Border Patrol tests camera-toting balloon

The U.S. Border Patrol is considering a surveillance balloon that can be quickly moved to spot illegal activity, part of an effort to see if more eyes in the sky translate to fewer illegal crossings. Agents in Texas recently finished a 30-day trial of the camera-toting, helium-filled balloon made by Drone Aviation Holding Corp., a small startup that named former Border Patrol chief David Aguilar to its board of directors in January.

Budget and Appropriations Members Rack Up Travel Time

Staff travel makes up a significant chuck of the amounts spent on travel by the Appropriations and Budget committees. Members of the Budget and Appropriations committees have spent about $2 million on foreign travel since the start of 2016, including trips to Argentina, Tanzania, Italy and the United Kingdom, according to an analysis of congressional records.

Congressmen oppose Texas wildlife refuge as border wall site

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The Latest: deported 19-year-old Guatemalan among the dead

The Latest on the deaths of 10 people whose bodies were found in a broiling tractor-trailer in a Walmart parking lot in San Antonio : Guatemalan diplomat Cristy Andrino says that among the dead was a 19-year-old Guatemalan who had been deported and was on his way back to Maryland to rejoin his family. Andrino says Frank Guisseppe Fuentes' fingerprints were in the system because he'd previously been deported.

ROBERTS: Thanks God for the nuns

U.S. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi recently stressed many nuns are strong supporters of Obamacare, and are "speaking out" against Republican attempts to gut the measure. In this week's column, Cokie and Steven V. Roberts wrote it would be suicidal for Democrats to ostracize voters like nuns, who back the party's core principles of economic and social justice, but disagree on abortion rights.

Trump administration mulls separating migrant women children at Mexico border drawing Democrat ire

An undocumented immigrant family from Guatemala talks to a volunteer after their arrival to Announciation House, an organisation that provides shelter to immigrants and refugees, in El Paso, Texas, U.S. on January 17, 2017. Photo - Reuters/Tomas Bravo /File Photo An undocumented immigrant family from Guatemala talks to a volunteer after their arrival to Announciation House, an organisation that provides shelter to immigrants and refugees, in El Paso, Texas, U.S. on January 17, 2017.

EDITORIAL: US is ending unfair Cuban immigration policy finally

Ever since U.S. relations with Cuba appear to have normalized in the past year - air travel has opened, trade restrictions were lifted, and President Barack Obama visited the island nation - The Monitor's editorial board has called for the lifting of a unique refugee policy that has been in place for Cubans, but not offered to other immigrants who are seeking asylum. Commonly referred to as "the wet-foot, dry-foot" policy, Cubans who cross onto U.S. land have for the past 22 years been immediately put on a path to citizenship and eligible for U.S. assistance programs.

Congressmen: No commercial flights to Cuba yet

Several members of Congress want to block the start of scheduled commercial flights between the United States and Cuba, saying that security measures on the island might not be sufficient. Rep. John Katko, R-New York, said the move has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the security of the flying public.

EDITORIAL: Improving US immigration courts

The immigration crisis that is so polarizing our country, our politics and our humanitarian beliefs, is now a judicial crisis - one manifested in outrageous federal court backlogs that are further compounding and complicating this issue. Currently, the median length of time to dispose of a federal immigration case involving a non-detained defendant is 665 days ; it's 71 days for a defendant held in a detention facility.