The latest group set off from the notoriously violent Honduran city of San Pedro Sula at the start of this week
Hundreds of Central American migrants have continued their march towards the United States, crossing from Honduras into Guatemala, as Donald Trump again demanded the construction of a border wall he claims would keep such groups out.
Related: ‘No way to live here’: new Honduran caravan sets off north as Trump blasts warnings
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...Donald Trump has backed away from his threat to declare a national emergency to fund his long-promised border wall, as pressure mounts to find a solution to the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.
“We want Congress to do its job,” the president said Friday during a roundtable on border security at the White House. “What we’re not looking to do right now is national emergency.”
Continue reading...The president’s position is a non-starter with Democrats, making an end to the shutdown far from imminent
Wednesday’s dramatic showdown between Donald Trump and Democratic leaders and the president’s defiant PR trip to the border the following day seemed to confirm observers’ fears: a breakthrough in negotiations to end one of the longest shutdowns in US history is far from imminent.
As key government operations remained shuttered for a 21st day and roughly 800,000 federal workers remained without pay, both the president and the Democrats have retreated into their own corners.
Continue reading...President visits Texas on shutdown’s 20th day as rift with Democrats expands
Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to declare a national emergency if Congress does not meet his demand for billions of dollars to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border as part of a deal to end the partial government shutdown.
The president visited the Texas border on Thursday – the 20th day of a partial government shutdown – in a publicity ploy to help make the case for funding his long-promised wall after negotiations with Democrats broke down.
Continue reading...More than 2,600 children were taken from their parents at the US border under the Trump administration's policy of family separation.
Travelling from Guatemala, Tonita and her six-year-old son, Wilson, were separated at the border and Wilson held at a office building in Phoenix, Arizona.
An animated film about the story of this family who was just one of many thousands having to live apart in a foreign and unknown country. As of today, 130 kids are still separated from their parents.
This video is from Reveal and you can find more of their reporting on family separation and immigration here
Continue reading...The US president was speaking to reporters outside the White House when he was asked for his thoughts on calling a national emergency, to which he replied: I'll probably do it, almost definitely.' Donald Trump also denied having a 'temper tantrum' during his reported confrontation with Democrats
Continue reading...In the second-longest shutdown in US government history, Donald Trump continues to demand more than $5bn for a border wall. Congress is in deadlock, and some 800,000 federal employees have been sent home or are working without pay. The president has threatened that the shutdown could last ‘months or even years’. Here’s what that might mean
Continue reading...Anti-black sentiment regularly goes unchecked in cities around Detroit, but that’s changing in the era of Trump
Leah Vernon, who runs a popular Instagram account that celebrates being “fat, black and Muslim”, never formally studied Arabic but, growing up in Detroit, she learned the word abeed: the Arabic plural for slave, a derogatory term used to describe African Americans. Sometimes she heard the word while she and her mother were in attendance at predominantly Arab mosques in Detroit’s neighboring city of Dearborn. Other times, she heard it at “party stores”, small corner shops that dot Detroit and are almost always staffed by Arab cashiers, who often sit behind inches of bulletproof glass.
“Honestly, I heard it my whole life,” Vernon said. “I was called abeed so many times I never thought anything of it until a Somali friend, who speaks Arabic, explained to me, ‘No, they are calling us slaves.’ I have even heard it from 11-year-old kids.”
Continue reading...Donald Trump abruptly ended a critical meeting with Democratic leaders on Wednesday, calling it a “total waste of time” as the partial shutdown of the US government dragged into its 19th day with no end in sight.
The further deterioration of negotiations over the funding lapse affecting nearly 800,000 federal employees came a day after the president used his first address from the Oval Office to reinforce his demands for a wall along the southern border with Mexico.
Continue reading...President offers no new solutions to government shutdown in first Oval Office address of his presidency
Donald Trump has used the first Oval Office address of his presidency to stoke fears of illegal immigration, repeat dubious claims about his border wall and offer no new solutions to the partial government shutdown.
In the type of made-for-TV-moment he relishes, the US president blamed criminal gangs and “vast quantities of illegal drugs” for “thousands of deaths” and faulted Democrats for failing to end the shutdown, now in its 18th day. Democrats accused him of fear-mongering.
Continue reading...US president Donald Trump uses a primetime address on Tuesday to tell Americans he needs billions of dollars from Congress for his long-promised border wall to keep out drugs, gangs and human traffickers. In an Oval Office address, he says there is a 'growing humanitarian and security crisis' at the US-Mexico border, though crossings have fallen in recent years. He claims the wall will pay for itself via a new trade deal with Mexico and asks: 'How much more American blood must we shed before Congress does its job?'
Continue reading...Fact check: what the US president got wrong in his primetime address on the border wall
In a primetime address from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, Donald Trump made his case for the US to expand its wall on the southern border.
The US president blamed criminal gangs and “vast quantities of illegal drugs” for “thousands of deaths”, described the situation at the border with Mexico as a humanitarian crisis and argued that the current immigration system allows “vicious coyotes and ruthless gangs” to prey on immigrants, especially women and children.
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?
Continue reading...Saturday was day 15 of a partial government shutdown that Donald Trump said could go on for months or years, if he is not given funding for a wall on the Mexican border. As new talks were held without result, potentially devastating effects of the shutdown were coming into focus.
Related: Shutdown over border wall is crucial test for Trump's presidency
Continue reading...Head of immigration authority says Mexico has ‘asked for answers’ on ‘catch and return’ – but shutdown isn’t helping
When she announced last month that tens of thousands of asylum seekers would be returned to Mexico while their cases are considered, the homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, described the move as a “historic” overhaul of US immigration policy.
But more than two weeks later, the new strategy has yet to begin and it remains unclear how the plan would work – or even if Mexico is willing to enforce it.
Continue reading...