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Mozambican authorities in the countrys western province of Tete have buried the bodies of Ethiopian migrants discovered dead in a shipping container of a truck that had just crossed the border from Malawi.

Hermnio Jos Maputo & English Africa Service -Vatican City

In the early hours of Tuesday, this week, a container truck was stopped by Mozambiques immigration authorities in the province of Tete. It carried 78 people, 64 of whom were found lifeless. They had died of asphyxiation, as they were inside a metal shipping container, with no ventilation.

The remains of the 64 illegal immigrants, were buried Wednesday, at a cemetery within the city of Tete, Mozambique. The Ethiopian embassy was said to have been in touch with the Tete provincial migration office.

The 64 Ethiopian victims are believed to have boarded the shipping container in Malawi headed for the Mozambican city of Tete. 14 persons were said to have survived the ordeal. It is not uncommon for illegal Ethiopian migrants to be smuggled to South Africa via Mozambique in such circumstances.

The 14 survivors were also screened for the deadly coronavirus and are now quarantined in the city of Tete.

Speaking to Vatican News Portuguese Africa Service, the Bishop of Tete Diocese, Diamantino Guapo Antunes, I.M.C., described the tragic deaths as senseless and inhumane. He decried the fact that traffickers would transport human beings in such deplorable conditions. The young people who died, said Bishop Antunes, still had much to give to humankind.

In the meantime, the Bishop of Tete has said this diocese is coordinating with the Episcopal Commission for Migrants, Displaced People and Refugees-CEMIRDE, in assisting the 14 survivors.

Two Mozambicans have been arrested in connection with the deaths and human trafficking offences.

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Mozambican Bishop of Tete shocked by the deaths of 64 Ethiopians from asphyxiation - Vatican News

Update, Jan. 9: We have updated these statistics to the most recent numbers available as of Jan. 9, 2019.

With the controversy over family separations, much of the political rhetoric in recent weeks has focused on illegal immigration.We thought it would be helpful to take a step back and look at some measures of illegal immigration in a larger context.

For example, how many immigrants live in the U.S. illegally, and how many are caught each year trying to cross the Southwest border? How many of them are families or unaccompanied children? And how have these statistics changed over time?Lets take a look at the numbers.

How many immigrants are living in the U.S. illegally?There were 12 million immigrants living in the country illegally as of January 2015, according to the most recent estimate from the Department of Homeland Security. The estimates from two independent groups are similar: The Pew Research Center estimates the number at 10.7 million in 2016, and the Center for Migration Studies says there were 10.8 million people in 2016 living in the U.S. illegally.

That would be about 3.3 percent to 3.7 percent of the total U.S. population in 2016 or 2015.

All three groups use Census Bureau data on the foreign-born or noncitizens and adjust to subtract the legal immigrant population.

DHS estimated that the growth of the illegal immigrant population had slowed considerably, saying the population increased by 470,000 per year from 2000 to 2007, but only by 70,000 per year from 2010 to 2015.

CMS found a decline in the undocumented population, and specifically those from Mexico, of about 1 million since 2010. And the Pew Research Center found a peak of 12.2 million in the population in 2007, and a decline since.

All three groups find Mexicans make up the majority of the undocumented population 55 percent in 2015, according to DHS but the number and share of Mexicans among this population has been declining in recent years.

Those living in the country illegally also have increasingly been here for 10 years or more. DHS says nearly 80 percent in 2015 have lived in the U.S. for more than a decade, and only 6 percent came to the country over the previous five years.

Update, June 7, 2019: After this story was originally published in June 2018, a study by researchers at Yale Universityand the Massachusetts Institute of Technologyestimatedthat the illegal immigration population was much higher: an average 22.1 million for 2016. The researchers used a mathematical model with assumptions on immigration inflows and outflows to estimate the growth in the illegal immigration population from 1990 to 2016. Immigration experts, including those with theMigration Policy Institute, theCenter for Migration Studies, theCenter for Immigration Studies(a self-described low-immigration, pro-immigrant group) and the libertarianCato Institute, have criticized the Yale study.

