Elliot Spagat, Author at Valley News

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer working at the Point Roberts-Boundary Bay border crossing, in Point Roberts, Wash., is seen from Delta, British Columbia, on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021. Point Roberts sits on a peninsula and is only accessible by land by travelling through Canada. Beleaguered business owners and families separated by COVID-19 restrictions rejoiced Wednesday after the U.S. said it will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a...

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Border residents rejoice as US says it will lift travel ban

by Zeke Miller Associated Press, and Elliot Spagat Associated PressOctober 13, 2021

SAN DIEGO — Beleaguered business owners and families separated by COVID-19 restrictions rejoiced Wednesday after the U.S. said it will reopen its land borders to nonessential travel next month, ending a 19-month freeze.Travel across land borders from…

A Guatemalan migrant, who was deported from the United States, embraces relatives after arriving at the Air Force Base in Guatemala City, Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Nearly 200 Guatemalan migrants have been deported on Tuesday, the day the Trump administration planned to launch a drastic policy change designed to end asylum protections for most migrants who travel through another country to reach the United States. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Asylum ban brings lawsuits, may further strain immigrant detention facilities

by Elliot Spagat Associated Press, and Nomaan Merchant Associated PressJuly 17, 2019

Two people hug as another talks to a San Diego County Sheriff's deputy outside of the Chabad of Poway Synagogue Saturday, April 27, 2019, in Poway, Calif. Several people have been shot and injured at a synagogue in San Diego, California, on Saturday, said San Diego County authorities. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Synagogue shooting kills 1, wounds 3

by Elliot Spagat Associated Press, and Daisy Nguyen Associated PressApril 27, 2019

FILE - In this June 20, 2018, file photo, immigrant children walk in a line outside the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, a former Job Corps site that now houses them in Homestead, Fla. The Trump administration wants up to two years to find potentially thousands of children who were separated from their parents at the border before a judge halted the practice last year. The Justice Department said in a court filing late Friday, April 5, 2019 in San Diego that it will take at least a year to review the cases of 47,000 unaccompanied children taken in custody between July 1, 2017 and June 25, 2018. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson, File)

U.S. says reuniting migrant families will take time

by Elliot Spagat Associated PressApril 7, 2019

Carlos Catarldo Gomez, of Honduras, center, is escorted by Mexican officials after leaving the United States, the first person returned to Mexico to wait for his asylum trial date, in Tijuana, Mexico, Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019. The Trump administration has launched an effort to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts despite mixed signals from Mexico on key issues. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

U.S. Has Plan for Asylum Seekers to Await Decision in Mexico

by Elliot Spagat Associated PressJanuary 29, 2019

Migrants run from tear gas launched by U.S. agents, amid photojournalists covering the Mexico-U.S. border, after a group of migrants got past Mexican police at the Chaparral crossing in Tijuana, Mexico, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018. The mayor of Tijuana has declared a humanitarian crisis in his border city and says that he has asked the United Nations for aid to deal with the approximately 5,000 Central American migrants who have arrived in the city. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

Report: No One Arrested in Border Clash Is Prosecuted

by Elliot Spagat Associated PressNovember 29, 2018

Families march past the U.S. Capitol as they protest the separation of immigrant families, Thursday, July 26, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Trump administration faces a court-imposed deadline Thursday to reunite thousands of children and parents who were forcibly separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, an enormous logistical task brought on by its "zero tolerance" policy on illegal entry. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Administration: 1,820 Children Reunited

by Elliot Spagat Associated Press, and Colleen Long Associated PressJuly 26, 2018

FILE - In this July 13, 2018, file photo, Allison, 6, and her mother Cindy Madrid share a moment during a news conference in Houston, where the mother and daughter spoke about the month and one day they were separated under the President Donald Trump administration immigration policy. The Trump administration is due back in court Monday, July 16, 2018, to discuss a plan reunify more than 2,500 children who were separated at the border from their parents. (Marie D. De Jes's/Houston Chronicle via AP, File)

Federal Judge Orders Temporary Halt to Deportation of Reunified Families

by Elliot Spagat Associated Press, and Colleen Long Associated PressJuly 17, 2018

In this June 13, 2018 photo, an organizer, foreground, speaks to families as they wait to request political asylum in the United States, across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. In Tijuana, Latin Americans fleeing drug violence in their countries are camped out and waiting to apply for U.S. asylum - undeterred by the new directive from Attorney General Jeff Sessions this week to bar victims of gang violence from qualifying. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Fleeing Immigrants Willing to Risk

by Elliot Spagat Associated Press, and Anita Snow Associated PressJune 17, 2018

A migrant child from El Salvador plays under a tarpaulin at the El Chaparral port of Entry, in Tijuana, Mexico, Monday, April 30, 2018. bout 200 people in a caravan of Central American asylum seekers waited on the Mexican border with San Diego for a second straight day on Monday to turn themselves in to U.S. border inspectors, who said the nation's busiest crossing facility did not have enough space to accommodate them. (AP Photo/Hans-Maximo Musielik)

Migrants Start Seeking Asylum

by Elliot Spagat The Associated PressMay 1, 2018