February was the busiest month since April 2008 – but is the government equipped to respond to an influx of families?
The US Department of Homeland Security announced this week that February was the busiest month for apprehensions at the US-Mexico border since April 2008, a staggering increase driven by Central American families.
Related: Inside America's biggest facility for migrant teens
Continue reading...Experts say officials have failed to acknowledge violence and instability in Central America and say system of ‘metering’ is not working
A staggering increase in the number of families apprehended at the US-Mexico border in February has highlighted the Trump administration’s failure to respond to the rise in Central Americans seeking protection in the US.
In February, 66,450 people were apprehended at the US-Mexico border by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the agency announced on Tuesday – 17,800 more than were apprehended in January and double the number who were apprehended in February last year.
Continue reading...At least four Republicans say they will defy president’s move on the Mexican border designed to fund his wall
Donald Trump’s declaration of an emergency on the Mexican border will be rejected by the Senate, the most senior Republican in the US upper chamber has admitted.
The Democratic-controlled House has already voted to reject the national emergency declaration. A rejection in the Republican-controlled Senate would send a powerful signal that Trump’s control of his own party may be slipping.
Continue reading...US president’s latest ploy is the product of an immature, egotistic mind, and is based on a lie
The phrase “national emergency” conjures up images of riots in the streets and burning cities, a disease pandemic killing millions, or an inter-planetary invasion by little green men from Mars.
Donald Trump’s national emergency, over his thwarted plans to build a border wall with Mexico, is prompted by none of these horrors. According to him, the safety and wellbeing of the world’s richest, most powerful country is threatened with utter destruction by penniless Guatemalans.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has declared a national emergency to secure extra funding for his wall at the US-Mexico border. Trump’s decision came after weeks of wrangling over his campaign promise, which led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown, damaging his approval rating.
• Trump declares national emergency to build US-Mexico border wall
Continue reading...Annunciation House shelter still receives calls each week about new cases of separations in El Paso, legal coordinator said
The Trump administration is still tearing young children away from their parents when they cross the US-Mexico border unlawfully, despite formally ending the policy of family separations last summer, according to immigration advocates in Texas.
Related: 'Inexplicable cruelty': US government sued over family separations at border
Continue reading...‘Remain in Mexico’ policy is also a human rights violation that is ‘throwing the entire system into chaos’, said Margaret Huang
The Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy aimed at deterring asylum seekers, especially at the southern border, is illegal and a human rights violation, the head of Amnesty International in the United States has said.
Related: Ice force-feeds immigrants inside Texas detention center
Continue reading...Homicides in Tijuana have skyrocketed recently, returning the city to levels of hyper-violence it last saw a decade ago
This week, the Trump administration pushed ahead with its plan to return asylum seekers to Mexico while their cases are considered, moving the first group through San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing late on Friday.
Related: 'The US can't dump people in Mexico': Trump asylum policy in doubt
Continue reading...Donald Trump raised the possibility of one day granting amnesty to migrants living in the US illegally, after Democrats rejected his latest plan to fund a wall along the southern border and reopen the US government.
Related: Trump whisperers: are Stephen Miller and Fox keeping the shutdown alive?
Continue reading...Donald Trump forged ahead on Saturday and proposed a deal to end the US government shutdown, despite Democrats having rejected it before he began to speak.
Related: Republicans’ lack of alarm over the shutdown reveals a disturbing truth | Ross Barkan
Continue reading...Damning government report says ‘thousands of separated children’ put in care up to a year before policy became public
The Trump administration may have separated thousands of migrant children from their parents at the border for up to a year before family separation was a publicly known practice, according to a stunning government review of the health department’s role in family separation.
Related: The US detention center where sick children receive ‘the bare minimum'
Continue reading...As hundreds of migrants embark on a march towards ‘El Norte’, Trump launched a Twitter war against the caravan
Rosa López was six months pregnant with her seventh child when the killers came for her husband – unnamed assassins acting on orders she cannot, or dares not explain.
Ten months later the 30-year-old Honduran sits on a muddy embankment outside the San Pedro Sula bus station with her eldest son, Sergio, 12, getting ready to flee their homeland on the latest migrant caravan north.
Continue reading...The president backed away from his threat to declare a national emergency over the wall, but his preoccupation with it persists
Donald Trump may have backed away froma threat to declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress and build a wall on the southern border, but his preoccupation with his 2016 campaign promise persists.
But what exactly is “the wall” and why is the president so intent on getting $5.7bn to fund it? Here are some answers to key questions:
Continue reading...The Guardian travelled to five border locations to discover how Trump’s rhetoric jars with the reality on the ground
Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful wall” has become the trademark of his presidency. It is the promise that more than any other has energized his base, and riled his opponents, and his dogged attachment to it has now brought a large part of the US government to a historic 25 days of partial shutdown.
Continue reading...As Trump demands a border wall, his administration has successfully made it more difficult for immigrants to enter the country to work, visit family and flee violence and poverty
Donald Trump’s frenzied preoccupation with expanding the wall on the US-Mexico border that, two years into his presidency has yet to materialize, often eclipses the very real ‘invisible wall’ he has constructed to exclude immigrants.
Trump has taken the extreme step of threatening to declare a national emergency if Democrats won’t approve his $5.7bn demand for the project.
Continue reading...The US government shutdown is now the longest such closure in history. On Saturday, day 22, members of Congress were out of Washington, Donald Trump was unmoved in the White House, his border wall unbuilt, and around 800,000 federal workers were still without pay and facing mounting hardship.
Related: 'Barely above water': US shutdown hits black federal workers hardest
Continue reading...Democratic leaders to speak from US Capitol in response to president’s televised speech on border security after calling for equal airtime
2020 Watch: Kamala Harris, the senator from California, released her memoir on Tuesday titled The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.
The book chronicles Harris’ upbringing as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, her unexpected rise in US politics and current policy vision for the country.
“There were a lot of ways Secretary Kelly could have shown responsiveness, a lot of information he could have provided,” Harris writes. “Indeed the American people had a right to this information, and, given my oversight role on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I intended to get it. Instead, he said gruffly, “Why are you calling me at home with this?” That was his chief concern. By the time we got off the phone, it was clear that he didn’t understand the depth of what was going on. He said he’d get back to me, but he never did.”
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, has been charged by US authorities with obstruction of justice.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is separate from the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the US election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Natalia Veselnitskaya is accused of fabricating evidence in a US money-laundering case she was working on when she visited Trump Tower in June 2016 to meet senior Trump advisers including his son Donald Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Federal prosecutors in New York said on Tuesday that Veselnitskaya and a senior Russian official drafted a bogus investigation report that she presented in court as supposed evidence that exonerated her client, Prevezon.
Continue reading...White House counsel is reviewing whether the president has the ability to declare a national emergency in this situation
Vice-president Mike Pence said Donald Trump has yet to decidewhether he will declare a national emergency over his demand for a wall along the southwest border – the key sticking point in negotiations over the partial government shutdown that has affected 800,000 federal employees.
White House counsel is reviewing whether the president has the ability to declare a national emergency in the current situation, Pence told reporters on Monday. He added that the administration would prefer to secure the funding for border security from an agreement with Congress.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has threatened a national emergency in the 'next few days' to allow him to build a wall on the US-Mexico border. By doing this, he could unlock money from other sources, thereby avoiding the need for approval from Democrats
Continue reading...Donald Trump said on Sunday he may declare a national emergency over immigration, to allow him to build a wall on America’s southern border.
Related: Is Mitt Romney the man to lead a Republican rebellion against Trump?
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