WASHINGTON - The Trump administration is set to harden the rules this week on those allowed to seek asylum in the United States, as it attempts to stem a wave of migration on its southern border with Mexico.
In a fast-track regulation set to publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the administration has created a framework that will allow asylum seekers to be sent to other nations that have negotiated bilateral agreements to accept them.
Previously, officials in the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump have argued that migrants with a valid need for asylum should seek protection in the first 'safe' country where they have the chance to apply, since many migrants travel through multiple countries on their way to the U.S. border.
However, the new regulation states that asylum seekers may be sent to any other countries with which the United States has asylum agreements that permit such an action - even if they did not first transit through those nations.
The regulation is the latest action by Trump to restrict asylum access in the United States. Trump has made immigration - and curbing the number of mostly Central American migrants arriving at the border - a major theme in his reelection campaign.
The United States already maintains a bilateral asylum deal with Canada. Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras have also signed such deals in recent months, but the pacts have not been finalized.
The regulation released on Monday will amend U.S. guidelines to permit similar deals with other nations.
Other Trump measures have sought to restrict asylum eligibility or force migrants to wait in Mexico pending the resolution of their claims, but not force asylum seekers to pursue their claims in another country.
Migrants who may be sent to a third country under the new regulation will have an opportunity to prove that they're "more likely than not" to be persecuted or tortured in that country, but advocates argue that will be a high hurdle.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, policy counsel at the pro-migrant American Immigration Council, said the regulation could reshape the U.S. asylum system.
"If this rule fully goes into effect, virtually no one who arrived at the southern border would ever be allowed to ask for asylum in the United States," he said.
A Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman said on Saturday that implementation of the asylum agreement with Guatemala would occur soon, but did not provide a specific timeline. The department did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.
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WASHINGTON - The Trump administration, facing criticism over deportations from lawmakers and civil rights groups, said on Monday it would reopen consideration of some deferral requests for compelling circumstances such as medical conditions.
In August, the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) said it was "no longer entertaining" such requests from people outside the US military, but on Monday said it would reopen and complete cases that were pending on Aug. 7, the day the new policy took effect.
The agency said it still believed it was appropriate to hand over responsibility for such work to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), enabling its own staff to focus more efficiently on other legal immigration applications.
Nearly 130 Democratic US senators and members of Congress last week sent a letter Acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Ken Cuccinelli, director of USCIS, protesting what they called a "cruel" and "inhumane" move.
"Individuals requesting deferred action from USCIS are among the most vulnerable. Children and families submit such requests due to severe medical conditions like cancer, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis," the lawmakers wrote. "In many cases, the treatments are life-saving."
They said letters sent out by USCIS in early August summarily denying the requests gave people 33 days to leave the country, and said they face forcible removal and denial of future visas if they did not comply.
The decision caused fear and confusion, the lawmakers said, warning it could force people to return to countries where lack of necessary medical care threatened their lives. They asked DHS, USCIS and ICE to answer a list of 14 detailed questions about the policy shift. The agency sent out letters in early August informing those who had requested deferred action about the new policy, but providing few details on how to submit requests with ICE.
Deferred action is a discretionary determination to temporarily postpone the removal from the United States of a person who is illegally present, and occurs on a case-by-case basis, factoring in medical conditions and other circumstances.
USCIS said those denied requests that were pending on Aug. 7 did not have removal orders pending, and had not been targeted for deportation. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by David Gregorio)
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The city of San Francisco and nearby Santa Clara County sued President Donald Trump's administration on Tuesday, seeking to block a new rule that would drastically reduce legal immigration by denying visas to poor migrants.
Some experts say the new rule could cut legal immigration in half by denying visas and permanent residency to hundreds of thousands of people if they fail to meet high enough income standards or if they receive public assistance such as welfare, food stamps, public housing or Medicaid.
"This illegal rule is just another attempt to vilify immigrants," San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera said in a statement. Trump has made efforts to curb both legal and illegal immigration, an issue he has made a cornerstone of his presidency and one that he has stressed again as the campaign for the 2020 presidential election heats up.
The rule, unveiled on Monday and to take effect Oct. 15, expands the definition of a public charge, allowing denials to visa applicants who fail to meet income requirements or who receive public assistance.
"The final rule rejects the longstanding, existing definition of public charge, and attempts to redefine it to include even minimal use of a much wider range of non-cash benefits," said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
"The final rule will worsen the health and well-being of the counties' residents, increase risks to the public health, undermine the counties' health and safety-net systems, and inflict significant financial harm," the suit said.
San Francisco is both a city and a county. Santa Clara County includes the city of San Jose and various other parts of Silicon Valley.
The suit names U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Homeland Security and their directors as defendants. The former agency declined to comment and the latter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suit claims the new rule violates the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 by contradicting the longstanding definition of public charge as a person "primarily" dependent on public assistance for survival.
The suit also claims the new rule would split families, undermining immigration laws to prioritize family unification; misapplies the intent of Congress on the description of self-sufficiency of immigrants; and runs contrary to the statutes governing SNAP, also known as food stamps.
The National Immigration Law Center said it also will file a lawsuit to stop the rule from taking effect. The attorneys general of California and New York have also threatened to sue. (Reporting by Daniel Trotta Editing by Leslie Adler)
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The administration of US President Donald Trump announced Monday new rules that aim to deny permanent residency and citizenship to migrants who receive food stamps, Medicaid and other public welfare.
The change threatens to set back the citizenship hopes of millions of mostly Hispanic migrants who work for low wages and depend in part on public services to get by.
