IMMIGRATION

Local 10 was with U.S. Border Patrol in the Tucson sector, near the southern border with Mexico, when several migrants were spotted in the desert.

Andy Gomez was waiting with anticipation for the U.S.-Cuba meeting on Thursday. The professor emeritus of Cuban studies at the University of Miami said Cuba has historically allowed migration to the U.S. during times of crisis.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported finding a sailboat with 89 migrants — some of whom asked for help — on Saturday about 17 miles northeast of Punta Maisi, Cuba.

The U.S. Coast Guard intercepted a crowded Haitian sailboat on Monday in the Bahamas.

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Thetis’ crew repatriated 88 people, including 62 males and 26 females, to Haiti on Sunday.

South Florida advocates for Haitian migrants are calling on President Joe Biden to allow those who make the desperate crossing to the U.S. to file an asylum claim.

A Florida man has been charged with human smuggling after the bodies of four people, including a baby and a teen, were found near the Canada United States border.

Agents with Air and Marine Operations, a specialized law enforcement branch of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, gave Local 10 News a firsthand view of the work they do patroling South Florida from the sky and in the water.

The small beachside town street vendors that used to cater to Colombian city tourists have adapted their inventory to their new customers: A new wave of desperate migrants heading to the U.S.

At the Colombian coastal town of Necoclí, there is a store selling only boat tickets to cross the Gulf of Urabá — which acts as the bridge between South and Central America.

Necoclí is no longer the secluded beachside town tourists from neighboring cities used to visit. The stop in a smugglers’ route is old. Local officials say the desperation is unprecedented.

Monroe County Sheriff’s Office deputies found 32 undocumented people — including two pregnant women — hiding in a go-fast boat that was attached to a truck on Monday morning in Marathon.

There were two Cuban migrant smuggling incidents over the weekend in the Florida Keys, the U.S. Coast Guard reported on Monday.

Members of the National Haitian-American Elected Officials Network met on Tuesday in Miami-Dade County to announce they will continue to send requests to the President Joe Biden administration to halt deportations of Haitian migrants.

As Border Patrol and Immigration agents worked to clear migrants from the huge camp on the border at Del Rio, a contingent of Haitian American leaders from South Florida flew to Texas to help.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced the repatriation of 260 Haitians on Friday after two at-sea interdictions off Haiti and Cuba.

President Joe Biden’s administration is investigating U.S. Border Patrol agents’ use of whips on Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Activists in Miami-Dade County met on Friday to announce they are asking President Joe Biden’s administration to help Haitian refugees who are rushing to the U.S. border.

President Joe Biden’s administration announced the extension of the work permit and protection against deportation for migrants from six countries through Dec. 31, 2022.

Eight Cuban migrants made landfall on Monday in the Florida Keys.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced on Wednesday that Florida is answering the recent call from the governors of Texas and Arizona to help secure the U.S. border.

Venezuelan and Haitian leaders stood together at a press conference to call for permanent protections for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders in light of a Supreme Court decision, Monday, which excluded some TPS holders from permanent residency.

Representatives María Elvira Salazar and Mario Diaz-Balart met on Monday morning to talk to reporters at the Miami International Airport about a bill proposal to help reunite Cuban families.

10-year-old Wilton Gutierrez Obregon had been wandering alone for hours in Texas near the border when he was found by a Border Patrol officer.

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez) (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. Scott Applewhite) (Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. “If there is complete lockdown and chaos, as a consequence of the filibuster, then we have to go beyond,” Biden said. Biden also said he is concerned about the Republican legislatures across the country that are working to pass bills to restrict voting. Biden said it is going to be hard to meet the May 1st deadline to withdraw the U.S. military from Afghanistan.

