CHICAGO — As a nationwide immigration crackdown loomed, religious leaders across the country used their pulpits Sunday to quell concerns in immigrant communities and spring into action to help those potentially threatened by the operation. A Chicago priest talked during his homily about the compassion of a border activist accused...
Trump Moves to End Asylum Protections for Central Americans
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Monday moved to end asylum protections for most Central American migrants in a major escalation of the president's battle to tamp down the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. According to a new rule published in the Federal Register , asylum seekers who pass through...
Trump Immigration Policies Inflict Lasting Harm, Democrat Says
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's hardline immigration policies are inflicting lifetime damage on children separated from their families and worsening conditions at overcrowded and unsanitary detention facilities at the border, a Democratic House chairman said Friday as his panel held a hearing on the surge of migrants. Republicans accused the...
Nationwide ICE Roundup Poised to Begin This Weekend
WASHINGTON — A nationwide immigration enforcement operation targeting people who are in the United States illegally is expected to begin this weekend after it was postponed last month by President Donald Trump, according to two administration officials and immigrant activists. The operation, which is sparking outrage and concern among immigrant advocates, would...
California OKs Benefits to Immigrants in Country Illegally
SACRAMENTO — California has become the first state to offer taxpayer-funded health benefits to young adults living in the country illegally. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law on Tuesday that makes low-income adults age 25 and younger eligible for the state's Medicaid program regardless of their immigration status. State...
Homeland Security Official Defends Conditions at Border
WASHINGTON — Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan on Sunday defended conditions at U.S. Border Patrol stations following reports of crowded and unsanitary conditions that have heightened debate about President Donald Trump's immigration policy, a trademark issue for his reelection campaign. "It's an extraordinarily challenging situation," McAleenan told ABC's "This...
Supreme Court to Rule on Trump Bid to End Dreamers Program
WASHINGTON — Adding a high-stakes immigration case to its election-year agenda, the Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether President Donald Trump can terminate an Obama-era program shielding young migrants, known as dreamers, from deportation. The justices' order sets up legal arguments for late fall or early winter, with...
House Sends Trump $4.6B Border Bill, Yielding to Senate
WASHINGTON — The Democratic-controlled House voted Thursday to send President Donald Trump a bipartisan, Senate-drafted, $4.6 billion measure to care for migrant refugees detained at the southern border, capping a Washington skirmish in which die-hard liberals came out on the losing end in a battle with the White House, the...
Health Care, Immigration Top Issues at Democrats' 1st Debate
MIAMI — Ten Democrats railed against a national economy and a Republican administration they argued exist only for the rich as presidential candidates debated onstage for the first time in the young 2020 season, embracing inequality as a defining theme in their fight to deny President Donald Trump a second...
Border Official Resigns Amid Uproar Over Migrant Children
HOUSTON — The acting head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection resigned Tuesday amid an uproar over the discovery of migrant children being held in pitiful conditions at one of the agency’s stations in Texas. Acting Commissioner John Sanders’ departure deepened the sense of crisis and added to the rapid...