It also appeared to close the door for impoverished and low-skilled migrants outside the country hoping to legally obtain a foothold in the United States.
Announcing a new definition of the longstanding "public charge" law, the White House said hopeful migrants will not be granted resident visas if they are likely to need public assistance.
In addition, those already here and using public services will not be able to obtain green cards or US citizenship.
"To protect benefits for American citizens, immigrants must be financially self-sufficient," Trump said in a White House statement.
Rules could impact millions
The ruling could impact many of the 22 million non-citizen legal residents of the country, and the estimated 10.5 million unauthorized immigrants, most long-term residents in both groups.
It immediately was thrown into question by pro-migrant activists planning to sue and from Democrats in Congress who said they would fight it.
"This administration scapegoats immigrants, emboldens white supremacists, and tears families apart. This is racist policy. We will continue fighting to #ProtectFamilies," tweeted Representative Donna Shalala.
The White House said "large numbers" of migrants "have taken advantage of our generous public benefits, limited resources that could otherwise go to vulnerable Americans."
It said half of all non-citizen households include at least one person using Medicaid, the government-run health program, and that 78 percent of households led by a non-citizen with no more than a high school education use at least one welfare program.
"Through the public charge rule, President Trump's administration is reinforcing the ideals of self-sufficiency and personal responsibility, ensuring that immigrants are able to support themselves and become successful here in America," said Ken Cuccinelli, acting Director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Children mostly unaffected
Cuccinelli said that the new standards would be used to judge non-citizen residents who use public services repeatedly after October 15, 2019.
The services that count against an applicant include federal, state and local cash and income assistance, food stamps from the federal SNAP program, Medicaid, and subsidized housing.
Cuccinelli stressed that the new rules did not apply to public assistance programs for children or pregnant women, or emergency room care.
As for hopeful immigrants, they would have to demonstrate the ability to live in the United States without resorting to public assistance.
Changes planned since 2018
The changes to the "public charge" rules have been in the works since 2018, as part of Trump's campaign to slash both legal and illegal immigration.
In May, Trump announced a broad plan for immigration "that protects American wages, promotes American values, and attracts the best and brightest from all around the world."
"As a result of our broken rules, the annual green card flow is mostly low-wage and low-skilled," he said.
He said the newcomers "compete for jobs against the most vulnerable Americans" and weigh heavily on welfare programs.
"We're not able to give preference to a doctor, a researcher, a student who graduated number one in his class from the finest colleges in the world — anybody."
'Dire humanitarian impact'
In a study last month, the Urban Institute said the new regulations, when proposed last year, were already driving immigrant families to curtail their use of public services.
Some were pulling out of the SNAP program, leaving them with "insufficient resources for food and adequate nutrition."
In addition, staying away from Medicaid "put people in a position of forgoing treatment for chronic conditions and preventive medical care."
The National Immigration Law Center announced Monday that it would sue to block the implementation of the new rules, calling them a "racially motivated policy."
"This news is a cruel new step toward weaponizing programs that are intended to help people," said Marielena Hincapie, NILC executive director.
"It will have a dire humanitarian impact, forcing some families to forego critical life-saving health care and nutrition. The damage will be felt for decades to come."
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MIAMI - US officials said that some 680 undocumented migrants were detained in raids Wednesday at food processing plants in the southeastern United States, part of President Donald Trump's announced crackdown on illegal immigration.
Most of those detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents were Hispanic migrants, officials said.
"Special agents executed administrative and criminal search warrants resulting in the detention of approximately 680 illegal aliens," said Mike Hurst, US Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi.
"They have to follow our laws, they have to abide by our rules, they have to come here legally or they shouldn't come here at all," Hurst said at a news conference.
The US attorney did not spare the employers.
"To those who use illegal aliens for competitive advantage or to make a quick buck, we have something to say to you: If we find that you have violated federal criminal law, we're coming after you," he said.
Matthew Albence, the interim ICE head, said the raids were the result of a year-long investigation.
He said that the children of detained parents will be sent to live with relatives or other families.
Some of the migrants will be released with electronic ankle monitors as they await a court hearing.
ICE agents raided food processing plants in the towns of Morton, Carthage, Canton, Pelahatchie, Sebastopol and Bay Springs, all in the state of Mississippi, officials said.
In June, Trump tweeted that ICE "will begin the process of removing the millions of illegal aliens who have illicitly found their way into the United States."
Trump has also tweeted several times about an alleged "invasion" of people crossing the southern border into the United States.
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TIJUANA, Mexico - The children crammed into the bus and sat in two neat lines, poring over notebooks at desks where once there had been passenger seats. From the overhead baggage bins, a teacher hung their exploits: colored alphabet letters, watercolor paintings.
In the border city of Tijuana just miles from the U.S. border, in a dirt parking lot adjoining a migrant shelter, that bus is offering a rare chance at school to Central American and Mexican children.
For most of the several dozen who have passed through the program since it began in mid-July, education was a distant dream in the weeks or months since their parents decided to uproot and head north to seek refuge or a better life.
Estefania Rebellon, director of the program called Yes We Can, said it offers specialized bilingual education for children who tend to have low literacy and struggle with social skills. Providing care and security are important too.
"These are children from very dangerous areas, where they have very big issues with trust," she said. Despite a shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, over the weekend that left 22 people dead, including eight Mexicans, she said the violence they saw in their home countries was likely worse. Police say the gunman posted a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto before the shooting.
