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When the Tusk government came to office in December, many activists had been hoping it would bring a new approach to the Belarusian border situation, especially as the parties that make up the coalition previously criticised Law and Justice (PiS) for its handling of the migration crisis since 2021.

That crisis was initially fomented by the Belarusian regime, which over the last three years has lured tens of thousands of migrants mainly from the Middle East, Afghanistan and Africa to Minsk, bussed them to its borders with the EU, and herded them towards the border. In the last year and a half, migrants have increasingly arrived first in Russia before moving westwards, highlighting Russias involvement in creating this new migratory Eastern Borders Route.

As if to signal a change in direction, Prime Minister Tusk appointed an academic specialising in migration, Maciej Duszczyk, to the post of deputy interior minister in charge of the matter. Duszczyk not only began work on a much-needed comprehensive migration policy for the country, but also announced an end to what he called non-humanitarian pushbacks.

I assure you that the Border Guard no longer conducts pushbacks like those seen under Law and Justice since 2023, Duszczyk told Gazeta Wyborcza in an interview in early 2024, shortly after his appointment. As a migration researcher, I have seen films with pushbacks conducted in a very non-humanitarian way. Such actions cannot take place in a democratic state that respects human rights.

In March, the Polish Border Guard set up so-called search-and-rescue teams, formed to seek out and assist migrants whose life and health might be in danger on the border.

Yet according to Katarzyna Czarnota of the Helskinski Foundation for Human Rights, there is a legitimate risk that the setting up of these search-and-rescue teams actually increases the number of migrants being disappeared on the Polish-Belarusian border, referring to those migrants who are pushed back, die or their fate becomes unknown.

Czarnota told BIRN that based on observations by activists at the border, Polish officials whether from the search-and-rescue teams or regular border guards might indeed now be more open to searching for migrants than during the time of the previous PiS government. However, upon finding them, beyond checking their vitals, the conduct remains the same: if the migrant is considered stable enough, he or she is taken back across the border, regardless of nationality, age or having expressed a clear intent to apply for asylum in Poland.

As a consequence, beyond the lives potentially saved, the number of migrants detected and pushed back could actually be higher than before the setting up of the teams, Czarnota suggests.

Despite many appeals by human rights groups, the Tusk cabinet has yet to repeal the so-called border regulation of the Ministry of Interior and Administration, passed by PiS in 2021, that claims to legalise pushbacks in Poland, but which legal experts and the Polish Ombudsman argue is contrary to national and international law protecting the right to asylum, and thus illegal.

The new Polish government conducts humanitarian pushbacks, Czarnota drily noted, repeating a common wordplay used by Polish activists.

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Poland's New Government Continues Migrant Pushbacks on Belarus Border - Balkan Insight

Inside a Midtown church-turned-migrant help center, volunteer Alexia Sol has recently begun handing out a new form: a record of daily activities. The migrants are meant to use the form to track their efforts to leave the shelter system in hopes that the accounting will help them remain in it.

Always bring this paper with you, Sol recently told a group of men in Spanish at the Metro Baptist Church. She instructed them to meticulously log English classes, meetings with lawyers and any other proactive steps theyve taken to put the citys shelter system behind them. Record the date, time and place for everything you do, she said.

We cant be sure this will work, but its the best advice we can give right now, states a message on the log.

Starting this Wednesday, May 22, adult migrants can be evicted from city shelters after reaching a limit of 30 or 60 days -- depending on their age -- with limited opportunities to remain, under new shelter rules agreed upon in a court settlement in March. Under the agreement, migrants who have reached their stay limit will only be allowed to remain in shelter under extenuating circumstances, including making significant efforts to find their own place to stay hence the accounting suggested by Sol.

Migrants awaiting assistance at Metro Baptist Church in Midtown.

Arya Sundaram / Gothamist

There are approximately 250 migrants whose shelter stays will expire in the first five days of the new policy rollout, between May 22 and May 27, according to City Hall spokesperson Noah Levine. Many more will face the same challenge. From April 24 through early last week, city staffers at migrant shelters and intake centers alerted some 6,500 adult migrants that their shelter stays would be limited to 30 or 60 days, and theyd only be granted extensions under certain circumstances, City Hall spokesperson Kayla Mamelak said.

