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Venezuelan migrants handed over to Mexico like it's a US immigration detention facility. Families from Central Asia flown to Panama and Costa Rica to await voluntary repatriation to their countries. Venezuelans from Guantanamo Bay handed off on a Honduran tarmac and returned to Caracas. It all sends the unmistakable message that trying to get to the US border is no longer worth it. US President Donald Trump's administration has laid the groundwork to reverse the region's migration flow. And while the numbers remain modest, an outline of how the US hopes to overcome limited detention space as it gears up its deportation machine is emerging. Making deals across Latin America In its first month, the Trump administration has reached deals with Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama to act as stopovers or destinations for migrants expelled from the U.S. It has brokered deals with Venezuela to pick up its people in Texas, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Honduras. But no
Four federal employees were fired Tuesday over payments to reimburse New York City for hotel costs for migrants, Department of Homeland Security officials said. The workers are accused of circumventing leadership to make the transactions, which have been standard for years through a program that helps with costs to care for a surge in migration. However, officials did not give details on how the four had violated any policies. On Monday, President Donald Trump's aide Elon Musk posted on X that his team had discovered payments used to house migrants in luxury hotels with money intended for disaster relief. Musk blasted the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of Homeland Security, and called the payments gross insubordination. FEMA's acting administrator, Cameron Hamilton, later said the payments were suspended and the employees who authorized them would be held accountable. The terminated employees were FEMA's chief financial officer, two program analysts and a grant
Colombian migrants returning home Tuesday on Colombian military flights described being shackled during earlier US flights that were blocked by their country's leader in a dispute with President Donald Trump that nearly sparked a trade war. Deportation flights between the US and Colombia resumed Tuesday after the diplomatic drama over the weekend that provided clues as to how the Trump administration would deal with countries blocking large-scale plans to deport migrants who entered illegally. Colombia's President Gustavo Petro initially refused to accept two US military planes with migrants, prompting Trump to threaten 25% tariffs on Colombian exports and other sanctions. Colombia then relented and said it would accept the migrants, but fly them on Colombian military flights that Petro said would guarantee them dignity. Two Colombian air force planes landed Tuesday in Bogota with more than 200 of the migrants, many of them women and children. Petro welcomed them with a post on X ..
Officers enforcing immigration laws will now be able to arrest migrants at sensitive locations such as schools and churches after the Trump administration threw out policies limiting where those arrests could be made. The move reverses guidance that for over a decade has restricted two key federal immigration agencies -- Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection -- from carrying out immigration enforcement in sensitive locations. "This action empowers the brave men and women in CBP and ICE to enforce our immigration laws and catch criminal aliens -- including murders and rapists -- who have illegally come into our country. Criminals will no longer be able to hide in America's schools and churches to avoid arrest," the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement on Tuesday. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement guidance dates back to 2011. The Customs and Border Protection issued similar guidance in 2013.
