Scoop: The Biden administration is considering forcing some migrant families who enter the country without authorization to remain near the border in Texas while awaiting asylum screening, effectively limiting their ability to travel within the U.S.

latimes.com/politics/story… The proposal, which recalls President Reagan’s efforts to limit asylum-seekers’ movements in the late 1980s, is likely to draw fierce opposition from immigrant rights groups and border-state officials.

We uncovered a federal effort that disproportionately prosecuted migrants from Muslim countries at the border.

The migrants, like Afghan journalists/activists, were jailed for months.

DOJ stopped after our inquiry.

“Why is it just us in detention?”

latimes.com/world-nation/s… The charge - 1459 - was conceived decades ago to fight drug trafficking, and it carries a maximum sentence of one year, double the length of the more well-known charge of illegal entry, which carries a top-end sentence of six months.

ICE has nearly tripled deportations to Russia this year, from the prior year.

We spoke with Russian men fleeing Putin's draft who were detained, ordered deported, and almost removed from the US.

“Death awaits me there if I go back," one man told us.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… One of the men we spoke with told us his brother had already been deported from the US after fleeing the draft.

In Russia, his brother hides inside, unwilling to venture onto public streets, fearful that he will be captured and sent to the front if Russian authorities find him.

NEW: The 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody had a 104.9 fever on 5/16, the day before she died, according to CBP.

On the day she died - May 17 - a nurse practitioner denied 3 or 4 requests for an ambulance or for a hospital visit, per CBP.

cbp.gov/newsroom/speec… Lots of new details here:

--cameras in the facility were not working

--medical personnel "failed to document numerous medical encounters, emergency antipyretic interventions, and administrations of medicine"

--BP staff were not aware she had sickle cell anemia, per CBP

NEW: The ACLU filed a lawsuit in federal court in California Thursday aiming to block a Biden administration policy set to limit asylum.

The lawsuit states the Biden Administration has "doubled down on its predecessor’s cruel asylum restrictions."

latimes.com/politics/story… The ACLU says this is an asylum ban.

The policy operates "just as the Trump administration’s prior asylum bans did: Asylum seekers subject to the Rule—all non-Mexicans—are categorically barred unless they satisfy one of the enumerated and limited conditions or exceptions."

BREAKING: A federal court judge in Florida has BLOCKED the Biden administration from releasing migrants from Border Patrol custody without court notices under a memo signed this week.

The block is in effect tonight and will last for 2 weeks.

Expect the Biden admin to appeal. The Biden administration declared in court earlier today that without the release policy and other measures there could be 45,000 migrants in custody by the end of the month.

As of Wednesday, there were more than 28,000 in custody - already way over.

Scoop: Families who cross the U.S. border without authorization will be subject to GPS monitoring and a curfew and will be deported if they fail an initial asylum screening.

“There are consequences for family units,” an ICE official said to the Times.

latimes.com/politics/story… Under the plan, known as Family Expedited Removal Management, migrant families will be directed to appear for an initial asylum screening, known as a credible fear interview, in the cities they are going to.

If the families fail the screening, ICE will seek to deport the family.

The International Refugee Assistance Project says Biden is doubling down "on its embrace of the Trump administration’s xenophobic policies."

The group denounces the moves announced today. Human Rights First says the plans announced today "endangers lives, tramples on refugee law, and subverts public health."

humanrightsfirst.org/library/biden-…

Today's announcement by the Biden administration is an embrace of Title 42, the Trump-era public health rule that allows border officials to immediately expel migrants who cross the U.S. border illegally to Mexico.

latimes.com/politics/story… The policy expansion announced today is all about limiting and deterring the rising numbers of Nicaraguan, Cuban, and Venezuelan migrants coming to the southern border.

Biden will be giving a speech on border security tomorrow, per WH.

Officials have been discussing a plan to allow migrants from Cuba, Haiti, and Nicaragua to apply for parole into the US — about 30,000 a month (inc. Venezuelans), according to sources. This plan has been discussed internally as contingent on Mexico agreeing to take back individuals from these countries who cross without authorization.

