Lawmakers urge ICE to release families together following court order
A federal judge last week ordered ICE to release all minors the agency is detaining with their parents, citing new coronavirus cases.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization's social media accounts.
Montoya-Galvez has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking and in-depth reporting on immigration, including a national Emmy Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and several New York Emmy Awards.
Over several years, he has built one of the leading and most trusted national sources of immigration news, filing breaking news pieces, as well as exclusive reports and in-depth feature stories on the impact of major policy changes.
Montoya-Galvez was the first reporter to obtain and publish the names of the Venezuelan deportees sent by the U.S. to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, with little to no due process. Using that list, he co-produced a "60 Minutes" report that found most of the deported men did not have apparent criminal records, despite the administration's claims that they were all dangerous criminals and gang members. Montoya-Galvez was also the first journalist to interview Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and imprisoned at the CECOT prison.
In 2025 alone, Montoya Galvez broke dozens of other exclusive stories. He disclosed the internal Trump administration plan to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela; landed the first national network sit-down interviews with the current heads of ICE and Border Patrol; and obtained government data showing that illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2025 plummeted to the lowest level since 1970 amid Trump's crackdown.
Montoya Galvez's North Star is to cover immigration with nuance and fairness, in a nonpartisan, comprehensive and compelling way that respects the dignity of those at the center of this story
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.
Montoya-Galvez was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree in Media and Journalism Studies and Spanish from Rutgers University.
A federal judge last week ordered ICE to release all minors the agency is detaining with their parents, citing new coronavirus cases.
ICE reported this week the first coronavirus cases among the migrant families with children it is holding in civil detention.
The 9th Court of Appeals noted that the constitutional power to appropriate federal funds lies solely with Congress, not the executive branch.
An independent monitor told a federal court that some staff at ICE's family detention centers are not wearing face masks or completely enforcing social distancing.
In a 7-2 decision, the high court said asylum-seekers placed in expedited deportation proceeding are not entitled to seek habeas corpus.
Citing a CDC order, border officials have expelled tens of thousands of migrants, including children and many seeking asylum.
A new proclamation will suspend several guest worker programs, including H-1B visas for those in specialized fields like the technology sector.
U.S. officials at the southern border carried out 1,001 arrests of unaccompanied migrant children in May. Just 39 were allowed to stay.
A CDC coronavirus directive, which has been extended indefinitely, has given the Trump administration the power to rapidly remove most border-crossers from U.S. soil.
The rule would make it more difficult for foreigners to seek refuge from certain forms of persecution, including gender-based violence, gang threats and torture at the hands of "rogue" government officials.
A mother in New York is asking the U.S. government to bring back her daughter, one of hundreds of migrant children expelled from the border amid the pandemic.
Citing a public health order, U.S. border officials carried out 899 expulsions of unaccompanied migrant children in March and April alone.
Only four migrants have been allowed to request refuge in the U.S. under a public health order, according to data obtained by CBS News.
USCIS, the fee-funded agency that oversees the nation's legal immigration system, is facing a financial crisis during the coronavirus pandemic.
Santiago Baten-Oxlag, of Guatemala, is the second known immigrant to die of coronavirus complications while detained by U.S. immigration authorities.