Immigration

Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland walks to his truck after opening a gate leading to Bone Water Crossing on the Rio Grande River, Thursday, March 21, 2024, in Terrell County, Texas. (AP Photo/Erik Verduzco)

Law enforcement officials in Texas wonder how they will enforce migrant arrest law

The nine hours that Texas was allowed to arrest and deport migrants who illegally enter the U.S. provided a glimpse at what sort of obstacles law enforcement agencies in the state face.

Jason Riley, father of slain nursing student Laken Riley, speaks at the Senate at the Capitol in Atlanta on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Georgia lawmakers advance bills targeting immigrant-friendly policies

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas takes part in a joint news conference with the Guatemalan president, at the National Palace in Guatemala City, Thursday, March 21, 2024. Mayorkas said at the conference that a Texas law giving state authorities the power to arrest and deport migrants who have entered the country illegally is unconstitutional. (AP Photo/Santiago Billy)

US Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas says Texas immigration law is unconstitutional

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., rides an escalator at the Senate subway on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 12, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Democratic senators push bill focusing on local detainment of immigrants linked to violent crime

Migrants wait to climb over concertina wire after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Texas immigration ruling puts spotlight on nation’s most conservative federal appeals court

Law enforcement officials in Texas wonder how they will enforce migrant arrest law

Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland of Terrell County speaks on Senate Bill 4 and the impact it will have to his small department if it gets implemented by the state of Texas. (AP video: Erik Verduzco)

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Gov. Abbott says Texas has the right to take action as immigration law teeters in court

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Supreme Court allows Texas to begin enforcing law that lets police arrest migrants at border

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People gather for a news conference of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition outside the state Capitol, Tuesday, March 19, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. Members of the group came to the state Capitol to lobby legislators to vote against legislation that require local law-enforcement agencies to operate as if they have federal 287(g) agreements and a bill criminalizing transportation of undocumented immigrants. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)

As Texas border arrests law teeters in court, other GOP states also push tougher immigration policy

Republican lawmakers across the country were already jockeying to inject their states deeper into immigration enforcement when the Supreme Court, if only briefly, let Texas enforce a new law giving police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally.

FILE - The likeness of George Washington is seen on a U.S. one dollar bill, March 13, 2023, in Marple Township, Pa. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it expects the federal government will be awash in debt over the next 30 years. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum, File)

Budget Office report credits immigration and spending deals with improved outlook despite huge debt

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says it expects the federal government will be awash in debt over the next 30 years.

Members of the National Guard patrol a road near a federal border wall Tuesday evening, March 19, 2024, in Hidalgo, Texas. . A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed Texas to begin enforcing a law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border illegally while a legal battle over the measure plays out. (AP Photo/Valerie Gonzalez)

Texas wants to arrest immigrants in the country illegally. Why would that be such a major shift?

The news in Texas over local immigration enforcement is so unusual because immigration laws are federal laws and enforcement of immigration law is the domain of federal law enforcement.

FILE - An officer directs people to a courtroom, Jan. 10, 2024, in an immigration court in Miami. A 53-year-old union of immigration judges has been ordered to get supervisor approval to speak publicly to anyone outside the Justice Department, potentially quieting a frequent critic of heavily backlogged immigration courts in an election year. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

House Republicans demand answers on ‘gag order’ for union of immigration judges

House Republicans are demanding to know what led to a Justice Department order that a union of immigration judges get supervisor approval before speaking about the heavily backlogged courts.

Migrants wait to climb over concertina wire after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

How Texas’ plan to arrest and deport migrants for illegal entry would work

A law that would allow Texas law enforcement to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S. is back on hold. The 5th U.S.

FILE - The Transportation Security Administration's new facial recognition technology is seen at a Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport security checkpoint, April 26, 2023, in Glen Burnie, Md. The U.S. government has started requiring migrants without passports to submit to facial recognition technology to take domestic flights under a change that prompted confusion Tuesday, March 12, 2024, among immigrants and advocacy groups in Texas. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson, File)

Migrants lacking passports must now submit to facial recognition to board flights in US

The U.S. government has started requiring migrants without passports to submit to facial recognition technology to take domestic flights under a change that prompted confusion this week among immigrants and advocacy groups in Texas.

FILE - The Tennessee Capitol is seen, Jan. 22, 2024, in Nashville, Tenn. The Republican-led Tennessee House advanced a proposal Thursday, March 14, that would require law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the the country illegally, and would broadly mandate cooperation in the process of identifying, catching, detaining and deporting them. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)

Tennessee House advances bill requiring local officers to aid US immigration authorities

The Republican-led Tennessee House has advanced a proposal that would require law enforcement agencies in the state to communicate with federal immigration authorities if they discover people are in the the country illegally.

