Editor's note: We want you to know what's happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team:ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
Asylum paywall
Trump wants asylum-seekers to pay a fee to apply for the humanitarian status, among other new regulations he is proposing. However, the timeline he wants for these changes is unlikely. Trump's orders come as the court system is handling other asylum policies challenged by the administration, such as the ability to post bond while a case is being reviewed.
Soldiers in waiting
Thousands of U.S. military recruits who are immigrants are assessing their legal options after a data breach exposed their personal information — and, in some cases, they are applying for asylum out of precaution. VOA Immigration Unit reporter Aline Barros spoke with one man affected by the hack.
Border exhaustion
The Trump administration asked for billions of dollars more in emergency funding for border security, and the Pentagon is sending hundreds of troops to work alongside border patrol agents in handling an increase in arriving migrant families. One southwest state says the federal government is just not doing enough to help the travelers, so they are opening a temporary shelter themselves. Officials are again under intense scrutiny over how the U.S. government treats people apprehended entering the country without authorization, after a migrant teen died in federal custody this week.
From the Feds
A raft carrying a family across the Rio Grande toward the U.S. capsized this week, killing one child. Three more people of the nine aboard remained missing Thursday, according to U.S. CBP.
A Jordanian man pleaded guilty this week for his role in a smuggling operation to bring Yemeni nationals through Mexico into the U.S. in 2017, DOJ announced. Yemen has been embroiled in a war since 2015, in which thousands of civilians have been killed.