And starting May 27, all adult migrants who enter the shelter system will be subject to the new rules, Camille Joseph Varlack, Mayor Eric Adams' chief of staff, told reporters in a video briefing on Friday.

As of Friday morning, 29 migrants had applied for shelter extensions, Varlack said. She added that 14 were approved and 15 were denied.

Although city officials have yet to fully define what constitutes significant efforts to find new housing, migrants have been racing to document their efforts to get settled. At once, a network of attorneys and aid workers has mobilized to help prove their case, including by creating a paper trail.

The looming deadline marks a new era in the citys response to the migrant crisis, as the Adams administration increases pressure on the 65,000 migrants under the citys care to leave the shelter system and gain independence whether or not they are prepared to do so.

The administration has not indicated how many of those migrants it expects to leave the system. Josh Goldfein, a Legal Aid attorney involved in the settlement negotiations, said he will closely monitor the citys actions to see if they comply with the terms of the agreement.

When Sol instructed Venezuelan migrant Dorwar Perez, 24, to track his meetings, he nodded and replied mhm. He put the new form she provided into a bubble wrap bag he uses for storing important documents.

Dorwar and two of his fellow asylum-seeking friends said they planned to bring the new forms to their appointments the following day to get municipal IDs.

If he and his friends are denied shelter, Dorwar said in Spanish, I dont know whats going to happen with us. Where will we go?

Adams defends the shelter limits despite criticism from City Council leaders and the city comptroller, and has cited the need to reduce migrant costs by nudging migrants to leave the shelter system.

New York City's government has spent over $4.5 billion on the migrant crisis since July 2022. In unveiling his latest executive budget, Adams credited the shelter limits for helping to reduce migrant costs by $586 million through June 2025.

It's hard for me to understand how lots of people aren't going to end up on the street.

But a new report from the Independent Budget Office, the citys fiscal watchdog, says the administration hasn't considered the potential negative consequences of the shelter restrictions.

The budget office's report estimates the policy could cost the city over $2 billion per year, which includes health care for migrants who end up homeless, buses for public school students who move to new locations, and the impact to the local economy due to mail issues keeping migrants from accessing work permits.

Mamelak, from City Hall, said in a statement that the report seems to have a complete misunderstanding of the realities of this crisis, makes several inaccurate assumptions, and, in many cases, just simply misstates the facts.

She took issue with the budget office's assumption that a quarter of migrants who receive notices to leave shelter will become homeless, and the lack of consideration of migrants already working under-the table.

According to a shelter placement letter obtained by Gothamist, migrants are informed of the possibility to extend their stay if they meet one of a range of conditions, such as documentation of significant efforts to leave the shelter system or travel outside of the City of New York.

That could include applying for asylum, finding a job or taking English classes, among several other examples.

The more steps you take, the more likely you will be to demonstrate that you have made significant efforts, the letter said in Spanish.

You should document all the steps you take to leave temporary shelter, either presenting a document or taking photos with your phone that show the steps you have taken, the letter continued.

Nonetheless, immigrant and housing advocates say they worry about migrants being unfairly pushed out of the shelter system. Some point to the dearth of intensive case management services the city promised to help migrants exit the shelter system. A recent comptrollers office report cited the lack of such services for migrant families.

It's hard for me to understand how lots of people aren't going to end up on the street, said Deborah Berkman, an attorney at the New York Legal Assistance Group. It seems like a lot of the standards are very difficult to comply with.

In particular, she voiced concern about migrants working without formal authorization, which could jeopardize their chances of getting asylum, in order to keep their shelter spots.

Power Malu, who helps run the migrant help center at Metro Baptist Church, said he hopes the new logbooks his volunteers are giving migrants will help show the city the types of activities they should accept as significant efforts to leave the shelter system.

This happens all the time with the city, said Malu, director of the nonprofit Artists Athletes Activists helping local migrants. They implement these policies, and they don't even know they're talking about or how it's going to be rolled out.

