Immigration

MORTON, Miss. — U.S. immigration officials raided numerous Mississippi food processing plants Wednesday, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers in what marked the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latino city where a man linked to an online screed about a "Hispanic invasion" was charged in a shooting that left 22 people dead in the border city.Workers filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc.

CAMPO, Calif. — An attempt to smuggle immigrants into the country illegally ended with three people dead and eight seriously injured in a remote, rugged area of California near the Mexican border.The incident began Thursday afternoon when agents discovered tire tracks for several cars that ran from the international border north into the U.S. The agency calls such incidents "drive-throughs," or instances in which cars illegally enter the U.S., often through remote areas that don't have border fencing.They found a piece of a vehicle that they recognized as likely being from a pickup truck spotted nearby 10 minutes later.

HOUSTON — In one government facility for immigrant youth, a 20-year-old woman who had lied that she was 17 sneaked a needle out of a sewing class and used it to cut herself.In another, cameras captured a boy repeatedly kicking a child in the head after they got into an argument on the soccer field.One 6-year-old tried to run away from the same facility after another boy threw his shoes into the toilet.

SAN DIEGO — A federal judge, responding to a plan to reunify children separated at the border, said he was having second thoughts about his belief that the Trump administration was acting in good faith to comply with his orders.The Justice Department on Friday filed a plan to reunify more than 2,500 children age 5 and older by a court-imposed deadline of July 26 using "truncated" procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, which exclude DNA testing and other steps it took to reunify children under 5.The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk but is needed to meet the deadline.Chris Meekins, deputy assistant Health and Human Services secretary for preparedness and response, filed a declaration that he is fully committed to meeting the deadline.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration says all eligible small children separated from their families as a result of its zero-tolerance immigration policy have been reunited with their parents.But nearly half of the children under 5 remain separated from their families because of safety concerns, the deportation of their parents and other issues, the administration said.The administration was under a court mandate to reunify families separated between early May and June 20, when President Donald Trump signed an executive order that stopped separations.

MILWAUKEE -- Several Milwaukee County officials are speaking out against the Trump administration's immigration policy.Milwaukee County Supervisor Sylvia Ortiz-Velez introduced a resolution Tuesday, July 10 to oppose the administration's stance on how it treats immigrant children in federal detention.Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele said should it pass, he will happily sign it."You can be on any side of the immigration debate, but no human being on the planet can think it is a healthy or a good idea to separate parents from their children -- whatever side of the border you think anyone should be on," said Abele.The resolution calls on Governor Scott Walker to stop all Wisconsin National Guard troops from enforcing the immigration policies, and calls from the Trump administration to reunite detained kids with their parents.

SAN DIEGO — Clutching little backpacks, smiling immigrant children were scooped up into their parents' arms Tuesday as the Trump administration rushed to meet the deadline for reuniting dozens of youngsters forcibly separated from their families at the border.In Grand Rapids, Mich., two girls and a boy who had been in temporary foster care were reunited with their Honduran fathers at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center about three months after they were split up.The three fathers were "just holding them and hugging them and telling them that everything was fine and that they were never going to be separated again," said immigration lawyer Abril Valdes.One of the fathers, Ever Reyes Mejia, walked out of the ICE center carrying his beaming son and the boy's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack.

SAN DIEGO — More than 50 immigrant children under age 5 will be reunited with their parents by Tuesday's court-ordered deadline for action by Trump administration, and the families will then be released into the U.S., a government attorney said Monday.That's only about half of the 100 or so toddlers covered by the order.At a court hearing, Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian acknowledged the government wouldn't meet the deadline for all the children, citing a variety of reasons, including that the parents of some of the youngsters have already been deported.Fabian said that 54 children will be joined with their parents by the end of Tuesday at locations across the country and that an additional five were undergoing final background checks.It was the first time the government indicated whether the parents and children would be released or detained together.

JUNEAU -- Protesters gathered outside the Dodge County Jail Saturday, July 7 to rally against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency.The Dodge County Jail contracts with ICE as a detention facility.Protesters stood outside chanting, hopeful those inside might be able to hear them.ICE was created in 2003 as a federal organization promoting Homeland Security, and many have called for the agency to be abolished.Protesters in Dodge County hope to further the conversation on immigration.PHOTO GALLERY"We recognize that the circumstances are extreme.

SAN DIEGO — A judge insisted on Friday the Trump administration stick to a deadline to reunite children separated from their parents at the border, instead acknowledging that more time may be justified only in specific cases.U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the administration to share a list of the 101 children with the American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully sued to force the reunions, by Saturday afternoon.

MILWAUKEE -- Cesar Acosta, a 9-year-old boy who fled gang violence in Honduras, said Thursday in Milwaukee that he was kept in a cage after U.S. authorities took him from his mother on the southern border.

WAUKESHA -- Protests took place across the country, including right in the Milwaukee area on Saturday, June 30.

WASHINGTON — They wore white.

PHOENIX -- First lady Melania Trump made a second visit to a border state Thursday, meeting face to face with people directly affected by her husband's hard-line immigration policies.

WASHINGTON — Capitol Police arrested nearly 600 people Thursday after hundreds of loudly chanting women demonstrated inside a Senate office building against President Donald Trump's treatment of migrant families.

MADISON — Attorney General Brad Schimel says immigration is a federal issue and has a minimal impact on Wisconsin.Schimel made the remarks during a luncheon in Madison on Thursday.

EL PASO, Texas — In an unmarked brick building a few blocks from the Mexican border, immigrant parents clutched folders of birth certificates and asylum paperwork and sat on folding chairs, waiting to use a single, shared landline phone.They rushed to the phone as their names were called with word that a relative or government worker was on the line, perhaps with news about their children.For days and weeks now, some of the hundreds of parents separated from their children at the Mexican border by President Donald Trump's administration have been battling one of the world's most complex immigration systems to find their youngsters and get them back.For many, it has been a lopsided battle, and a frustrating and heartbreaking one.

WASHINGTON — The Republican-led House resoundingly rejected a far-ranging immigration bill on Wednesday despite an eleventh-hour endorsement by President Donald Trump, as the gulf between the GOP's moderate and conservative wings proved too deep for leaders to avert an election-year display of division.The bill was killed 301-121, with nearly half of Republicans opposing the measure.