Editor's note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
Children Fleeing Latin America in Record Numbers, UN Says
A record number of children from Latin America and the Caribbean are leaving their homes in search of better lives, risking disease, injury and abuse, a U.N. Children's Agency report said Wednesday, urging a stronger humanitarian response. Driven by violence, destitution and severe weather, at least 40,000 children crossed the perilous Darien Gap jungle separating Central and South America last year, compared with 29,000 in 2021 and several times more than in previous years. Agence France-Presse reported.
US Judge Orders Texas to Move Floating Barriers in Rio Grande
A U.S. judge ordered Texas to move floating buoys that had been placed in the middle of the Rio Grande to block migrants from illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, a tentative win for President Joe Biden, whose administration sued the state, Reuters reported.
Berlin Wall Relic Has 'Second Life' on US-Mexico Border
As the U.S. government built its latest stretch of border wall, Mexico made a statement of its own by laying remains of the Berlin Wall a few steps away. The 3-ton concrete slab sits near a bullring, a lighthouse and the border wall, which extends into the Pacific Ocean, The Associated Press reported.
Smugglers Steering Migrants Into Remote Arizona Desert, Posing New Border Patrol Challenges
Border Patrol agents ordered young Senegalese men to wait in the scant shade of desert scrub brush while they loaded a more vulnerable group of migrants — a family with three young children from India — into a white van for the short trip in triple-digit heat to a canopied field intake center. The Associated Press reports.
Around the world
Sudanese Artists Work to Heal From Trauma of War
It has been nearly five months since civil war erupted in Sudan. The U.N. Refugee Agency estimates that by year's end, 1.8 million people will have fled to neighboring countries. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo reports on a group of Sudanese artists who came together recently to deal with the trauma of the war by showcasing their work in the Kenyan capital.
Sudanese Orphans in Chad Traumatized by Darfur Atrocities
At a refugee encampment in eastern Chad, Sudanese children say Janjaweed militias in Darfur have made them orphans in recent months. As media and rights organizations continue to report atrocities, reporter Henry Wilkins speaks to the children who are left to fend for themselves in a foreign country with little help.
UN Now Expects 1.8 Million People to Flee Sudan by Year End
The U.N. Refugee Agency on Monday said it expected over 1.8 million people from Sudan to arrive in five neighboring countries by the end of the year and appealed for $1 billion to help them amid reports of rising disease and death rates. The estimate for those fleeing violence is about double what UNHCR projected in May, shortly after the conflict began, and an increase of 600,000 from an interim estimates. Reuters reports.
France Evacuates Five Afghan Women 'Threatened by Taliban'
France on Monday saw the arrival of five Afghan women "threatened by the Taliban" after repeated requests to create a humanitarian corridor for women shut out of public life, an official said. Since returning to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, with women bearing the brunt of laws the United Nations has labeled "gender apartheid." Women and girls have been banned from attending high school and university, as well as barred from visiting parks, fairs and gymnasiums. Agence France-Presse reports.
Conditions for Sudan Refugees in Eastern Chad ‘Appalling,’ Humanitarians Say
The charity Doctors Without Borders has called on the international community to prevent a "catastrophic" humanitarian disaster in Chad, as an influx of refugees from neighboring Sudan overwhelms aid groups' abilities to cope. In this report from Adre, Chad, Henry Wilkins meets refugees whose children are suffering from malnutrition.
Eritrean Factions Clash in Israel, Netanyahu Wants Those Involved Deported
Following violent clashes on the streets of Tel Aviv, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he wanted the Eritrean migrants involved in the bloody skirmishes to be deported immediately. The prime minister said he had also ordered a plan to remove all African migrants from Israel. Violent clashes broke out Saturday in Tel Aviv between supporters and opponents of Eritrea’s repressive government and the East African country’s authoritarian leader, President Isaias Afwerki. The confrontation between the two factions occurred at a pro-Eritrean event at Eritrea’s embassy.
In Brief
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security launched a national campaign for noncitizens who are work-eligible but who have yet to apply for an Employment Authorization Document, also known as a work permit.
“Hundreds of thousands of email and text notifications have been sent by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services in English, Spanish and Haitian Creole, with additional notifications in Ukrainian and Russian planned in the coming days,” DHS said.
