VOA immigration weekly recap, September 8-14

Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: [email protected].
On the streets of a Colorado city, pregnant migrants struggle to survive
She was eight months pregnant when she was forced to leave a homeless shelter in Denver, Colorado. It was November. Ivanni Herrera took her 4-year-old son, Dylan, by the hand and led him into the chilly night, dragging a suitcase containing donated clothes and blankets away from the Microtel Inn & Suites. It was one of 10 hotels where Denver has housed more than 30,000 migrants, many of them Venezuelan, over the last two years. First, they walked to Walmart. There, with money she and her husband earned begging on the street, they bought a tent. Reported by The Associated Press.
DACA case faces uncertainty again as US appellate court arguments loom
The future of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program remains in limbo with another court hearing set for October 10. Judges from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments in the case, initiated in 2018 by Texas and other Republican-led states seeking to end DACA. The program offers temporary protection from deportation and work permits to undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children who are often referred to as “Dreamers.” The case centers on whether DACA exceeds presidential authority, immigration advocates from the coalition “Home is Here” said during a recent conversation with reporters. VOA immigration reporter Aline Barros reports.
Immigration takes center stage in debate, but no major proposals from candidates
When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced each other on the debate stage less than two months before Election Day, the two candidates were at odds on issues ranging from the economy to tariffs and Ukraine. But on immigration, their positions were especially different. VOA immigration reporter Aline Barros reports.
Ohio city reshaped by Haitian immigrants lands in unwelcome spotlight
Many cities have been reshaped by immigrants in the last few years without attracting much notice. Not Springfield, Ohio. Its story of economic renewal and related growing pains has been thrust into the national conversation in a presidential election year — and maliciously distorted by false rumors that Haitian immigrants are eating their neighbors’ pets. Donald Trump amplified those lies during Tuesday’s nationally televised debate, exacerbating some residents’ fears about growing divisiveness in the predominantly white, blue-collar city of about 60,000. The Associated Press reports.
Share of foreign-born people in US at highest rate in over a century, according to survey
The percentage of U.S. residents who were foreign-born grew last year to its highest level in more than a century, according to figures released Thursday from the most comprehensive survey of American life. The share of people born outside the United States increased in 2023 to 14.3% from 13.9% in 2022, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey, which tracks commuting times, internet access, family life, income, education levels, disabilities, military service and employment, among other topics. The Associated Press reports.
Vietnamese immigrants, their children divided on US border policy
More than 1.2 million Vietnamese immigrants live in the United States, many of them having settled after the Vietnam war. More recently, a new wave of Vietnamese migration has sparked debate in the community about immigration and has become one of the main talking points this election season. VOA’s Elizabeth Lee has the details from Texas, the state with the second-largest Vietnamese immigrant population in the country.
Immigration around the world
Rohingya detainees protest ‘abominable’ conditions in Indian camp
More than 100 Rohingya refugees who have been detained for years at a transit camp in the northeast Indian state of Assam have launched a hunger strike demanding they be handed over to the United Nations refugee agency in New Delhi, transferred to a detention facility in the Indian capital, and that the process of resettlement in a third country be started. Reported by VOA News.
News Brief
— The Department of Homeland Security Council on Combating Gender-Based Violence and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services commemorate “the 30th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act of 1994. This landmark legislation is one of the first comprehensive federal responses to addressing and preventing gender-based violence in the United States, and specifically acknowledges the unique barriers that noncitizens victims of GBV face when trying to seek safety and assistance.”