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas. Air Canada saw its passenger numbers fall by 33% in June compared to the same time a year ago, while WestJet had a 31% drop. The low-cost carrier Flair reported a whopping 62% decline.

    Travel agents in Canada said there’s been a significant downturn in clients wanting to visit the U.S. overall, and Las Vegas in particular. Wendy Hart, who books trips from Windsor, Ontario, said the reason was “politics, for sure.” She speculated that it was a point of “national pride” that people were staying away from the U.S. after President Donald Trump said he wanted to make Canada the 51st state.

    “The tariffs are a big thing too. They seem to be contributing to the rising cost of everything,” Hart said.

    At downtown’s Circa Resort and Casino, international visits have dipped, especially from Canada and Japan, according to owner and CEO Derek Stevens. But the downturn comes after a post-COVID spike, Stevens said. And while hotel room bookings are slack, gaming numbers, especially for sports betting, are still strong, he said.

    “It’s not as if the sky is falling,” he said. Wealthier visitors are still coming, he said, and Circa has introduced cheaper package deals to lure those with less money to spend.

    “There have been many stories written about how the ‘end is near’ in Vegas,” he said. “But Vegas continues to reinvent itself as a destination worth visiting.”

    On AAA’s annual top ten list of top Labor Day destinations, Las Vegas slipped this year to the last spot, from number six in 2024. Seattle and Orlando, Florida — home to Disneyworld — hold steady in the top two spots, with New York City moving up to third for 2025.

    Reports of declining tourism were news to Alison Ferry, who arrived from Donegal, Ireland, to find big crowds at casinos and the Vegas Strip.

    “It’s very busy. It has been busy everywhere that we’ve gone. And really, really hot,” Ferry said. She added that she doesn’t pay much attention to U.S. politics.

    Just off the strip, there’s been no slowdown at the Pinball Museum, which showcases games from the 1930s through today. Manager Jim Arnold said the two-decade-old attraction is recession-proof because it’s one of the few places to offer free parking and free admission.

    “We’ve decided that our plan is just to ignore inflation and pretend it doesn’t exist,” Arnold said. “So you still take a quarter out of your pocket and put it in a game, and you don’t pay a resort fee or a cancelation fee or any of that jazz.”

    But Arnold said he’s not surprised that overall tourism might be slowing because of skyrocketing prices at high-end restaurants and resorts, which “squeezes out the low end tourist.”

    The mayor said the rising cost of food, hotel rooms and attractions also keeps visitors away.

    “People are feeling that they’re getting nickeled and dimed, and they’re not getting value for their dollar,” Berkley said. She called on business owners to “see if we can’t make it more affordable” for tourists.

    “And that’s all we want. We want them to come and have good time, spend their money, go home,” the mayor said. “Then come back in six months.”

    ___

    Weber reported from Los Angeles.

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  • Judge gives Trump administration and Florida partial victory in

    A federal judge on Monday tossed out part of a lawsuit brought by detainees at a temporary immigrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, handing a partial victory to the Trump administration and Florida state officials — though other challenges over “Alligator Alcatraz” are still pending. 

    Civil rights attorneys had sued the Trump administration and the state of Florida, seeking a preliminary injunction to ensure that detainees at the facility have confidential access to lawyers. It’s the second lawsuit challenging practices at Alligator Alcatraz, a controversial detention facility that the Trump administration has cast as a symbol of its crackdown on illegal immigration — along with a suit arguing the facility had skirted environmental rules. 

    But after a hearing on Monday, Miami-based U.S. District Judge Rodolfo Ruiz dismissed one part of their suit that alleged the government was violating the Fifth Amendment because it hadn’t made clear for weeks which immigration court had jurisdiction over Alligator Alcatraz, preventing detainees from filing court petitions. Ruiz ruled that this claim is now moot because the government has since said publicly that the court at the Krome Detention Center in South Florida will hear the detainees’ claims.

    “The Court can do no more,” Ruiz wrote.

    The judge did not dismiss several other claims that the government is violating the First Amendment by allegedly making it difficult for detainees to talk to their lawyers, especially in confidential settings. Ruiz said that continues to be a “live controversy.” But he ordered the case to be transferred to a different federal court, because Alligator Alcatraz is technically within the boundaries of the Orlando-based Middle District of Florida.

    The federal government has denied that defendants are blocked from meeting with attorneys.

    Alligator Alcatraz jurisdiction clarifications

    The civil rights attorneys wanted Ruiz to identify an immigration court that has jurisdiction over the detention center so that petitions can be filed for the detainees’ bond or release. The attorneys say that hearings for their cases have been routinely canceled in federal Florida immigration courts by judges who say they don’t have jurisdiction over the detainees held in the Everglades.

    At the start of Monday’s hearing, government attorneys said they would designate the immigration court at the Krome North Service Processing Center in the Miami area as having jurisdiction over the detention center in the Everglades in an effort to address some of the civil rights attorneys’ constitutional concerns. The judge told the government attorneys that he didn’t expect them to change that designation without good reason.

    But before delving into the core issues of the detainees’ rights, Ruiz wanted to hear about whether the lawsuit was filed in the proper jurisdiction in Miami. The state and federal government defendants have argued that even though the isolated airstrip where the facility was built is owned by Miami-Dade County, Florida’s southern district is the wrong venue since the detention center is located in neighboring Collier County, which is in the state’s middle district.

    The hearing ended without the judge making an immediate ruling. Ruiz suggested that the case against the federal defendants might be appropriate for the southern district because a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Miami is responsible for oversight of the detention center under an agreement between the state and federal governments.

    But Ruiz also questioned whether the case against the state defendants might be better in the middle district, because all of the purported civil rights violations occurred at the facility itself, which is located in Collier County, several miles outside the southern district.

    All parties have agreed that if the complaints against the state are moved to another venue, then the complaints against the federal government should be moved as well.

    Second lawsuit seeks halt of operations at Alligator Alcatraz

    The hearing over legal access comes as another federal judge in Miami considers whether construction and operations at the facility should be halted indefinitely because federal environmental rules weren’t followed.

    U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams on Aug. 7 ordered a 14-day halt on additional construction at the site while witnesses testified at a hearing that wrapped up last week. She has said she plans to issue a ruling before the order expires later this week.

    State says claims in lawsuit are false

    The state of Florida has disputed claims that Alligator Alcatraz detainees have been unable to meet with their attorneys. The state’s lawyers said that since July 15, when videoconferencing started at the facility, the state has granted every request for a detainee to meet with an attorney, and in-person meetings started July 28. The first detainees arrived at the beginning of July.

    But the civil rights attorneys said that even if lawyers have been scheduled to meet with their clients at the detention center, it hasn’t been in private or confidential, and it is more restrictive than at other immigration detention facilities. They said scheduling delays and an unreasonable advanced notice requirement have hindered their ability to meet with the detainees, thereby violating their constitutional rights.

    Civil rights attorneys said officers are going cell-to-cell to pressure detainees into signing voluntary removal orders before they’re allowed to consult their attorneys, and some detainees have been deported even though they didn’t have final removal orders. Along with the spread of a respiratory infection and rainwater flooding their tents, the circumstances have fueled a feeling of desperation among detainees, the attorneys wrote in a court filing.