MPI said it wasbased on seriously flawed assumptions, and CIS said, The findings are unsupportable. One of the main criticisms is that the study didnt adequately account for circular migration in the 1990s (people coming and going multiple times) and overestimated the number who remained in the U.S.The Center for Migration StudiesRobert Warren, who was the director of the statistics division of Immigration and Naturalization Services from 1986 to 1995, wrote in his criticism that the apprehension rates the Yale researchers used for the 1990s were purely speculative. The estimates for inflows are far too high and for outflows far too low, he said.The Cato Institutes Alex Nowrasteh said the media and researchers should not support the studys findings based on the quality of the criticisms. When the Department of Homeland Securitypublishedits own most recent estimate on the illegal immigration population in December, it mentioned the Pew Research Center and Center for Migration Studies estimates, but it didnt cite the Yale study.

How many people are crossing the border illegally?Theres no official measure of how many people succeed in illegally crossing the border, but authorities use the number of apprehensions to gauge changes in illegal immigration. Apprehensions on the Southwest border peaked in 2000 at 1.64 million and have generally declined since, totaling 396,579 in 2018.

Those numbers, which come from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, are for fiscal years and date back to 1960.

Thats a 76 percent decline in the number of apprehensions between the peak in 2000 and 2018.

We can also look at how the figures have changed over the past several years.

Under the Obama administration, the yearly apprehensions on the Southwest border declined by 35 percent from calendar year 2008, the year before President Obama took office, through the end of 2016. In President Donald Trumps first full year in office, the apprehensions declined by 43 percent, from calendar year 2016 to 2017.

On a monthly basis, the apprehensions decreased significantly during the first six months of Trumps tenure and then began to rise.The number was actually higher in November (the most recent month for which the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has published figures) than it was when Trump was sworn in.

What about people overstaying their visas?As border apprehensions have declined, estimates show a growing proportion of the undocumented population legally entered the country on visas but overstayed the time limits on those visas. A Center for Migration Studies report estimates that 44 percent of those in living in the U.S. illegally in 2015 were visa overstays. Thats up from an estimated 41 percent in 2008.

The CMS report, written byRobert Warren, a former director of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Services statistics division, says 65 percent of net arrivals those joining the undocumented population from 2008 to 2015 were visa overstays.

There are no solid, long-term estimates of the visa overstay problem. When we wrote about this issue in August 2015, DHS told us it didnt have statistics on visa overstays. But DHS has since issued some estimates. It said that about 629,000 people on visas who were expected to leave in fiscal year 2016 hadnt done so by the end of that fiscal year (thats out of 50.4 million arrivals).

That number, however, had declined to about 545,000 by January 2017, DHS said, noting that it expected the estimate to shift over time as additional information is reported. CMS disputed the DHS estimate, finding that the number was too high.

For fiscal year 2017, DHS estimated in a report released in August that there were 606,926 suspected in-country overstays, a rate of 1.15 percent of expected departures.

What about families trying to cross the border illegally?The number of family units apprehended has increased since fiscal year 2013, the first year for which we have such data. While 3.6 percent of those apprehended in 2013 were in a family unit, the proportion was 27 percent in 2018.

In fiscal year 2013, according to Customs and Border Protection data, there were 14,855 people apprehended on the Southwest border who were part of a family unit those are individuals, including children under 18, parents or legal guardians, apprehended with a family member.

The number increased significantly in fiscal year 2014 to 68,445. Then, it dropped the following year to 39,838, before increasing again in fiscal year 2016 to 77,674. The figure was similar in 2017, and it went up in 2018, to 107,212.

We asked Customs and Border Protection if it could provide family unit figures for years prior to 2013. We have not received a response.

How many unaccompanied children are caught trying to cross the border?Using the same time period that we have for family units, the number of children under age 18 apprehended crossing the border without a parent or legal guardian was about the same in fiscal year 2013 as it was in 2017 around 40,000. But it fluctuated in the years in between.In fiscal 2018, the number was 50,036.

In 2014, the Obama administration dealt with a surge of unaccompanied minors on the Southwest border, largely due to those fleeing violence and poverty in the northern triangle of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador and false rumors about permits being issued, as we explained at the time. The number of apprehended unaccompanied children rose from 38,759 in fiscal year 2013 to 68,541 in fiscal year 2014. It went back down to just under 40,000 the following year.

CBP data for unaccompanied children go back further than the available statistics on family units. In fiscal year 2010, the number of unaccompanied children apprehended was 18,411.

How many unaccompanied children, including children separated from their parents, are being held in shelters in the U.S.?Unaccompanied children are referred to the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement. HHS said during a conference call on June 26 that there were 11,800 children in ORR shelters, with 2,047 of those being children who had been separated from their parents. The rest about 83 percent had crossed the border without a parent or legal guardian.

