Border towns see ‘disaster’ without federal help as end to Title 42 looms

WASHINGTON - Arizona border communities face a "humanitarian disaster" in two weeks if the federal government does not step in to help with the crush of migrants expected when Title 42 ends, local officials told a Senate panel Wednesday.


Explosives training brings military and law enforcement from around the world to Marana

MARANA – The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives hosts improvised explosive device exercises for public safety bomb squads and military explosive ordnance disposal units. The most recent, called Raven’s Challenge, was at Pinal County Airpark in Marana earlier this month.

Raven’s Challenge subject matter expert David Bebout (not pictured) demonstrates a type of explosion commonly used in Hollywood films at Pinal County Airpark on March 2, 2023. Three pounds of explosive make up the charge. (Photo by Jack Wu/Cronkite News)

Pinal, Yuma officials tell House migration surge is overwhelming them

WASHINGTON - Arizona officials told a House panel that local law enforcement and health care workers are ill-equipped to handle the recent surge of immigration at the southern border, the latest in a string of GOP hearings attacking the White House over the border.


Both sides pan administration plan to tighten rules for asylum seekers

WASHINGTON - The White House unveiled a plan Thursday to deny asylum to migrants who try to cross the southwest border illegally or who do not first seek asylum in countries they cross on their way to the U.S. as they flee their home countries.


States’ challenge to fed border policy pulled from Supreme Court calendar

WASHINGTON - Arizona was already edging away from a legal challenge by states trying to keep the Title 42 border policy in place when the Supreme Court on Thursday took the case off its calendar.


Republicans, Democrats offer differing visions during respective Arizona border visits

DOUGLAS – House Speaker Kevin McCarthy toured the border Thursday with a delegation of Republican freshmen and demanded border security from the Biden administration for an area where McCarthy said Mexican "cartels are the biggest employer." Democrats brushed the tour off as just another photo op along the border.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., visited the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023. McCarthy had made securing the border a key issue during the midterm elections. (Photo by James Powel/Cronkite News)

Student storytelling at Arizona Capitol advances immigration group’s policy priorities

PHOENIX — About 150 students with Aliento visited the Capitol Wednesday to meet with legislators to talk about immigration policy priorities, including initiatives on driver’s licenses, repealing English-only and securing funding for College Promise programs.

Students go between the Arizona House and Senate for meetings with state legislators on Feb. 15, 2023. (Photo by Drake Presto/Cronkite News)

Arizona advocates win national recognition for work on Proposition 308

WASHINGTON - An Arizona nonprofit was honored here Tuesday for its push to win in-state tuition for undocumented students, a change that organizers said has moved the state from an "epicenter of hate toward immigrants into an epicenter of hope."


Cochise sheriff comes to ‘share the reality’ of border in House testimony

WASHINGTON - Cochise County Sheriff Mark Dannels told a sharply divided House committee Wednesday that drug trafficking and illegal immigration is getting worse and that it's affecting the safety of residents in his border county.


Colonias residents fight long, and often lonely, fight for basic services

EL PASO COUNTY, Tex. - More than 134,000 residents to colonias - unincorporated rural communities along the U.S.-Mexico border - live withough basic services like roads, water or sewer, and the fight to change that is long and lonely, often left to residents and private nonprofits.


Colleges expect more undocumented students this spring after Prop 308

WASHINGTON - Arizona voters did a sharp about-face this fall, narrowly voting to allow in-state tuition for undocumented state residents, a 180-degree reversal of a policy that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2006 prohibiting such aid for Dreamers in the state.


Border communities, Border Patrol brace for migrant surge as Title 42 ends

TUCSON - Record-high numbers of migrants stressed humanitarian organizations and border officials alike in 2022. Now, both groups are bracing for a new surge, with the end next week of Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that allowed 2.5 million migrants to be turned away.