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  • Man who allegedly impersonated ICE agent to rob Philly auto shop will face federal charges

    The man who allegedly posed as an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer to rob an auto repair shop in Northeast Philly has racked up two additional charges in federal court.

    Robert Rosado, 54, was apprehended by local authorities earlier this summer following the June 8 robbery of a mechanic shop in Mayfair. Identifying himself as an ICE agent, Rosado allegedly told employees he would be taking undocumented workers into custody and stole about $1,000 from the shop. He also zip-tied the hands of a woman on the premises before he left the scene in an unmarked white van, prosecutors said. 

    MORE: Rapper Skrilla arrested for allegedly assaulting police officer while filming music video in Kensington

    Investigators later traced the car’s license plate information back to Rosado and connected him to two additional properties where they found a fake badge and zip ties.

    Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner announced six felony and six misdemeanor charges against Rosado at a news conference June 23. But the case has since graduated to the national stage. Federal prosecutors said Monday that the defendant will face additional charges of impersonating a federal officer and robbery interfering with interstate commerce. The crimes come with a maximum sentence of 23 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.

    The investigation involved FBI agents with the bureau’s violent crimes task force in Philadelphia, as well as the Philadelphia Police Department. 

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    Kristin Hunt

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  • ICE in Courts: Hochul condemns ICE detention of mother and 7-year-old daughter from Federal Plaza

    People protest ICE at 26 Federal Plaza.

    Photo by Lloyd Mitchell

    Gov. Kathy Hochul on Monday issued a strong statement condemning the detention of a 7-year-old child and her mother by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials last week, calling the move “cruel and unjust.”

    “I have been clear. Whether under President Biden or Donald Trump, I will work with the federal government to secure our borders and deport violent criminals who pose a real threat. But ripping a mother from her children and detaining her 7-year-old daughter is cruel and unjust,” the governor said.

    Hochul’s remarks come after ICE agents arrested a student from P.S. 89 in Queens along with her mother and 19-year-old brother while they attended a required court hearing at 26 Federal Plaza in Lower Manhattan. It is currently the first known instance of a child this young being taken into custody for reasons pertaining to illegal immigration. 

    Details about the detention remain scarce, but according to reports, the child and her mother were transferred together to a holding facility in Texas. The woman’s adult son is being held in New Jersey. Reports also say the family comes from Ecuador and came to the United States, escaping domestic violence. 

    “Instead of preparing her daughter for school, this mother and her daughter have been separated from their family and sent to a facility in Texas,” Hochul said. “My administration has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, demanding their immediate return to New York.”

    The governor called DHS and said she is demanding the family be “immediately” returned to New York. She further urged the DHS to permit elected representatives the opportunity to inspect holding areas where immigrants are being detained; members of Congress have repeatedly been denied entry to locations at Federal Plaza and the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

    Hochul’s team told amNewYork that conversations with ICE “are ongoing.”

    amNewYork contacted DHS for comment on how the conversation went and the conditions of the detentions and is awaiting a response. 

    Meanwhile, other elected officials have echoed the governor’s sentiments, calling for greater transparency from ICE and a reevaluation of their detention practices, particularly concerning families and minors.

    “We are in contact with the local school, Department of Education officials, and federal offices to learn more and fight to make sure the family can be reunited. Family separation is horrific, and ICE must stop these cruel tactics,” Queens City7 Council Member Shekar Krishnan said on X on Aug. 16.

    Barbara Russo-Lennon

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  • 20 states, including California, sue DOJ to stop immigration requirements on crime victim funds

    A coalition of attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C., is asking a federal judge to stop the U.S. Department of Justice from withholding federal funds earmarked for crime victims if states don’t cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.The lawsuit filed Monday in Rhode Island federal court seeks to block the Justice Department from enforcing conditions that would cut funding to a state or subgrantee if it refuses to honor civil immigration enforcement requests, denies U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers access to facilities or fails to provide advance notice of release dates of individuals possibly wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of their immigration status.The lawsuit asks that the conditions be thrown out, arguing that the administration and the agency are overstepping their constitutional and administrative authority.The lawsuit also argues that the requirements are not permitted or outlined in the Victims of Crime Act, known as VOCA, and would interfere with policies created to ensure victims and witnesses report crimes without fear of deportation.“These people did not ask for this status as a crime victim. They don’t breakdown neatly across partisan lines, but they share one common trait, which is that they’ve suffered an unimaginable trauma,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said during a video news conference Monday, calling the administration’s threat to withhold funds “the most heinous act” he’s seen in politics.The federal conditions were placed on VOCA funding, which provides more than a billion dollars annually to states for victims compensation programs and grants that fund victims assistance organizations. VOCA funding comes entirely from fines and penalties in federal court cases, not from tax dollars.Every state and territory has a victims compensation program that follows federal guidelines, but largely is set up under state law to provide financial help to crime victims, including medical expense reimbursement, paying for crime scene cleanup, counseling or helping with funeral costs for homicide victims. VOCA covers the cost of about 75% of state compensation program awards.The funds are also used to pay for other services, including testing rape kits, funding grants to domestic violence recovery organizations, trauma recovery centers and more.Advocates and others argue that the system needs to protect victims regardless of their immigration status and ensure that reporting a crime does not lead to deportation threats. They also say that marginalized communities, such as newly arrived immigrants, are more likely to be crime targets.“The federal government is attempting to use crime victim funds as a bargaining chip to force states into doing its bidding on immigration enforcement,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also joined the lawsuit, said in a statement Monday. “These grants were created to help survivors heal and recover, and we will fight to ensure they continue to serve that purpose … We will not be bullied into abandoning any of our residents.”The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from a DOJ spokesperson Monday afternoon.President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to withhold or pull back other federal funding or grant funding midstream, saying awardees and programs no longer agree with its priorities. In April, it canceled about $800 million in DOJ grants, some of which were awarded to victims service and survivor organizations.And in June, states filed a lawsuit over added requirements in Violence Against Women Act funding that mandated applicants agree not to promote “gender ideology,” or run diversity, equity and inclusion programs or prioritize people in the country illegally.Several attorneys general said the VOCA conditions appear to be another way the administration is targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, though there is no clear definition of what a sanctuary state or city is.The Trump administration earlier this month released an updated list of states, cities and counties it considers sanctuary jurisdictions. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the August announcement that the department would “continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”As of Monday afternoon attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — all Democrats — had signed on to the lawsuit. See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    A coalition of attorneys general from 20 states and Washington, D.C., is asking a federal judge to stop the U.S. Department of Justice from withholding federal funds earmarked for crime victims if states don’t cooperate with the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement efforts.

    The lawsuit filed Monday in Rhode Island federal court seeks to block the Justice Department from enforcing conditions that would cut funding to a state or subgrantee if it refuses to honor civil immigration enforcement requests, denies U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers access to facilities or fails to provide advance notice of release dates of individuals possibly wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement because of their immigration status.

