Asylum seekers
Boxer Thomas Essomba trains at Steel City Gym in Sheffield, England, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2021. Cameroonian boxer Thomas Essomba, was one of seven people who defected at London 2012. Nine years on, he talks to AP about what it’s been like to live with that decision. (AP Photo/Jon Super)
9 years on, Cameroon Olympic boxer talks of defection to UK

By Sylvia Hui And Tristan Werkmeister Aug. 06, 2021 02:23 AM EDT

In this image made from video provided by NTV, Belarus Olympic sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya enters the Polish embassy in Tokyo, Japan, Monday, Aug. 2, 2021. Tsimanouskaya plans to seek asylum in Poland, an activist group said Monday, after the athlete alleged that her team’s officials tried to force her to fly home, where she feared she wouldn’t be safe from an autocratic government that recently was accused of diverting a plane in order to arrest a dissident journalist. (NTV via AP)
Poland grants visa to Belarus Olympian who fears for safety

By Graham Dunbar Aug. 02, 2021 05:08 AM EDT

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, of Belarus, runs in the women's 100-meter run at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 30, 2021. Tsimanouskaya alleged her Olympic team tried to remove her from Japan in a dispute that led to a standoff Sunday, Aug. 1, at Tokyo’s main airport. An activist group supporting Tsimanouskaya said she believed her life was in danger in Belarus and would seek asylum with the Austrian embassy in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Japan: Belarus runner involved in airport standoff is safe

By Graham Dunbar And Daniel Kozin Aug. 01, 2021 12:00 PM EDT

Vice President Kamala Harris holds a roundtable discussion with advocates from faith-based NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and shelter and legal service providers, during her visit to the Paso del Norte (PDN) Port of Entry in El Paso, Texas, Friday, June 25, 2021. The Paso del Norte Port of Entry is one of the country's busiest pedestrian border crossings. It is located on the Paso Del Norte International Bridge. Thousands of people cross the border through the Port each day.(AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
On border tour, Harris laments 'infighting' over immigration

By Alexandra Jaffe Jun. 25, 2021 05:12 PM EDT

FILE - In this May 11, 2021, file photo, migrant women carry children in the rain at an intake area after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in La Joya, Texas. The U.S. Homeland Security Department says thousands of asylum-seekers whose claims were dismissed or denied under a Trump administration policy that forced them to wait in Mexico for their court hearings will be allowed to return for another chance at humanitarian protection. The Associated Press has learned that registration begins Wednesday, June 23, 2021 for asylum-seekers who were subject to the “Remain in Mexico” policy and either had their cases dismissed or denied for failing to appear in court. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
US gives more asylum-seekers waiting in Mexico another shot

By Maria Verza And Elliot Spagat Jun. 22, 2021 05:23 PM EDT

A new border wall stretches along the landscape near Sasabe, Ariz., on Wednesday, May 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Fewer children cross US border in May but numbers stay high

Jun. 09, 2021 07:54 PM EDT

Vice President Kamala Harris and Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador gesture as they arrive for a bilateral meeting Tuesday, June 8, 2021, at the National Palace in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Blunt message, search for answers mark VP's 1st foreign trip

By Alexandra Jaffe Jun. 09, 2021 12:12 AM EDT

Vice President Kamala Harris poses for a photo with Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, Tuesday, June 8, 2021, at the National Palace in Mexico City. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Harris tells Latin Americans the US can offer them hope

By Alexandra Jaffe Jun. 08, 2021 01:15 AM EDT

FILE - Migrants mainly from Honduras and Nicaragua sit in line after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, May 17, 2021, in La Joya, Texas. The Biden administration has quietly tasked six humanitarian groups with recommending which migrants should be allowed to stay in the U.S. instead of being rapidly expelled from the country under federal pandemic-related powers that prevent many from seeking asylum. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, file)
Biden taps groups to help pick asylum-seekers to come to US

By Elliot Spagat And Julie Watson Jun. 04, 2021 02:50 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 28, 2021 file photo Migrants from Guatemala and Honduras are questioned by a Border Patrol agent after being smuggled on an inflatable raft in Roma, Texas. The Biden administration says families arriving at the U.S. border with Mexico will have their cases fast-tracked in immigration court, an announcement on Friday, May 28, that comes less than two weeks after said it was easing pandemic-related restrictions on seeking asylum. Under the plan, immigration judges in 10 cities will aim to decide cases within 300 days. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
US to expedite immigration cases of families on border