In essence, it would operate similar to the program announced in October for Venezuelans.

Scoop: The Biden administration will propose Tuesday to dramatically increase fees for many employment-based visas while keeping prices for people applying to become U.S. citizens relatively static.

latimes.com/world-nation/s… Details:

-Green card application prices would go up

-Certain employment-based visa applications like H-1B applications would jump & include a $600 fee to pay for asylum changes at the border

-US citizenship application prices would only go up 5 percent

SCOOP- Sec. Mayorkas told CBP Commissioner Chris Magnus this week to resign or be fired by President Biden, according to Magnus in a statement to me.

Story coming for me soon. from*

NEW: DHS is maintaining temporary protected status for certain individuals from El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Nepal, Haiti, and Sudan through June 2024.

Immigrant advocates had worried the protections would be stripped by the end of 2022:

latimes.com/politics/story… Link to the federal register notice:

public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2022-24984.pdf

The Biden administration remade ICE after Trump.

But WH officials have pushed ICE to deport more families and to increase detention capacity.

“They want the deterrent factor. They want removals,” said one administration official.

My latest: latimes.com/california/sto… “Trump used ICE as the tip of the spear for his political agenda,” said John Sandweg, who led the agency during the Obama administration. “You certainly have none of that. That has all gone away. The agency is adhering to common sense priorities.”

NEW: Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents obtained millions of people’s financial records as part of a surveillance program that fed the information to a database accessed by local and federal law enforcement, according to Sen. Ron Wyden.

Details: buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… ICE told Wyden’s staff that they had been using an administrative subpoena to obtain 6 million records about money transfers above $500 to or from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Texas, and Mexico since 2019.

Records included the senders and recipients’ names, per Wyden aide.

A 6-year-old girl described as having “crippled” legs.

An 11-year-old boy with epilepsy & convulsions that prompted vomiting.

Separated members of families.

These were among the people forced into 'Remain in Mexico,' per a leaked DHS report.

buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… The report offers a rare window into the behind-the-scenes dysfunction and confusion surrounding the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP) — also known as “Remain in Mexico."

The details come from a January report addressed to senior DHS officials and leaked to BuzzFeed News.

Remember when the Trump admin cut off New York residents from Global Entry?

Government officials later admitted they made false statements in the case & allowed NY residents to sign up again.

Last week, the US government agreed to pay New York $115K to close the case. It all began on Tucker:

foxnews.com/politics/dhs-g…

SCOOP: Ahead of a planned visit by VP Harris, the Biden administration wants Mexico to send back more immigrants turned around by the US and to do more to prevent Mexican airports from being used as pit stops for migration routes, according to govt docs.

buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… The White House has asked that Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas discuss the requests with Mexican officials before Harris arrives in Mexico early next week, according to draft government documents.

In the end, it wasn't a court that shut down the Trump administration's Remain in Mexico policy but a memo from the DHS Secretary.

More than 70,000 people were forced to stay in Mexico as part of the policy.

Memo that finishes it is here --> dhs.gov/sites/default/… This is more of a formality, btw.

New admissions to the program have been paused since earlier this year and the Biden administration has been bringing back thousands previously in MPP/Remain In Mexico.

SCOOP: The Biden administration is planning to dramatically reshape how asylum-seekers are processed in order to prevent an increase to the backlog of immigration court cases, according to government docs BuzzFeed News obtained.

buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… The policy, which was first alluded to by transition officials, has yet to be finalized. However, it would shift the decision making power for whether certain immigrants encountered at the border are granted asylum from a judge to an asylum officer.

BREAKING: The Biden administration is launching a new effort Friday at courts in 10 cities across the US to speed up cases for immigrant families who are picked up by agents after crossing the border, according to internal DOJ docs and officials

buzzfeednews.com/article/hameda… The plan, which will begin in Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Los Angeles, Miami, Newark, New York City, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, comes as a growing number of families have been able to cross the border and remain in the US.