She said it was upsetting that vulnerable people could not count on finding safety in the United States, even to run basic errands such as back-to-school shopping.
"It's atrocious that there's the amount of hate in this country that's been converted into mass shootings. It's taken innocent lives," she said.
Rebellon, who also works as an actress in Los Angeles, said she knows what it is like to feel lost as a migrant child. When she was 10 years old, she moved to Miami from Colombia, where her parents had received death threats.
School became her refuge.
When she saw large groups of Central American migrants arriving in Tijuana late last year, she launched a school program for children in tents at a large shelter.
The "tiny home movement" - a eponymous social movement that advocates for smaller homes - inspired her to try the same concept in an old bus.
Rebellon's bus used to have a capacity for 55 people - but with the old interior torn out, it can now seat 80 children.
The bus has welcomed aboard 37 students ages 5 to 12 since opening, and will take in another 20 children in the coming weeks. Yes We Can will also launch a program for teenagers in tents outside, Rebellon said.
The three teachers, accredited in Mexico, have experience working with displaced children in Latin America.
Yes We Can is working to bring on a fourth teacher who speaks two indigenous language, in addition to Spanish and English.
Most of the children are from families that are stuck in limbo in Tijuana for weeks or months as they inch higher on a long wait list to apply for asylum in the United States.
They come from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala as well as Mexican cities in states including Guerrero and Michoacan, where locals often fear getting caught in the crossfire of warring drug gangs.
Rebellon said parents from those cities have told her that teachers often refuse to show up at school for fear of getting killed or kidnapped, and some children had missed school for several months.
If the program can secure enough funding, Rebellon said she would like to expand to Ciudad Juarez and Mexicali, other border cities with surging migrant populations.
"We can be in a bus, in a house, in a boat," she said. "It's more about what we teach the children."
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PALENQUE, Mexico - He has negotiated dense jungle and clung precariously with other migrants to a freight train, taking on the combined might of 2 countries' ever more rigid immigration authorities -- but Jose Contreras isn't giving up his dream of reaching the United States.
Like the many migrants who set out daily for new lives in America, the Honduran father-of-4 will not be deterred by the expanding Mexican immigration crackdown prompted by US pressure.
The journey northwards is becoming ever more treacherous since Mexico deployed thousands of troops to its border with Guatemala, which has also signed a pact with Washington aimed at keeping migrants out of the US.
Contreras, 31, left San Pedro Sula in northwestern Honduras eight days ago and paid $26 to be taken across 20 miles (33 kilometers) of national park from El Naranjo in Guatemala to the Mexican frontier.
The price jumped to $42 for the onward 40-mile trip to Tenosique, in Mexico, where migrants can jump on the train known as "La Bestia," which means "the beast."
Contreras was among 50 Hondurans who boarded at 1:00 am to get to the tourist town of Palenque, known for its stunning Mayan archeological site.
"They tell us there are lots of security agents who are going to catch us and that's how they sow fear" to make migrants pay more, Contreras said of the tactics used by the "polleros" -- people smugglers.
Those who don't have enough money are faced with the choice of turning over their valuables or being left behind.
"That's where you lose everything you brought: rings, watch. You have to leave it all there," added the construction worker, trying for a fourth time to get across so he can earn enough money to support his wife and children aged 2 to 10.
'BE BRAVE!'
La Bestia's blazing headlights and the screeching sound of metal on the tracks break the humid dawn atmosphere in Palenque.
After climbing down from the wagons, migrants walk alongside the rails flanked by the seventh century city as the red sky stretches out overhead.
"Be brave!" shouted one migrant with an enthusiasm that provided a welcome counterpoint to the tired faces around him, weighed down by rucksacks and carrying bottles of water.
"We crossed rivers and mountains," added Jose Ramon Fuentes.
"The aim is to get to the other side, God willing," said the 37-year-old father-of-3, embarking on his first attempt to reach the US in search of work.
"Many prefer to go deeper into the jungle and the mountains to get here because both the police and criminals will rob them," said Sister Maria Tello, director of the Casa del Caminante refuge located close to the Palenque train stop.
Sister Maria says she doesn't know which routes exactly the migrants take "but even if we knew them, we wouldn't divulge them because that would put (the migrants) in danger."
She said migrants arrive "badly hurt and tired," with viral diseases and dehydrated due to the long routes through inhospitable terrain.
'MORE DEATHS'
Mexico's government insists that its new migration measures are designed to treat undocumented travelers with dignity, looking after their integrity and human rights.
"From the moment they take away everything (the migrants) bring, that doesn't seem like good treatment to me," said Sister Maria scornfully.
On Tuesday, Mexican authorities freed a Honduran family that had been kidnapped last week in the southern Chiapas state that borders Guatemala.
A woman claiming to be a relative told Honduran television station Televicentro that she had been contacted by kidnappers asking for $15,000.
One of the Hondurans given refuge at the Casa del Caminante, 24-year-old Cesar Caballero, says he had to pay members of the Guatemalan security forces three times.
"Otherwise they would have made me get off the bus," said Caballero, travelling with his wife and three children, including a 3-month old.
After 6 hours at rest, the freight train chugs into gear again, with many of those who arrived early clinging onto its metal steps.
Others throw their rucksacks into the open wagons before scrambling aboard.
Just before joining his compatriots, Contreras hit out at US President Donald Trump and his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador over the agreement that increased border patrols to stave off the threat of stiff new US trade tariffs against its southern neighbor.
"What the presidents have done is stir up the hornet's nest, so there is going to be damage, more deaths," said Contreras.
