ELLIOT SPAGAT

FILE - Migrant families wade through shallow waters toward Roma, Texas, March 24, 2021. A federal judge was poised Friday, Dec.8, 2023, to prohibit separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
Federal judge prohibits separating migrant families at US border for 8 years
A federal judge is prohibiting the separation of families at the border for purposes of deterring immigration for eight years. U.S.
December 8, 2023
This image provided by the Texas Department of Public Safety, shows mangled vehicles at the scene of crash, Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2023, near Batesville, Texas. Eight people died in a South Texas car crash Wednesday while police chased a driver suspected of smuggling migrants, the Texas Department of Public Safety said. (Texas Department of Public Safety via AP)
8 dead in crash after police chased a suspected human smuggler, Texas officials say test
edit Eight people died in a South Texas car crash Wednesday while police chased a driver suspected of smuggling migrants.
November 9, 2023
Demonstrators gather outside of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals ahead of an asylum hearing, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Biden administration warns of major disruption at border if judges halt asylum rule
The Biden administration is urging an appeals court to allow sweeping new restrictions on asylum to stay in place, warning that halting them would be “highly disruptive” at the border.
November 8, 2023
Deng Guangsen winces as he talks about his journey from his homeland China to crossing the United States border with Mexico, as he sits in a transit center after being dropped off by Border Patrol agents Wednesday, Oct. 18, 2023, in San Diego. A major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route through Panama's Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum
A major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media.
October 31, 2023
A group of people, including many from China, walk along the wall after crossing the border with Mexico to seek asylum, Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023, near Jacumba, Calif. A major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route through Panama's Darién Gap jungle has become increasingly popular thanks to social media. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Takeaways from AP’s reporting on Chinese migrants who traverse the Darién Gap to reach the US
The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle has risen this year as more people from the world’s most populous country look to immigrate to the U.S.
October 30, 2023
FILE - President Joe Biden, second from left, looks towards a large "Welcome to Mexico" sign that is hung over the Bridge of the Americas as he tours the El Paso port of entry, a busy port of entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, in El Paso Texas, Sunday, Jan. 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Venezuelans become largest nationality for illegal border crossings as September numbers surge
Venezuelans became the largest nationality arrested for illegally crossing the U.S. border last month, replacing Mexicans for the first time on record.
October 22, 2023
FILE - In this June 17, 2018, file photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP, File)
Settlement over Trump family separations at the border limits future separations for 8 years
A proposed court settlement prevents the government from policies to separate migrant parents from their children at the border for eight years.
October 16, 2023
Judge denies bid to prohibit US border officials from turning back asylum-seekers at land crossings
U.S. officials can continue to refuse asylum-seekers at border crossings with Mexico if they don’t have appointments on a mobile phone app. A federal judge made the ruling Friday in San Diego to the chagrin of immigration advocates.
October 13, 2023
Migrants line up to take a bus to the airport Friday, Oct. 6, 2023, in San Diego. San Diego's well-oiled system of migrant shelters is being tested like never before as U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases migrants to the streets of California's second-largest city because shelters are full. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
US Border Patrol has released thousands of migrants on San Diego’s streets, taxing charities
San Diego’s well-oiled system of migrant shelters is being tested like never before as U.S. Customs and Border Protection releases migrants to the streets of California’s second-largest city because shelters are full.
October 10, 2023
Migrants climb over concertina wire after they crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico, Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
With temporary status for Venezuelans, the Biden administration turns to a familiar tool
The Biden administration’s grant of temporary legal status to nearly 500,000 Venezuelans already in the United States may complicate its messaging abroad.
September 24, 2023
A group of asylum-seekers from Ecuador wait in a makeshift camp after crossing the nearby border with Mexico, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. Migrants continue to arrive to desert campsites along California's border with Mexico, as they await processing in tents made from tree branches. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
After a lull, asylum-seekers adapt to US immigration changes and again overwhelm border agents
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.
September 22, 2023
President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The US is allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the country to work legally
The Biden administration says it’s granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already in the country.
September 21, 2023
Kimberly Carchipulla, right, and her son 5-year-old Damien, center, wait for the bus on their way to school on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023, in New York. Damien attends his first day of school in New York City after his family emigrated from Ecuador in June. Carchipulla and her family have been living in a room at the historic Roosevelt Hotel, converted into a city-run shelter for newly arrived migrant families hoping to find work, a new home and a better life for their children. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki)
An influx of migrant children tests the preparedness of NYC schools
The first day of school is providing challenges for major U.S. cities that are struggling with the influx of tens of thousands of migrants.
September 8, 2023
A family pushes a snack cart past a slab of the Berlin Wall, displayed near the border wall that separates the United States from Mexico, in Tijuana, Mexico, Friday, Aug. 25, 2023. The 3-ton pockmarked, gray concrete slab sits between a bullring, a lighthouse and the border wall, which extends into the Pacific Ocean. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Berlin Wall relic gets a ‘second life’ on US-Mexico border as Biden adds barriers
As the U.S. government built its latest stretch of border wall, Mexico made a statement of its own by laying remains of the Berlin Wall a few steps away.