By Amy Taxin And Elliot Spagat May. 28, 2021 12:24 PM EDT

Migrant rights activist Eduardo Canales cleans out a blue water drop Saturday, May 15, 2021, in Falfurrias, Texas. Every week, Canales fills up blue water drums that are spread throughout a vast valley of Texas ranchlands and brush. They are there for migrants who venture into the rough terrain to avoid being caught and sent back to Mexico. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
With more border crossers, US groups seek to stem deaths

By Eugene Garcia And Adriana Gomez Licon May. 22, 2021 11:23 AM EDT

Migrants from Honduras wait in a Border Patrol truck after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, May 17, 2021, in La Joya, Texas. The Biden administration has agreed to let up to about 250 people a day in the United States at border crossings with Mexico to seek refuge, part of negotiations to settle a lawsuit over pandemic-related powers that deny migrants a right to apply for asylum, an attorney said Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
UN refugee agency calls on US to end asylum restrictions

May. 20, 2021 03:49 PM EDT

Migrants from Honduras wait in a Border Patrol truck after turning themselves in upon crossing the U.S.-Mexico border Monday, May 17, 2021, in La Joya, Texas. The Biden administration has agreed to let up to about 250 people a day in the United States at border crossings with Mexico to seek refuge, part of negotiations to settle a lawsuit over pandemic-related powers that deny migrants a right to apply for asylum, an attorney said Monday. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
US eases asylum restrictions at border amid legal challenges

By Elliot Spagat And Adriana Gomez Licon May. 18, 2021 12:10 AM EDT

Marely, 12, of El Salvador, waits to be processed by authorities after turning herself in upon crossing the U.S. - Mexico border Tuesday, May 11, 2021, in La Joya, Texas. Growing numbers of migrant families are making the heart-wrenching decision to separate from their children and send them into the U.S. alone. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
'There was no going back': Migrants send kids into US alone

By Adriana Gomez Licon May. 15, 2021 11:37 AM EDT

Migrant men get haircuts at a migrant shelter, Wednesday, May 12, 2021, in McAllen, Texas. The U.S. government continues to report large numbers of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border with an increase in adult crossers. But families and unaccompanied children are still arriving in dramatic numbers despite the weather changing in the Rio Grande Valley registering hotter days and nights. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
US agents encounter more single adults crossing border

By Adriana Gomez Licon May. 13, 2021 01:20 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, young unaccompanied migrants, watch television inside a playpen at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas. The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April 2021 eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults were found coming without families, authorities said Tuesday., May 11, 2021. Authorities encountered 17,171 children traveling alone, down 9% from 18,960 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but still well above the previous high of 11,475 reported in May 2019 by the Border Patrol, which began publishing numbers in 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool, File)
Number of children traveling alone at border eases in April

By Elliot Spagat May. 12, 2021 01:13 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, young unaccompanied migrants, watch television inside a playpen at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas. The number of unaccompanied children encountered on the U.S. border with Mexico in April 2021 eased from an all-time high a month earlier, while more adults were found coming without families, authorities said Tuesday., May 11, 2021. Authorities encountered 17,171 children traveling alone, down 9% from 18,960 in March, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, but still well above the previous high of 11,475 reported in May 2019 by the Border Patrol, which began publishing numbers in 2009. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool, File)
Number of children traveling alone at border eases in April

By Elliot Spagat May. 11, 2021 09:19 PM EDT

FILE - In this April 22, 2021 file photo, a sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif., where migrant children found at the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that The Associated Press has now learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside. (Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
Migrant children held in mass shelters with little oversight

By Garance Burke, Juliet Linderman And Martha Mendoza May. 11, 2021 07:02 AM EDT

FILE - In this April 22, 2021 file photo, a sleeping area set up inside exhibit hall B of the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach, Calif., where migrant children found at the U.S.-Mexico border without a parent will be temporarily housed. The Biden administration is holding tens of thousands of asylum-seeking children in an opaque network of some 200 facilities that The Associated Press has now learned spans two dozen states and includes five shelters with more than 1,000 children packed inside. (Brittany Murray/The Orange County Register via AP, Pool, File)
Migrant children held in mass shelters with little oversight

By Garance Burke, Juliet Linderman And Martha Mendoza May. 11, 2021 07:00 AM EDT

FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, young unaccompanied migrants wait for their turn at the secondary processing station inside the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas. U.S. authorities say they picked up nearly 19,000 children traveling alone across the Mexican border in March. It's the largest monthly number ever recorded and a major test for President Joe Biden as he reverses many of his predecessor's hardline immigration tactics. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool, File)
Policy changes help drive US migrant crossings to new highs

By Elliot Spagat Apr. 09, 2021 12:02 AM EDT