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WASHINGTON - Democrats in the US Congress demanded Thursday that President Donald Trump protect families and children ahead of expected immigration raids this weekend.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will launch sweeping deportation operations on Sunday as the administration expands its crackdown on undocumented immigrants, the New York Times reported.
ICE has obtained court orders for the removal of about one million undocumented migrants, according to a senior administration official, but the initial raids will target some 2,000 across at least 10 cities, the Times said.
Democrats lashed out at the plans, saying they threaten people who have lived in the United States for many years and built families that include US citizens.
House leader Nancy Pelosi called the ICE plan "heartless" and said Sundays are when many Hispanic immigrant families are in church.
"These families are hardworking members of our communities and our country. This brutal action will terrorize children and tear families apart," she told reporters.
"Many of these families are mixed-status families," she added, referring to families who include members in the United States legally and illegally, such as migrants with children born inside the country.
Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday that ICE has nowhere near the resources needed to pursue the full one million cases.
"They are absolutely going to happen," he said of the raids, however.
MIGRANTS STILL ARRIVING AT HIGH RATE
The removal orders can be issued on the completion of court cases involving the migrants, whether for minor civil infractions or their own citizenship or asylum cases.
Fearing arrest and deportation, migrants often don't show up for cases and judges summarily rule against them.
Senior Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer warned the Trump administration that ICE should not split families with young children if it carries out the raids.
"Stop separating children from their families. Tell your agencies, do not separate a single child from their parents," he said.
ICE hasn't commented on the raids, which would come with Trump seeking to demonstrate toughness on immigration amid a still-strong influx of migrants across the border with Mexico.
On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said 104,344 migrants were detained after crossing the border in June, down 28 percent from May's 13-year record high but still an extremely high figure, some 60,000 more than the same month last year.
While migrant flows usually ebb in the hot summer, DHS said initiatives with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, where most of the migrants come from, and a joint crackdown with Mexico, whose territory most must transit, had contributed to the downturn.
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WASHINGTON -- The White House laid out its conditions Wednesday for averting President Donald Trump's threatened trade tariffs on Mexico, as new data showed migrant detentions at the southern US border have hit their highest level since 2006.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard was in Washington for top-level talks with Vice President Mike Pence, hoping to prevent the five percent import tariffs from coming into force Monday, potentially taking a deep toll on Mexico's economy.
Ahead of the meeting, a top White House official laid out tough terms for Mexico to halt the northward flow of Central American migrants, demanding it lock down its own southern border and process asylum claims inside Mexico.
Speaking from Ireland, Trump said he believes Mexico is ready to "make a deal."
"I think they will stop it. I think they want to do something and make a deal," Trump said. "They sent their top people to try."
"I think Mexico has to step up and if they don't, the tariffs will go on, and if they go high, the companies are going to move back into the United States. It's very simple," he added.
MIGRANTS SURGE 32 PERCENT IN MAY
The talks opened as the US Customs and Border Protection reported that more than 144,000 migrants were detained crossing the border with Mexico in May, a 32 percent surge from April and nearly triple the level of a year ago.
Most were families from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, and the total included some 57,718 children, mostly hoping to escape chronic poverty and violence and get a foothold inside the United States.
CBP Acting Commissioner John Sanders said the numbers had overwhelmed government staff and facilities at the border.
Increasingly the migrants were arriving in large groups, including one of 1,036 individuals detained in El Paso, Texas on May 29.
"We are in a full-blown emergency. The system is broken," he said.
WHITE HOUSE CONDITIONS
Ebrard was hoping to convince the White House to hold off on the tariffs, which Trump said last week will rise by 5 percent each month, up to 25 percent, if the number of migrants reaching the US border isn't cut.
Mexico has deployed its new National Guard police force to its southern border and stepped up migrant detentions and deportations.
But the flow has continued: a caravan of around 1,200 Central American migrants entered southern Mexico from Guatemala on Wednesday, bound for the United States, police said.
Senior Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro said Mexico could avoid the tariffs by satisfying 3 conditions.
First and foremost, he said, Mexico has to accept the migrants' asylum requests under its own laws rather than allowing them to travel on to the United States to seek sanctuary.
"They can commit to taking all the asylum seekers and then applying Mexican laws, which are much stronger than ours," he told CNN.
Secondly, Navarro said, Mexico has to more strongly police its southern border with Guatemala to prevent migrants from entering.
"The southern border that Mexico has with Guatemala is only 150 miles (240 kilometers), and better yet it has both natural and artificial chokepoints where it is really easy to police," Navarro said, offering US assistance in the process.
Thirdly, he said, Mexican officials manning checkpoints on the roads that migrants take through Mexico must stop taking bribes and permitting the migrants to continue on their northward journey toward the United States.
"Those checkpoints are designed to stop the flood, but instead, it's the corruption, the government officials that make money from this human trafficking, that has to stop," he said.
"That's it, that's what we're looking for."
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The FBI on Saturday said it had arrested Larry Hopkins, the leader of an armed group who have been stopping migrants who illegally cross the US-Mexico border in New Mexico.
Hopkins, 69, also known as Johnny Horton, was arrested in Sunland Park, New Mexico, on a federal complaint charging him with being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement.
Hopkins represents himself as commander of the United Constitutional Patriots (UCP), a small volunteer group camped out near Sunland Park since late February.
The UCP describes itself as a "patriot group" helping over-stretched US Border Patrol agents deal with a surge in undocumented migrants.
