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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. With an order suspending hearings through Friday set to expire, the Homeland Security and Justice departments said that asylum-seekers with hearings through June 1 should appear at a border crossing when instructed to get new dates. They said that authorities will review conditions related to the coronavirus and proceed “as expeditiously as possible,” raising the prospect of additional delays. While it is...

When it unveiled an unprecedented order last month to swiftly expel virtually all unauthorized migrants from the U.S. southern border, the Trump administration said potentially infected foreigners could spread the coronavirus in the U.S., prompt outbreaks in immigration jails and strain public health resources along border communities. But in a paradoxical twist, Guatemala, the largest source of migration to the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, fears the U.S. is exporting the virus there through its deportation policy. At least 99 migrants recently deported to Guatemala by the U.S. have tested positive for coronavirus as of Sunday, according to the nation's...

Jackson Heights is a neighborhood in the northwestern part of Queens, New York. It is known to be the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the United State, where 167 languages are spoken.

Language barriers were a key issue at the Smithfield meat processing plant that was shuttered earlier this month after a coronavirus outbreak infected 800 employees, according to a report from the Centers for Disease control and Prevention. The CDC report issued this week criticized a number of practices at the plant in Sioux Falls, which processed 5 percent of the nation's pork before it was shuttered indefinitely on April 15. The massive plant employing 3,500 is just one of a dozen American meat packing plants to shut down this month after outbreaks, spurring pork and beef shortages and higher prices...

I recently came across the title of an Arabic book, “We will never live as Dhimmis” (lan naish zimieen), written by a Lebanese Christian, Amin Naji, in 1979. A Dhimmi is a Christian or Jew living in a region overrun by Muslim conquest who was accorded a protected status in exchange of a poll tax (Jizya), and allowed to retain his or her original faith. Lebanon is an example. It was established after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I in 1923. Since the majority there were Christians, unlike any other Middle Eastern land,...

During its recent press conference, the agency said that this particularly applied to Somalis, but also immigrants from Iraq, Syria, Finland, Turkey, Iran, the former Yugoslavia, and Eritrea.

HOUSTON - Elsy was on the phone in an immigration detention center when guards showed up with face masks and forms to sign. The asylum-seeker from El Salvador and others had resorted to tearing their T-shirts into face coverings after a woman in their unit tested positive for COVID-19. But the guards would not give out the masks until the detainees signed the forms, which said they could not hold the private prison company running the detention center in San Diego liable if they got the coronavirus, according to Elsy and two other detainees, including one who read the form...

Pope to Pro-Migrant Radical: ‘Count on Me’ Francis seeks open ports while closing churches ROME (ChurchMilitant.com) - Pope Francis is being accused of "detesting Italy, Italians and Catholics" after he penned a handwritten letter on Good Friday to one of Italy's most notorious open-borders activists, assuring him, "I am always available to help."  In his epistle to Luca Casarini, an ultra-left militant who is being investigated for aiding illegal immigration, the pontiff wrote: "I am close to you and your companions. Thanks for all you do." Casarini lost no time in bragging to the media. "Pope Bergoglio replied to my letter, he is one of...

Refugee contractors, like the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), have issued statements supporting House Democrats’ “No Ban Act” to end presidential-issued travel bans and continued refugee resettlement into the U.S. The State Department has halted refugee resettlement in the midst of the coronavirus crisis, though a handful of “emergency” refugees have been resettled over the last week. Refugee contractors have a vested interest in making sure as many refugees are resettled across the U.S. as possible because their annual federally-funded budgets are contingent on the number of refugees they resettle. “While we understand...

Tucker Carlson states that Dr. Michael Ryan, Leader of the WHO, announced that in response to the spread of this virus, authorities may have to enter homes and and remove family members presumably by force... Video then shows Dr. Ryan stating: “...in most parts of the world due to lockdown, most of the transmission that’s actually happening in many countries now is happening in the household at family level." “In some senses, transmission has been taken off the streets and pushed back into family units. Now we need to go and look in families to find those people who may...

Guatemala has asked the US to limit the number of people it puts on planes for deportation to Central American countries to 25, down from 60 to 90. Two people had to be taken to hospital after they tested positive for coronavirus upon getting off a deportation flight. Guatemala says it is concerned deported migrants from the US - which has the highest number of cases in the world - will spread the virus to Guatemala. Guatemala has had 70 confirmed cases. In an attempt to prevent the virus from spreading throughout the country, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei has banned...