By early July, HHS Secretary Alex Azar said his agency would reunite nearly 3,000 children who had been separated from their parents.

According toaDec. 12 court filingin a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, there were 131 children still in custody separated from their parents; however, in more than 90 percent of those cases either the parents have indicated they wont reunify with their children or officials have found the parents are unfit.

DHS and HHS have not provided any figures on how many children were separated from their parents in prior years.

The ORR program houses the children inabout100 shelters in 14 states. In May, an HHS official told Congress that children had spent an average of 57 days in such shelters in fiscal 2018 before being placed with a sponsor,who could be a parent, another relative or a non-family member.

About 80 percent or more of the unaccompanied children referred to HHS over the last several years have been age 13 and older, according to HHS statistics, and about 90 percent or more have been from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Is there recidivism?Yes. Customs and Border Patrol says 10 percent of those apprehended in fiscal year 2017 were caught more than once that year. In 2016, the figure was 12 percent.

How many border patrol agents are there?In fiscal year 2017, there were 19,437 border patrol agents. The number peaked in fiscal year 2011 at 21,444, so it has declined a bit since then. But the number of agents is still much larger than it was about two decades ago.

The vast majority of agents are assigned to the Southwest border. Back in fiscal year 2000, when apprehensions peaked at1.64 million, there were 8,580 agents assigned to the border with Mexico. In 2017, when apprehensions were 303,916, there were 16,605 Southwest border agents.

How many people are deported each year?The Department of Homeland Security says 340,056 people were removed from the U.S. in fiscal 2016. A removal is the compulsory and confirmed movement of an inadmissible or deportable alien out of the United States based on an order of removal. (See Table 39 of the 2016 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics.)

There are also returns, which are inadmissible or deportable immigrants who leave voluntarily before a formal removal order is issued. Returns totaled 106,167 that year.

The peak for combined removals and returns was 1.86 million in fiscal 2000 the same year that apprehensions on the Southwest border also peaked. In fact, the bar graph of these statistics mirrors the graph on apprehensions (see above) generally, when apprehensions were higher, so, too, were removals and returns.

Since fiscal 2011, removals have been higher each year than returns. Before that, the reverse was true.

Excerpt from:
Illegal Immigration Statistics - FactCheck.org

After 9/11, the U.S. enforced stricter control on immigration. This enforcement led to the birth of Homeland Security and ICE, but what is ICE exactly? We explain. USA TODAY

CINCINNATI Anarrest inside a Cincinnati courthouse last week prompted a political fight over whether federal immigration police should be allowed to arrest undocumented immigrants who show up for court appearances.

Now acommon pleas judge in Hamilton County, Ohio, has said that when he suspects a defendant is undocumented, hecalls Immigration and Customs Enforcementhimself.

Judge Robert Ruehlman told The Cincinnati Enquirer on Wednesday:"They're committing a crime by being here illegally, and then, if they're in front of me, they've allegedly committed a felony."

And how does he know someone is here illegally? If the person needs an interpreter,is accused of drug smuggling or has international connections, Ruehlman saidhe acts on his hunch.

"I set a high bond and I call ICE," he said. "I'm batting a thousand. I haven't got one wrong yet."

Ruehlmansaid he calls ICE about a dozen times a year. He said he has a good relationship with the agency.

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Ruehlman's comments come after a political firestorm was ignited last week when ICE made an arrest inside the Hamilton County Courthouse.

Some assumed ICE was being tipped off by a local agency; maybe the sheriff's office, maybe the court administration.Both denied it. No one accused judges.

Ruehlman, a Republican, presides over mostly felony-level cases in Hamilton County, Ohio, which encompasses Cincinnati. He first joinedthe bench in 1987. He was last reelected in 2016 to a six-year term.

A local immigration rights activist questioned whether Ruehlman's actions might scare immigrants away from reporting crime.

A presiding judge, a fellow Republican, said he doesn't call ICE even if he suspects a defendant is here illegally.

ICE is barred from making arrests in certain sensitive areas, specifically churches, schools and hospitals. Some New York legislators have fought to get courthouses added to that list.

However, Ruehlman said, he thinks this argument is a "red herring." He said even in cases that involve knownillegal immigrants, ICE has worked with his court and prosecutors to allow them to testify.

Judge Charles Kubicki, the presiding and administrative judge for Common Pleas Court, said he was not aware that Ruehlman had contacted ICE, and said he's not aware of any other judges doing it.

