Category Archives: US immigration

Trans woman seeking asylum dies after pleading for medical help in US custody

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Death of Johana Medina Leon, hospitalized following chest pains, echoes case of Honduran woman a year ago

A transgender migrant has died after becoming sick while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) custody, sparking renewed claims of medical neglect and human rights violations.

Johana Medina Leon, a 25-year-old asylum seeker from El Salvador, died Saturday at a hospital in El Paso, Texas, after she was detained for over a month and complained of chest pains, officials said. Leon had repeatedly pleaded for medical help and was held in poor conditions, advocates who had contact with her and others at the privately run New Mexico detention center said.

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Mexico could tighten migration controls to defuse Trump tariffs threat

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  • Andrés Manuel López Obrador hints at concession to US
  • Talks over US president threat in Washington next week

Mexico’s president hinted on Saturday that his country could tighten migration controls in order to defuse Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods. Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he expected “good results” from talks in Washington next week.

Related: 'No idea too lunatic': how Trump's shock troops attack US democracy

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Donald Trump defends tariffs on Mexico as stock markets reel

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After 5% tariff announced, president tweets ‘Mexico has taken advantage of the US for decades’

Donald Trump has defended his decision to impose new tariffs on Mexico as stock markets worldwide were rattled by fears of an escalation in trade tensions.

“Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump tweeted. “Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!”

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Trump’s ‘merit-based’ immigration plan declared ‘dead on arrival’ by opponents

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President called plan to transform the nation’s green card system ‘pro-American, pro-immigrant and pro-worker’

Donald Trump has announced plans for “merit-based” legal immigration – but before the US president even stepped up to the lectern in the White House Rose Garden on Thursday afternoon, opponents declared the sweeping reforms “dead on arrival”.

Trump appeared to acknowledge as much when he warned that Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, might block the changes – a sign of his political impotence as the next presidential election draws ever closer.

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Trump unveils new US immigration plan including English requirement – video

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President unveiled new immigration strategy including favouring a 'merit'-based system over family ties, as well as making it a requirement that future immigrants learn English and pass a civics exam. Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Trump said he wanted to increase the proportion of highly skilled immigration from 12% to 57%, adding: 'We discriminate against genius. We discriminate against brilliance. We won't any more.' 

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Easy prey to the middleman: the immigrants toiling in US fields

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For Mexican farmworkers, seasonal employment in the US is an opportunity to earn more – but those who make the journey can be easily exploited by recruiters

The sun is rising and a line of workers dressed in jeans and hoodies is already snaking its way around the block. A few of them started gathering outside the US consulate building as early as 4am.

Monterrey, the third largest city in Mexico, is a little over 100 miles from the US border, and a hub for farmworkers applying for temporary work visas.

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A US city cut ties with its troubled migrant detention center. That could make things even worse

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The decision could mean more business – and fewer rules – for the private company behind the Adelanto, California, site

The immigration detention center in Adelanto, California, is flanked by industrial buildings, power lines and expansive mountain views. At its front entryway, the American flag flies alongside the banner of the Geo Group, the private prison corporation operating the facility for US immigration authorities.

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) processing center in this high desert town is home to nearly 2,000 immigrants, many of whom are asylum seekers. There have been numerous allegations of detainee abuse and mistreatment at the facility, prompting investigations from several state, federal and non-governmental agencies.

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Trump condemned for laughing after supporter suggested shooting migrants – live

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The crowd cheered and Trump laughed when an audience member at a Florida rally said the best way to deal with migrants was to ‘shoot them’

Jill Biden said she would like to continue working as a teacher if her husband Joe wins the presidency.

“I would want to make sure that my students were safe, but boy, would I love to do it,” Jill Biden said in an interview with MSNBC.

The plan proposed today by Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez would cap credit card interest rates at 15%, Bloomberg News reports.

The legislation would also let post offices offer low-cost basic financial services, such as checking and savings accounts and loans.

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US builds migrant tent city in Texas as Trump likens treatment to ‘Disneyland’

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US border agency, which previously forced migrants to sleep under a bridge, says an influx of arrivals demands more shelter space

The US government has begun erecting tents close to the border with Mexico to house detained migrants – even as Donald Trump likened the treatment of undocumented families entering the US to “Disneyland” on Sunday.

Life at the foothills of the Franklin mountains in El Paso, Texas, has been rudely disrupted in the last few days by construction crews coming and going near the adjacent border patrol station.

