BORDER PATROL

After a dip in illegal crossings that followed policy changes in May, the Biden administration is again on its heels as more asylum-seekers cross the U.S. border from Mexico.

Smugglers are suddenly steering migrants through some of the most desolate and dangerous areas of the Arizona borderlands, forcing them to walk for miles in scorching heat.

The Biden administration has announced a major expansion of temporary legal status for Ukrainians already living in the United States, granting a reprieve for those who fled Russia’s invasion.

A report says Border Patrol does not have a protocol in place for assessing the medical needs of children with preexisting conditions.

Texas has started rolling out what is set to become a new floating barrier on the Rio Grande.

The death in Border Patrol custody of an 8-year-old Panamanian girl is the second child migrant fatality in two weeks under government supervision, raising questions about how prepared authorities are to address medical emergencies of people arriving after an often-exhausting journey.

The mother of an 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody says agents repeatedly ignored pleas to hospitalize her medically fragile daughter as she felt pain in her bones, struggled to breathe and was unable to walk.

U.S. officials say a 98% drop in Venezuelan arrivals has helped lead to a steep decline in migrants crossing the U.S. border illegally from Mexico since pandemic-related asylum limits expired last week.

Pandemic-related asylum restrictions that expelled migrants millions of times have ended in a shift that threatens to put a historic strain on the nation’s beleaguered immigration system.

Migrants are rushing across the border hours before pandemic-related asylum restrictions are to expire, fearing that policies will make it far more difficult to gain entry into the United States.

Cuban migrants are still arriving by boat in the Florida Keys even as the Biden administration promises a crackdown.

The Biden administration has been conspicuously silent about how migrants who plan to claim asylum should enter the United States when Trump-era limits end, fueling rumors, confusion and doubts about its readiness.

Arizona is refusing the federal government’s demand to take down double-stacked shipping containers it placed to fill gaps in the wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, saying it won’t do so until the U.S. moves to construct a permanent barrier.

The United Nations says almost three-quarters of the 6 million Venezuelan migrants currently in Latin America lack adequate food, shelter, employment or medical care.

U.S. authorities say the number of Venezuelans taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August.

The Border Patrol is seeing a dramatic shift in the type of migrants who come across the busiest places on the U.S.-Mexico.

Officials on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are searching for more victims after at least nine migrants died while attempting a hazardous crossing of the rain-swollen Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas.

At least eight migrants were killed as dozens attempted a hazardous crossing of the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass, Texas, officials said Friday.

A multi-agency investigation uncovered an international smuggling operation out of Winter Haven that brought drugs into Central Florida, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office.

The Border Patrol paroled more than 207,000 migrants who crossed from Mexico from August through May.

Unaccompanied child migrants trying to enter the United States will no longer be denied a chance to seek asylum under new guidance announced by U.S. health authorities.

A strained Border Patrol is getting increased attention from the Biden administration.

An internal review has been launched into the actions of a special Customs and Border Protection unit that used sensitive government databases intended to track terrorists to investigate as many as 20 U.S.-based journalists, including an Associated Press reporter.

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.

Faith-based groups are scrambling to keep up with fast-paced developments in the Haitian migrant crisis.

The U.N. refugee agency has made an unusual plea for the Biden administration to lift pandemic-related restrictions on people seeking asylum in the United States.

While asylum-seeking families and children dominate public attention, single adults represent a growing number of encounters with U.S. border agents.

The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults are coming without families.

U.S. officials are scrambling to handle a dramatic spike in children crossing the U.S.-Mexico border alone.

Migrant families will be held at hotels in the Phoenix area in response to a growing number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, another step in the Biden’s administration rush to set up temporary space.

U.S. authorities say they picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March.

U.S. authorities are releasing migrant families at the border without notices to appear in immigration court, and sometimes without any paperwork at all. The agency didn't answer questions about how many migrants have been released without court notices or without documents at all. Immigration attorneys had mixed reactions to people being released without court notices or paperwork, particularly the requirement to check in with ICE. Initially, U.S. authorities didn't even require the ICE check-in when it began releasing families without court notices over the past two weeks. D'Cruz said ICE could potentially issue a notice to appear in court, expel people from the country or do nothing.

Harris has no plans to visit the U.S.-Mexico border region “in the near future,” spokeswoman Symone Sanders said Friday. Sanders said Harris will go to the border at some point but emphasized the diplomatic nature of the vice president's role. “The vice president is not doing the border,” Sanders told reporters on a flight to Connecticut, where Harris was promoting the administration's COVID-19 relief package. He tweeted out photos of dozens of minors, wrapped in foil-like space blankets, lying on the floor of crowded Border Patrol facilities. It is not unusual to see increases in migrants coming across the border at this time of year and the Border Patrol has faced similar situations in the past, the official said.