He said, that as far as he knows, there are no rules or laws that prevent judges from contacting immigration agents. He added there are no laws requiring judges to do it either.

Kubicki said, for him, issues of immigration are between the defendant and the federal government.

"I never call ICE," he said. "I don't know their number."

He said if a person decides to plead guilty to a charge, the court is required to ask about their citizenship and inform those who aren't citizens that their immigration status could be affected by a conviction.

Kubicki saideven if a person were to admit to him then they were in the country illegally, he would feel no obligation to report them. However, healso said that he would not and has notobjected to federal agents arrestingsomeone inhis court.

"It's between him and the U.S. Marshals," Kubicki said. "It's the safest encounter for everyone involved."

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Ohio judge uses a hunch to call ICE on undocumented defendants: 'Haven't got one wrong yet' - USA TODAY

Young Nigerians make up the largest population of the growing flow of migrants from Africa to developed countries. In 2016, over 20,000 involved in the Mediterranean Sea crossing were reported to be from Nigeria.

In addition, from 2017 until late 2019, hundreds of Nigerian migrants were deported from various destinations including Italy, Libya and South Africa.

These young people embark on very risky journeys across the globe, and casualties continue to increase on a daily basis.

Understanding their reasons for leaving the country is important if Nigeria is going stem the tide.

I conducted a study to establish the extent to which young people aged between 15 and 35 were susceptible to illegal migration and whether they were aware of what it entailed. I also examined the attitudes and survival strategies adopted by irregular migrants returning to Nigeria.

I focused on three groups of migrants who fall into the irregular migration category. The first were those who arrived in a country illegally. The second, those who arrived legally for instance on the basis of tourist or student visas and then overstayed the period covered by their visas. And finally, asylum seekers whose claims have been rejected and who have not left the country as required.

My findings showed that most young people who migrated under irregular circumstances were motivated by three factors: economic reasons, family dynamics and social media.

Most said they believed that the end will surely justify the means. And that they perceived ability to travel abroad as a sign of success.

We conducted interviews with 63 young people who had not yet left the country in four Nigerian cities: Lagos, Ibadan, Ile-Ife and Benin City. We targeted those susceptible to migration. These included those who were unemployed, in their final year at a tertiary-level education institution and those engaged in Nigerias compulsory National Youth Service Corps. We also included seven young people who had tried to migrate but had been returned.

We also ran separate focus group discussions for men and women. We chose people on the basis of whether or not they were familiar with the process of irregular migration.

Once in the groups we asked questions to determine their familiarity with the concept of irregular migration. Most said they were. We also established that most were unfamiliar with formal immigration procedures and that more than half did not have a valid passport.

Most knew someone personally who had travelled out of the country through illegal means such as forging a passport, using unauthorised agents, and travelling to Europe by road as irregular migration is referred to in the popular idiom.

Most expressed positive attitudes about irregular migration, stating that the end would justify the means. They all shared the view that migrants were far better off than those who stayed behind because they had access to a better quality of life.

Bola, a 29-year-old female unemployed youth from Osun State, asserted:

Sincerely, those who migrate outside the country often live far better than we in Nigeria. They enjoy constant power supply, good weather, eatgood diet and to a reasonable extent, they are secured.

Irregular migration tends to fester in the face of economic adversity. Nigerias economy is in a bad shape. Unemployment among young people is particularly high at 36.50% in 2018.

In addition, poverty levels have got worse. In 2019, the number of extremely poor Nigerians was estimated at 91.6 million, nearly half of the countrys total population. Nigeria also has 87 million people living in poverty.

This increase is one of reasons Nigerians leave the country in search of Eldorado. In other words to find security, work and new ways of life in other countries.

A recent report launched by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) on irregular migration echoed my findings. In documenting the experiences of Africans who had migrated to Europe using irregular means, it identifies a lack of opportunity to exert influence on their governments as reasons for migration.

Finding answers isnt easy. For example, some of the recommendations made in the UNDP report, such as creating more incentives for young people at home and expanding legal pathways for migration come across as rhetoric. Most arent new either.

Several suggestions have been put forward by scholars and development bodies. These include: facilitating circular migration between European and African countries, tackling the issues of unemployment and underemployment in countries of origin, and addressing the problems resulting from violence and other forms of political instability.

The common denominator is that all efforts must be designed with the aim of making the home a place people dont want to leave. And programmes to discourage young people from irregular migration must go beyond deterrence and punishments.