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    The lawsuit asks that the conditions be thrown out, arguing that the administration and the agency are overstepping their constitutional and administrative authority.

    The lawsuit also argues that the requirements are not permitted or outlined in the Victims of Crime Act, known as VOCA, and would interfere with policies created to ensure victims and witnesses report crimes without fear of deportation.

    “These people did not ask for this status as a crime victim. They don’t breakdown neatly across partisan lines, but they share one common trait, which is that they’ve suffered an unimaginable trauma,” New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said during a video news conference Monday, calling the administration’s threat to withhold funds “the most heinous act” he’s seen in politics.

    The federal conditions were placed on VOCA funding, which provides more than a billion dollars annually to states for victims compensation programs and grants that fund victims assistance organizations. VOCA funding comes entirely from fines and penalties in federal court cases, not from tax dollars.

    Every state and territory has a victims compensation program that follows federal guidelines, but largely is set up under state law to provide financial help to crime victims, including medical expense reimbursement, paying for crime scene cleanup, counseling or helping with funeral costs for homicide victims. VOCA covers the cost of about 75% of state compensation program awards.

    The funds are also used to pay for other services, including testing rape kits, funding grants to domestic violence recovery organizations, trauma recovery centers and more.

    Advocates and others argue that the system needs to protect victims regardless of their immigration status and ensure that reporting a crime does not lead to deportation threats. They also say that marginalized communities, such as newly arrived immigrants, are more likely to be crime targets.

    “The federal government is attempting to use crime victim funds as a bargaining chip to force states into doing its bidding on immigration enforcement,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who also joined the lawsuit, said in a statement Monday. “These grants were created to help survivors heal and recover, and we will fight to ensure they continue to serve that purpose … We will not be bullied into abandoning any of our residents.”

    The Associated Press left a message seeking comment from a DOJ spokesperson Monday afternoon.

    President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to withhold or pull back other federal funding or grant funding midstream, saying awardees and programs no longer agree with its priorities. In April, it canceled about $800 million in DOJ grants, some of which were awarded to victims service and survivor organizations.

    And in June, states filed a lawsuit over added requirements in Violence Against Women Act funding that mandated applicants agree not to promote “gender ideology,” or run diversity, equity and inclusion programs or prioritize people in the country illegally.

    Several attorneys general said the VOCA conditions appear to be another way the administration is targeting so-called sanctuary jurisdictions that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities, though there is no clear definition of what a sanctuary state or city is.

    The Trump administration earlier this month released an updated list of states, cities and counties it considers sanctuary jurisdictions. U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said in the August announcement that the department would “continue bringing litigation against sanctuary jurisdictions and work closely with the Department of Homeland Security to eradicate these harmful policies around the country.”

    As of Monday afternoon attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin — all Democrats — had signed on to the lawsuit.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

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  • Why is the Trump administration halting visas for people from Gaza?

    The U.S. Department of State announced over the weekend all visitor visas from Gaza are being halted.

    Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he has received complaints from lawmakers that organizations facilitating medical visits in the United States for children wounded from the war in Gaza may be a threat to national security.

    “We’re going to reevaluate how those visas are being granted, not just to the children, but to the people who are accompanying them,” Rubio said.

    Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Bay Area’s Council on American-Islamic Relations, calls the accusations unfounded.

    “Every single person in the traveling party is subject to the already extreme vetting processes of our U.S. immigration system,” Billoo said. “The organizations bringing these children to the United States are registered nonprofit organizations right here in our country.”

    NBC Bay Area’s Jodi Hernandez has more in the video report above.

    NBC Bay Area staff

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  • Cambodian migrant workers face an uncertain future as Thai border conflict drives them home

    KAMRIENG, Cambodia — Hundreds of thousands of Cambodian migrant workers have been heading home from Thailand as the two countries work to keep a ceasefire in armed clashes along their border.

    Tensions between the countries have escalated due to disputes over pockets of land along their 800-kilometer (500-mile) border. A five-day clash in July left at least 43 people dead and displaced more than 260,000 in both Southeast Asian nations.


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    Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By Anton L. Delgado and Sopheng Cheang | Associated Press

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  • How an Asylum Seeker in U.S. Custody Ended Up in a Russian Prison

    On the afternoon of August 15, 2024, Leonid Melekhin, a thirty-three-year-old small-business owner from Perm, a Russian city near the Ural Mountains, approached the U.S. border in Calexico, California. The previous winter, he had flown to Mexico, leaving behind his wife and their two small children. He spent the next eight months waiting for a notification in CBP One, an app that the Biden Administration launched in 2023 as an authorized portal to file asylum claims. Now, the app told Melekhin, he had an appointment to present himself to U.S. immigration officers. Wearing a backpack and a black baseball cap, he took a selfie in front of a sign that read “Entrada USA.”

    Melekhin sent the photo to Yury Bobrov, an activist and political refugee who was also from Perm, on the messaging app Telegram. The two men had been in regular contact. Earlier, Melekhin had sent Bobrov another photo, of a small yellow poster hanging from a concrete bridge. Putin, the poster’s text reads, is a “killer, fascist, usurper.” Melekhin said that, on his last night in Russia, he had gone to Perm’s Kommunalny Bridge and attached the poster to the railing. “I couldn’t resist,” he told Bobrov. He had asked Bobrov to “post it somewhere,” because “it would be a shame if no one sees it.”

    Bobrov shared it on Telegram alongside the photo of Melekhin crossing the border. “I felt that he might have wanted to strengthen his asylum case but also that he genuinely didn’t want to leave Russia in total silence,” Bobrov told me. “Was it a strategic move or an impulse of the soul? I don’t know, but I have no reason to doubt his motives.”

    Less than a year later, a journalist in Perm published a story about a local court hearing: Melekhin had been arrested in Russia and charged with justifying terrorism, a crime that carries a potential five-year prison sentence. It was a rare instance of such a case being publicized, in which a Russian was deported from the U.S. to face a prison sentence back home. But little else was known of how he’d ended up there.

    From the border, Melekhin was brought to the Imperial Regional Detention Facility, a holding center in Calexico run by a private company called the Management and Training Corporation. He was placed in a housing unit with dozens of other asylum seekers, including a number of Russians, and waited for his hearing with a judge. Melekhin thought he had a fairly strong case: for years, he had attended protests and volunteered with the Perm field office of Alexei Navalny’s political organization, which is now banned in Russia. “Everyone knows Russia’s problems,” a relative of Melekhin’s, who is still in Russia, told me. “Corruption is rampant. Fair elections are nonexistent.” The relative said, of Melekhin, “If he wasn’t happy about something, he always stood his ground.”

    Even in a midsize city such as Perm, Melekhin wasn’t a recognizable activist. Bobrov called him an “ordinary, average, homespun guy who took an interest in the fate of his country.” When I reached Sergei Ukhov, the former head of the Navalny field office in Perm, who now lives abroad, he didn’t remember Melekhin. But, when he searched his photo archive, he found a picture of Melekhin at a protest in Perm, in 2017. Natalia Vavilova, another former coördinator for the field office, said, of Melekhin, “I can’t say he was a particularly active volunteer or regular presence in our headquarters.” But she, too, had found traces of him: a text exchange from 2018, in which he discussed his plans to volunteer as an independent election monitor during that year’s Presidential race. “That’s definitely civic activism,” Vavilova said. “No doubt about it.”