Mexico is developing a cellphone app that will allow migrants to warn relatives and local consulates if they think they are about to be detained by the US immigration department, a senior official said Friday. The move is in response to President-elect Donald Trump's threats to carry out mass deportations after he takes office on January 20. The app has been rolled out for small-scale testing and appears to be working very well, said Juan Ramn de la Fuente, Mexico's secretary of foreign affairs. He said the app would allow users to press a tab that would send an alert notification to previously chosen relatives and the nearest Mexican consulate. De la Fuente described it as a sort of panic button. In case you find yourself in a situation where detention is imminent, you push the alert button, and that sends a signal to the nearest consulate, he said. US authorities are obliged to give notice to home-country consulates when a foreign citizen is detained. Mexico says it has beefed u
The number of domestic migrants is estimated to have lowered by around 12 per cent to 40.20 crore between 2011 and 2023, indicating increased economic opportunities across the country, said a report by prime minister's economic advisory panel EAC-PM. According to a working paper by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM), the number of domestic migrants stood at 40,20,90,396 in 2023, which was 11.78 per cent lower compared to the figure registered as per Census 2011. The paper titled '400 Million Dreams! Examining volume and directions of domestic migration in India using novel high frequency data', said as per Census 2011, the total number of migrants stood at 45,57,87,621. "Overall domestic migration in India is slowing. We estimate the overall number of migrants in the country, as of 2023, to be 40,20,90,396. This is about 11.78 per cent lower as compared to the number of migrants enumerated as per Census 2011 (45,57,87,621)," it said. Consequently, the pape
As dozens of deported migrants pack into a sweltering airport facility in San Pedro Sula, Norma sits under fluorescent lights clutching a foam cup of coffee and a small plate of eggs all that was waiting for her in Honduras. The 69-year-old Honduran mother had never imagined leaving her Central American country. But then came the anonymous death threats to her and her children and the armed men who showed up at her doorstep threatening to kill her, just like they had killed one of her relatives days earlier. Norma, who requested anonymity out of concern for her safety, spent her life savings of USD 10,000 on a one-way trip north at the end of October with her daughter and granddaughter. But after her asylum petitions to the US were rejected, they were loaded onto a deportation flight. Now, she's back in Honduras within reach of the same gang, stuck in a cycle of violence and economic precarity that haunts deportees like her. They can find us in every corner of Honduras, she said i
Maribel Hidalgo fled her native Venezuela a year ago with a 1-year-old son, trudging for days through Panama's Darien Gap, then riding the rails across Mexico to the United States. They were living in the US when the Biden administration announced Venezuelans would be offered Temporary Protected Status, which allows people already in the United States to stay and work legally if their homelands are deemed unsafe. People from 17 countries, including Haiti, Afghanistan, Sudan and recently Lebanon, are currently receiving such relief. But President-elect Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, have promised mass deportations and suggested they would scale back the use of TPS that covers more than 1 million immigrants. They have highlighted unfounded claims that Haitians who live and work legally in Springfield, Ohio, as TPS holders were eating their neighbors' pets. Trump also amplified disputed claims made by the mayor of Aurora, Colorado, about Venezuelan gangs taking over an ...
Australia's highest court ruled Wednesday that migrants can't be forced by law to wear electronic tracking bracelets or to comply with curfews. The ruling is a blow to the government, whose lawyers have unsuccessfully argued that laws imposing curfews and tracking technology are justified to protect the community. Five of the seven High Court judges ruled that the tough restrictions placed on more than 100 migrants, usually because of their criminal records, were unconstitutional because the conditions amounted to punishment. The constitution states that punishment must be imposed by judges, not lawmakers. The restrictions were part of emergency laws hastily passed in December in response to another High Court ruling that non-citizens could no longer be detained indefinitely as an alternative to deportation. That ruling in the case of a stateless Rohingya man reversed a 28-year-old High Court precedent that allowed indefinite detention where there were security concerns. Wednesday'
An Indian man about 40 years old died on Sunday morning in northern France after the inflated boat he and other migrants had boarded to cross the English Channel deflated, French authorities said in a statement. This year is proving to be the deadliest for migrants' crossing attempts aboard small boats since numbers began surging in 2018, according to the maritime prefecture that oversees French waters in the channel. The man's death Sunday pushed this year's tally so far to 56. Around 5:30 a.m. local time, a group of migrants launched their small boat off the town of Tardinghen, some 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Calais. The boat, which appeared to be in very poor condition," deflated immediately after departure, the statement said. Migrants ... returned to the beach swimming but not everyone was equipped with a life jacket. The Indian man had a cardiac arrest. Police gave him a cardiac massage on the beach, the statement said, but could not resuscitate him. A inquiry has been
