Migrant Boy Found Wandering Alone Was Deported and Kidnapped
A young boy whose video was shared widely online was kidnapped and separated from his mother when his family couldn t pay for her release.
Wilton Obregon and his mother Meylin, Nicaragua natives, crossed the border to Texas last month to seek asylum. But despite the Biden administration’s insistence that a public health order allowing rapid expulsions wouldn’t apply to children, the 10-year-old and his mother were dismissed to Mexico. Wilton’s brother Misael says they were kidnapped hours after the expulsion. Misael got a call from the kidnappers demanding $10,000 for his mother and brother. Since Misael was only able to come up with $5,000, they released his brother and kept his mother. Wilton was abandoned across the border by the smugglers, and wandered through farmland in South Texas looking for help. He eventually ran into a Border Patrol agent, who recorded the encounter. The Washington Post
Newsroom Navigation Central American migrants crossing the Suchiate River between the Guatemalan and Mexican border. Photo: Oliver de Ros
Biden Administration Hesitant on Message for Migrants
The administration is struggling to communicate a promising message to migrants while also urging them to not cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, recognized the administration is struggling to communicate a promising message to migrants while also urging them to not cross the U.S.-Mexico border until the immigration system is set in stone. “I think, when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now. And that is what we’re trying to do,” Jacobson said as the number of migrants grew at the border this past week. Smugglers, on the other hand, are spreading the word that the border is ready for a huge flow of migrants.
U.S. Will Provide Temporary Legal Status for More Than 300,000 Venezuelans
Venezuelan immigrants already in the U.S. will be able to live and work in the country for 18 months under the Biden decision.
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The Biden administration announced on Monday it will provide over 300,000 Venezuelan immigrants already in the U.S. with a temporary protected status that will let them live and work in the country for 18 months. In a statement, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it made the decision based on extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela that will not allow people to return home safely. Former President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 19 to defer the deportation of Venezuelans for 18 months. After the order was issued, the Migration Policy Institute approximated that nearly 150,000 Venezuelan immigrants could b
Newsroom Navigation These photos were taken at Batavia - Buffalo Federal Detention Facility. Credit: U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Flickr
Asylum Seekers Say ICE Guard Threatened to Expose Them to COVID
Three asylum seekers from Cameroon say an Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard threatened to transfer them to a COVID ward.
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Three asylum seekers from Cameroon say an Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard threatened to expose them to COVID-19 if they failed to obey his orders and submit to deportation. They were told they would be transferred to Bravo-Alpha, the detention unit of the Pine Prairie ICE Processing Center in Louisiana where COVID-19 positive detainees were held in quarantine, detainee Clovis Fozao told The Intercept. “They were forcing us out of the dorm, pushing and dragging us,” Fozao said, explaining when the guards pushed the detainees toward deportation. “They threatened to call the SWAT team.” The Intercept