The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday accused it of being a "fascist militia organization" illegally detaining and kidnapping asylum seekers.
Jim Benvie, a spokesman for the UCP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Hector Balderas, New Mexico's attorney general, described Hopkins as "a dangerous felon who should not have weapons around children and families."
"Today's arrest by the FBI indicates clearly that the rule of law should be in the hands of trained law enforcement officials, not armed vigilantes," Balderas said in a statement.
Horton was previously arrested in Oregon in 2006 on suspicion of impersonating a police officer and being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Mexico's government on Saturday said it had "deep concern" about armed groups that intimidate migrants.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said it did not support citizens taking law enforcement into their own hands but encouraged the public to be its eyes and ears on the border.
"Border Patrol welcomes assistance from the community and encourages anyone who witnesses or suspects illegal activity to call 911, or the US Border Patrol," CBP said in a statement.
One UCP member, who declined to be named, said the group are US military veterans who carried weapons for self defense but that they never pointed guns at migrants, as has been reported.
"People misconceive what we are doing," the UCP member said. "All we're down there to do is back up Border Patrol. They're so thinned out with all these people coming in."
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ROME - Several thousand people marched in Rome Saturday in protest at Italy's tough new anti-migrant law which makes it easier to expel new arrivals.
The protesters waved flags and donned yellow vests emblazoned with the slogan "Get up! Stand Up! for your right" in a reference to the famous Bob Marley song.
The new law would "only increase the number of people without papers in Italy and force people underground", protester Kone Brahima, originally from Ivory Coast, told AFP.
Another, Tony Scardamaglia, from Palermo, said: "We are still building more walls, more barriers," adding that the anti-migrant and security degree adopted last month would just cause more "difficulties".
The decree, adopted by parliament on November 28, also limits residence permits in a country that has become the main gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean.
A populist coalition government made up of the far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement took power in Italy in April 2018.
Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's anti-immigrant League has since surged in popularity, with opinion polls putting the party on 30 percent, up from the 17 percent it won in the election.
"First of all, we started two years ago criminalizing those who save thousands of lives at sea" and ended up "closing ports to boats loaded with survivors", said Project Rights, a collective bringing together various human rights groups.
"Today with the Salvini decree, we have abolished humanitarian protection, creating an endless stream of people forced into hiding," it said in a statement.
The decree also ends two-year "humanitarian protection" residency permits -- a lower level of asylum status based on Italian rather than international law -- that were awarded to 25 percent of asylum seekers last year.
Instead, residency permits will be awarded under stricter conditions such as a one-year "special protection" status or a six-month "natural disaster in country of origin" status.
A new procedure to fast-track the expulsion of "dangerous" asylum seekers will also be implemented.
The Italian Refugee Council has said it is "seriously concerned" by the new law.
The United Nations refugee agency has also said it does "not provide adequate guarantees, especially for the vulnerable or those with particular needs such as victims of abuse or torture".
This year some 22,500 migrants landed on Italy's coasts, representing a drop of more than 80 percent compared to 2017.
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BANGKOK - Allegedly aimed at busting visa abusers and illegal migrants, a Thai police operation called "X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner" has raised questions about racial profiling and fears for asylum-seekers caught in its web.
Tens of millions of tourists come to Thailand each year for the cheap living and postcard-perfect beaches, with some seeking out the seedier thrills of a bustling sex industry.
But as weak law enforcement, porous borders and corruption help make the country a hub for transnational crime, Thai authorities are intensifying Operation X-Ray -- a program that started about a year ago -- with more than 1,000 people arrested in recent weeks, most for overstaying their visa.
Although the vast majority caught in the dragnet are migrants from nearby countries, the racial overtones of the campaign have sparked concerns about profiling based on skin color.
"Our job is to classify who are the good dark-skinned people and who are the ones likely to commit crimes," said immigration bureau chief Surachate Hakparn.
He told AFP that the operation was aimed at weeding out visa overstayers and nabbing criminals -- especially "romance scammers" who lure lonely locals online to defraud them of cash.
He insisted that the romance scammers are often Nigerian or Ugandan.
'SUSPICIOUS TARGETS'
At the start of one night time operation witnessed by AFP in Bangkok's rowdy Nana district earlier this month, about 75 Thai police officers stood in rows at a briefing.
"The suspicious targets are the dark-skinned people," shouted an officer. "First, we search their bodies, then we search their passports."
Soon they began stopping suspects, including three people from Mali who were tested for drugs on the spot.
By 11:55 pm, almost 30 individuals -- about half of whom were black -- had been rounded up.
Only one was Caucasian, a Frenchman caught smoking marijuana.
Surachate's staff said details on the breakdown of nationalities was "confidential".
But in the first two weeks of October, police arrested a Korean citizen wanted by Interpol for sexual assault, and busted a team of four Nigerians and 16 Thais allegedly involved in romance scams, according to authorities.
They also found a Laos national who had overstayed his visa by more than 11 years.
ESCAPING PERSECUTION
Thailand's reputation as a place to disappear and reinvent yourself combined with lax visa rules can be a headache for law enforcement.
The junta that seized power in 2014 justified its power grab by promising stability amid street protests and political upheaval.
But rights groups warn that refugees and asylum seekers who transit through Bangkok en route to a third country for resettlement are also being ensnared in the latest police operation as they lack legal protections.
According to rough estimates from the non-profit Fortify Rights, there are about 100 adults and 30 children who fit this description, mainly from Pakistan but also from Syria and Somalia.
