Border

The Border Patrol recorded nearly 1.7 million apprehensions last year, eclipsing the record set in 2000. Still, the number of migrants crossing illegally is likely far below the all-time high.

Timothy Mellon is the Wyoming-based grandson of banking tycoon Andrew Mellon. He is responsible for nearly 98% of the donations to Texas’ border wall fund.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection issued a statement outlining plans to allow passenger and cargo traffic to resume. Earlier, a camp of 15,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, had gathered there.

The camp grew to hold 15,000 people at one point, with a total of nearly 30,000 migrants passing through since Sept. 9, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says.

"Operation Lone Star," as it's called, relies on a force of state troopers, National Guard and reinforcements from other red states. The mission is to curtail the migrants surging into the Rio Grande.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday issued an executive order that restricts the transportation of detained migrants under the pretext of stopping the spread of COVID-19, something immigrant rights activists describe as unconstitutional and fascist.

The vice president has come under fire from Republicans for not visiting sooner.

Roughly four out of five Americans say the situation at the southern border is a problem, a new NPR/Ipsos poll shows. Bipartisan majorities also support a way for some immigrants to become citizens.

Four migrant families that were separated at the border by the Trump administration will be allowed to reunify in the United States this week, the secretary of Homeland Security announced.

Undocumented migrants trekking on foot and packed into vehicles are heading north from the southern border in greater numbers. Some are dying along the way, and Border Patrol agents are frustrated.