Migrants stuck in Mexico faced 6,356 violent attacks, report finds
Human rights researchers tracked 6,356 attacks against migrants who were expelled to Mexico by the U.S. or barred from requesting U.S. refuge.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez is an award-winning reporter covering immigration for CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple CBS News and Stations platforms, including the CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and CBS News Radio.
Montoya-Galvez also worked as part of CBS News' team of 2024 political campaign reporters.
Montoya-Galvez joined CBS News in 2018 and has reported hundreds of articles on immigration, the U.S. immigration policy, the contentious debate on the topic, and connected issues. He's landed exclusive stories and developed in-depth reports on the impact of significant policy changes. He's also extensively reported on the people affected by a complex immigration system.
Before joining CBS News, Montoya-Galvez spent over two years as an investigative unit producer and assignment desk editor at Telemundo's television station in New York City. His work at Telemundo earned three New York Emmy Awards.
Earlier, he was the founding editor of After the Final Whistle, an online bilingual publication featuring stories that highlight soccer's role in contemporary society.
He was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in northern New Jersey.
He earned a bachelor's degree in media and journalism studies/Spanish from Rutgers University.
Human rights researchers tracked 6,356 attacks against migrants who were expelled to Mexico by the U.S. or barred from requesting U.S. refuge.
Providing refuge to Afghans who assisted the American war effort is a rare immigration policy with broad public support, including among Republicans, according to CBS News polling.
The Trump-era program required 70,000 non-Mexican asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico for their U.S. asylum court hearings.
Freshta, a college student in Michigan, fears her Hazara family in Afghanistan could be harmed by the Taliban because of their assistance to the U.S. war effort.
The Biden administration rules instructed ICE agents to focus on arresting recent border-crossers, as well as immigrants deemed to threaten public safety or national security.
Biden administration officials said the policy overhaul would allow the government to more quickly grant U.S. refuge to those who qualify and deport those who don't.
The Trump-era policy required 70,000 non-Mexican asylum applicants to wait for their U.S. court hearings in Mexico, often in squalid tent camps and dangerous border towns.
In the past six weeks, ICE has reported over 5,000 new coronavirus cases among immigrants in its detention facilities.
By minimizing the "chilling effect" of potential deportation, the policy change can encourage undocumented immigrants to contact law enforcement, ICE argued.
The efforts mark a new, more stringent chapter in the Biden administration's border policy.
"My anxiety attacks have been abnormal here — they have gotten worse since I arrived," a 16-year-old migrant girl from El Salvador said in a court declaration.
After August 30, 36 Texas-based shelters housing migrant children in federal care will no longer be regulated or inspected by state officials.
Children born abroad to couples who used assisted reproductive technology, like surrogacy, will now qualify for U.S. citizenship, even if the U.S. parent is not biologically related to them.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered state authorities last week to stop and re-route vehicles suspected of transporting migrants who crossed the southern border illegally.
By citing a public health law, U.S. officials at the southern border have been able to expel migrants to Mexico or their home countries without allowing them to apply for humanitarian refuge.