PHOENIX — President-elect Joe Biden’s campaign credits its success in Arizona to the immigrant-rights and grassroots organizations that have been mobilizing Latinos for nearly two decades. The fruits of their labor — in triple-digit heat, no less — paid off in this traditionally conservative state, where changing demographics and suburban...
Judge Orders US to Stop Expelling Children Who Cross Border
HOUSTON — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to stop expelling immigrant children who cross the southern border alone, halting a policy that has resulted in thousands of rapid deportations of minors during the coronavirus pandemic. U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan issued a preliminary injunction sought by...
AP Exclusive: In 'Shadow System,' Migrant Kids Held in US Hotels, Then Deported
HOUSTON — The Trump administration is detaining immigrant children as young as 1 in hotels, sometimes for weeks, before deporting them to their home countries under policies that have effectively shut down the nation’s asylum system during the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A private...
Worker Shortage Concerns Loom in Immigrant-Heavy Meatpacking
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — When Martha Kebede’s adult sons immigrated from Ethiopia and reunited with her in South Dakota this year, they had few work opportunities. Lacking English skills, the brothers took jobs at Smithfield Foods' Sioux Falls pork plant, grueling and increasingly risky work as the coronavirus sickened thousands...
California Court Denies Bid to Block Payments to Immigrants
SACRAMENTO — The California Supreme Court on Wednesday denied a bid to block the state's first-in-the-nation plan to give money to immigrants living in the country illegally who are hurt by the coronavirus. It was the second time in two days that judges refused to stop Gov. Gavin Newsom's $75...
Crash Shines Light on Immigrants in Christmas Tree Workforce
GERVAIS, Ore. — It was nighttime when Pedro Lucas came home, clutching receipts showing he had paid a funeral home to have the bodies of three immigrant laborers returned to Guatemala from Oregon. The three, including two of Lucas' cousins, were killed when a pickup truck slammed into a van...
As Ruling Nears, Immigrant Fights for Anti-Deportation Act
NEW YORK — A Mexican immigrant fighting President Donald Trump's attempt to end a program shielding young immigrants from deportation says he is nervous about the case finally being heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. MartÃn Batalla Vidal is a lead plaintiff in one of the cases to preserve the...
Judge Blocks Trump Rules for Detained Migrant Kids
LOS ANGELES — A U.S. judge on Friday blocked new Trump administration rules that would enable the government to keep immigrant children in detention facilities with their parents indefinitely. U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles said the rules conflict with a 1997 settlement agreement that requires the...
Doctors, Lawyers Portray Dire Conditions for Child Migrants
CLINT, Texas — Immigrant advocates are asking a federal judge to immediately require inspections and let doctors into border detention facilities where they say sleep-deprived, flu-stricken children are languishing in filthy conditions. Doctors and lawyers who visited the facilities in recent weeks outlined several damning examples in a court filing...
Premature Baby Found in Border Patrol Facility in Texas
The teenage girl with pigtail braids was hunched over in a wheelchair and holding a bunched sweatshirt when an immigrant advocate met her at a crowded Border Patrol facility in Texas. She opened the sweatshirt and the advocate gasped. It was a tiny baby, born premature and held in detention...