2.47 million migrant encounters at southern border in fiscal 2023 sets record

WASHINGTON – A record 2.47 million migrants were stopped at the southern border in fiscal 2023, with the Tucson sector of the border leading the rest of the nation for the third straight month.


Tohono O’odham official says immigration is a problem – but so is the wall

WASHINGTON - Tohono O'odham Chairman Verlon Jose told a House panel Wednesday that while migrants crossing his reservation are causing problems, those are overshadowed by problems from the construction of the border wall meant to stop migration.


Biden administration reverses course, resumes border wall construction

WASHINGTON - The Biden administration reversed course Thursday and said it would resume border wall construction, citing an "acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers" at the southern border to handle record-breaking numbers of immigrants.


Tucson sector led U.S. for second month, as border encounters surge anew

WASHINGTON - Migrant encounters at the southern border surged in August, to almost 233,000 for the month, with the Tucson sector posting the highest numbers in the nation for the second straight month, according to Customs and Border Protection.


Yuma official says cost of caring for migrants ‘not sustainable’ for county

WASHINGTON - Yuma County cannot continue to bear the cost of caring for immigrants that are flooding across the border without help from the federal government, a county official testified Wednesday.


Black activists take on Dominican government and society in quest for justice and recognition

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic – AfroDominican activists are fighting against the Dominican Republic’s discriminatory legislation and social attitudes that negatively impact Black Dominicans and Haitian migrants.

Reconoci.do coordinator and co-founder Elena Lorac speaks about racial discrimination at a "3 Causales" march in Parque Independencia on March 4, 2023. (Photo by Morgan Casey/Cronkite Borderlands Project)

Glass half-full or half-empty? In partisan Washington, it’s usually both

WASHINGTON - Two committees held two hearings on the same topic - immigration and the workforce -but the hearings in the Democrat-controlled Senate and the GOP-led House came to two very different conclusions. Washington observers were not surprised.


GAO: Rush to build border wall caused harm, damages continued after pause

WASHINGTON - A new Government Accountability Office report confirms what critics have long said, that the Trump administration's rush to build a border wall caused significant environmental damage, depleted water sources and devastated sacred tribal sites.


Mexican abortion-pill networks reach across U.S. border to help immigrants without access

MONTERREY, Mexico – Mexico decriminalized abortion just before the United States went the opposite way and ended almost 50 years of federal abortion rights. Ever since, activists have been helping people on the U.S. side get abortion pills to those in need via cross-border underground networks.

Vanessa Jiménez runs an abortion pill network called Necesito Abortar from her home in Monterrey, Mexico. Jiménez has an informal network of family and friends who take pills into the United States during visits over the border. (Photo by April Pierdant/News21)

Baseball has huge on- and off-the-field impact in the Dominican Republic

SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic - Dominicans make up 11% of Major League Baseball rosters, many a product of this baseball-mad country's youth system, where children as young as 7 train in hopes of one day playing in the U.S. and lifting themselves and their families out of poverty.


Migrant deaths climbed with temperatures in July; overall numbers still low

WASHINGTON - Migrant deaths in the Arizona desert spiked in July, when the remains of 42 undocumented individuals were found, the most for that month in more than a decade, advocates and medical officials said.


Border encounters spiked in July after two-month decline; Tucson hit hard

WASHINGTON - Migrant encounters at the southwest border surged in July, reversing two months of declining numbers. Encounters rose from 144,566 in June to 183,503 in July, with migrant families accounting for more than three-quarters of that increase.