The Biden administration announced Thursday it will resume the deportation of migrants back to Venezuela in hopes of decreasing the numbers of Venezuelans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. On a background call with reporters — a method often used by U.S. authorities to share information with reporters without being identified — Biden officials said Venezuelan nationals who cross into the United States unlawfully will still be processed. But if it is found they do not have a legal basis to remain in the country, they will be “swiftly removed” back to Venezuela. The U.S. has not carried out regular deportations to Venezuela for years. VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros.
President Joe Biden said Thursday he was unable to legally divert money away from a plan to build several miles of new barriers along the southern border — directly contradicting his campaign vow to build “not another foot of wall” and drawing harsh criticism from Mexico’s president. A notice to allow construction in Texas was released Wednesday night in the Federal Register, the official U.S. government gazette. Story by VOA’s White House correspondent Anita Powell and VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros.
The U.S.-Mexico border is the world’s deadliest land migration route, according to the United Nations migration agency. The most recent report from the International Organization for Migration shows hundreds of people die each year attempting to get to the United States through the dangerous deserts. VOA’s Immigration reporter Aline Barros.
Hidden behind a heavy black curtain in one of the nation’s busiest airports is Chicago’s unsettling response to a growing population of asylum-seekers arriving by plane. Hundreds of migrants, from babies to the elderly, live inside a shuttle bus center at O’Hare International Airport’s Terminal 1. They sleep on cardboard pads on the floor and share airport bathrooms. A private firm monitors their movements. The Associated Press reports.
When Carolina’s captors arrived at dawn to pull her out of the stash house in the Mexican border city of Reynosa in late May, she thought they were going to force her to call her family in Venezuela again to beg them to pay $2,000 ransom. Instead, one of the men shoved her onto a broken-down bus parked outside and raped her, she told Reuters. “It’s the saddest, most horrible thing that can happen to a person,” Carolina said. Reported by Reuters.
Senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were in Mexico for talks Wednesday with Mexican officials on the drug trade and a humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border. Blinken will be joined by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The U.S. delegation is set to meet with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Rosa Icela Rodriguez, secretary for Security and Citizen Protection. Reported by Rob Garver.
Source : VOA News
