asylum

With demand increasing, Columbus has been added to a list of cities that could soon become home to more refugees from Afghanistan.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents encountered nearly 172,000 migrants at the border in March, up 71% from February. The increase included a record number of unaccompanied minors.

Officials are trying to shrink the timetable for many asylum cases from "years to months." That could benefit people with legitimate asylum claims and discourage some unauthorized migration.

The move comes as a flood of migrants to the southern border has tested the Biden administration's handling of immigration issues.

President Biden's administration is scrambling to contain one of the first big political firestorms of his presidency as thousands of migrant children arrive at the border without their parents.

Parents and children arriving at the border would be more quickly released within 72 hours, sources say.

U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Refugees Kelly Clements says she's pleased the U.S. plans to raise the cap on refugees to 125,000 per year. Work is already underway at the U.S.-Mexico border.

President Biden has called his predecessor's "Remain in Mexico" program for asylum-seekers "inhumane." Next week, a new program begins, but details are still being worked out.

Judge Emmet Sullivan issues a preliminary injunction, telling agents to stop the rapid expulsions of kids arriving with no adult.Since March, nearly everyone seeking asylum has been turned back.

"The training requirements cited in the government's declaration do not come close to being 'comparable' to the training requirements of full asylum officers," U.S. District Judge Richard Leon writes.