Republicans are pointing to newly released immigration enforcement data to bolster their argument that the Biden administration is letting migrants who have committed serious crimes go free in the US. But the numbers have been misconstrued without key context. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released data to Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales in response to a request he made for information about people under ICE supervision either convicted of crimes or facing criminal charges. Gonzales' Texas district includes an 800-mile stretch bordering Mexico. Gonzales posted the numbers online and they immediately became a flashpoint in the presidential campaign between former President Donald Trump, who has vowed to carry out mass deportations, and Vice President Kamala Harris. Immigration and the Biden administration's record on border security has become a key issue in the election. Here's a look at the data and what it does or doesn't show: What are the numbers? As of July 21, ICE sai
Despite her well-paying tech job, Li Daijing didn't hesitate when her cousin asked for help running a restaurant in Mexico City. She packed up and left China for the Mexican capital last year, with dreams of a new adventure. The 30-year-old woman from Chengdu, the Sichuan provincial capital, hopes one day to start an online business importing furniture from her home country. I want more, Li said. I want to be a strong woman. I want independence. Li is among a new wave of Chinese migrants who are leaving their country in search of opportunities, more freedom or better financial prospects at a time when China's economy has slowed, youth unemployment rates remain high and its relations with the U.S. and its allies have soured. While the U.S. border patrol arrested tens of thousands of Chinese at the U.S-Mexico border over the past year, thousands are making the Latin American country their final destination. Many have hopes to start businesses of their own, taking advantage of Mexico'
The mayor of a French coastal town being used in a rescue operation says 13 migrants are dead after their boat ripped apart Tuesday during an attempted crossing of the English Channel. Dozens of people plunged into the treacherous waters. Unfortunately, the bottom of the boat ripped open, said Olivier Barbarin, mayor of Le Portel near the fishing port of Boulogne-sur-Mer, where a first-aid post was set up to treat victims. It's a big drama.
A boat carrying Europe-bound migrants capsized off the Libyan coast Tuesday, leaving one person dead and 22 missing, Libyan authorities said. The coast guard in the eastern Libyan town of Tobruk said the boat was carrying 32 migrants and that nine have been rescued. Survivors are being taken to a port in Tobruk, the coast guard said. The shipwreck was the latest sea tragedy off the North African nation which has in recent years emerged as the dominant transit point for migrants fleeing war and poverty in Africa and the Middle East. Libya was plunged into chaos following a NATO-backed uprising that toppled and killed longtime autocrat Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Human traffickers in recent years have benefited from the disorder, smuggling in migrants across Libya's extensive borders, which it shares with six nations. The migrants are crowded onto ill-equipped vessels, including rubber boats, and set off on risky sea voyages.
As preparations for assembly elections gain momentum in Jammu and Kashmir, the relief and rehabilitation department has established a helpdesk to assist eligible voters from the displaced Kashmiri community residing across the country. This initiative aims to facilitate smooth polling at special polling stations and through postal ballots, according to officials. The department has intensified efforts to ensure free and fair elections for Kashmiri migrants, with the Election Commission (EC) setting up 24 special polling stations and a postal ballot scheme for displaced community voters in Jammu, Udhampur, and Delhi, they said. "A helpdesk has been established in our office and across various zones. Several employees have been deployed to ensure seamless facilitation of migrant polling," Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner Dr Arvind Karwani told PTI. Karwani emphasised that the helpdesk is actively addressing issues faced by migrants, with the goal of enhancing voter facilities .
A cruise ship rescued 77 migrants found overnight in a sailboat in distress far off the southwestern coast of Greece and was transporting them to the nearest major port, Greek authorities said Tuesday. A passing Maltese-flagged cargo ship found the boat 112 nautical miles (129 miles, 207 kilometres) southwest of the town of Pylos in the early hours of Tuesday, the coast guard said. In an operation coordinated by Greece's search and rescue authority, all those on board were picked up by a cruise ship sailing in the area and were being transported to the southern Greek port town of Kalamata, authorities said. There were no reports of any people missing. No information was immediately available on the nationalities of those on the sailboat or where they had set out from. Greece lies on one of the most popular migration routes for people fleeing conflict and poverty in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, and seeking to enter the European Union. Many attempt to make the short crossing fro