Zero tolerance policy
FILE - In this March 30, 2021, file photo, minors lie inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, in Donna, Texas. A move by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to shutter dozens of shelters housing about 4,000 migrant children is threatening to disrupt a national program offering care for minors who cross the U.S.-Mexico border. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday, June 2 2021, that it didn't intend to close any facilities but that it was "assessing" the Republican governor's late Tuesday disaster declaration. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool, File)
Texas push to close shelters for migrant kids alarms groups

By Adriana Gomez Licon And Acacia Coronado Jun. 02, 2021 05:31 PM EDT

FILE - In this Sept. 10, 2019, file photo, workers are shown in the kitchen of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Tacoma, Wash., during a media tour. After years of litigation and pandemic-related delays, jury selection is underway in a trial to determine whether GEO Group must pay minimum wage to detainees at its immigration detention center in Washington state. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
Trial to determine if GEO must pay detainees minimum wage

By Gene Johnson Jun. 01, 2021 08:05 PM EDT

In this March 24, 2021 photo, migrant families, mostly from Central American countries, wade through shallow waters after being delivered by smugglers on small inflatable rafts on U.S. soil in Roma, Texas. The Biden administration said Monday that four families that were separated at the Mexico border during Donald Trump's presidency will be reunited in the United States this week in what Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls “just the beginning” of a broader effort. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Watchdog: US forced deported parents to leave kids behind

By Ben Fox May. 24, 2021 02:18 PM EDT

In this May 12, 2021 photo, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the Senate Appropriations committee hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Biden administration will stop using immigration detention facilities in Massachusetts and Georgia that are the subject of abuse allegations. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday announced that federal authorities will no longer use the jail facilities in Bristol County, Massachusetts and the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. (Photo by Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via AP, Pool)
US ends use of 2 immigration jails accused of mistreatment

By Ben Fox And Kate Brumback May. 20, 2021 11:49 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)
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

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 28, 2021, file photo, a child's knitted cap lies on the ground near the banks of the Rio Grande river in Roma, Texas. Confronted with a stream of unaccompanied children crossing the border from Mexico, the U.S. government has awarded shelter-construction and management contracts to private companies that critics say may not be equipped to adequately care for the minors. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
US awards huge shelter contracts amid child migrant increase

By Adriana Gomez Licon May. 05, 2021 10:40 AM EDT

FILE - In this Jan. 9, 2019, file photo, kicking off her book tour, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., speaks at George Washington University in Washington. On Friday, April 30, 2021, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly asserting that a copy of Harris’ children's book, “Superheroes Are Everywhere,” is being given to every migrant child in a Long Beach, Calif., facility housing unaccompanied minors who recently arrived at the border. (AP Photo/Sait Serkan Gurbuz, File)
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week

By The Associated Press Apr. 30, 2021 01:28 PM EDT

FILE - In this April 20, 2021, file photo, notices informing about the shortage of COVID-19 vaccine is displayed on the gate of a vaccination centre in Mumbai, India. India is battling the world’s fastest pace of spreading infections. Its government has blocked vaccine exports for several months to better meet needs at home, exacerbating the difficulty of poor countries to access vaccine. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)
From scarcity to abundance: US faces calls to share vaccines

By Marlon González And Zeke Miller Apr. 24, 2021 08:19 AM EDT

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 24, 2021, file photo, young child walks alone through the brush after being smuggled across the Rio Grande river in Roma, Texas. The government failed to prepare for a big increase in children traveling alone as President Joe Biden ended some of his predecessor's hardline immigration policies and decided he wouldn't quickly expel unaccompanied kids from the country like the Trump administration did for eight months. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, File)
New migrant facilities crop up to ease crowding, again

By Adriana Gomez Licon And Amy Taxin Apr. 18, 2021 11:55 AM EDT

Washington state governor OKs bill banning for-profit jails

By Rachel La Corte Apr. 14, 2021 06:43 PM EDT
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — One of the country’s largest for-profit, privately run immigration jails would be shut down by 2025 under a bill signed Wednesday by...

New Mexico governor gets request to send troops to US border

By Susan Montoya Bryan Apr. 09, 2021 01:40 PM EDT
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — U.S. Rep. Yvette Herrell on Friday asked Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to deploy New Mexico National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexico...

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

FILE - In this Wednesday, March 17, 2021, file photo, Texas Gov Greg Abbott speaks during a news conference about migrant children detentions, in Dallas. Texas child welfare officials say they've received three reports of abuse and neglect at a San Antonio coliseum that is holding more than 1,600 immigrant teenagers who crossed the southern border. Child welfare officials would not reveal details about who made the allegations, but Abbott said his understanding was that they came from someone who had been inside the facility. One of the allegations include sexual abuse, but no further details were provided. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
Texas investigating abuse allegations at migrant facility

By Paul J. Weber And Nomaan Merchant Apr. 07, 2021 09:24 PM EDT

FILE - In this June 26, 2019, file photo, the entrance to the Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas. More Americans disapprove than approve  of how President Joe Biden is handling waves of unaccompanied immigrant children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, and his efforts on larger immigration policy aren’t polling as well as those on other top issues. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio, File)
AP-NORC poll: Border woes dent Biden approval on immigration

By Will Weissert And Hannah Fingerhut Apr. 05, 2021 08:00 AM EDT

Migrants attend Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas, on Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021. U.S. authorities are releasing migrant families at the border without notices to appear in immigration court and sometimes, without any paperwork at all. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees the Border Patrol, said it stopped issuing court notices in some cases because preparing even one of the documents often takes hours. Migrants undergo background checks and are tested for COVID-19. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills)
Migrants freed without court notice — sometimes no paperwork

By Elliot Spagat Apr. 01, 2021 01:05 AM EDT

Minor children are housed inside a pod at the Donna Department of Homeland Security holding facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), in Donna, Texas, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. The minors are housed by the hundreds in eight pods that are about 3,200 square feet in size. Many of the pods had more than 500 children in them. The Biden administration on Tuesday for the first time allowed journalists inside its main detention facility at the border for migrant children, revealing a severely overcrowded tent structure where more than 4,000 kids and families were crammed into pods and the youngest kept in a large play pen with mats on the floor for sleeping.(AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool)
EXPLAINER: Questions remain about conditions of migrant kids

By Elliot Spagat And Nomaan Merchant Mar. 31, 2021 07:14 PM EDT

Migrants speak to their relatives inside a phone booth after being processed at the intake area of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility, the main detention center for unaccompanied children in the Rio Grande Valley, in Donna, Texas, Tuesday, March 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills, Pool)
Over 4,000 migrants, many kids, crowded into Texas facility

By Elliot Spagat And Nomaan Merchant Mar. 30, 2021 04:22 PM EDT