There should also be a concerted effort to challenge the fundamentally erroneous beliefs about migration. This must include demystifying fantasies about life abroad and educating young people about the realities of life as an irregular migrant.

Finally, those who stay home and succeed must be celebrated.

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Why young Nigerians risk illegal migration to find their 'Eldorado' - The Conversation Africa

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has been promising to defend undocumented immigrants in New York against aggressive immigration measures since the early days of the Trump administration.

According to de Blasio, the objective of his sanctuary city policies is to ensure that witnesses to and victims of crimes can report those to the police without fear of immigration repercussions.

De Blasio, however, has gone much further, and the consequences have been disastrous. In addition to impeding the ability of ICE to locate and apprehend criminal aliens, he has released dangerous criminal aliens into the community who could have been detained by ICE pending the completion of removal proceedings.

Detainer requests

ICE uses detainers to ask local law enforcement agencies that are detaining an apparently removable alien to (1) notify ICE when the alien is scheduled to be released, and (2) to maintain custody of the alien for up to 48 hours beyond the time he otherwise would have been released, to give ICE a chance to pick him up.

The New York Police Department (NYPD) ignored every one of the 2,916 detainer requests it received from ICE in the 12 months ending June 30, including one for a 21-year-old Guyanese immigrant named Reeaz Khan. After being released from custody, Khan allegedly sexually assaulted Maria Fuertes, 92, choked her, and then left her for dead outside her home in Queens a few weeks ago. She lay on the ground in 32-degree weather,half-dressed, for two hours before she was found, conscious but incoherent. She died shortly afterward at a nearby hospital. A post-mortem examination revealed horrific injuries, including a broken spine, fractured ribs, bruising on her chest and neck, internal hemorrhaging and injuries to her vagina.

Acting ICE Director Matthew T. Albence blamed de Blasio for Marias death, claiming that his sanctuary policies prevented Khan from being transferred to ICE for removal proceedings.

Albence has released a list of migrants who were subjects of New York detainer requests last year.They accounted for 17,873 criminal convictions and 6,500 criminal charges. The charges and convictions included more than 200 homicides, 500 robberies, 1,000 sexual offenses, 1,000 weapons offenses and 3,500 assaults.

Information sharing

ICE recently served four subpoenas on New York City jail officials, requesting information on illegal immigrants who were or had been incarcerated at those facilities, and the requests were denied. ICE recently served similar subpoenas in Denver, too.

The subjects of the New York subpoenas are:

New Yorks sanctuary policy prevents the police from cooperating with ICE unless someone is convicted of a crime that is included on a specified list.

Arrests no matter the charge dont meet that threshold.

Even when it is met, ICE must have a judicial warrant.

Municipal identification card initiative

In his State of the City address in January 2014, de Blasio announced a municipal identification card initiative that he said would be available to all city residents, age 10 and up, including undocumented immigrants.

The card enables New York residents to access city services and grants admission to city buildings. It can be presented as proof of identification for interacting with the police, and it is an accepted form of identification for opening a bank account at some financial institutions. It provides a full package of benefits, such as discounts for movie tickets, sports events, prescription drugs, fitness and health centers, supermarkets and city attractions.

This may violate 8 U.S.C. 1324(a)(1)(A)(iii), which provides criminal penalties for concealing, harboring or shielding aliens in the United States illegally a very serious offense. If it results in the death of any person, the offender may be punished with death or imprisoned for life.

That provision does not specify what actions constitute harboring, however. The most frequent characteristic the courts have used to describe harboring is that it makes it easier for an undocumented alien to remain in the United States which, arguably, is what de Basio is doing with his municipal identification card initiative.

Can mayors be prosecuted for violating federal immigration laws?

According to James H. Walsh, who was an associate general counsel for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, mayors of sanctuary cities like New York are not exempt from prosecution if they are harboring or protecting aliens who are in the United States illegally.

I dont expect Mayor de Basio to be prosecuted but there may not be any other way to stop him from impeding ICEs enforcement efforts in New York.

It cant save Maria Fuertes, unfortunately but it certainly could save others.

Nolan Rappaportwas detailed to the House Judiciary Committee as an executive branch immigration law expert for three years. He subsequently served as an immigration counsel for the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims for four years. Prior to working on the Judiciary Committee, he wrote decisions for the Board of Immigration Appeals for 20 years. Follow him on Twitter@NolanR1or athttps://nolanrappaport.blogspot.com.

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How far will New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio go to protect undocumented aliens? | TheHill - The Hill