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Builders take note: The Trump administration is now soliciting design proposals and prototypes for a roughly 2,000-mile-long wall along the border with Mexico. U.S. Customs and Border Protection published two requests for proposals late Friday, which included the specifications it expects for an American-Mexican barrier meant to deliver on President Donald Trump's promise to build a "big, beautiful wall." The agency provided 11 threshold requirements for the wall, which it says "shall be physically imposing in height." The wall needs to be 30 feet tall — although "heights of at least 18 feet may be acceptable" — and it should...

Washington (CNN)The Trump administration wants the first $1 billion of border wall funding to cover 62 miles -- including replacing some existing fencing along the southern border. The $999 million requested by the White House in its budget supplement for just defense and border security spending would cover just 48 miles of new wall, according to justification documents from the Department of Homeland Security obtained by CNN. The documents describe exactly where the administration hopes to put its first installment of the border wall, as it described its modest 2017 funding ask. The money will fund 14 miles of new...

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico says Mexican companies that express interest in working on a border wall in the United States are betraying their country. The archdiocese says in a Sunday editorial that Mexican companies have expressed willingness to supply materials or work on the wall proposed by U.S. President Donald Trump. The editorial titled "Treason against the Homeland" says that "what is most surprising is the timidity of the Mexican government's economic authorities, who have not moved firmly against these companies."

EDINBURG, TX - An undocumented mother of 12 is fighting deportation and she’s getting help from the Mexican Consulate in McAllen, Texas. She’s one of hundreds across the country targeted in renewed federal efforts to crack down on criminal aliens. Norma Roman tries to keep herself and her children busy. The mother, whose kids were all born in the U.S., helps her kids with their homework to take their minds off a grim reality: the possible separation from their mother. She says she’s placing her faith in god and in her attorney. She currently has an "order of removal" by...

Denise Dresser is a Mexican political analyst, columnist and academic. She is a professor at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de MéxicoToday, Canada is standing tall. Its citizens are patting themselves on the back, proud to hail from one of the bastions of liberalism, of tolerance, of acceptance, of compassion. While the United States is closing doors, Canada is opening them. While U.S. President Donald Trump is slouching toward authoritarianism, Canada is safeguarding democracy. Canadians have much to be proud of and much to teach the world about compassion. Except for that one troubling spot of not-so-benign neglect that is Canada’s...

Senior Minister Meg Barnhouse knows she’ll need beds, a dresser, chairs and a mirror to make the classroom at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Austin feel more like a home for a mother and her young daughter who are still deciding whether they will become the latest immigrants seeking sanctuary from deportation by moving into a church. It would be the second time Barnhouse’s congregation had offered sanctuary. She was hesitant in 2015 because of the unknown legal and insurance risks, but this time she agreed immediately. There is growing fear in the city’s immigrant community as President Donald...

The Trump administration wants to build a 30-foot-high border wall that looks good from the north side and is difficult to climb or cut through, according to a pair of contract notices posted to a government website further detailing President Donald Trump’s promise to build a “big, beautiful wall” at the Mexican border. The notices were made public late Friday by Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security Department agency that will oversee the project and eventually patrol and maintain the wall. The proposals are due to the government by March 29.

Three California Democrats have a warning for contractors who sign up for President Donald Trump’s border-wall construction project between the U.S. and Mexico: Build it, and we will divest from your company. In the latest act of resistance against the Trump administration, the state lawmakers have introduced a bill that would force the state to drop its pension investments in any companies involved in the project. “This is a wall of shame and we don’t want any part of it,” Assemblyman Phil Ting, D-San Francisco, said in a statement. “Immigrant stories are the history of America and this is a...

Inside Higher Ed reported that Canadian universities and colleges are experiencing a surge and spike in applications to their higher education institutions, with some staffers claiming that it is due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies. This "Trump effect" will allow Canadian universities and colleges to make money with more expensive tuition charged to international students, a model that American universities heavily rely on for their budgets. Other staffers say that the rise in international student applications is on par with recent trends. American universities, as the article pointed out, are seeing a decline in their international student applications, while...

(Full article title: Mexican teen’s family awarded $1 million after he died from drinking liquid meth on border officers' demand) Cruz Velazquez Acevedo made a catastrophic split second decision after border officers found two bottles of liquid on him when he attempted to cross into California from Mexico. The 16-year-old Mexican national told the two officers that the bottles contained "apple juice," but they didn't buy it and asked Acevedo to take a sip to "prove" he wasn't lying, according to court records. He took a swig. Minutes later, Acevedo began sweating and screaming in Spanish about "the chemicals." "My...