FRANCE: Medical workers must be escorted by body guards to protect them from attacks by Muslim invaders APRIL 4, 2020 BY BARENAKEDISLAM The Lariboisière hospital (in the 10th arrondissement of Paris) hired security agents to escort doctors, nurses and other hospital staff when they travel to the nearby stations and metro stations. Due to its large Turkish Muslim minority, the 10th arrondissement is often called “La Petite Turquie” (Little Turkey). RAIR Foundation Physical and verbal assaults against the caregivers of this hospital located, have multiplied over the past several weeks, and since France’s lockdown, reports BFMTV What’s more, the College...

Santiago (AFP) - Latin America is heading into "a deep recession" in 2020, with an expected drop in the region's GDP of 1.8 to 4.0 percent due to the coronavirus pandemic, the UN economic commission for the region said Friday. "We are at the beginning of a profound recession. We're faced with the largest fall in growth that the region has had," said Alicia Barcena, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL). Latin America was already struggling economically, with feeble growth of just 0.1 percent in 2019. As with other parts of the...

Six immigrant detainees who have underlying health issues that make them more vulnerable to coronavirus were ordered released by a federal judge Thursday, April 2, from the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in San Bernardino County. The order from Judge Terry J. Hatter, a senior U.S. district judge, was in response to a lawsuit filed Monday by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California against officials with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and the Adelanto facility. The civil rights group argued that detainees at the Adelanto facility aren’t being given appropriate protection from coronavirus, and that continued...

BASILE, Louisiana - U.S. immigration officials say they have a plan if detention centers get hit with coronavirus outbreaks: They will transfer detainees with serious symptoms to hospitals with “expertise in high risk care.” But many centers - each housing hundreds of people, often in close quarters - are located in remote communities, far from hospitals able to handle a rush of patients with COVID-19. Detention center outbreaks in such areas could quickly swamp local hospitals, threatening their ability to treat local residents along with detainees. The shortage of available care is especially acute in Louisiana, according to interviews with...

AJO, Ariz. - Motels, mobile home camps and Airbnbs in this small Arizona border town are full up. Work crews stream into eateries for takeout orders. License plates on trucks parked outside the crowded laundromat come from as far away as Alaska. Around the country, some states have cut back on construction activity to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and hotels and restaurants in many cities have closed. But here in Arizona, the federal government is embarking on a frenetic new phase of construction of the border wall. The Trump administration contends that the wall will help prevent the...

Greece must take immediate action to end the violence against migrants and asylum seekers at the border between Turkey and Greece, an independent UN human rights expert said on Monday, expressing alarm at reports of violence at the hands of some Greek security officers and unidentified armed men. "I am very concerned about the reported pushbacks of asylum seekers and migrants, which constitutes a violation of the prohibition of collective expulsions and the principle of non-refoulement," said Felipe González Morales, Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants. The Special Rapporteur also raised the alarm over an increase in hostility...

U.S. immigration policies may put Hispanic teens' mental and physical health at risk, researchers say. Of 547 U.S.-born Hispanic kids surveyed in Atlanta, one-quarter had a parent, aunt, uncle or other family member who was detained or deported in 2017 or 2018. Participants were questioned twice, six months apart. Compared to other middle school- and high school-aged youth, those with a detained or deported family member had more than twice the risk of suicidal thoughts. They also were nearly three times more likely to report early alcohol use, and were also more likely to have engaged in risky behaviors, such...

Home Invasion At about 2:45 on Saturday afternoon, at the Carrington Place Apartments on FM 1960 West, in the 12700 block, a 53-year-old disabled woman resident used a firearm to stop a crew of criminals who were breaking into her home. One of the intruders was killed. The other two have been arrested and charged with felony murder. From khou.com: Deputies said the 18-year-old and a 17-year-old male broke a resident's patio door window. The 53-year-old disabled resident was home alone when the teens broke the window and reached inside and unlocked the door, according to investigators.The resident fired one...

The United States plans to turn back all asylum seekers and most other foreigners attempting to enter the United States from Mexico illegally, arguing the step is necessary to combat the fast-spreading coronavirus, according to U.S. media reports on Tuesday. The new rule, which is expected to be announced in the next 48 hours, would allow border patrol agents to immediately return to Mexico anyone who tries to cross the southwestern border between legal ports of entry without detainment or due process, the New York Times reported. Ports of entry will remain open to commercial traffic and to U.S. citizens...