RIO GRANDE

The Nicaraguan government has dropped visa requirements for Cuban citizens, a move that may spark an increase in Cubans travelling there in a bid to reach the United States.

The majority of Central Americans who want to migrate internationally are motivated by economic factors, a new report found.

Congressional investigators say two Border Patrol agents were fired from among 60 found to have committed misconduct for participating in a private Facebook group that mocked migrants and lawmakers.

U.S. authorities say illegal border crossings from Mexico fell in September for only the second time in 17 months, but the federal fiscal year ended with the highest count ever.

On a scorching afternoon in South Texas, Sonia Lambert looked out at an open-air canal that carries mud-green water from the Rio Grande to nearby towns and farmland, losing much of it to evaporation and seepage along the way. “That will be someone else’s problem,” Lambert said, referring to her upcoming retirement as head of an irrigation district near the U.S.-Mexico border. In the Rio Grande Valley, a canal system designed more than a century ago for agriculture still delivers water to the region's lush farmland and fast-growing towns and cities.

Federal courts have ordered the administration to restart the Trump-era policy that sent at least 60,000 back to Mexico.

Republicans have accused Biden of releasing most of the migrants into the United States.

As many as 15,000 migrants, who were mostly from Haiti, had been packed into a squalid tent city beneath a bridge.

President Biden earned the ire of Border Patrol agents after endorsing the false claim that they were recorded "whipping" migrants who were attempting to cross the Rio Grande.

The Biden administration has suspended Border Patrol agents from using horses in Del Rio, Texas amid public outcry over photos showing agents on horseback charging at Haitian migrants trying to cross into the U.S.

Daniel Foote called the US decision to deport Haitian migrants "inhumane".

News4Jax is running a viral social media claim through the Trust Index about U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents allegedly whipping Haitian migrants along the Rio Grande as they tried to get into the United States. The dramatic scene has drawn widespread condemnation from the White House, politicians and the public.

Images that appear to show U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback confronting migrants along the Rio Grande have a federal official speaking out.

Confined to U.S. border camp, Haitian migrants wade to Mexico for supplies

Haitian migrants continue to pour into Texas. But hoping to avoid deportation, many decide to cross the Rio Grande back to Mexico.

Thousands of Haitian migrants have sought to enter the US as their country faces endemic poverty and violence on top of ongoing political turmoil.

Black people have the lowest home ownership rates in the country. Here’s how housing reparations can help change that.

The Border Patrol confronts massive, growing camp of Haitian migrants in Texas.

The Border Patrol confronts massive, growing camp of Haitian migrants in Del Rio, Texas.

Tommy Fisher's wall is made up of 15,000 steel posts running along the Rio Grande.

The Biden administration will stop detaining migrants facing deportation if they are pregnant or recently gave birth in a reversal of a Trump-era policy.

You don’t have to look very hard to see that the high-desert city of Albuquerque is an adventure stronghold. The East Mountain Trail System is also worth checking out. Saturday NightThe craft-beer scene in Albuquerque is booming, and the city has one of the highest numbers of breweries per capita in the country. Visit Albuquerque welcomes you to experience exhilaration in the natural beauty of the Southwest. Whether you’re hiking a mountain trail or relaxing at a Downtown brewery, Albuquerque will change your perspective.

You don’t have to look very hard to see that the high-desert city of Albuquerque is an adventure stronghold. Nestled in the foothills of the Sandia

On June 1, the Biden administration formally ended the "Remain in Mexico," asylum policy.

"Hugs Not Walls" is hosted by the Border Network for Human Rights (BNHR) and Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance (RITA).

Texas has allocated $1 billion in funding for a new border wall amid a surge in illegal migrant crossings, as its governor says the state “will not sit idly by as this crisis grows.” More than 180,000 people were apprehended by US Customs and Border Protection in May - the most since April 2000. Governor Greg Abbott blamed Joe Biden for the record crossings, saying: "It is out of control and a change is needed.” A clearer plan will be revealed next week, but vowing to continue a signature Donald

New figures show that the Biden administration has succeeded at speeding up the process for sheltering and releasing unaccompanied minors.

As migrants arrive in the Rio Grande Valley, residents debate the latest chapter of America’s decades-old conundrum.

