Customs and Border Protection
Judge OKs New Family Separations at US-Mexico Border
Handing the federal government its first “win” since it was sued for separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border, a federal judge Monday found continued separations are discretionary and do not violate a court and executive order abandoning the “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Read moreTech Wasn’t Ready for Family-Separation Policy, Auditors Say
A government watchdog recounted failures with the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance immigration policy on Wednesday, saying the Department of Homeland Security did not have technology it would need to track the families it separated.
Read moreBus Station Immigration Stop
A Latino man’s claims relating to his detention by Customs and Border Protection officers at a bus station may continue, a federal court in Washington ruled. The government may be liable under the state’s anti-discrimination law because the acts of the officers caused the man to be “treated as not welcome, accepted, desired, or solicited” based on his race.
Read moreJudge Says Feds Need Reasons for Border Tech Searches
A federal judge in Boston ruled Tuesday that the government’s suspicionless searches of international travelers’ smartphones and laptops at border ports of entry and airports violate the Fourth Amendment.
Read more
Judge Considers Restraining Government From Blocking Asylum Seeker’s Access to Counsel
A federal judge asked for clarification Friday about how exactly the federal government’s “Migrant Protection Protocols” are being employed by immigration agents at the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego as he considers whether asylum seekers have a right to counsel when being interviewed about their fear of being returned to Mexico.
Read more
Border Arrests and Denials for Entry Skyrocketed in Fiscal Year 2019
The Trump administration’s incessant rollout of immigration-stifling policies this year seem to have had their desired effect: Arrests and entry denials by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at the southwest border fell from 144,000 in May to 52,000 last month. But the agency’s director said Tuesday the “crisis” is not over.
Read moreSri Lankan Fighting Deportation Will Get High Court Audience
Jailed, beaten and tortured for political activity during the Sri Lankan civil war, Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam’s case for U.S. asylum was taken up Friday by the Supreme Court.
Read moreFeds Arrested Nearly 1 Million at Mexico Border in Past Year
New statistics reported Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection show that roughly 1 million migrants have been arrested at the southern border in the last year, the most in over a decade.
Read more
Company Making Costco Pajamas Flagged for Forced Labor
The Trump administration is blocking shipments from a Chinese company making baby pajamas sold at Costco warehouses after the foreign manufacturer was accused of forcing ethnic minorities locked in an internment camp to sew clothes against their will.
Read moreUS Blocks Goods From Companies Suspected of Forced Labor
The Trump administration on Tuesday announced it is holding imports of clothing, gold, diamonds and other items believed to have been produced with forced labor by companies based in Brazil, China and Malaysia as well as some gold mined in eastern Congo and diamonds from a region in Zimbabwe.
Read moreHuman Cost of Border-Protection Policies High, Immigrant Advocates Reveal
Twenty-five years after “Operation Gatekeeper” changed the way immigration officials policed the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego, immigrant advocates called for new policies Tuesday to curb the loss of life along the border.
Read moreCivil Rights Suit Highlights Enforcement of US-Canada Border
A 40-foot-wide dirt road stretches off into the distance through Sunburst, Montana, a tiny farming town in north-central Montana on the U.S.-Canada border.
Read moreMan Dies in Jail
A Honduran family claims in a federal complaint that U.S. Customs and Border Protection separated the parents from their 3-year-old child and sent the father to jail in Starr County, Texas, where he died.
Read moreFeds Expand Immigrant Facilities to Handle Border Overflow
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says a new 2,500-person holding facility will open Friday in a remote corner of West Texas as the agency attempts to deal with what it calls an unprecedented influx of immigrants at the southern border.
Read moreSenate Split on How to Keep Border Jails Humane
Frustrations simmered Tuesday at the Senate Homeland Security Committee as the head of Customs and Border Patrol told lawmakers that immigrants are exploiting children to help their chances at crossing the border.
Read moreJudge Urged to Block Warrantless Tech Searches at Border
Attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union and Electronic Frontier Foundation asked a federal judge Thursday afternoon to ban the practice of border agents searching electronic devices without a warrant.
Read more
GOP Pushes for Longer Family Detentions in Immigrant Jails
As Senate Republicans blamed a Ninth Circuit decision with the trend of adult immigrants bringing along a child to help their chance at U.S. entry, Democrats pushed back at their fix Wednesday as a bid to legalize indefinite detentions.
Read more
DHS Watchdog Tells Congress Border Facilities Are Dangerously Overcrowded
Expounding on a report that detailed a “ticking time bomb” at detention centers on the southern border, a Department of Homeland Security watchdog Monday told Congress that overcrowding at federal facilities has reached unprecedented levels.
Read more