"Thailand's immigration crackdown has swept up refugees and asylum seekers, sent young children into horrid, prison-like conditions, and appears to have clear aspects of racial profiling against South Asians and Africans," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
Thailand is not a party to the UN convention recognizing refugees and made headlines in 2015 for deporting more than 100 Uighurs back to China.
More than 70 Pakistani Christians were rounded up and detained this month by police under charges of illegal entry and overstay even though they were assumed to be in transit and escaping religious persecution in their Muslim-majority homeland.
But the authorities remain unapologetic.
According to immigration chief Surachate's count, Thailand is home to more than 6,000 people who ought to have left the country already.
"In order to clean house, we need to bring in the good people and deport the bad people so that the country will have sustained stability," he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SPIVEY'S CORNER, North Carolina - Francisco Javier Jaramillo and Victor Chavez should be picking sweet potatoes at a North Carolina farm and sending much-needed money to their families in Mexico.
Instead, Hurricane Florence has forced the migrant workers to evacuate their farm and seek refuge at a school-turned-shelter near the tiny hamlet of Spivey’s Corner, where they sleep in school hallways, wait and worry.
"If the sweet potato fields are flooded, we cannot work. If we cannot work, we will be sent home. We will have nothing," said Chavez, 39.
When Florence tore through the Carolinas last week, bringing wave after wave of wind and rain, the storm not only disrupted a harvest but also jeopardized its harvesters.
Known for its fields upon fields of sweet potatoes, tobacco and peanuts, North Carolina's agricultural engine is powered by more than 83,000 migrant workers.
Many come from Mexico and other Latin American countries to toil on restrictive contracts working fields that double as floodplains when the weather sours.
The contracts guarantee a certain number of working hours but that can be nullified if a farmer declares an act of god if, for example, fields are so flooded or hurricane-battered their crop cannot be salvaged. That would mean these workers get sent home without the hours, or money, promised.
A spokeswoman for North Carolina’s agriculture department said there are no estimates yet of the extent of crop damage.
At peak harvest in 2016 there were more than 83,000 migrant workers on North Carolina farms, according to the Employment Security Commission.
Workers on an H2A visa for temporary agricultural workers are among the most vulnerable people hit by a hurricane, according to advocates, lawyers and outreach workers who talked with Reuters. They have the least means to cushion the blow and the most to lose.
“H2A workers are very isolated, very vulnerable," said Lariza Garzon, with the Episcopal Farmworkers Ministry. "They may not know their rights.”
Lee Wicker, deputy director of the 700-farmer North Carolina Growers Association, said maybe decades ago that might have been true but now resources are in place to ensure workers have the supports they need.
About 20,000 of the workers come to North Carolina every year on H2A visas, which tether them to an employer on whom they rely for housing, transportation and, in many cases, information about the outside world, said Caitlin Ryland, a supervising attorney with Legal Aid of North Carolina's farmworker unit.
They are frequently housed in areas close to farmland that can be prone to flooding, Ryland said.
Wicker said that sometimes happens, but said storms like Florence have outsize effects.
For workers like Jaramillo and Chavez, in a precarious labor position and with limited access to outside information, leaving camps for a few days to wait out a storm can be daunting.
Misinformation is rampant: many believe fleeing a storm can get them deported and barred from returning.
If their employer reports them as having abandoned their job, under the terms of the H2A visa it can start the clock ticking on having to leave the United States, Ryland said.
Fleeing for their lives in the face of a storm does not count as abandoning a job, she said, but many workers may not know that.
A spokeswoman for North Carolina’s Department of Labor wrote in an email that "the Agricultural Safety and Health Bureau has not received any complaints from migrant workers concerning unsafe housing conditions due to the storm.”
Five migrant workers Reuters spoke with at a supermarket outside Clinton, in Sampson County about 35 miles (56 km) east of Fayetteville, had elected to stay in their work camps despite the threats presented by the weather.
Explaining why he stayed, Miguel Hernandez motioned to the cement blocks used to build his barracks in an area under a flash-flood warning - surely they could withstand a storm, he said.
But Luis Alberto, a 25-year-old migrant worker from the Mexican state of Nayarit, was scared for his life when he and four friends decided to go to a shelter several miles away.
Luis Alberto, who asked not to use his last name, regularly sends money home to support his family. What worries him now is what happens next – if the crop is destroyed, if they cannot get the contracted hours of work they need.
"We want to know what is going to happen to us," he said. "Can we keep working? Will we be sent back to Mexico?"
source: news.abs-cbn.com
All migrant children under age 5 who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border will have been reunited with their parents by early Thursday morning if they were eligible, a Trump administration official said in a statement on Wednesday.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the government over its separation policies, disputed that assertion.
“Their statement is vague at a minimum," said attorney Lee Gelernt, noting that a San Diego judge had set a deadline of Tuesday for reuniting those children. "We know they missed the deadline.”
The government has said some children were not eligible for reunification because the parent was deported, had a criminal record or was otherwise unfit.
U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego had ordered the government to reunite the children under the age of 5 by Tuesday and all separated children by July 26.
On Thursday, the government will give Sabraw a progress report on the younger children and whether it expects to meet the deadline for the older group.
The government has said around 2,300 children were separated from their parents at the border under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on illegal immigration, which was abandoned in June after intense protests.
The ACLU's Gelernt said the government is not even close to reuniting all the children under 5 with their parents, including 12 adults who were deported without their children. He said the government has not told him how many children have been reunified with parents.
“I’ve asked the government for numbers and they should have told me by now,” he told Reuters.
