Immigration: June 26, 2023

Jan 2 (Reuters) - The U.S. National Park Service closed Dry Tortugas National Park off the Florida Keys for several days starting on Monday after 300 immigrants had arrived on the islands in recent days, overwhelming first responders.

"Like elsewhere in the Florida Keys, the park has recently seen an increase in people arriving by boat from Cuba and landing on the islands of Dry Tortugas National Park," the Park Service said in a statement announcing the closure to the public.

NEW YORK, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Immigration arrests nearly doubled in 2022 compared to 2021 as border authorities apprehended more migrants and courts blocked efforts by U.S. President Joe Biden to more narrowly target detentions to focus on serious criminals.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested nearly 143,000 immigrants in the 2022 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, close to double the number in 2021, according to data released on Friday. Around two-thirds of those arrests were of people with only immigration violations, the data showed. 

Most were migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border with no criminal convictions or charges pending and who were transferred to ICE, officials said on a call with reporters.

CIUDAD JUÁREZ, Mexico — Two days after arriving at a temporary migrant shelter at the border with the U.S. in June, Rosa Viridiana Ceron Alpizar's 9-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son fell ill. Most of the kids in the converted gym had stomach issues after being served a meal of sausage and beans, she recalled.

Alpizar's daughter quickly got better, but her son didn't. José had a fever and diarrhea and was throwing up. When the shelter nurses couldn't help, Alpizar sought out a private doctor, who prescribed antibiotics.

In mid-June, Alpizar, her partner, kids, and brother moved to Leona Vicario, a former factory that the Mexican government had converted to house migrants waiting to cross into the U.S. Weeks later, though, a doctor said her son still hadn't improved. "He showed me the chart again and told me it was still the same," Alpizar said in Spanish through an interpreter while at a shopping complex near the shelter. "He is still malnourished."

Leesburg, Virginia — At the makeshift clothing store, outfitted with a mix of traditional Afghan garments and American clothes including jackets, socks and underwear, a young Afghan boy flashed a bright smile as he selected his first pair of outdoor boots.

Inside the recreation room, children played table hockey, took turns hurling a soccer ball in the air and contested boisterous foosball matches while Afghan music played in the background. A young Afghan boy ran around with a soccer ball, showcasing his skills to a news cameraman who followed him across the room.

At the large dining area, which can seat 800 individuals, Afghan adults and families with minor children enjoyed Afghan cuisine staples, such as a kidney bean stew known as lubya, and Naan, as well as halal versions of American classics, including turkey hot dogs with beef chili.

More than 300 Haitians were discovered on a dilapidated wooden sailboat that was grounded near Key Largo on Saturday, U.S. Border Patrol officials said.

When 113 of the people on board jumped ship, U.S. Coast Guard and Border Patrol crews made rescues and took the migrants into custody, officials said.

They were screened for medical issues, and two had to be treated for dehydration, said the Border Patrol's Walter N. Slosar, chief of the agency's Miami sector.

An estimated 220 other Haitians remained on the vessel and were taken into custody en masse, he said.

Their reason for travel was unknown, however, Haitians have been migrating to the United States in the last few years to escape political instability, the aftermath of natural disasters and poverty.

The Department of Defense denied D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s request for the National Guard to assist with the influx of migrants created by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s busing of migrants to the city, according to a letter reviewed by NBC News.

The letter, from the executive secretary of the Department of Defense, said the city has sufficient funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that has been given to D.C. nonprofits that can provide the immigrants with shelter and other services.

“After careful consideration the Department has concluded it cannot fulfill your request,” Kelly Bulliner Holly told Christopher Rodriguez, director of D.C.’s Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency.

NEW ORLEANS — Immigrant advocates head to a federal appeals court in New Orleans on Wednesday in hopes of saving an Obama-era program that prevents the deportation of thousands of people brought into the U.S. as children.  A federal judge in Texas last year declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program illegal — although he agreed to leave the program intact for those already benefitting from it while his order is appealed.  DACA proponents planned an early morning vigil ahead of arguments at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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Zaker Hussain told the U.S. government that his brother, Mohammad, was at risk of being harmed by the Taliban because of his own work at the Afghan presidential palace, his membership in the long-persecuted Hazara minority group and Hussain's role as a combat translator for the U.S. Marine Corps.  The former Afghan translator, whose war-time service helping Marines find and deactivate improvised explosive devices (IEDs) earned him U.S. resettlement and eventual citizenship, hoped the U.S. would allow his brother to enter the country on humanitarian grounds through a process known as parole. 

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At least 50 people have died after being abandoned in a tractor-trailer in Texas, potentially the deadliest human smuggling case in modern U.S. history.

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Washington (CNN)The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that the federal government can continue to detain certain immigrants in removal proceedings without giving them a bond hearing after six months, in case where the Biden administration has prevailed over the immigration activists who opposed the government in the case.

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Thousands of Afghans have been rejected, and they have to prove vaccination status and pay $575 to apply, unlike Ukrainians. The “disparity couldn’t be more jarring,” one advocate said.

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The U.S. is preparing for a potential spike in migrant children crossing the southern border without their parents, and has identified up to 19,000 beds at shelters and housing sites to prevent these minors from languishing in Border Patrol detention facilities, top Biden administration officials told CBS News.  

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This appears a much shorter process, and hopefully a much fairer to the asylum seekers.

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Well, I hope that Biden will in fact remove all of Trump's border policies.

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This is a shame.  

Why are they being resistant?

"Whose job is it to reunite the parent and child, and then where do you do that?...That's a huge question that we're grappling with," says Jennifer Podkul, vice president of policy and advocacy for Kids in Need of Defense, an organization that helps unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children.

This is a landmark policy in New York!