    In 2021, Melekhin was arrested at a pro-Navalny protest in Perm. Investigators attempted to pressure him to give testimony against others in Navalny’s political organization, but he refused. In 2023, the year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when nearly all protest activity was banned, he went to the center of Perm holding a sign that read “Freedom to Navalny.” He was almost immediately detained. At the station, one officer held his hands behind his back while another punched him in the stomach. Later, the police threatened him with forced conscription into the Russian Army. “He became seized by the idea of moving to the U.S.,” Melekhin’s relative said.

    Melekhin started to study English and to follow the stories of other Russians who had made the journey, including Bobrov. He decided to travel alone. His youngest child was only a year old at the time. “No one knew how long it would take or what conditions he’d be living in along the way,” the relative said. The plan was that Melekhin would secure legal status for himself and then find a way to reunite with his family in the U.S.

    I spoke with a number of Russians who had met Melekhin in the Imperial detention center, none of whom are named out of concerns for their safety. “He was in a positive mood,” one of them, a citizen journalist from central Russia, said. He had launched self-funded investigations into malfeasance by local police and municipal officials, and was detained and questioned multiple times before he decided to seek asylum in the U.S. He and Melekhin met in the exercise yard. They were both optimistic about their cases. “We finally made it, at least this far,” the other asylum seeker recalled them saying. “Surely, they will listen to us, and at the end we will be offered help. All we have to do is wait.”

    Melekhin’s hearing was in December, 2024, four months into his detention at Imperial, and a year after he left his family in Russia. His case was assigned to a judge named Anne Kristina Perry, who was appointed as an immigration judge in 2018. “She is very kind, calm, professional, diligent,” Raisa Stepanova, an immigration attorney in California who has represented several Russian asylum seekers, but not Melekhin, told me. “But her judicial reasoning doesn’t always display a knowledge of how Russian police and law enforcement actually function.” The citizen journalist from central Russia, whose case was also adjudicated by Perry, said, “She acts like a prosecutor more than a judge. She questioned me for three hours; it was a real interrogation.” (I wrote to Perry to ask about Melekhin’s case but received only a general reply from the Executive Office for Immigration Review at the Department of Justice.)

    Melekhin presented his case pro se—that is, without a lawyer. He spoke of his past participation in protests and how, after Bobrov posted the image of his Putin poster, police in Perm had searched his family’s apartment. I obtained a transcript of Perry’s oral decision. She considered Melekhin a “credible witness” and called the evidence that he had managed to gather “plausible, consistent, and detailed.” But she decided that his case did not meet a long-established legal standard, that there was at least a ten-per-cent chance he would face persecution in his country of origin—a benchmark for determining “objectively reasonable well-founded fear.” Melekhin’s previous activism, Perry said, was “quite limited,” and the “description of his participation is vague and lacks specifics.” Melekhin was “not entitled to relief,” Perry ruled. “The Respondent is ordered removed to Russia.”

    “Leonid was angry and frustrated,” another Russian asylum seeker at Imperial said. “In detention, you constantly see people with far less serious cases being granted asylum.” But Melekhin planned to appeal and was confident in his chances. “I tried to offer moral support,” Bobrov told me. He suggested that Melekhin hire a lawyer and launched a fund-raising drive on his Telegram channel to help Melekhin pay for one.

    Joshua Yaffa

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  • Latino tenants sued their landlord. A lawyer told them they would be ‘picked up by ICE’

    In her entire law career, Sarah McCracken has never seen anything like the email she received on June 25.

    McCracken, a tenants’ rights lawyer at Tobener Ravenscroft, is currently representing a Latino family suing a landlord and real estate agent for illegal eviction after being kicked out of their Baldwin Park home last year.

    A few weeks after being served, amid a series of ICE raids primarily targeting Latino communities in L.A. County, Rod Fehlman, the lawyer who appeared to be representing the agent at the time, sent McCracken’s team a series of emails disputing the lawsuit and urging them to drop the case.

    He ended the correspondence with this: “It is also interesting to note that your clients are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported prior to trial thanks to all the good work the Trump administration has done in regards to immigration in California.”

    “It’s racist,” McCracken said. “Not only is it unethical and probably illegal, but it’s just a really wild thing to say — especially since my clients are U.S. citizens.”

    The comment arrived as ICE raises tensions between landlords and Latino tenants. According to California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta, ICE has been pressuring some landlords to report their tenants’ immigration status.

    Bonta’s office issued a consumer alert on Tuesday reminding landlords that “it is illegal in California to discriminate against tenants or to harass or retaliate against a tenant by disclosing their immigration status to law enforcement.”

    Fehlman didn’t respond to requests for comment, nor did the clients he seemed to be representing: real estate agent David Benavides and brokerage Majesty One Properties, Inc. Fehlman’s role in the case is unclear; following requests for comment from The Times, Benavides and the brokerage responded to McCracken’s complaint using a different law firm.

    But according to McCracken, Fehlman serves as the defendants’ personal attorney and will likely still take part in the lawsuit in an advisory role.

    Evicted

    From 2018 to 2024, Yicenia Morales rented a two-bedroom condo in Baldwin Park, which she shared with her husband, three children and grandson. According to her wrongful eviction lawsuit filed in May, the house had a slew of problems: faulty electricity, leaks in the bathroom, bad ventilation, and a broken heater, air-conditioning unit and garage door.

    “There was a lot that needed to be fixed, but we accepted it because we were just happy to find a place to live,” Morales said.

    The real problems started in 2024, when her landlord, Celia Ruiz, started asking the family to leave because she wanted to sell the property, which isn’t a valid reason for eviction under California law or Baldwin Park’s Just Cause Eviction Ordinance, the suit said.

    According to the lawsuit, Ruiz then changed her story, alleging that she wanted to move into the house herself, which would be a valid reason for eviction. According to the suit, Ruiz and her real estate agent, David Benavides of Majesty One Properties, constantly urged Morales and her family to leave.

    In September, the pressure mounted. Ruiz penned a handwritten note saying she needed the house back, and Benavides began calling them almost every day, the suit said.

    In November, assuming Ruiz needed to move back in, Morales left. But instead of moving in herself, Ruiz put the property on the market in January and sold it by March.

    “I really believed she needed the house for herself,” Morales said. “I’m just tired of people taking advantage of others.”

    Lawyer tactics

    Depending on your interpretation of California’s Business and Professions Code, Fehlman’s comment could be illegal, McCracken said. Section 6103.7 says lawyers can be suspended, disbarred or disciplined if they “report suspected immigration status or threaten to report suspected immigration status of a witness or party to a civil or administrative action.”

    In addition, the State Bar of California bans lawyers from threatening to present criminal, administrative or disciplinary charges to obtain an advantage in a civil dispute.

