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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)

DHS chief Alejandro Mayorkas bristles at Republicans’ border questions

Republicans stumped Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday over the number of Border Patrol agents who are deployed to the southwestern border, in a testy hearing where he resisted charges that he and the administration have lost control of the boundary.

June 17, 2021
In this Jan. 12, 2021, photo, President Donald Trump tours a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall in Alamo, Texas. During the Trump administration's final weeks, the Department of Homeland Security quietly signed agreements with at least four states that threaten to temporarily derail President Joe Biden's efforts to undo his predecessor's immigration policies. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

Trump administration cut corners to speed wall money, auditors say

The Army Corps of Engineers cut corners in order to beat deadlines for President Trump's Mexico border wall and get money out the door before it expired, according to an audit Thursday by the Government Accountability Office, which identified $4.3 billion in no-bid contracts for the project.

June 17, 2021
President Joe Biden speaks in the East Room of the White House, Thursday, June 17, 2021, in Washington. The Supreme Court has dismissed a third major challenge to "Obamacare," preserving health insurance coverage for millions of Americans. Though the court has become increasingly conservative with justices nominated by former President Donald Trump, it nonetheless left the entire law intact Thursday. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Biden administration faces record pace of lawsuits

President Biden came out of the starting blocks with the most sweeping agenda of any recent administration -- and he is drawing ferocious resistance in federal courts, where his opponents are filing lawsuits at what appears to be a record pace.

June 17, 2021
Children and adults wait in lines for donated food at a makeshift camp for migrants near the U.S.-Mexico border Friday, May 14, 2021, in Reynosa, Mexico. 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) ** FILE **

DHS secretary says Biden policies didn’t cause border surge

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that President Biden's policies have nothing to do with the surge in illegal immigrants that has swamped his administration, insisting it's part of normal ups and downs.

June 17, 2021
This Tuesday, March 26, 2019, photo shows a border patrol checkpoint, north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, that U.S. immigration authorities have closed and have reassigned agents to repurpose inspection areas to handle an influx of Central Americans arriving at the Mexican border. All of the checkpoints in the El Paso, Texas, sector, which includes New Mexico and West Texas, have been closed. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)

U.S. soldiers charged with migrant smuggling

Two soldiers have been arrested for alien smuggling in Texas after agents say they were caught with two illegal immigrants in the trunk of their car at a Border Patrol checkpoint, where they had hoped their military uniforms would get them through without inspection.

June 15, 2021
Annika Iwugo, 16, of Takoma Park, Md., center, helps to hold a banner as she joins fellow supporters of immigration reform in protesting for a path to citizenship and an end to detentions and deportations, Wednesday, April 28, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) ** FILE **

DHS will grant work permits to illegal immigrant victims

The Department of Homeland Security will speed up work permits for tens of thousands of illegal immigrants who claim they are victims of crime, the department announced Monday, saying the current wait, which can last up to five years, is too long to make people remain in economic limbo.

June 14, 2021
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, speaks with others on opening day of the 117th Congress at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post via AP, Pool) ** FILE **

GOP Reps. Gohmert, Clyde sue to block Pelosi’s fines

Two Republicans announced a lawsuit Monday challenging fines slapped on them for violating the House's new security screening rules, saying someone has to stand up to what they see as an increasingly imperial way that Speaker Nancy Pelosi has run the chamber.

June 14, 2021
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas tours the City of Los Angeles Information Technology Agency (ITA) command center, responsible for the city's cybersecurity at the Emergency Operations Center in Los Angeles Thursday, June 10, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Victims of immigrant crimes demand say in ICE deportation rules

A group of people who lost relatives to crimes committed by illegal immigrants has demanded to meet with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, saying they deserve to be part of his decision-making as he writes new rules restricting ICE arrests and deportations.

June 14, 2021
President Donald Trump points to a member of the audience after speaking near a section of the U.S.-Mexico border wall, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2021, in Alamo, Texas. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon) **FILE**

DHS ‘legally required’ to spend Trump’s border wall money, officials say

Homeland Security officials said Friday they are "legally required" to spend billions of dollars Congress allocated to Mexican border wall construction, but said they will focus on projects that "mitigate" damage from previous construction rather than on finishing the wall President Trump had planned.

June 11, 2021
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 2019 flagged more than 11,000 illegal immigrants in Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office custody. They accounted for 180 homicide charges, 750 sex crimes and 1,400 weapons offenses. (Associated Press/File)

DHS cancels Trump’s office for victims of illegal-immigrant crimes

President Trump gave an unprecedented voice to victims of crimes committed by illegal immigrants, creating an office in ICE to highlight their plight. On Friday, the Biden administration announced it was repurposing the mission of that office in a way that victims' advocates say drowns out their voice.

June 11, 2021
Women and children sit idle at a migrant camp amid the new coronavirus pandemic in Lajas Blancas, Darien province, Panama, Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020. In Lajas Blancas, the migrants did not wear masks or practice social distancing, but Panama's Public Security Minister Juan Pino said there have not been more than 10 infections among the migrants. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco) **FILE**

Doctors Without Borders details rape, murder of migrants heading toward U.S.

A U.S. congressman's shocking account last week of migrant abuse in Panama, including incidences of babies being washed downriver, is being echoed in a new report from Doctors Without Borders, which says staffers in the region are seeing a stunning number of sexual assaults of migrant women.

June 10, 2021