Since the government first came under pressure to ease its policy on separations weeks ago, it has shifted its estimates of the number of children it would reunite.
The latest figures released by the government were early on Tuesday, when officials said that four children under 5 had been reunited and at least 34 more would be with their parents by the end of the day.
Catholic Charities, which helped place some of the children in shelter facilities after their separation, held a news briefing in New York at which a handful of the reunited parents expressed relief after weeks of anxiety over the separations.
“I’m happy to finally be able to be with my child. I will never be separated from him, no matter what," said a tearful Javier, a 30-year-old from Honduras, who was reunited with his 4-year-old son after 55 days of detention. "Those were the worst days of my life. I never imagined that this would happen.”
The organization provided first names only.
The struggle to track and match parents with children under 5 suggests the government may have more difficulties in meeting a July 26 deadline for reuniting the remaining 2,000 older children with adults from whom they were separated.
"That is going to be a significant undertaking," Sabraw said on Tuesday of the next deadline.
U.S. President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to blame the Democratic Party, among others, for failing to fix what he has characterized as a broken immigration system.
"Judges run the system and illegals and traffickers know how it works. They are just using children!" he said.
One immigration advocate told Reuters she was still awaiting details on when officials would return two children younger than 5 to their parents. One parent was from Honduras and the other from El Salvador.
"Our clients still have not been reunified!" said Beth Krause, an attorney with Legal Aid Society's Immigrant Youth Project, in an email to Reuters. She said the government said one would be reunited sometime Wednesday.
If the government failed to reunite all the children under 5 with their parents by Thursday, Sabraw asked the ACLU to suggest penalties he could levy against the government.
Rights advocates have blamed the U.S. government's poor technology for difficulties tracking children across multiple government agencies involved in their detention and care.
The government has said the delays stem from the time it takes to run background checks, confirm parentage and locate parents released from detention.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
The number of migrants dying from extreme heat on the U.S.-Mexico border rose 55 percent in the last nine months after an increase in unaccompanied children and families trying to enter the United States illegally, the U.S. government said on Monday.
Heat-related deaths, the main cause of migrant fatalities on the U.S. southwest border, rose to 48, up from 31 over the same period in 2017, said U.S. Customs and Border Patrol spokesman Salvador Zamora.
The death toll is expected to rise in the triple-digit heat of summer months as vulnerable, unacclimatized immigrants attempt to cross harsh environments, putting border fatalities on track for a year-on-year increase in 2018, Zamora said.
The Border Patrol recorded a 12 percent year-on-year rise in immigrant arrests in the eight months to May 31, Zamora said.
"We are geared up to surpass last year's heat-related deaths and the summer is just beginning," he said in a telephone interview. "The demographics of the illegal aliens we are apprehending, the family units, the unaccompanied children, they're a lot more vulnerable."
Humanitarian groups such as San Diego, California-based Border Angels say the main cause of rising deaths is tighter border security and law enforcement, such as the recent imposition of a "zero tolerance" policy for illegal border crossers. This has prompted migrants to make long treks through hostile terrain via remote crossing points.
"We've seen people crossing in more dangerous areas, so even though there's less people crossing there are more people dying," said Enrique Morones, founder of the group whose volunteers leave water for migrants.
FROM CENTRAL AMERICA NOW
Until four years ago, the vast majority of migrants arrested at the border were Mexicans. With improved economic conditions in Mexico, their number has fallen, as have overall arrests on the border, which dropped to 303,916 in 2017, down 26 percent from 2016, according to Border Patrol data.
Immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador now top the list of people arrested at the southern border as gun and gang-related violence drives an exodus from those countries, according to U.S. government data.
As the number of arrests on the border have fallen, the United Nations International Organization for Migration has recorded a rise in migrant deaths for the last four years, with the total reaching 415 in 2017.
Immigrants, including children, from sub-tropical and mountainous areas are arriving at the border poorly nourished, unacclimatized to arid conditions and susceptible to heat-exhaustion, Zamora said.
Families apprehended at the border increased five-fold since 2013 while the number of unaccompanied children detained in 2017 was almost double that in 2010, according to Border Patrol data.
Morones at Border Angels suspects patrol agents of destroying water supplies the group drops off for migrants in the desert. One such act was caught on video in Arizona by another humanitarian group called No More Deaths.
Border patrol spokesman Zamora said actions shown in the No More Deaths video were "unacceptable" and in no way representative of the agency's values. The agency conducts its own humanitarian rescues, which rose slightly to 748 people in the eight months through May, he said.
source: news.abs-cbn.com
U.S. President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy has led to thousands of migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, stoking global outrage.
Images of youths behind metal fences and reports of children crying for their parents have raised concern about the psychological ramifications of the practice.
Separating children from their parents can cause lasting trauma, anxiety and depression, and even health problems later in life, said Judith Cohen, a professor of psychiatry at Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia and an internationally recognized expert on childhood trauma.
The following are highlights of an interview with Cohen about the current crisis:
What damage can these separations cause, and who is most at risk?
"First, it is important to put in context that a lot of these children have already experienced traumas. They are fleeing traumatic, life-threatening situations in their home countries -- gang violence, domestic violence, sexual violence. These are not children with normal, healthy brains and bodies to start with.
"If you start with a traumatized child and then you add the trauma of being separated in a sudden, frightening manner from their parent, you are removing a source of protection and support.
"It is sudden. It is chaotic, frightening and scary. They have a minute to plan for it. Other children are crying and sobbing around them.