The U.S. government is awarding a slew of big federal contracts to provide emergency shelters for more than 20,000 unaccompanied children who have recently crossed the border from Mexico.

The boy was distraught and crying after waking up and realizing he was left behind by a group of migrants.

As several states in the American West face intense drought, water managers say it's shaping up to be a very difficult year for New Mexico farmers because of limited irrigation supplies.

Republican officials are also blaming the Biden administration for actions they say are leading more people from Central America to seek entry into the United States. “It’s not a crisis, it’s a complete loss of sovereignty down there,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said. AdGraham recently visited the border and said he saw a facility designed to hold 80 children with about 1,000 in it. “It does not mean that they get to stay in the United States. AdPsaki said the administration is committed to transparency and providing access to those temporary Border Patrol facilities as soon as it can.

WHY HAS MEDIA ACCESS BEEN BLOCKED? The Associated Press, for example, has asked Homeland Security officials for access to Border Patrol facilities at least seven times, without a response. Some of them aren't coming from the professional media but from people with special access. The customs locations are considered much more crowded, and journalists have still not been allowed access to them. He says: “It is more important than ever that journalists be allowed the necessary access to report accurately and independently on the border patrol's response.”___David Bauder is the media writer for The Associated Press, based in New York.

Instead, he said this: “Rolling back the policies of separating children from their mothers? I make no apology for that. Rolling back the policies of ‘Remain in Mexico,’ sitting on the edge of the Rio Grande in a muddy circumstance with not enough to eat? I make no apologies for that. I make no apologies for ending programs that did not exist before Trump became president that have an incredibly negative impact on the law, international law, as well as on human dignity.”

They were released from Border Patrol custody without an immigration hearing appointment. Border Patrol has become overwhelmed trying to rapidly gather information and screen migrant families at already overcrowded border holding areas before deciding whether to release, detain or expel them. Last weekend, Border Patrol began expediting families’ release by eliminating notices to appear in immigration court for many, stirring confusion. A girl is processed by Border Patrol agents after crossing the border illegally with other juveniles on March 18. The shortened paperwork Border Patrol has been issuing this week should allow migrants to travel and to register their children for school, D’Cruz said.

AdvertisementAdvertisementA Border Patrol agent checks the documents of newly arrived asylum seekers in the Rio Grande Valley. Asylum seekers wait to be processed and taken to holding facilities on Thursday in the Rio Grande Valley. Since late January, the constables have been discovering about a hundred migrants each night along the Rio Grande, said Sgt. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)Many have ended up in Juarez. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times)That night, they slept on the streets of downtown Juarez.

Even as Biden dismantles that policy — an estimated 25,000 asylum seekers with active cases are now eligible to enter the U.S. — hardships remain for others left in limbo. AdvertisementAdvertisementA camp near the bank of the Rio Grande in Matamoros, Mexico, for asylum seekers. Mexican asylum seekers wait to register at a migrant camp at the U.S.-Mexico border on Feb. 23, 2021, in Matamoros, Mexico. The U.N. agency for refugees, UNICEF and other agencies created a website for eligible asylum seekers to register, but it’s been plagued by technical problems. Asylum seekers in Matamoros, Mexico, in 2019.

(AP Photo/Christian Chavez)WASHINGTON – After decades of failed attempts to pass comprehensive immigration legislation, congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden are signaling openness to a piece-by-piece approach. They unveiled a broad bill Thursday that would provide an eight-year pathway to citizenship for 11 million people living in the country without legal status. “Even though I support full, comprehensive immigration reform, I’m ready to move on piecemeal, because I don’t want to end up with good intentions on my hands and not have anything,” said Texas Rep. Henry Cuellar. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin has said that any final Senate bill likely “will not reach the same levels” as Biden’s proposal. AdIndeed, comprehensive bills negotiated by bipartisan teams of lawmakers failed multiple times during Republican George W. Bush’s administration and again in 2013 during Democrat Barack Obama's.

Mexican authorities say they have found 19 shot and burned bodies near a town across the Rio Grande from Texas in an area that has seen violent territorial disputes between organized crime groups in recent years. Authorities found two vehicles on fire, one containing four bodies and the other 15. Organized crime groups covet control of stretches of the border because they make money off everything that crosses the border. In January 2020, 21 bodies, most burned, were found in various vehicles near the neighboring town of Ciudad Mier. Authorities said the massacre was perpetrated by the Zetas cartel, one of the most powerful at the time.

