A U.S. Marine says his parents were detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials after they visited a California military base and one of them was later deported. Steve Rios, of Oceanside, California, told NBC that his parents were detained late last month while picking up his pregnant sister and her husband, who is also a Marine at Camp Pendleton. Rios says his parents came to the U.S. from Mexico three decades ago and had pending green card applications. He says they were initially released with ankle monitors. But after another visit to the base, ICE agents stopped them at the gate and detained his parents. Rios says his father has since been deported.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the detention of hundreds of South Koreans in a raid at a Georgia Hyundai plant won't deter U.S. investment. She believes tough actions clarify the Trump administration's policies. There were 475 workers detained on Sept. 4, including over 300 South Koreans. The roundup caused confusion and shock within the strong U.S. ally. Noem says the detainees would be deported and the raid shows companies the importance of companies following U.S. laws. She says there are no plans to slow or halt immigration raids in Chicago or other cities. Noem was attending a meeting in London of ministers from the "Five Eyes" partnership, focusing on border security and migration issues.
U.S. immigration officials say some 475 people were detained during an immigration raid at a sprawling Georgia site where South Korean auto company Hyundai manufactures electric vehicles. South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lee Jaewoong described the number of detained South Koreans as "large" though he did not provide an exact figure. No charges were immediately announced. Officials from Homeland Security Investigations say the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation into allegations of illegal hiring at the site and was the largest single-site enforcement operation in the agency's two-decade history.
A closely watched report says the number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023. That represents a major increase but still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some allies. The Pew Research Center said Thursday that the 14-million mark rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some 6 million who were in the country with some form of legal protection under President Joe Biden.
he State Department is proposing requiring applicants for business and tourist visas to post a bond of up to $15,000 to apply to enter the United States. It's a move that may make the process unaffordable for many. In a notice to be published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, the department says it will start a 12-month pilot program under which people from countries deemed to have high overstay rates and deficient internal document security controls could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when they apply for a visa. It says the countries affected will be listed once the program takes effect.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says deportation flights from the remote Everglades immigration lockup known as Alligator Alcatraz began in the past few days. DeSantis said Friday that the flights operated by the Department of Homeland Security have transferred about 100 detainees from the immigration detention center to other countries. He expects that number to increase soon. Officials say two or three flights have happened, though they didn't say which countries those flights headed to. Critics have condemned the facility as cruel and inhumane, but DeSantis and other Republicans have defended it as part of the state's aggressive push to support President Donald Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration.