The CEO of the French construction group Vinci said Tuesday that he would not participate in the building of any wall on the US border with Mexico, called for by President Donald Trump. “I have to take into account the reality of my company, our culture, our way of doing things and our sensitivities, not only those of my American colleagues, but around the world,” Xavier Huillard told BFM Business television. “For these reasons, and this is not at all a value judgment on the United States, we prefer not to touch this wall.” …

John Ladd has seen just about every incarnation of the border fence separating his cattle ranch in Arizona from Mexico.

A Mexican newspaper condemned American spring breakers who reportedly chanted "Build that wall!" during a family show on a tourist ship off Cancun. In an editorial Friday, the Yucatan Times called the singing during a "Pirate Ship" attraction an act of "xenophobia and discrimination against Mexicans within their own country." The newspaper added that the "racist hymn" wasn't an isolated incident and that numerous complaints about spring breakers have been lodged by Mexican tourist industry workers. The paper referred to a social media post by Anaximandro Amable, a Peruvian who was aboard the ship: "Today I was with Suly, my...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration wants to build a 30-foot-high border wall that looks good from the north side and is difficult to climb or cut through, according to a pair of contract notices posted to a government website further detailing President Donald Trump's promise to build a "big, beautiful wall" at the Mexican border. The notices were made public late Friday by Customs and Border Protection, the Homeland Security Department agency that will oversee the project and eventually patrol and maintain the wall. The proposals are due to the government by March 29. One of the CBP contract...

The U.S. Justice Department is developing plans to temporarily reassign immigration judges from around the country to 12 cities to speed up deportations of illegal immigrants who have been charged with crimes, according to two administration officials. ----------------------------------------------- The targeted cities are New York; Los Angeles; Miami; New Orleans; San Francisco; Baltimore, Bloomington, Minnesota; El Paso, Texas; Harlingen, Texas; Imperial, California; Omaha, Nebraska and Phoenix, Arizona. They were chosen because they are cities which have high populations of illegal immigrants with criminal charges, the officials said. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department's Executive Office of Immigration Review, which administers immigration...

Open borders are the only path to defeating President Donald Trump, a Salon writer claims.In a piece titled “Everyone’s wrong on immigration: Open borders are the only way to defeat Trump and build a better world”, Salon writer Anis Shivani claims that there is no distinction between a legal and illegal immigrant; immigration law is “racist”; and “open borders are the only way to go.” Shivani adds: We are in a situation of chaos, breeding technical illegality, because federal regulations have become too complex. Comprehensive immigration reform of any type would make these laws even more cumbersome by drastically curtailing...

Bodies are still being recovered from a clandestine grave in Mexico's Veracruz state that a local prosecutor says could turn out to be the largest in the country. Jorge Winckler Ortiz, the state attorney general of Veracruz, says that at one large site, 250 skulls have been found, with more excavation to be done. Winckler says the bodies are those of people murdered by gangs, with the complicity of the government. He added that officials had also deceived families who asked for help in identifying whether their missing loved ones might be in the graves. "Veracruz is a huge grave,...

One of the fundamental ways scientists measure the well-being of a nation is tracking the rate at which its citizens die and how long they can be expected to live. So the news out of the federal government Thursday is disturbing: The overall U.S. death rate has increased for the first time in a decade, according to an analysis of the latest data. And that led to a drop in overall life expectancy for the first time since 1993 Most notably, the overall death rate for Americans increased because mortality from heart disease and stroke increased after declining for years....

The Trump Administration seems determined to devise new forms of bureaucratic cruelty for immigrants: The latest policy proposal from the Department of Homeland Security would separate children from their parents at the US-Mexico border if they’re caught trying to enter the country together illegally. The policy is intended as a deterrent, but the plan is bound to backfire, swamping agencies with children while doing nothing to address the root cause of migration. It would be both diabolical and ineffective. Under the current policy, parents (usually mothers) and their children caught at the border who want to apply for asylum are...

SAN JOSE DEL CABO, Mexico (AP) — Prosecutors said six bodies had been found dumped on Thursday and Friday around the twin resorts of Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula, which has been the scene of increasing violence in recent months. The prosecutors' office said a woman's body was discovered on a road leading to the airport along with several doses of methamphetamine and marijuana. The bodies of three men were found wrapped in plastic bags and a tarp in San Jose del Cabo and the bodies showed signs...