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(Im)migration News Recap, May 27-June 2


A child stands on a pavement adorned with chalk drawings at the El Chaparral U.S.-Mexico border crossing, in Tijuana, Mexico, May 2, 2018.
A child stands on a pavement adorned with chalk drawings at the El Chaparral U.S.-Mexico border crossing, in Tijuana, Mexico, May 2, 2018.

Editor's note: With four people working on (im)migration stories every day, we still struggle to keep up with all of the relevant news. So, we wanted a way to keep you updated with the top immigration, migration and refugee stories every week — the ones that will most affect you, our international readers, viewers and listeners. We want you to know what's happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business.

Questions? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com

Are the children separated, or missing?

U.S. officials face a public reckoning over policies that divide immigrant families and may put children in harm's way. Immigration reporter Aline Barros explains the concerns over the welfare of undocumented children.

TPS: You (maybe) don’t have to go home, but you (probably) can’t stay here

The Trump administration has whittled one of the country’s top humanitarian programs, canceling Temporary Protected Status for more than 300,000 people. But no one knows — including government officials — what to expect from so many foreign-born residents losing legal status. Who will go home? Who will stay, undocumented? Quite literally, no one knows.

WATCH: Activists Warn IDPs of Human Trafficking Risk

Nigerian Activists Warn IDPs of Human Trafficking Risk
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Traffickers targeting Maiduguri IDP camps

They come at night for the young girls who sought safety from Boko Haram, Nigerian activists say. They find the most vulnerable. They offer them jobs, they take them abroad. Trafficking victims tell their stories to Chika Oduah.

Malian migrant Mamoudou Gassama (C) flanked by his older brother (R) holds his temporary residence permit after receiving it at the Prefecture of Bobigny, northeast of Paris, on May 29, 2018.
Malian migrant Mamoudou Gassama (C) flanked by his older brother (R) holds his temporary residence permit after receiving it at the Prefecture of Bobigny, northeast of Paris, on May 29, 2018.

We met Spider-Man

He gutsily scaled the outside of a Paris apartment building to save a dangling child. The video stunned social media, the child was safe, and 20-something Mamoudou Gassama went from undocumented migrant to French citizen in a viral instant: “I didn't think twice,” he told VOA’s Bambara service. “I crossed the street and was able to run up there to save him."

FILE - A United Nations peacekeeper stands among houses destroyed by violence in the abandoned village of Yade, Central African Republic, April 27, 2017.
FILE - A United Nations peacekeeper stands among houses destroyed by violence in the abandoned village of Yade, Central African Republic, April 27, 2017.

CAR conflict displaces more than 1 million people

The number of refugees and people displaced by Central African Republic's civil war soared to more than 1 million in the last year — which means roughly one out of every four of the country’s residents has fled his or her home.

WATCH: Former Refugee Opens Loa Restaurant in Washington

Former Refugee Opens Lao Restaurant in Washington
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Once a refugee, D.C. chef puts Laos on the food map

A Laotian-American chef learned her birth county’s regional dishes from neighbors while living in a Thai refugee camp. Now she’s running an upscale D.C. restaurant, expanding the city’s food scene deeper into Southeast Asia. “Not too many people know where Laos is,” Seng Luangrath told VOA. “So, I have to come out and teach my guests what is Lao food, where is Laos.”

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