By Mica Rosenberg WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 1,800 immigrant families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border from October 2016 through February of this year, according to a senior government official, as President Donald Trump implemented stricter border enforcement policies. The numbers are the first comprehensive disclosure by the administration of how many families have been affected by the policies. Previously, the only numbers provided by federal officials on family separations covered a single two-week period in May. The government official, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity, said he could not provide up-to-date statistics, but acknowledged the number of separations had risen sharply in recent weeks, largely because of new administration policies. In May, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 'zero tolerance' policy in which all those apprehended entering the United States illegally would be criminally charged, which generally leads to … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Nearly 1,800 families separated at U.S.-Mexico border in 17 months through February
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Exclusive: Nearly 1,800 families separated at U.S.-Mexico border in…
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly 1,800 immigrant families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border from October 2016 through February of this year, according to a senior government official, as President Donald Trump implemented stricter border enforcement policies. FILE PHOTO: Undocumented immigrants just released from detention through "catch and release" immigration policy stand at a bus station before being taken to the Catholic Charities relief center in McAllen, Texas, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Loren Elliott/File Photo The numbers are the first comprehensive disclosure by the administration of how many families have been affected by the policies. Previously, the only numbers provided by federal officials on family separations covered a single two-week period in May. The government official, who agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity, said he could not provide up-to-date statistics, but acknowledged the number of separations had risen sharply in recent … [Read more...] about Exclusive: Nearly 1,800 families separated at U.S.-Mexico border in…
Texas teen reunites with deported father at U.S.-Mexico border before high school graduation
Leslie Sliva knew her father could not attend her high school graduation on Sunday. The El Paso, Texas, teen says her dad has missed many milestones in her life, but she was determined to make him a part of this one. So she visited him in her cap and gown before the graduation ceremony at Eastlake High School. They met at the U.S.-Mexico border, where El Paso meets Juarez, Mexico. It was the closest they could get. "My dad has been deported since 2007," Silva told CBS affiliate KDBC. Silva's father lives in Juarez and she is able to visit him every weekend. She is still close to her dad, even though he cannot legally enter the United States. "He missed so many things. I wanted him to be a part of something," Silva said. "He tells us every day that he wants to be with us." Before crossing the graduation stage, she crossed the border in her purple and orange cap and gown. Her dad wrapped her in a long hung. Silva posted video of the moment on Twitter and it was viewed over 3 … [Read more...] about Texas teen reunites with deported father at U.S.-Mexico border before high school graduation
A new U.S.-Mexico border? At the Venice Biennale, imagining a binational region called MEXUS
Teddy Cruz and Fonna Forman aren’t the sort of urbanists to get squeamish over a little raw sewage.In 2011, the pair led a curious procession of 300 day-trippers from San Diego’s side of the border through a drainage pipe to Tijuana.“We negotiated with Homeland Security for a year to let us transform one of the drains [under the border wall] into an official port of entry for 24 hours,” says the architect Cruz, seated in a map-covered studio he shares at UC San Diego with Forman, a political scientist. “They said okay because we were exiting the U.S. But we had to have Mexican immigration waiting for us at the other end.”The pipe connects a natural preserve on the U.S. side with higher elevation canyonlands to the south. A video on the website of San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, where Cruz and Forman exhibited their work last year, shows a pair of immigration agents at a folding table stamping passports as a stream of dingy … [Read more...] about A new U.S.-Mexico border? At the Venice Biennale, imagining a binational region called MEXUS
Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to visit U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on Monday
Attorney General Jeff Sessions will visit the U.S. Mexico-border in San Diego on Monday to discuss the immigration enforcement efforts of the Trump Administration.Justice Department officials said Sessions would hold a press conference with Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Thomas D. Homan at 1 p.m. The location was not disclosed.Sessions' visit follows a March visit by President Donald Trump to Otay Mesa to survey border wall prototypes. Other administration officials also have made recent visits to the border region.On April 18, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen paid a visit to Calexico to see the replacement of a border barrier. Later that month, Vice President Mike Pence addressed Homeland Security and Border Patrol employees at the El Centro Border Patrol Station about plans for a new border wall and to call for tougher enforcement measures.Sessions’ planned visit comes a week after a group of about 200 Central American asylum seekers arrived at … [Read more...] about Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions to visit U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego on Monday