FILE - U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Deputy Director Patrick Lechleitner, listens during a news conference at the Department of Justice in Washington, Sept. 13, 2022. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in five cities will start wearing body-worn cameras under a new policy being rolled out. Acting ICE Director Lechleitner said the agency has 1,600 body-worn cameras that will be furnished to agents and officers in Baltimore, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Buffalo and Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents roll out body cameras to agents in five cities

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in five cities will start wearing body-worn cameras under a new policy being rolled out.

DeSantis orders Florida resources to stop Haitian migrants despite no sign of increased activity

Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis is ordering more than 250 law enforcement officers and soldiers to the Florida Keys to help stop what he anticipates to be an increase in Haitian migrants fleeing violence in their country.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Saturday, March 9, 2024, in Rome Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

Trump blasts Biden over Laken Riley’s death after Biden says he regrets using term ‘illegal’

President Joe Biden says he regretted using the term “illegal” during his State of the Union address to describe the suspected killer of Laken Riley.

FILE - Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. A federal judge in Texas on Friday, March 8, 2024, upheld a key piece of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy that allows a limited number of migrants from four countries to enter the U.S. on humanitarian grounds, dismissing a challenge from Republican-led states that said the program created an economic burden on them. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

Program that allows 30,000 migrants from 4 countries into the US each month upheld by judge

A federal judge ruled in favor of the humanitarian parole program that allows up to 30,000 asylum-seekers into the U.S. each month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela combined.

President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the Capitol, Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Washington. Standing at left is Vice President Kamala Harris and seated at right is House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Shawn Thew/Pool via AP)

Biden’s reference to ‘an illegal’ rankles some Democrats who argue he’s still preferable to Trump

President Joe Biden is facing disappointment and anger from some allies for calling the suspect in the killing of a Georgia nursing student an “illegal” during his State of the Union speech.

President Joe Biden holds up a Laken Riley button as he delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Thursday March 7, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Killing of Laken Riley is now front and center of US immigration debate and 2024 presidential race

With an unscripted clash between President Joe Biden and a Georgia congresswoman at Thursday night’s State of the Union speech, the killing of a Georgia nursing student was further cemented as a political rallying point in the 2024 race for president.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., wears a Laken Riley shirt as she arrives before President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol, Thursday March 7, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Biden says her name — Laken Riley — at the urging of GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Republicans had demanded but never expected President Joe Biden to say the name Laken Riley during his State of the Union address. But the Democratic president said it.

FILE - Migrants eat and wait for assistance while camping on a street in downtown El Paso, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 18, 2022. Christian voters and faith leaders have long been in the frontlines of providing assistance to migrants – but when it comes to support for immigration policies, from border security to legalization options for migrants already in the U.S., views diverge broadly. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

Many Christian voters in US see immigration as a crisis. How to address it is where they differ.

Christian voters and faith leaders have long been in the frontlines of providing assistance to migrants.

FILE - Jazmin Cazares, whose young sister Jacklyn was was one of 19 children killed at Robb Elementary School, attends a hearing at the state capitol, June 23, 2022, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

State of the Union guests spotlight divide on abortion and immigration but offer some rare unity

The guest list for President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address speaks volumes about what Democrats and Republicans want to focus on as the 2024 election season heats up.

FILE - President Joe Biden walks out of the White House to board Marine One on the South Lawn in Washington, Jan. 12, 2024. In his victory speech Tuesday, March 5, 2024 former president Donald Trump echoed false statements that the Biden administration has secretly flown hundreds of thousands of foreigners to the United States. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

Fact Focus: Claims Biden administration is secretly flying migrants into the country are unfounded

In his victory speech Tuesday, former president Donald Trump echoed false statements on social media that the Biden administration had secretly flown hundreds of thousands of migrants to the United States.

FILE - An officer directs people to a courtroom, Jan. 10, 2024, in an immigration court in Miami. A 53-year-old union of immigration judges has been ordered to get supervisor approval to speak publicly to anyone outside the Justice Department, potentially quieting a frequent critic of heavily backlogged immigration courts in an election year. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee, File)

Immigration judges union, a frequent critic, is told to get approval before speaking publicly

A union of immigration judges has been ordered to get supervisor approval to speak to anyone outside the Justice Department, potentially quieting a frequent critic of heavily backlogged immigration courts in an election year.

FILE - Refugees crowd a naval vessel docked at Vung Tau, a coastal town near Saigon on April 9, 1975. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 lets the president grant entry for humanitarian reasons and matters of public interest. Previous administrations have admitted large numbers of Hungarians, Vietnamese and Cubans. (AP Photo/Kim Ki Sam, File)

Immigration ‘parole’ is a well-worn tool for US presidents. It faces a big test in 2024 elections

Joe Biden has made more use of immigration “parole” than any American president to bypass an uncooperative Congress, but he’s hardly the first.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally Saturday, March 2, 2024, in Greensboro, N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson)

Trump escalates his immigration rhetoric with baseless claim about Biden trying to overthrow the US

Former President Donald Trump has further escalated his immigration rhetoric, baselessly accusing President Joe Biden of waging a “conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America” at the border as he campaigned ahead of next week’s Super Tuesday contests.