    You could argue that Fehlman’s email isn’t a threat. He never said he’d call ICE himself, only claiming that Morales and her family “are likely to be picked up by ICE and deported.”

    Morales and her entire family are all U.S. citizens. But she said she feels racially profiled because of her last name.

    “It’s not fair for him to take advantage of that,” she said. “I was born here. I have a birth certificate. I pay taxes.”

    Just to be safe, Morales sent her birth certificates to McCracken’s team. Even though she’s a citizen, if Fehlman reports her to ICE, she still doesn’t feel safe.

    Federal agents have arrested U.S. citizens during its recent raids across L.A, and a 2018 investigation by The Times found that ICE has arrested nearly 1,500 U.S. citizens since 2012, detaining some for years at a time.

    “I was already depressed over the eviction. Now I’m hurt, embarrassed and nervous as well. Will he really call ICE on us?” Morales said.

    McCracken said Fehlman’s message is a byproduct of the current anti-immigrant political environment. Fehlman sent the email on June 25, the end of a jarring month that saw the agency arrest 2,031 people across seven counties in Southern California, 68% of which had no criminal convictions.

    “People seem to be emboldened to flout the law because they see people at the top doing it,” she said. “It’s totally unacceptable behavior.”

    An ironic twist, she added, is that Fehlman’s own client at the time was also Latino.

    “I don’t know if Benavides was aware that his lawyer is making racially profiling comments, but I don’t think he’d want to work with someone like that,” McCracken said.

    The case is still in its early stages. Benavides and Majesty One Properties responded to the complaint on July 17, and McCracken’s team hasn’t officially served the landlord Ruiz yet because they’ve been unable to locate her.

    In the wake of the ICE comment, communication between McCracken and Fehlman halted. McCracken decided Fehlman’s rant and possible threat didn’t warrant a response, and Fehlman hasn’t said anything else in the meantime. Her team is still deciding how they want to proceed in the wake of the comment, which could justify legal action.

    She called it a dangerous attempt to chill her client’s speech and a failed attempt to intimidate her into dropping the case. But he took it way too far.

    “We’re at a point in time where lawyers need to be upholding the rule of law,” she said. “Especially in a time like this.”

    Jack Flemming

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  • GOP hopefuls vow to ban ‘sanctuary’ laws

    BOSTON — A pair of Republicans challenging Democratic Gov. Maura Healey in next year’s gubernatorial election are vowing to push for a statewide ban on “sanctuary” policies if elected, arguing that the state’s immigrant-friendly laws have made it a magnet for the undocumented.

    Republicans Mike Kennealy, who served as former Gov. Charlie Baker’s housing and economic development secretary, and Brian Shortsleeve, a former MBTA head and venture capitalist, are vying for the GOP’s nomination to challenge Healey next year.


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    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Democrats seek probe of ICE tactics

    BOSTON — Members of the state’s congressional delegation are demanding a probe of recent federal immigration raids in the state, accusing the Trump administration of using “excessive force” and “aggressive tactics” to apprehend people suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.

    In a letter Thursday to the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey lead calls for an investigation into claims of “increasingly aggressive and intimidating tactics” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during recent enforcement actions.


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    By Christian M. Wade | Statehouse Reporter

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  • Judge declares Biden immigration program for spouses of U.S. citizens illegal

    A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration program that would allow unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens to get legal status and a streamlined path to U.S. citizenship, declaring the policy illegal.

    U.S. District Court Judge J. Campbell Barker, an appointee of President-elect Donald Trump, found the program violates U.S. immigration law, agreeing with a lawsuit filed by Texas and more than a dozen other Republican-led states.

    The ruling is a major defeat for the outgoing Biden administration, which argued the policy, known as Keeping Families Together, promoted family unity among mixed-status households. When it was announced earlier this year, officials said roughly half-a-million undocumented immigrants were likely eligible for the program.

    The Justice Department can appeal Thursday’s ruling, but the Keeping Families Together program is likely to be in the crosshairs of the incoming administration of Trump, who has vowed to dismantle President Biden’s immigration policies. Trump has separately vowed to seal and militarize the U.S.-Mexico border and oversee the largest mass deportation in American history.

    Representatives for the White House and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    The Keeping Families Together initiative was announced by Mr. Biden in June, just weeks after he took a different executive action to sharply limit asylum along the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The program would give work permits and deportation protections to undocumented immigrants who are married to American citizens and have lived in the U.S. for at least 10 years without committing serious crimes.

    Most importantly, the policy would also allow these immigrants to apply for permanent residency, also known as a green card. After three years, green card holders married to U.S. citizens can apply for citizenship.

    Immigrants who marry U.S. citizens are already eligible for a green card on paper. American immigration law, however, requires those who entered the U.S. illegally to leave the country and re-enter legally to be eligible for a green card. But leaving the U.S. after living in the country unlawfully for some time can trigger a 3 or 10-year exile, prompting many families to refrain from pursuing that option.

    The Biden administration’s program would allow eligible immigrants to apply for a green card without having to leave the country by granting them an immigration benefit known as parole, which effectively cancels out their illegal entry.

    In his ruling, Campbell Barker said the Biden administration did not have the legal authority to grant parole to unauthorized immigrants who are already in the U.S.

    Camilo Montoya-Galvez


    camilo-montoya-galvez-bio-2.jpg

    Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the immigration reporter at CBS News. Based in Washington, he covers immigration policy and politics.

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  • Fact-checking Trump’s most repeated immigration inaccuracies

    Fact-checking Trump’s most repeated immigration inaccuracies

    Millions of immigrants are coming to the U.S. from foreign prisons and mental institutions. Immigrants are raising U.S. crime rates. Immigrants are ruining Social Security. Noncitizens are illegally voting in federal elections. Immigrants are taking U.S. jobs. 

    That is just a sampling of the false and misleading immigration claims former President Donald Trump has repeated during his 2024 presidential run.

    Similar to his 2016 and 2020 campaigns, in this campaign Trump has stoked voters’ fears using immigrants as a scapegoat for what he considers to be the problems facing the U.S. And as in the past, his statements about immigration have been rife with misinformation.

    Here are the facts behind eleven of his most repeated immigration falsehoods.

    Falsehoods about migrants coming in from foreign prison and mental institutions

    Foreign countries sending criminals to the U.S.: Trump has repeatedly claimed that countries are “emptying out their prisons and jails” and sending millions of people to illegally migrate to the U.S. That’s Pants on Fire! There is no evidence this is happening. 

    Sign up for PolitiFact texts

    Trump incorrectly cited a drop in Venezuela’s crime rate as evidence of this phenomenon. Although Venezuelan government data is unreliable, some data from independent organizations shows that violent deaths in that country have recently decreased. Criminologists attribute this decline to Venezuela’s poor economy and the government’s extrajudicial killings, not the government emptying its prisons and sending criminals to the United States.

