As immigration debate heats up, migrant encounters in December set record

WASHINGTON - Border officials said they encountered more than 300,000 migrants at the southern border in December, a one-month record that pushed the total for the first quarter of fiscal 2024 to 785,422. It comes as debate on immigration heats up in Washington.


Asylum seekers face new requirement to find their own interpreters

PHOENIX – USCIS is reverting to pre-pandemic requirements that ordered asylum seekers to find and bring their own English interpreters to U.S. immigration interviews.

A record 2.47 million migrants were encountered at the United States’ southern border in fiscal year 2023, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. (File photo by Alexia Faith/Cronkite News)

For immigrants in the Dominican Republic, access to HIV treatment is difficult to obtain

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – AIDS Healthcare Foundation works to provide treatment for people living in the Dominican Republic. But for Haitian migrants, access to care can be difficult.

Stanley Payoute, a doctor with AIDS Healthcare Foundation Haiti, drives across the Haitian border into the Dominican Republic to meet with Cronkite News reporters on March 5, 2023, in Dajabon, Dominican Republic. Payoute drove with two patients and a nurse from his clinic in Cap-Haitien, Haiti. (Photo by Albert Serna Jr./Cronkite Borderlands Project)

Alzheimer’s impacts border communities in Texas at a higher rate than the rest of the state

LAREDO, Texas – Laredo and El Paso, two border communities, are tied for the highest rate of Alzheimer’s cases in Texas. According to a study released by the Alzheimer's Association, Laredo and El Paso have the highest Alzheimer's rate in Texas – and ninth in the nation – at 15%.

Hundreds of locals gather at Texas A&M International University for the eighth annual Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Laredo, Texas, on Nov. 4. (Photo by Angelina Steel/Cronkite News)

Tucson sees most border encounters, as migrants turn away from other sectors

WASHINGTON - Migrant encounters in the Tucson sector of the border have steadily increased in recent years until the sector became busier last year than any other on the southern border, replacing the Rio Grande Valley as the busiest.


Americans cross the US-Mexico border for more affordable IVF treatment

YUMA – Cristina Yanez and her husband, Alex, spent eight years trying to conceive a child, but they were always met with disappointment. That’s when the Yuma couple turned to IVF options in Mexico. Now, they’re parents of three boys.

A Dr. Cigüeña staff member prepares Cristina Yanez for the transfer of embryos on Aug. 27, 2019. (Photo courtesy of Cristina Yanez)

Arizona among states where Hispanic families are surging into middle class

The Hispanic middle class has grown faster than the white or Black middle class in the past decade and has reached near-parity with the white middle class in seven states, including Arizona, according to a new Stateline analysis.


Tomato fight: Arizona firms say tariff on Mexican tomatoes will hurt state

WASHINGTON - A “critically important trade battle” over Mexican tomatoes could cost the Arizona economy billions and raise the price of tomatoes by as much as 50%, Arizona businesses, say, if the Commerce Department agrees to raise tariffs as Florida growers want.


Organizations help immigrants reunite with families from Mexico

PHOENIX – Raíces del Sur and Esperanza en la Frontera assist Mexican parents who have adult children in the U.S. in obtaining visas to visit their families, regardless of the children’s immigration status.


Use of force by Customs and Border Protection rises as border encounters rise

WASHINGTON – Use-of-force incidents by Customs and Border Protection officers have nearly doubled in the past five years, from 593 in fiscal 2019 to 1,090 in fiscal 2023, with the vast majority occurring at the southern border.


Border encounters dip slightly, but Tucson sector again saw most traffic

WASHINGTON – Border Patrol officers encountered 55,224 migrants in the Tucson sector in October, far outstripping the 38,211 encounters in the Del Rio, Texas, sector and almost 10 times the number seen in the Yuma sector that month.


As Santo Domingo develops, vulnerable people are left behind

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – As the Dominican Republic invests in development and climate resiliency, government projects aimed at improving quality of life and guarding against climate change are having a negative effect on some of the very people they were designed to help.