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2019 file photo, immigrants seeking asylum walk at the ICE South Texas Family Residential Center, in Dilley, Texas. The number of children crossing by themselves, mostly from Central America, appears to be surging in particular in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. AdThe total of 561 unaccompanied minors from Monday offers a snapshot of how quickly conditions have changed along the border. “They’re all coming across the border, they’re coming fast, and they’re wearing Biden T-shirts,” said the Oklahoma Republican. The Biden administration last week ended a Trump policy that made relatives reluctant to contact HHS to retrieve children for fear of being deported themselves.

The lawyers interviewed more than a dozen children Thursday in Donna, Texas, where the Border Patrol is holding more than 1,000 people. The Border Patrol currently has a record high of more than 3,000 children in detention, according to government data obtained by AP. More children are waiting longer in Border Patrol custody because long-term facilities operated by U.S. Health and Human Services have next to no capacity. AdMost Border Patrol stations were designed for short-term detention of adults, with cold, concrete cells with the lights always on. One died of the flu at the Border Patrol station in Weslaco, Texas, where minors are currently being held.

(AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)EL CENTRO, Calif. – Nine migrants in an SUV packed with 25 people that drove through an opening in a border wall suffered major injuries after their vehicle slammed into a tractor-trailer and killed 13 others inside, the California Highway Patrol said Thursday. The driver was among the 13 killed in the SUV, from Tuesday’s collision in California’s Imperial Valley, a farming region that produces many of the winter vegetables sold in U.S. supermarkets. The oldest was a 46-year-old woman from Guatemala City, also with major injuries. The Border Patrol said surveillance video showed the Expedition and a Chevrolet Suburban drive through an opening in the border wall about 30 miles (48 kilometers) east of the crash. The Expedition soon struck the tractor-trailer, whose driver, a 68-year-old man from El Centro, suffered major injuries.

This photo provided by the US Customs and Border Protection shows a hole cut into Southern California's border fence with Mexico on Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Thirteen people killed in one of the deadliest border crashes on record were among more than 40 migrants who entered the U.S. through the hole cut into Southern California's border fence with Mexico, the Border Patrol said Wednesday. The Suburban carried 19 people, and it caught fire for unknown reasons on a nearby interstate after entering the U.S. All escaped the vehicle and were taken into custody by Border Patrol agents. The Border Patrol said its agents were not pursuing the vehicle before the wreck. AdA pandemic-related measure that allows the Border Patrol to expel people without an opportunity to seek asylum potentially leads some to try to evade authorities instead of surrendering, sometimes with fatal consequences.

Border Patrol agent Justin Castrejon speaks in front of newly replaced border wall sections Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020, near Tecate, Calif. Top Trump administration officials will visit South Texas five days before Election Day to announce they have completed 400 miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall, attempting to show progress on perhaps the president's best-known campaign promise four years ago. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)HOUSTON – Top Trump administration officials visited Texas five days before Election Day to announce they have nearly completed 400 miles of U.S.-Mexico border wall, trying to show progress on perhaps the president's best-known campaign promise four years ago. DHS officials have held several events announcing immigration operations this month in states considered competitive in the election. As of last week, 381 miles (613 kilometers) of wall have been completed during the Trump administration. Of the more than 150 miles (241 kilometers) funded by Congress in the last two years, just 5 miles (8 kilometers) have been built.

A rescue helicopter couldn't land in the steep terrain, but authorities dropped water before border agents arrived and whisked them back to Tijuana, Mexico. Lopez quickly recovered and began planning another attempt to reach San Diego, where he hopes to earn a more steady living. The annual figure hasn't topped 14% since the Border Patrol began keeping track seven years ago. “It’s a little bit more of the revolving door than it used to be,” said Scott, the Border Patrol chief. Border Patrol agents may refer people for screening under the U.N. Convention Against Torture, but the bar is extremely high.

FILE - In this March 18, 2020, file photo, a Border Patrol agent walks along a border wall separating Tijuana, Mexico, from San Diego, in San Diego. What happened next illustrates how difficult it has become to seek asylum in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic. Alexy, 32, and his son Samuel were whisked to the border in the wee hours of June 28 and returned to Mexico. Alexy believes hiking in the San Diego mountains precipitated Karina's labor. Together with the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego & Imperial Counties, the group plans to ask the Homeland Security Department to investigate what happened.