September 3, 2023
FILE - A Texas state trooper watches as young migrants walk along concertina wire on the banks of the Rio Grande as they try to enter the U.S. from Mexico in Eagle Pass, Texas, on July 6, 2023. U.S. authorities released numbers of illegal border crossings in July, the second month after pandemic-related asylum restrictions were replaced with new rules limiting access for people seeking humanitarian protections. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)
Illegal crossings on the US-Mexico border rose in July but were still down from last year
U.S. border authorities stopped migrants entering the country illegally more than 33% more often in July than in June, suggesting lower numbers that followed the end of pandemic-related asylum restrictions may have bottomed out.
August 18, 2023
FILE - Ukrainian refugees speak with a United States Customs and Border Patrol official as they prepare to cross the border, Monday, April 4, 2022, in Tijuana, Mexico. The Biden administration on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023, 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. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Biden administration sharply expands temporary status for Ukrainians already in US
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.
August 18, 2023
FILE - An officer helps set up a phone that will be used to track a man at an immigration and customs processing facility on March 15, 2023, in San Diego. U.S. authorities are sharply expanding the reach of curfews for the heads of asylum-seeking families while they wait for initial screenings after crossing the border, signaling they are comfortable with early results of what is intended as an alternative to detention. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
US expands curfews for asylum-seeking families to 13 cities as an alternative to detention
U.S. authorities are sharply expanding the reach of curfews for the heads of asylum-seeking families while they wait for initial screenings after crossing the border.
August 4, 2023
FILE - A man from Colombia holds his son as he waits to apply for asylum after crossing the border from Mexico, Tuesday, July 11, 2023, near Yuma, Ariz. Immigration advocates may file a lawsuit alleging that an online appointment system at border crossings fails to meet U.S. obligations to make asylum available to people fleeing persecution, the latest legal challenge to the Biden administration's border policies. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
As illegal crossings drop, the legal challenges over Biden’s US-Mexico border policies grow
Immigration advocates say an online appointment system to seek asylum at the U.S. border with Mexico is out of reach for many migrants in a lawsuit marking the latest challenge to the Biden administration’s agenda.
July 28, 2023
In this photo provided by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection is an interior view of the soft-sided migrant processing facility in Laredo, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2021. As the Biden administration prepared to launch speedy asylum screenings at the border in April, authorities pledged a key difference from a Trump-era version of the policy: Migrants would be guaranteed access to legal representation. Nearly three months and thousands of screenings later, the promise of attorney access appears unfulfilled. (Greg L. Davis/U.S. Customs and Border Protection via AP)
The Biden administration guaranteed attorney access for all migrant screenings. Most don’t have it
As the Biden administration prepared to launch speedy asylum screenings at the border this spring, authorities pledged a key difference from a Trump-era version of the policy: Migrants would be guaranteed access to legal representation.
July 2, 2023
Number of kids alone at border hits all-time high in March
U.S. authorities say they picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March.
April 8, 2021
Biden faces pressure as US sets new course on immigration
President Joe Biden is facing mounting pressure at the border. Thousands of people are waiting to claim asylum and more come each day, falsely believing they will be able to enter the U.S. now that former President Donald Trump is out of office.
February 16, 2021
Trump administration adds criminal disqualifiers to asylum
The Trump administration says asylum-seekers will lose their bids if they are convicted of driving under the influence or committing crimes to support gangs.
October 20, 2020
Trump administration won’t accept new DACA applications
The Trump administration says it will reject new applications and shorten renewal periods for an Obama-era program that shields young people from deportation. The move Tuesday is a defiant stance after the U.S.
July 29, 2020
Asylum rules test Trump’s legal skills to make new policy
Critics of the Trump administration’s most sweeping set of rules to restrict asylum in the United States have sent in a deluge of comments opposing the effort.
July 17, 2020
Sweeping asylum rules near as public feedback is sought
The Trump administration has published sweeping rules making it more difficult to qualify for asylum, triggering a 30-day period for public comment before they take effect.
June 15, 2020
Police account shows mayhem spread fast in San Diego suburb
An official account shows how quickly police were overwhelmed when a protest against George Floyd’s killing turned violent in a San Diego suburb. The city of La Mesa endured hours of attacks on businesses and fires that destroyed two banks.
June 10, 2020
Black man’s arrest in California smoking stop adds to unrest
Police in a San Diego suburb say a widely-seen video of a white police officer pushing a black man was taken after the officer stopped him for smoking on a trolley platform.
June 4, 2020
California tribal casinos start to reopen, masks required
One of California’s largest tribal casinos reopened Monday to a large crowd as customers who had their temperatures taken at the door and were ordered to wear facial coverings.
May 18, 2020
Trump signs immigration order featuring numerous exemptions
President Donald Trump says he signed an executive order “temporarily suspending immigration into the United States,” but experts say it will merely delay the issuance of green cards for a minority of applicants.
April 23, 2020
US citizen raised in San Diego faces new terrorism charges
A new federal indictment charges a U.S. citizen on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorist List with additional crimes involving links to Somalia’s al-Shabaab rebel group.
December 3, 2019
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