FILE - Migrants gather in Necocli, Colombia, a stopping point for migrants taking boats to Acandi which leads to the Darien Gap, Oct. 13, 2022. The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the Feb. 26, 2024 capture in Necoclí of some boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Migrant brawl at reception center in Panama’s Darien region destroys shelter

A disturbance among migrants and eventually with Panamanian border police resulted in the destruction of various vehicles and at least 10 modules of a migrant camp in the country’s Darien region.

Gueva Ba sells used cell phones in Dakar's Colobane market Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Ba, who tried to reach Europe via Morocco eleven times, flew legally to Nicaragua and made the rest of the journey illegally by land to Mexico's northern border, before being repatriated from the United States to Senegal in September 2023. (AP Photo/Sylvain Cherkaoui)

In Senegal’s capital, Nicaragua is a hot ticket among travel agents as migrants try to reach US

In Senegal’s capital, Nicaragua is a hot ticket among travel agents serving people who want to live in the United States.

FILE - Phill Cady holds a sign during a "Take Our Border Back" rally on Feb. 3, 2024, in Quemado, Texas. Online actors tied to the Kremlin have begun pushing misleading and incendiary claims about U.S. immigration in an apparent bid to target American voters ahead of the 2024 election. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Russian disinformation is about immigration. The real aim is to undercut Ukraine aid

Russian state media and online accounts tied to the Kremlin have begun pushing misleading and incendiary claims about U.S. immigration.

FILE - Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak listens to Amanda Pritchard Chief Executive of NHS England speaking at a press conference at No 9 Downing Street about the British National Health Service, and a 15 year plan to boost employment in the NHS, in London, Friday, June 30, 2023. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, Pool, File)

An election in the UK is likely this year, we just don’t know when. Here’s what to know

The United Kingdom is poised to hold its first election in five years in a country battered by the cost-of-living crisis, the fallout from Israel-Hamas conflict and deep divisions over how to deal with migrants and asylum seekers crossing the English Channel from Europe on small inflatable boats.

State Rep. Houston Gaines, R-Athens, watches the voting board during the vote for HB 1105, which would penalize sheriffs who don't coordinate with federal immigration authorities, at the House of Representatives in Atlanta on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (Arvin Temkar/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Georgia House passes bill requiring jailers to identify and hold immigrants after student’s killing

Georgia House Republicans are backing a bill that would require every eligible police and sheriff’s department to help identify undocumented immigrants and detain them for possible deportation.

FILE - A group of migrants walk along the border in a remote part of the Arizona desert as they join hundreds of migrants gathering along the border Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in Lukeville, Ariz. Republicans in swing state Arizona are doubling down on border security with legislation aimed at punishing migrants who enter the United States illegally, including one bill to lawfully allow property owners to shoot and kill anyone criminally trespassing on their property. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs is expected to veto both pieces of proposed legislation. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

Arizona Republicans are pushing bills to punish migrants with the border a main election year focus

Republicans in swing state Arizona are broadcasting a tough border security stance with legislation aimed at punishing migrants who enter the U.S. illegally.

FILE - Migrants gather in Necocli, Colombia, a stopping point for migrants taking boats to Acandi which leads to the Darien Gap, Oct. 13, 2022. The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the Feb. 26, 2024 capture in Necoclí of some boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara, File)

Migration through the Darien Gap is cut off following the capture of boat captains in Colombia

The flow of thousands of migrants daily through the treacherous migratory highway, the Darien Gap, has been cut off following the capture of a number of boat captains who had been ferrying the migrants to the starting point of their jungle trek.

FILE - Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. A federal judge on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 blocked a new Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants suspected of illegally entering the U.S., dealing a victory to the Biden administration in its feud with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott over immigration enforcement. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, file)

Judge blocks Texas law that gives police broad powers to arrest migrants who illegally enter US

A federal judge has blocked a Texas law that would allow police to arrest migrants suspected of entering the U.S. illegally. The decision Thursday by U.S.

The Georgia Senate passes SB 180, The Georgia Religious Freedom Restoration Act, 33-19 during Crossover Day on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024 in Atlanta. (Matthew Pearson/WABE via AP)

Georgia lawmakers support immigration crackdown, religious liberty protections at deadline

Georgia lawmakers pushed through dozens of bills before a key deadline Thursday,. It was crossover day in the General Assembly, when bills and other measures had to pass the House or Senate in order to be considered by the other legislative chamber before the end of this year.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump talks with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott during a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

On the Rio Grande, 300 miles apart, Biden and Trump try to use immigration to election advantage

Three hundred miles apart, on the bank of the same winding Rio Grande, President Joe Biden and GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump on Thursday surveyed the U.S.