MIAMI – A day after touring the U.S. southern border in Texas, Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-FL District 26 described what he saw as a “humanitarian crisis.”Gimenez discussed touring a facility that housed hundreds of migrant children between the ages of 4 and 17. “It really broke my heart to see those hundreds of kids,” he said in a news conference at Miami International Airport. Ad“We feel it’s due to the change of policy of the Biden administration, and we call on the Biden administration to reverse that stance,” Gimenez said Tuesday. Gimenez says the president should visit the border. Gimenez said the group of lawmakers was also told Monday by those protecting the border that they need more Customs and Border Patrol agents and need certain portions of the border wall finished, in addition to better technology.

South Florida’s newest members of Congress, Reps. Maria Salazar and Carlos Gimenez toured a processing site and met families at the United States’ southern border Monday, a tour with Republican leadership blaming President Joe Biden for a migrant surge. “I spoke to a family that told me it took them 22 days to come from Honduras,” said Gimenez, R-District 26. “They were incentivized by the rhetoric, by the change of policy.”Said Salazar, R-District 27: “It’s our girls — Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua — that are being raped. It’s our girls, the children that are being trafficked.”🚨 I’m at the border 🚨We’re facing a Human Trafficking crisis! “It’s a complicated problem, no doubt about it,” said White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.

MIAMI – Opposition leader Juan Guaidó's envoy to the United States, Carlos Vecchio, said Friday that President Joe Biden took a very important step when he granted Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelans. Ad“With this protection now we will be more stable, in order to help us to raise the voice in favor of Venezuela,” Vecchio said. The cost includes the $50 TPS fee, the $85 biometrics fee, and the $410 work permit fee. Postal service in Florida need to mail their applications to the USCIS, Attn: TPS Venezuela, P.O. Those using FedEx, UPS, or DHL need to mail them to USCIS, Attn: TPS Venezuela, 1820 E. Skyharbor Circle S., Suite 100, Phoenix, AZ 85034.

BOGOTA, Colombia – Members of the Venezuelan opposition continued to send messages of gratitude on Tuesday to President Joe Biden for granting Temporary Protected Status to undocumented Venezuelans in the United States. Opposition leader Juan Guaidó released a statement in Spanish saying that the TPS reaffirms the U.S. is in favor of democracy in Venezuela and it sends a message to the international community. The protection of Venezuelan migrants in the U.S. follows a similar measure implemented by Colombia last month to receive legal status. Carlos Vecchio, Guaidó's envoy in Washington, D.C., said the Biden administration has recognized Guaidó as the interim president of Venezuela. https://t.co/udhKPOJuJf — Juan Guaidó (@jguaido) March 8, 2021MORE ON TPSThe designation of Venezuela for TPS and the 180-day registration period begins on Tuesday.

Although it doesn’t affect her status, the attorney said there is plenty to celebrate on the first day that undocumented Venezuelans will be able to apply for Temporary Protected Status. Vegas said this will allow undocumented Venezuelans who qualify for TPS to also get a driver’s license. The party at El Arepazo follows a public virtual meeting that included Sen. Bob Menendez and Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Albio Sires, Stephanie Murphy, Ted Deutch, and Darren Soto. The protection comes about a month after former President Donald Trump’s administration granted Deferred Enforced Departure for some Venezuelans. “Unilateral sanctions have generally not been effective,” Wasserman Schultz said.

MIAMI – The state of Florida is suing President Joe Biden’s administration over new directives that have halted detentions of some immigrants who have served time in prison. Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody says the new guidance has resulted in immigration officials declining to take custody of people who have served sentences for burglary, drug trafficking and other crimes. The complaint challenges new guidance issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement last month that prioritizes deporting people who pose national security threats or have been convicted of more serious crimes. Florida’s lawsuit follows a similar action filed by Arizona last month that Montana joined on Tuesday.

Tuesday is the first of 180 days that Venezuelans in South Florida will be able to apply for the new Temporary Protected Status, which also allows applications for a work permit and travel authorization. The benefit comes about a month after former President Donald Trump’s administration granted Deferred Enforced Departure for some Venezuelans. Carlos Vecchio has been the Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó’s envoy in Washington, D.C., since 2019. “Over 320,000 will be able to apply,” Menendez said about Biden’s TPS, adding Trump’s DED did not provide enough time. Ad“The goal is to be able to make sure that we don’t need TPS,” Wasserman Schultz said.