"What we are doing with these kids who have experienced trauma is taking them away from their parents at the very time when they need them the most. And we are really putting these kids at risk for developing trauma responses.
"The younger the child, the more... it feels like a life threat.
"Young children have immature brains and they depend very much on the support of a caregiver to help regulate what they can't regulate with their own brains and bodies.
"Kids under 10-12 are considered younger children, and for them this impact is more pronounced."
Is this child abuse?
"It is intentional infliction of harm. Whether that meets the definition of 'child abuse' depends on the jurisdiction."
What are the long-term risks?
"We know there are changes to the child's brain structure and the younger the child is, the more profound and potentially lasting these changes are. It can be lifelong.
"We have found that adults who endured early childhood traumas had mental health problems and more strikingly physical problems that lasted throughout their lifetime. Every organ system in their body was affected because trauma affects your immunologic system, your ability to fight off diseases."
What have we learned from foster care that applies to this practice?
"I've seen thousands of children in the course of my 40 years in practice who were placed in foster care, and they were placed in foster care because they were abused or neglected or both. Despite that, many of these children said the worst thing that happened to me was not the physical abuse or the sexual abuse I experienced, it was not the week when I was drinking toilet water, it was because my mother was out using drugs, or it was the moment I was taken away from my mother.
"So that puts it in perspective, that despite the horrific abuse and neglect these kids experienced, their worst thing that happened was being taken away from those parents. And that speaks to the parent-child bond.
"For these (migrant) children, they are with a parent who is risking their life to get their children to safety because they want to keep their child alive."
What kind of care do these children need now?
"First of all, provide them right away with information in their own language about what is going on. Because children who don't understand will fill in the gaps with their own explanations. They may blame themselves, they may blame the adults they see, they may blame other children, they may hold their parents responsible when it is not their fault.
"They need to have information about what is happening. They need to be reassured that their parents are okay. It is really critical that they be allowed to have ongoing contact with their parents."
And in the future?
"The good news is with different trauma-focused treatments -– which, by the way, include the parent -– children can recover.
"And the younger the child, the more critical it is to include the parent in these treatments. With these effective treatments, the changes in their brain and bodies as well as their psychological system can be reversed and they can recover.
"When they get back with their parents, everyone is going to think the problem is solved. But the impact is going to remain. The problem is not going to go away. They are going to need treatment over the months and years to come."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
SAN ANTONIO - Nine suspected migrants were found dead Sunday after being packed inside an overheated truck that was discovered in a Walmart parking lot in Texas, and 30 others were hospitalized in what police said appeared to be a "horrific" human trafficking crime.
Seventeen of those taken to hospitals after the discovery in the early morning hours in San Antonio -- about a two hour drive from the Mexican border -- were in critical condition, suffering from heat stroke and dehydration, authorities said.
At least 39 people were in the trailer, including one person who was later found in a nearby wooded area, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
At least two were school-age children, Fire Chief Charles Hood said.
It was not immediately clear how many suspected migrants might have fled and were unaccounted for.
City police chief William McManus told CNN that the dead were all adult men. Authorities were not releasing the victims' names or nationalities until their families were notified.
"We got a call from a Walmart employee about a welfare check in a tractor-trailer that was parked on the lot here," McManus told a news conference.
"He was approached by someone from that truck, who was asking for water."
The employee returned with the water and then called the police who "found eight people dead in the back of that trailer," the police chief said, calling it a "horrific tragedy."
"We're looking at a human trafficking crime," McManus said.
The truck driver had been arrested, he said.
Federal prosecutors said James Mathew Bradley Jr, 60, of Florida, was in custody and would be charged Monday morning in San Antonio.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott confirmed Sunday evening that the death toll had climbed to nine and called the case "a heartbreaking tragedy."
"Texas will continue to provide protection for the victims who have been robbed of their most basic rights, and bring down the full weight of the law for the perpetrators of this despicable crime," he said in a statement.
'HOT TO THE TOUCH'
People in the truck were "hot to the touch," Hood said, adding the air conditioner in the trailer was not working.
"For those people who survived, they took a beating," he told CNN.
"With heat stroke, you sometimes have neurological deficits that you're never going to be able to recover from."
Hood estimated the temperature in the truck could have reached 150 degrees Fahrenheit (65 degrees Celsius), likening it to an oven.
"If that truck would have been there overnight, there's no doubt that we would have lost all 38 of those people," Hood said.
HAPPENS 'ALL THE TIME'
The US Department of Homeland Security and immigration officials are assisting local law enforcement with the investigation.
"This is not an isolated incident... this happens all the time," McManus said.
"It happens late at night, under darkness because they don't want to be discovered."
The police chief said store security footage showed that some vehicles came to pick up some travelers who were on the truck and who had made it out alive.
It was not immediately clear how long the truck had been in the parking lot, and police were working to determine who owns it.
Tens of thousands of illegal migrants from Mexico and Central America attempt to make the treacherous trip into the United States each year.
In 2003, 19 would-be migrants died in an overheated truck while being taken from south Texas near the Mexican border to Houston.
President Donald Trump has pledged to build a security wall along America's border with Mexico in order to crack down on illegal immigration.
So far, the project has been stalled by reluctance in Congress to dedicate funding for the barrier, which could cost as much as $20 billion according to some estimates.
US Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly has been to Mexico twice to discuss immigration, human trafficking and the spiraling cross-border drugs trade.
Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement director Thomas Homan said the incident "ranks as a stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished."
source: news.abs-cbn.com