    Trump has also fixated on the Democratic Republic of Congo when he repeats the claim. Not only is there no evidence that the Democratic Republic of Congo’s government is emptying its prisons or mental institutions, but U.S. immigration officials’ border encounters with Congolese people are minimal. They represent less than 0.03% of total encounters from fiscal year 2021 through June 2024

    Falsehoods about migrants disadvantaging U.S. citizens, taking benefits

    Diverting hurricane relief to immigrants: Following Hurricanes Helene and Milton, Trump made the Pants on Fire! claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is taking disaster relief money to spend on immigrants in the U.S. illegally. But FEMA migrant funding does not come at disaster relief’s expense. Neither of FEMA’s two programs for migrants uses money from the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund. In fact, during his administration, Trump shifted FEMA funding — including money from the Disaster Relief Fund — to address immigration. 

    Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are hurting Social Security: Trump has falsely said that immigration is hurting Social Security. The key threat to Social Security’s long-term viability is a shortage of workers feeding their tax dollars into the system, alongside a growing number of retirement-age Americans qualifying to receive benefits. Immigrants in the U.S. illegally are ineligible to receive Social Security retirement benefits, but estimates have found they pay billions of dollars in Social Security taxes annually. This helps — not harms — the program’s solvency.

    Falsehoods about noncitizen voting

    Democrats are bringing migrants to the U.S. as voters: In January, Trump said Democrats are letting migrants into the U.S. and signing them up to vote in federal elections. That’s Pants on Fire! There is no evidence for this scheme. Only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections, and proven incidents of noncitizens casting ballots are rare. It can take years for newly arrived immigrants who are eligible to be granted asylum or other permanent legal status, and then it takes more years for them to be eligible to apply for citizenship.

    Falsehoods about Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio

    Immigrants from Haiti are eating pets or geese: Trump amplified this false narrative that we rated Pants on Fire! Local officials say there is no evidence that is happening. Despite the fact-checks, Trump has doubled down, saying he is repeating what has been “reported.” Local and national news outlets have debunked the baseless narrative.

    There are 30,000 immigrants in Springfield, Ohio and they are here illegally: Speaking about Springfield, Ohio, Trump has incorrectly said “30,000 illegal migrants were put into a town of 50,000 people.” Springfield had 58,000 people in the 2020 census. City officials have said 12,000 to 20,000 new migrants arrived in Springfield over the last four years. Most of the immigrants are Haitians and are allowed to temporarily live and work in the country legally.

    Trump is also wrong to say the immigrants were “placed” in the small midwestern city. After entering the U.S., immigrants choose where they move.

    Falsehoods about immigration data

    325,000 children are “missing”: Trump has misleadingly said “325,000 children are missing, dead, sex slaves, or slaves.” This is a distortion of federal data about migrant children. An August federal oversight report about children arriving at the southwest border alone and released from federal government custody said that as of May, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not served a “Notice to Appear” to more than 291,000 children. (A Notice to Appear is a charging document authorities issue and file in immigration court to start removal proceedings.)

    The report said that unaccompanied children “who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor.” The report doesn’t state how many children have been trafficked, nor does it say they’re missing or dead.

    Harris has released thousands of criminals into the U.S.: Trump has said Harris “let in 13,099 convicted murderers.” That’s False and misconstrues Immigration and Customs Enforcement data. There are 13,000 noncitizens convicted of homicide in the U.S. who are not in immigration detention.  But the data represents people who entered the country in the past 40 years; there is no evidence they all entered under the Biden-Harris administration. And many people are not in immigration detention because they’re in law enforcement custody serving sentences. 

    21 million immigrants have illegally crossed the border under the Biden-Harris administration: Trump has repeatedly said 21 million people have crossed the U.S. border in the past three and a half years. That’s False. Immigration officials have encountered immigrants illegally crossing the U.S. border around 10.4 million times since January 2021. When accounting for Congressional Republicans’ “got aways” estimate — people who border officials don’t stop — the number rises to about 12.4 million. 

    But encounters aren’t the same as admissions. Encounters represent events, so one person who tries to cross the border twice counts as two encounters. Also, not everyone encountered is let into the country. The Department of Homeland Security estimates about 4.2 million encounters have led to expulsions or removals from January 2021 through June 2024.

    Falsehoods about Harris

    Harris said she wanted to abolish ICE: Trump has falsely said that Harris wants to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement. As a U.S. senator in 2018, Harris criticized the Trump administration’s immigration policies, including one that led to family separations at the border. In that context, Harris said Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s function should be reexamined and that “we need to probably even think about starting from scratch.” But she didn’t say there shouldn’t be immigration enforcement. In 2018, Harris also said Immigration and Customs Enforcement had a role and should exist.

    Biden named Harris ‘border czar’ and put her in charge of border security: Trump has misrepresented Harris’ immigration role in the Biden administration. Biden did not name Harris “border czar.”  In March 2021, Biden tasked Harris to work with officials in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to address the issues driving people to leave those countries and come to the United States. The Biden-Harris administration said it would focus on five key issues: economic insecurity, corruption, human rights, criminal gang violence and gender-based violence. Biden did not task Harris with controlling who and how many people enter the southern U.S. border. That’s the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility.

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  • Elon Musk Could Have US Citizenship Revoked If He Lied on Immigration Forms

    Elon Musk Could Have US Citizenship Revoked If He Lied on Immigration Forms

    These questions, says immigration lawyer Ira Kurzban, are asked to see whether an applicant obtained their residence validly, a prerequisite for citizenship. US immigration authorities have, he says, become “very exacting” on this point over the past 10 years.

    The US Citizenship and Immigration Service didn’t respond to an inquiry about whether forms used by its predecessor agency, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, asked exactly these questions at the time Musk would have been using them, but experts say he would have been asked substantively similar questions, as the relevant law hasn’t changed.

    “Those grounds of deportability have been around for decades,” says Yale-Loehr, “and the forms back then probably had similar or identical questions.”

    An immigrant who makes misrepresentations as part of the naturalization process can also face criminal exposure: Under US federal law, making a false statement to or concealing a material fact from the government carries a potential penalty of five years in prison.

    Greg Siskind, a leading immigration attorney, doesn’t disagree that the law as written could expose someone who lied about working without authorization to loss of citizenship, but says that as a practical matter, it may not amount to a material fact.

    “If he had disclosed it, would that have prevented him from getting later immigration benefits?” he asks. “The answer to that is probably no.”

    Siskind nonetheless believes that there are serious questions here about, among other things, the nature of the professional relationship between the Musk brothers. And Musk’s past is highly relevant to the clearances he reportedly holds as a top government contractor with an extensive portfolio of holdings related to national security.

    Even if Musk were found to have violated the law, he would not be summarily deported. “It’s generally quite difficult to revoke someone’s citizenship for relatively minor status violations which occurred decades earlier,” says Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, who adds that this is “a good thing given how easy it can be to violate arcane immigration rules.”

    Under Trump, though, several experts pointed out, the government did far more to denaturalize citizens than it had previously. As Frost wrote in 2019, in the first year and a half of the Trump administration, USCIS opened an office dedicated to denaturalization, investigated thousands of citizens, and reported 95 to the Department of Justice with a recommendation for deportation. (From 1990 to 2017, there was an average of just 11 denaturalization cases per year.)