Merín gave birth to her daughter next to the Rio Grande, attended to by two Border Patrol agents, showing how lives routinely end up at risk at the U.S.-Mexico border. Mother and child were hospitalized for three days, then processed at a Border Patrol station before being released to Catholic Charities. “There’s so many women in great danger,” said Sister Norma Pimentel, executive director of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley. The Border Patrol blames smugglers for using people in medical distress as decoys, drawing attention from others trying to sneak into the country. The Border Patrol defends how it treats immigrants and the medical care they receive.

Cactus flanks the banks of the Rio Grande as boaters in the distance navigate the shallow river as it flows through Rio Rancho, New Mexico, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2020. New Mexico and other southwestern states have been dealing with dry conditions and warmer temperatures this summer. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)

(AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan)FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Cities across the U.S. Southwest recorded their driest monsoon season on record this year, some with only a trace or no rain. Flagstaff notched its driest season ever, down more than 6.5 inches (16.5 cm) of rain from its normal of 8.31 inches (21.1 cm ). Danielle Kosten looks forward to the monsoon season when she can open up the doors at her house northwest of Phoenix, let any breeze flow through and cool down. The scarcity of rain during the monsoon season was disappointing, she said, but not unexpected. The monsoon season doesn't guarantee widespread rain.

MIAMI – An exceptionally busy Atlantic hurricane season was churning along Saturday as the Texas coast prepared for a tropical storm that could strengthen into a hurricane before breaching its shores in the week ahead. Both the city of Galveston and Galveston County on Saturday issued voluntary evacuation orders ahead of Tropical Storm Beta, as did the city of Seabrook to the north of Galveston. Forecasters issued a tropical storm warning from Port Aransas, Texas, to Morgan City, Louisiana. Beta had maximum sustained winds at 60 mph (95 kph) and was moving north-northeast at 2 mph (4 kph) Saturday night. A tropical storm warning was in effect for Bermuda.

It is located on a ranch once operated by Nathaniel and Matilda Jackson, a biracial couple believed to have been "conductors" of the Underground Railroad to Mexico. The two families' ranches served as a stop on the Underground Railroad to Mexico, descendants said. But just how organized the Underground Railroad to Mexico was and what happened to former slaves and those who helped them remains a mystery. The examination of the Underground Railroad to Mexico comes as the U.S. is undergoing a racial reckoning around policing and systemic racism. Some Mexican American families are finding themselves having uncomfortable conversations about race in the wake of their newfound awareness of the Underground Railroad to Mexico.

It is the kind of haunting account heard frequently in this border town, where hundreds of Central American asylum seekers who say they are fleeing gang violence await court dates in the United States. A year ago, relatively few Mexican nationals were in the bulging border asylum queues. The Mexican asylum seekers say they are fleeing their homelands endemic gang violence as well as deeply entrenched poverty. (Javier Escalante / For The Times)Snchez is, for now, the keeper of the book in which the names of Mexican asylum seekers are written down and given a number. The self-generated lists of Mexican asylum seekers are kept both here and, a few blocks away, at the Brownsville & Matamoros International Bridge.

Water-related deaths tripled in the Border Patrol's Del Rio sector from fiscal year 2018 to fiscal year 2019, according to data CNN obtained from US Customs and Border Protection. But water-related rescues shot up more than 650%, increasing from 65 in fiscal year 2018 to 490 in fiscal year 2019. The increase was especially dramatic in the Del Rio sector, where water-related deaths tripled. In fiscal year 2018, the Del Rio sector reported six water-related deaths; the following year, there were 18. But she isn't surprised to hear about water-related deaths on the rise in one sector of the border.

A mother and her toddler from Honduras drowned while attempting to cross the Rio Grande from Mexico into Texas, authorities said. The Honduran mother died with her son, 21-month-old son, Iker Gael Cordova Herrera, while trying to cross the Rio Grande river into Texas, Nelly Jerez, the Honduran vice foreign minister of consular and migration affairs, said in a statement obtained by CNN. Jerez said the pair had recently entered the US and made a request for asylum but they were sent to Matamoros, Mexico, to wait for an immigration court hearing. Last week, Herrera Hernandez told her husband that she felt scared and nervous about crossing the Rio Grande. Earlier this year, a 23-month-old girl from El Salvador and her father drowned crossing the Rio Grande near Matamoros.

