Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
Immigration conversations start at the table at this Washington restaurant
A Washington restaurant advocates for immigrant-related issues, including comprehensive immigration reform. VOA’s immigration reporter Aline Barros has more.
Chinatown: Past, Present, and Future
For the past year and a half, a surge of undocumented migrants from China has trekked through harsh and dangerous terrain in South and Central America to enter the United States through its southern border with Mexico.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection figures, some 37,000 Chinese nationals were detained at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023 — 10 times the number from the previous year. Many of these migrants settle in Chinese enclaves and Chinatowns in the United States from Los Angeles to New York City. They are just the most recent wave of migrants from China throughout history. For hundreds of years, waves of people have left China and established new lives around the globe. Their reasons for leaving are varied, from political to economic, from within and outside the country.
Biden is said to be finalizing plans for migrant limits
The White House is finalizing plans for a U.S.-Mexico border clampdown that would shut off asylum requests and automatically deny entrance to migrants once the number of people encountered by American border officials exceeded a new daily threshold. President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order as early as Tuesday, according to four people familiar with the matter. The Associated Press reports.
Immigration around the world
UN refugee chief: 114 million have fled homes because nations fail to tackle causes of conflict
The number of people fleeing their homes because of war, violence and persecution has reached 114 million and is climbing because nations have failed to tackle the causes, and combatants are refusing to comply with international law, the U.N. refugee chief said Thursday.
In a hard-hitting speech, Filippo Grandi criticized the U.N. Security Council, which is charged with maintaining international peace and security, for failing to use its voice to try to resolve conflicts from Gaza, Ukraine and Sudan to Congo, Myanmar and many other places. The Associated Press reports.
UNHCR: ‘Act now’ or Sahel crisis will be ‘problem for the world’
Action must be taken immediately to address the humanitarian crisis in the Sahel or other countries will be drawn in and it will “become a problem for the world,” a UNHCR official warned Wednesday. The volatile situations in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso risk overflowing into neighboring countries, the U.N. refugee agency’s director for west and central Africa, Abdouraouf Gnon-Konde, told Agence France-Presse in an interview in Brussels. Reported by the Agence France-Presse.
News Brief
— The U.S. Justice Department announced more “efforts to dismantle human smuggling operations and increase accountability for those who violate our immigration laws.”