    Even if USCIS had solid evidence that Musk had broken the law, it would, experts say, not handle the matter administratively, but rather could refer it to a US attorney’s office. Prosecutors, who have broad discretion to take up or decline cases, could then proceed, or not, as they saw fit.

    Many of the open questions here could be cleared up by Musk authorizing the release of his immigration records under the Freedom of Information Act. His lawyer, Spiro, did not respond to a question asking whether he would do so.

    Tim Marchman

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  • Misleading claims fly in competitive Senate campaigns

    Misleading claims fly in competitive Senate campaigns

    Candidates have been waging high-stakes, high-dollar campaigns in Senate races across the country this year, as Senate control rests on a few swing states.

    Democrats, who now control the Senate with 51 seats, are playing defense, looking to protect incumbents in competitive races and stop Republicans from gaining open seats in Michigan and Arizona. 

    Republicans need a net gain of two seats to gain control of the chamber, or one if the incoming vice president is a Republican.

    Claims about Medicare and Social Security, abortion rights and voting rights have been common themes PolitiFact has checked as we’ve identified misleading campaign claims and misinformation.

    We rounded up the most common themes we’ve checked from more than 50 claims in races in Arizona, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

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    Theme No. 1: Both parties have dire, misleading warnings for Social Security and Medicare.

    Millions of retired Americans rely on Social Security payments and Medicare health coverage. Older Americans reliably have a higher voting turnout than other age groups, so concerns about these programs often play highly in national campaigns. 

    In campaign attacks, Democratic candidates have claimed their opponents want to cut Social Security and Medicare or raise the retirement age for benefits in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

    In Michigan, the United Auto Workers labor union ran an ad saying Republican candidate Mike Rogers “wants to cut Medicare and Social Security.” In Nevada, incumbent Sen. Jackie Rosen said Republican opponent Sam Brown “publicly supported forcing massive cuts to Social Security and Medicare.”

    Former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, the Republican candidate vying for the open Michigan U.S. Senate seat, answers questions from the Oct. 14, 2024, media after he debated U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Holly. (AP)

    Republicans have in the past floated plans to raise the age for retirement benefits under Medicare or Social Security or change the benefit structures in some way. But these Republicans generally aren’t calling to cut the programs now; most candidates have said this year they will not support cuts to Social Security or Medicare benefits. 

    Republicans in Montana and Arizona have also wrongly accused their Democratic opponents of planning to cut Social Security, pointing to statements from more than a decade ago that were taken out of context. 

    The Montana claim pointed to 2011 statements from Democratic incumbent Sen. Jon Tester, who said he supported a commission that recommended cutting federal spending; some moves would have trimmed Social Security payments. Tester said he did not support all of the commission’s recommendations and opposed the Social Security proposals. In Arizona Republican candidate Kari Lake’s case, the evidence for her claim had nothing to do with U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego, her Democratic opponent.

    Social Security and Medicare both face funding shortfalls; major trust funds behind both programs are expected to be depleted in a little more than a decade, according to recent reports. However, strategies to address this funding have proven politically dangerous for both parties.

    Theme No. 2: Democrats exaggerate Republicans’ stances on abortion bans, exceptions

    With about 63% of Americans believing abortion should be legal in all or most cases, Democrats are leaning on popular support for abortion rights in their campaign messages. 

    Democrats have argued that Republicans plan to ban abortion nationally if they take power, often saying their opponents oppose rape and incest exceptions to abortion restrictions.

    The attacks have come from Democratic candidates in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Montana, Nevada and Florida. 

    In Nevada, Rosen said Brown said “abortion should be banned without any exceptions for rape or incest.” In Pennsylvania, a Democratic political action committee said Republican Dave McCormick is “fully against abortion.” 

    Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., takes questions from reporters after a debate with Republican senatorial candidate Sam Brown, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, in Las Vegas. (AP)

    These attacks often point to a candidate’s long history of supporting abortion restrictions, including some cases in which candidates hadn’t supported rape and incest exceptions. But during this election, Republicans are mostly not arguing for a national abortion ban; all have said they support exceptions for rape, incest and to protect the pregnant woman’s life. 

    In Michigan and Pennsylvania, Republicans Rogers and McCormick have both said they would vote no on a national abortion ban. They’ve deferred to their states’ laws, which both allow abortions until around 24 weeks, the point of fetal viability, with exceptions later if the pregnant woman’s life is at risk. 

    Ohio Republican Bernie Moreno has said he supports national legislation to ban abortion in most cases at 15 weeks, with exceptions after that for rape, incest and to save the pregnant woman’s life. When he ran for the party’s Senate nomination in 2022, Moreno said he did not support any exceptions to abortion bans, but he has since changed that position. 

    Theme No. 3: Republicans exaggerate Democrats’ support for abortion “until the moment of birth.”

    Republicans have tried to paint Democrats as extreme on abortion during this campaign cycle. Candidates have said their opponents support abortion until the moment of birth or they do not support any limits on abortion. 

    Republican Tim Sheehy in Montana said Tester supports “elective abortions up to and including the moment of birth.” In Nevada, Republican Sam Brown said a proposed state constitutional amendment would put “no limit” on abortion access.

    Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy speaks to supporters Sept. 4, 2024, in Billings, Mont. (AP)

    Earlier this year, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson said Senate Democrats voted “to support unlimited abortions up to the moment of birth.” We rated these claims False, and they ignore the limits imposed by the Senate legislation that Democrats support. 

    Senate Democrats voted in May 2022 for the Women’s Health Protection Act, a bill that would have imposed a national right to an abortion until fetal viability mirroring the rights in place under Roe v. Wade. The bill failed to reach the 60-vote threshold to pass in the Senate.

    The bill would have allowed abortions after fetal viability, if the pregnancy risked the pregnant woman’s life or health. 

    The bill does not allow abortion for any reason late in pregnancy and up to the moment of birth, experts said. Instead, it allows for medical judgment by a health care provider in rare instances in which a pregnancy risks the pregnant woman’s health. 

    “This is not abortion on demand until the moment of birth,” Alina Salganicoff, a senior vice president at KFF, a health information nonprofit, and director of the nonprofit’s Women’s Health Policy Program, told us in a previous fact-check. “Even if politicians and anti-abortion activists make this claim, there are no clinicians that provide ‘abortions’ moments before birth.” 

    In Nevada, Brown’s “no limit” argument made the same error, ignoring the amendment’s provision that abortion can be restricted after fetal viability unless a woman’s health or life is at risk. The proposed amendment is worded to provide similar protections as those already in state law, but it enshrines them in the state constitution, making them harder to overturn. Nevada voters will vote on the amendment Nov. 5. 

    Theme No. 4: Republicans misrepresented Democrats’ votes on the SAVE Act.

    In an election rife with claims about immigration and election security, some Republicans have pushed the incorrect claim that Democrats recently voted to allow immigrants in the country illegally to vote in federal elections. 

    The claim gives a misleading picture of a bill that most House Democrats voted against earlier this year. It is illegal under federal law for immigrants in the country illegally to vote, and Democrats in Congress have not recommended or supported measures to change that. 