A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. MCALLEN, Texas - Since Thursday, US Border Patrol agents have found three bodies of people who attempted to cross the southern border into the US, a Customs and Border Protection news release says. Two days later, a Coast Guard unit patrolling the river near Mission, Texas, contacted McAllen Border Patrol station about another dead person in the Rio Grande, Border Patrol said. On Sunday, agents patrolling the ranchland in Kenedy County found another person dead in the brush, CBP said. The pair from El Salvador drowned as they were crossing from Mexico into Texas near Brownsville.

A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNN) - A 6-month-old girl was in critical condition after crossing the US-Mexico border with her father in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, US Customs and Border Protection said Saturday. The girl was among a group of 21 people apprehended about 1:30 a.m. Thursday near the Roma Port of Entry Thursday after crossing the Rio Grande into the United States, according to a CBP statement. The baby and her father were transported to the Rio Grande Valley Sector's Central Processing Center, where medical staff at 9:20 a.m. determined that she needed hospital treatment, the statement said. She was taken with her father at 9:40 a.m. to Edinburg Regional Children's Hospital in Edinburg, Texas, and later transferred by helicopter to Driscoll Children's Hospital in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Border Patrol vehicles are seen as they line the banks of the Rio Grande on the U.S./Mexico border. (CNN) - At least 14 people were rescued while attempting to cross the Rio Grande into El Paso, Texas, on Monday, an El Paso Fire Department spokesman told CNNOfficials are still looking for a man who they say was helping a mom and child cross the river. He was not part of the original group of 14, the spokesman said. Fire and US Customs and Border Protection officials transported three people to local hospitals. The Rio Grande forms the border between El Paso and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico.

A U.S. Border Patrol boat moves along the Rio Grande on the U.S.-Mexico border. (CNN) - A US Border Patrol boat patrolling the Rio Grande was shot at early Friday morning from the riverbank on the Mexican side, US Customs and Border Protection reported. Shots rang out while the agents were patrolling near Fronton, Texas, the Rio Grande City Station Marine Unit reported. The Rio Grande City station's area of responsibility encompasses about 1,220 square miles of Starr County, Texas, including 68 miles of international border, the agency's website explains. Three ports of entry -- Rio Grande City, Roma and Falcon Dam -- are located in the territory.

With smugglers often dictating the route, Central Americans find they can easily cross the dried-up Rio Grande in El Paso with young children. Agents in the Border Patrol's El Paso sector made as many arrests during the entire 2012 fiscal year as they averaged in a single week in May. With a population that is 80% Latino, El Paso is one of the most heavily Hispanic big cities in America and one of the safest. The swiftness of the shift to El Paso surprised many agents. "It's like flipping a switch," said Aaron Hull, who was chief of the Border Patrol's El Paso sector during the surge earlier this year.

If anything, I want to go to the United States even more than before, said Danieska Del Toro, 34, from Havana. They took public buses to Juarez, crossed the border illegally into El Paso on July 4 and surrendered to the U.S. Border Patrol. To Ivania, the fact that El Paso was the site of a mass shooting apparently targeting Latinos is mostly irrelevant. If allowed to enter the United States, she said her family planned to move in with relatives in Texas. But for my family the United States represents an opportunity that we dont have in Honduras.

The official, however, praised the Mexican militarys increased border enforcement activities, including coordinated or mirrored anti-smuggling operations along the Rio Grande with the Border Patrol. AdvertisementThe lulls in apprehensions on some days have been enough to create space in Border Patrol detention, the official said. Fewer immigrants in detention means more Border Patrol agents are available to patrol, the official said. We cant unfortunately answer all of those activations, with agents still devoted to migrant detention, the Border Patrol official said. Historically, the Border Patrol tracked escapes, or gotaways, using camera footage, sensor activations and old-fashioned tracking by agents in the field.