A Venezuelan-American family hasn’t been able to celebrate Christmas and New Year’s Eve together for three Decembers now. Gabriel Villar recently celebrated his 11th birthday in Orlando with his grandmother and older brother. His parents, Maria and Asdrubal Villar, wished him well on a video call from Bogotá. AdEvery day, sometimes two times a day, Gabriel kneels in front of a small Catholic altar. It’s horrible,” Maria Villar said through tears.

SAN FRANCISCO – About 8,800 unaccompanied children have been quickly expelled from the United States along the Mexico border under a pandemic-related measure that effectively ended asylum, authorities said Friday. The figures on children were reported for the first time in a declaration by Raul Ortiz, the Border Patrol's deputy chief, as part of the administration's appeal of an order to stop housing children in hotels. The administration “immediately” expelled most children and families to Mexico but more than 2,200 unaccompanied children and 600 people who came in families were held until flights could be arranged to return home, Ortiz said. She ordered border agencies to stop placing children in hotels by Tuesday. Before the pandemic, unaccompanied children were sent to state-licensed shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services and often released to family members while seeking asylum.

WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected President Donald Trumps effort to end legal protections for 650,000 young immigrants, a stunning rebuke to the president in the midst of his reelection campaign. The justices rejected administration arguments that the 8-year-old Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program is illegal and that courts have no role to play in reviewing the decision to end DACA. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court that the administration did not pursue the end of the program properly. We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies, Roberts wrote. We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action.

SAN DIEGO – The Trump administration on Thursday suspended immigration court hearings for asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico through June 1, bowing to public health concerns while extending a state of limbo those locked down in Mexican migrant shelters. While it is difficult to know precisely, the Justice Department estimated in late February that there were 25,000 people waiting in Mexico for hearings in U.S. court. Barely 1% of the nearly 45,000 “Return to Mexico” cases decided through March won asylum, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The future of “Remain in Mexico” has become less certain after the administration temporarily suspended immigration laws using a 1944 public-health law, whisking Mexicans and Central Americans to the nearest border to be returned to Mexico without a chance to seek asylum. “We really can't commit to a case.”The Justice Department, which oversees immigration courts, has also suspended hearings for people who are released in the United States through May 15 in response to COVID-19, exacerbating a backlog of about 1.1 million cases.

MIAMI, Fla. – A former Guatemalan sergeant who acknowledged participating in a massacre in 1982 during the country's civil war was deported Tuesday by U.S. authorities. Gilberto Jordan, 64, is the third former Guatemalan soldier to be deported to face war crime charges for that massacre, said the Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a statement. Jordan went to the U.S. illegally in 1985 and eventually settled in Boca Raton, Florida, where he worked at a country club as a cook before his arrest in 2010. The 1982 slaughter went unpunished for years — even after Guatemalan authorities issued 17 arrest warrants. The civil war from 1960 to 1996 left 200,000 people dead and 45,000 missing, a United Nations report says.

On CBS' "Face the Nation," Republican presidential candidate, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) lays out his plan on Immigration, stating that his plan will raise wages and increase the amount of jobs for people in this country.

Immigration activists took aim at the Republican presidential candidate during a GOP policy summit in South Carolina on Saturday, interrupting the Florida senator with shouts of "Rubio does not represent our community" and "undocumented and unafraid."

Jeb Bush's immigration plans "also includes a path to legal status" Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush outlines a more moderate stance on immigration at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference.

Could Congress actually act on immigration? Clarence Page, David Ignatius, Susan Page, Mark Leibovich, and Michael Gerson discuss the prospects for bipartisan legislation on immigration in the wake of President Obama's executive action.