    In July, the majority House Republicans passed the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act, mostly along party lines with Republicans in the majority. The bill would have required people to show proof of citizenship, such as a passport or birth certificate, to register to vote in federal elections. 

    But Republicans, including Lake in Arizona and Rogers in Michigan, have argued their opponents’ votes against that bill was a vote to “let illegals vote in U.S. elections,” as Rogers falsely put it. 

    Democrats’ opposition to the bill was not a vote to open voter registration up to noncitizens, though, because federal and state laws already ban noncitizen voting. Whether the bill passed or failed, that prohibition would not have changed. 

    Democrats said the bill impeded access to voting for eligible citizens who may lack easy access to proof of citizenship. 

    Theme No. 5: Republican claims about gender-affirming care and women’s sports

    Republicans in the race’s final weeks have zeroed in on transgender-focused policies. 

    Republicans in Ohio, Montana and Wisconsin ran ads accusing Democratic candidates of supporting transgender women competing in women’s sports or gender-affirming care for minors. 

    In Ohio, Republicans said Bincumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown voted to “allow transgender biological men to compete in girls’ sports” and “supported allowing puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries for minor children.” 

    Brown voted against an amendment that would have stripped funding from schools and colleges that allowed transgender girls and women to compete in sports matching their gender identities. The amendment did not directly dictate athletic eligibility, which states and governing sports bodies usually decide. 

    U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, speaks at a campaign rally, Saturday, Oct. 5, 2024, in Cincinnati. (AP)

    In another ad, the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC working to build a Republican Senate majority, said Brown supported allowing puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgery for minors. Brown has generally supported transgender rights. 

    Although Brown expressed broad support for preventing government restrictions on gender affirming care for minors, he did not specifically address support for puberty blockers and surgery. 

    In Wisconsin, Republican Eric Hovde said his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin, gave taxpayer money to a “transgender-affirming clinic … that does it without even telling parents.” 

    The statement referred to a Wisconsin nonprofit that serves runaway and homeless youth. Although Hovde did not specify what he meant by “does it,” the wider conversation touched on puberty blockers and surgeries for transgender youth.

    The nonprofit, Briarpatch Youth Services, offers a support group for LGBTQ+ teens, but it does not provide medical interventions, with or without parents’ consent. Guidelines from American Academy of Pediatrics say parental consent is required for a person younger than 18 to receive puberty blockers, hormones or gender-affirming surgeries. Hovde’s claim is False.

    RELATED: Read our coverage of 2024 tossup Senate races

    RELATED: Republicans use sleight of hand to blame Inflation Reduction Act for boosting prices

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  • Trump emphasizes economy, immigration as top issues before 2024 elections

    Trump emphasizes economy, immigration as top issues before 2024 elections

    Trump emphasizes economy, immigration as top issues before 2024 elections – CBS News


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    Former President Donald Trump delivered remarks at Mar-a-Lago focused on the economy, immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border as both presidential campaigns make last-minute efforts to court undecided voters. CBS News’ Manuel Bojorquez has more.

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  • Trump’s Immigration Guy Offers Alternative to Family Separation: Deporting Entire Families

    Trump’s Immigration Guy Offers Alternative to Family Separation: Deporting Entire Families

    One of the most horrific and inhumane policies practiced by Donald Trump’s first administration was the separation of migrant families—a sadistic program that caused irreparable harm made even worse by the Trump White House’s refusal to pay for mental health services for the people it scarred. As of January 2024, i.e. years after the policy was suspended due to deafening backlash, some children had not yet been reunited with their parents.

    Asked twice during the vice presidential debate if he and Trump would again break up families during a second term, JD Vance chose not to answer. Meanwhile, Trump has defended the practice of separating families, claiming it was an effective deterrent.

    But Tom Homan, who served as Trump’s acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement from January 2017 to June 2018—and who Trump has said would join a second administration—apparently has another idea: just deport entire families. Including, presumably, ones with citizens among them.

    Asked during an interview with 60 Minutes if there is a way to “carry out mass deportation,” which Trump has pledged to do, “without separating families,” Homan told reporter Cecilia Vega, “Of course there is. Families can be deported together.” Discussing a hypothetical wherein an undocumented grandmother is found in a home where the government is targeting someone else for removal, he said he would let a “judge decide” if that grandmother should also be deported. “If I’m in charge of this,” he added, “my priorities are public safety threats and national security threats first.”

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    Trump has vowed to “carry out the largest domestic deportation operation in American History,” starting on “day one.” At a conference earlier this year, Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s family separation program, said of the plan: “You grab illegal immigrants and then you move them to the staging ground and that’s where the planes are waiting for federal law enforcement to then move those illegals home. You deputize the National Guard to carry out immigration enforcement.” (On Sunday, Miller declared, “America is for Americans and Americans only,” a line with disturbing historical parallels.)

    Homan is not the only one who’s suggested that a Trump administration might deport US citizens. Last week, the former president himself declared that prosecutor Jack Smith should be thrown out of the country, suggesting that (1) Trump believes taking legal action against him is grounds for removal and (2) that he can deport US citizens.

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    Bess Levin

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  • France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’

    France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’

    RABAT, Morocco — RABAT, Morocco (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday in Morocco, where he is expected to meet with the North African kingdom’s leaders and discuss partnerships regarding trade, climate change and immigration.

    During the president’s three-day visit to Rabat, he is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco’s Parliament.

    It comes months after Macron changed France’s longstanding public position and backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara. The move endeared the country to Morocco and alienated it from Algeria, which hosts refugee camps governed by the pro-independence Polisario Front and has long pushed for a U.N.-organized referendum to solve the conflict.

    In the days leading up to the visit, Moroccan publications lauded the “warm reunion” and a “new honeymoon” between the two countries while French flags were hung throughout Rabat.

    France and Morocco have historically partnered on issues ranging from counterterrorism to Western Sahara. Morocco is the top destination for French investment in Africa and France is Morocco’s top trade partner. Morocco imports French cereals, renewable energy infrastructure like turbines and weapons. Morocco exports goods to France including tomatoes, cars and airplane parts.

    Moroccans are among the largest foreign-born communities in France, where North African immigrants are a key political constituency and a focal point of debates about the roles of Islam and immigration in French society. In recent months, France’s new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has pushed for the country to take a hard-line approach toward immigration and seek deals with countries like Morocco to better prevent would-be migrants from crossing into Europe.

    On Macron’s last visit to Morocco, he and King Mohammed VI inaugurated Al Boraq, Africa’s first high-speed rail line, made possible by French financing and trains manufactured by the French firm Alstrom.

    Despite close ties, relations have at times been fragile between France and Morocco, which was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. In 2021, Morocco suspended consular relations France momentarily reduced the number of visas offered to Moroccans in protest of its refusal to provide documents needed to deport people who migrated to France without authorization.

    Relations between the two countries soured further that year when a 2021 report revealed Morocco’s security services had used Israeli spyware to infiltrate the devices of activists and politicians, including Macron. Morocco denied and sued over the allegations.

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