A member of the Texas National Guard watches the Mexico-U.S. border from an outpost along the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Loren ElliottWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it would send an additional 1,000 Texas National Guard and 1,100 active duty troops to the border with Mexico, the latest deployment in support of President Donald Trumps immigration crackdown. There are currently about 4,500 active duty and National Guard troops on the border with Mexico. The Pentagon first approved the high-profile deployment of active-duty U.S. troops to the Mexico border in October, before the November congressional elections. Last month, Mexico has deployed almost 15,000 soldiers and National Guard in the north of the country to stem the flow of illegal immigration across the border into the United States.

A member of the Texas National Guard watches the Mexico-U.S. border from an outpost along the Rio Grande in Roma, Texas, U.S., April 11, 2018. REUTERS/Loren ElliottWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Wednesday it had approved a request to send an additional 1,000 Texas National Guard and 1,100 active duty troops to the border with Mexico, the latest deployment in support of President Donald Trumps controversial immigration crackdown. Major Chris Mitchell, a Pentagon spokesman, told Reuters that acting Defense Secretary Richard Spencer had approved the additional troops on Tuesday night, and they would be assisting with tasks like logistical support and aerial surveillance. There are currently about 4,500 active duty and National Guard troops on the border with Mexico.

Three civil rights groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday challenging the Trump administration's new asylum rule, which bars asylum claims from most noncitizens who travel through another country on their way to the United States. The suit alleges that the rule violates the Immigration and Nationality Act as well as federal laws governing administrative procedure. "This is the Trump administration's most extreme run at an asylum ban yet. The rule also violates federal law requiring "that asylum cannot be categorically denied based on an asylum seeker's route to the United States," attorneys for the groups wrote. The asylum rule has exceptions for those who applied for asylum protection in a third country and were denied it, and those who qualify as victims of a "severe form of trafficking."

Cuban migrant Viviana Martinez was considering the dangerous crossing with her husband and 1-year-old son. Shes five months pregnant and has been in the northeast border city of Matamoros waiting to cross the border legally into Texas for more than two weeks. There were 160 other asylum seekers on the waiting list to cross the border, and only a handful had been allowed across since she arrived. Were so desperate here, I think about going to the river, Martinez said Saturday. Afterward, two dozen worshipers dropped wreaths bearing the names of the Guatemalan migrants, Martinez and his daughter into the Rio Grande near where they died.

SAN LUIS TALPA, El Salvador (Reuters) - Days after she lost her small daughter and husband to the treacherous currents of the Rio Grande, Tania Vanessa Avalos, 23, arrived back in El Salvador to await her familys return in coffins. A photo of the two drowned migrants caught them face-down in the reeds of the rivers trash-strewn shore. The bodies are due to arrive on Sunday after repatriation by land from Mexico, the Salvadoran government said. Avalos declined to speak to the media after arriving in El Salvador, accompanied by Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Cabrera. That image also sparked a public outcry about the desperate plight of asylum-seekers and the political challenges of welcoming them to safer shores.

The bodies of a Salvadoran father and his young daughter who drowned crossing the Rio Grande began their journey home on Thursday. The bodies were handed over on Wednesday to Tania Avalos, who is Martinez's wife and the child's mother, in Mexico. They left Matamoros, Mexico, on Thursday. From Monterrey, the bodies will be flown San Salvador, El Salvador, on a commercial flight, according to the Salvadoran foreign ministry. Natalie Galln reported from Matamoros, Mexico.

A haunting image that shows the danger so many are willing to face to try and enter the U.S., has gone viral. Oscar Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his almost 2-year-old daughter Valeria are seen face down in south Texas' Rio Grande. The child's arm is still holding on to her father's neck after they both drowned trying to cross into the country. The image brought immediate comparisons to Aylan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian refugee who drowned just outside Turkey during Europe's refugee crisis in 2015. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Mr. Trump, saying there needs to be negotiations.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent searches an undocumented migrant who illegally crossed the Rio Grande in Los Ebanos, Texas, April 6, 2019. The House on Tuesday passed a bill to send emergency aid to the southern border, setting up another face off with the White House and Senate Republicans over immigration policy. The GOP-held Senate will likely try to pass its own version of the border aid bill before lawmakers leave town Thursday for their July 4 recess. In a statement shared by the House Appropriations Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Ca., said "a vote for this bill today is a vote against the Trump Administration's cruel attitude towards children." A separate, bipartisan bill passed by the Senate Appropriations Committee would put $4.6 billion toward border funding without the conditions imposed in the House bill.