YUMA, Ariz. — Migrants who entered the U.S. illegally under moonlit skies and waist-deep cold water Friday were devastated to learn they may be sent back to Mexico under expanded limits on the pursuit of asylum. About 200 migrants who walked in the dark for about an hour to surrender...
Trump’s Senate Republican Allies Give OK to $5B Wall Request
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's Republican allies controlling the Senate are awarding him his full $5 billion request to build about 200 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall money is contained in a $71 billion draft funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security that cleared its...
Judge Blocks Trump Policy Keeping Asylum-Seekers Locked Up
SEATTLE — A federal judge in Seattle on Tuesday blocked a Trump administration policy that would keep thousands of asylum-seekers locked up while they pursue their cases, saying the Constitution demands that such migrants have a chance to be released from custody. U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled Tuesday that...
Time Running Short, Showdown Looms Over Border Aid Package
WASHINGTON — A House-passed $4.5 billion emergency border aid package faces a dim future in the GOP-held Senate, the chamber's top Republican said Wednesday, as pressure builds to wrap up the measure before the government runs out of money to care for thousands of migrant families and unaccompanied children. The...
House Ready to Pass Emergency Funding Bill for Migrants
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the House proposed somewhat tighter requirements for the care of unaccompanied refugee children as they sought to pass a $4.5 billion emergency funding bill to address the humanitarian crisis involving the thousands of migrant families detained after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Lawmakers and aides said...
Pentagon Without a Chief as US Faces Numerous Global Threats
WASHINGTON — It's a difficult time for the Pentagon to be without a permanent U.S. defense secretary. The Trump administration is grappling with an escalating crisis with Iran, an unusual and controversial deployment of troops to the U.S.-Mexico border, the nearly two-decade-old war in Afghanistan and stalled talks with North...
Funding Needed to Save Children at US-Mexico Border, Official Says
WASHINGTON — When 16-year-old Carlos Hernandez Vasquez fell ill in a holding facility at the U.S.-Mexico border, he was diagnosed with the flu and given medication, then sent back to a cell to recuperate on a concrete bench. But Carlos didn't get better. The Guatemalan migrant died May 20 from...
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...
Budget Deal Allows Far Less Money Than Trump Wanted for Wall
WASHINGTON — Congressional negotiators reached agreement to prevent a government shutdown and finance construction of new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border, overcoming a late-stage hang-up over immigration enforcement issues that had threatened to scuttle the talks. Republicans were desperate to avoid another bruising shutdown. They tentatively agreed Monday night to...
Dozens Want a Role in Governing Local Schools
With the filing deadline three days away, 28 candidates (including 8 incumbents) have qualified for local school board races being decided in November's general election. Among the contests drawing interest is a rare open seat on the Clovis Unified School District board. Area 3 incumbent Jim Van Volkinburg, a dentist...