Author: Reporter

President Joe Biden scrapped expedited asylum screenings during his first month in office as part of a gutting of Trump administration border polices that included building a wall with Mexico. Now he is preparing his own version. Donald Trump’s fast-track reviews drew sharp criticism from internal government watchdog agencies as the percentage of people who passed those “credible fear interviews” plummeted. But the Biden administration has insisted its speedy screening for asylum-seekers is different: Interviews will be done exclusively by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, not by Border Patrol agents, and everyone will have access to legal counsel. The...

This week marks the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants at the southern border for the last three years. The restrictions are often referred to as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law that allows curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health. The end of Title 42’s use has raised questions about what will happen with migration at the Mexico-United States border. The Biden administration is preparing for an increase in migrants. A look at what Title 42 is...

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, refugees from the threatened nation started showing up at Mexico’s border with the United States. Roughly 1,000 Ukrainians a day flew to Tijuana on tourist visas, desperate to reach U.S. soil. The volume was overwhelming the nation’s busiest border crossing in San Diego. In Tijuana, thousands of Ukrainians slept in a municipal gym hoping for a chance to cross into the U.S. In response, the administration announced it would admit up to 100,000 Ukrainians for two years — if they applied online, had a financial backer and entered through an airport. At the same...

A forensic anthropologist believes investigators are a step closer to identifying victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre with the discovery of 19 surnames possibly connected to remains excavated from a Tulsa cemetery. Although the six bodies associated with the names are not confirmed massacre victims, nor do they show signs of trauma such as gunshot wounds, identifying them would provide a possible roadmap to the most likely areas of the cemetery to search for victims, according to Phoebe Stubblefield. Identifying the remains would help lead to death certificates that contain the date of death, indicating when the person...

“Welcome to the USA,” says a note attached to a hand-crocheted blanket of purple, white and gray stripes. Hollie Shaner-McRae, of Burlington, who made the blanket as a gift for a refugee, wrote of her great-grandparents coming to the United States from Ukraine, Russia and Poland. One great-grandfather was a tailor and the other was a barrel maker, she wrote. “Both were so brave and came to America as teenagers,” she wrote in the note. “I hope you make friends and feel safe here,” Shaner-McRae wrote to whomever would receive the blanket. “Vermont is blessed to have new families...