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His wife died in combat. His daughter is American. And yet Ice targeted him

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Gonzalez Carranza was once permitted to live and work in the US but his future is uncertain as Trump pushes to deport non-criminal immigrants like him

On a warm April morning in the Arizona desert, Jose Gonzalez Carranza, a thickset man with a slight lisp, a crooked smile and an intricate tattoo of a hundred-dollar bill creeping across his left hand, sits at his kitchen table trying to unpack what’s happened to him.

Gonzalez Carranza, 30, the Gold Star immigrant dad who made national news when he was briefly and mistakenly deported to Mexico in early April, has seen his life spiral out of control.

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Member of armed militia who detained migrants faced similar charges in 2006

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  • Larry Mitchell Hopkins held on Saturday in Texas
  • Earlier arrest involved impersonating a police officer

A member of an armed civilian group that has detained migrants near the US-Mexico border who was arrested on Saturday reportedly faced similar charges in Oregon 13 years ago.

Related: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border

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FBI arrests member of rightwing militia accused of detaining migrants

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Larry Mitchell Hopkins accused of illegal weapons possession after videos apparently showed men stopping migrants in New Mexico

A member of an armed rightwing militia group accused of illegally detaining migrants at the US-Mexico border has been arrested, officials said on Saturday.

Related: Videos appear to show armed militia detaining migrants at US-Mexico border

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Honduran transgender woman freed after a year in US detention

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Nicole García Aguilar was granted asylum in October but was held another seven months while Ice appealed

A Honduran transgender woman who was detained in a US immigration facility for seven months despite being granted asylum has been released after a legal challenge.

Nicole García Aguilar was freed from the Cibola County detention facility in New Mexico on Wednesday night, a week after lawyers filed a habeas corpus writ challenging her unjustified and prolonged detention by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice).

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US deports husband of soldier killed in Afghanistan – then lets him back in

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José González Carranza was arrested by Ice officers and deported to Mexico, but brought back after an Arizona paper reported on it

US immigration officials deported the husband of a soldier killed in Afghanistan – then reversed course and let him back into the country.

José González Carranza, 30, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) officers last week at his home in Arizona and quickly deported to Mexico, he and his attorney told the Arizona Republic.

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Trump fixed on sanctuary city idea amid opposition and doubts over legality

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Consternation over move meant to exact revenge on Democrats sees House committee chairs dismiss Trump’s claim

Donald Trump appears determined to send migrants arrested at the southern border to “sanctuary cities” around the US, a scheme meant to exact revenge on his Democratic foes, despite fierce political opposition and doubts over the legality of such a move.

Related: Buttigieg v Pence: Indiana politicians put faith on the election front line

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Pence says Trump’s comments praising WikiLeaks are not ‘an endorsement’ – live

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Jared Kushner only registered as a Republican on September 20, 2018, Vice reports.

The presidential adviser and son in law was unenrolled in any party until he changed his New York City voter registration on that date.

Vice President Mike Pence says Donald Trump’s many past comments praising WikiLeaks were “in no way an endorsement” of the organization.

“I think the President always, as you and the media do, always welcomes information,” Pence told CNN. “But that was in no way an endorsement of an organization that we now understand was involved in disseminating classified information by the United States of America.”

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White House considered releasing detained migrants in sanctuary cities – report

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Officials sought to pressure immigration authorities in effort to retaliate against Trump’s political opponents, Washington Post reports

White House officials have tried to pressure US immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against Donald Trump’s political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months. Sanctuary cities are those where local officials decline to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation.

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Top Republican senator warns Trump to halt apparent homeland security purge

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A top Republican senator has warned Donald Trump to halt an apparent purge of the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, amid forced resignations, a renewed hardening of the White House stance over immigration and accusations that the president is manufacturing a declared crisis at the US-Mexico border.

The Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, told the Washington Post he was urging Trump to save the job of Lee Francis Cissna, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is reportedly in the president’s crosshairs just two days after the forced resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen as homeland security secretary.

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Nielsen’s exit is another victory for Trump adviser Stephen Miller

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The senior adviser and speechwriter is behind of some of the most restrictive components of Trump’s immigration agenda

As news broke of the abrupt departure of Kirstjen Nielsen, Donald Trump’s second homeland security secretary, reports swiftly followed that the move had been orchestrated by Stephen Miller, one of the administration’s sharpest anti-immigration voices.

Nielsen’s resignation on Sunday, following months of speculation, cast a spotlight on the forces behind the president’s controversial policies on immigration, where Miller has been shown to be squarely at the center of influence.

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