Malu added: But the bottom line is that we can't wait to see. We have to just act.

While he worries about what's ahead, Perez said he doesnt want to stay in the shelter system indefinitely.

He said he wants to avoid the fate of some other migrants hes met who have stayed for months in shelter without finding a job, or filing their application to get asylum and work permits.

As long as we're processing our (legal) documents, we need nothing more than to look for a job and leave the shelter, Perez said.

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Migrants and advocates brace for stricter rules in NYC shelters as evictions loom - Gothamist

A Column from the Desk of Assemblyman Karl Brabenec (R,C-Deerpark)

Many of you are tired of reading about the migrant crisis, and Im certainly tired of writing about it. Yet, the problem persists and demands our attention each week. This week, members of the Assembly and Senate held a press conference urging the state government to further investigate DocGo, Inc., the organization contracted by New York City to manage the migrant crisis. This organizations costs have burdened New York taxpayers, as reflected in our latest state budget. We still have many questions about DocGo and the expectations set by city and state officials. The contract this for-profit organization signed remains undisclosed. Attempts to access details are met with instructions to file Freedom of Information Law requests, which rarely yield the complete document. Adding to the concerns, DocGos former CEO was found to have lied about his experience and education, raising further alarms. The misuse of funds by DocGo, Inc. is a matter of grave concern. New York taxpayers have contributed a staggering $2.4 billion to cover the failings of this questionable organization. This is an unacceptable situation where taxes are being spent to fix problems created by the states own decisions. Its high time we consider alternative solutions: revoke sanctuary status, resume partnership with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or conduct better research when selecting companies to manage the migrant crisis. The next step must be a departure from the current approach to ensure better financial management and accountability.

Assemblyman Brabenec represents the 98th District, which includes the city of Port Jervis, the towns of Deerpark, Greenville, Mount Hope, Wawayanda, Minisink, Warwick, Tuxedo and portions of the towns of Goshen, Monroe and Ramapo. For more information, please visit his Official Website at http://www.yourfavoriteassemblyman.com.

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DEMANDING TRANSPARENCY FROM MIGRANT CRISIS CONTRACTORS The Warwick Valley Dispatch - wvdispatch.com

Our catch and release was we released them in Mexico. We were doing a great job. Thats where it stood and then we had an election, he said, flanked by Governor Greg Abbott of Texas, Judd, and members of the Texas National Guard and Texas Department of Public Safety.

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Brownsville, the site of Bidens visit, is part of Rio Grande Valley Sector, which saw only about 7,340 encounters in January. This was Bidens first visit to the border since January 2023, and his first since conceding just over a month ago that the region is in crisis, conveniently coinciding with immigration becoming the countrys top voting issue. His visit comes after House Republicans spiked a recent bipartisan border compromise from the Senate that would have increased spending on border security as well as provided $60 billion in aid to Ukraine. In Brownsville, Biden touted the bill and said it was derailed by rank partisan politics and called on Trump to join him in urging Congress to pass it. Those senators who oppose it need to set politics aside, Biden said.

But Bidens been playing politics as well. His visit, long overdue after Decembers record-breaking border crossings, is political cover and a signal to the Democrats worried that his abysmal immigration ratings will hurt him and down-ballot Democrats in November.

Biden didnt call the situation at the border a crisis until there were Republicans to blame for it. Yes, MAGA House Republicans should have passed the bipartisan bill last month, but the border crisis existed long before there was a bill on the table. Bidens immigration policy has contributed to endangering migrants at the border and burdening border communities. The crisis has predictably worsened and Americans arent liable to forget: For years, cities and towns across the country have been gasping for support to handle a flood of migrants who are living in legal uncertainty.

This [visit] is a last-minute Hail Mary to try to save his presidency and we look at that as nothing more than self serving, Judd told me. Though the union supported the bipartisan border bill, it warned the president in a Thursday post on X to keep our name out of your mouth. (Biden ignored its request, citing the unions endorsement during his remarks.)

Judd told me that if the president had ever worked with us over the past three years of this failure, it would be different. But now, he wants to use us for political reasons. According to Judd, the president didnt reach out to the union ahead of his visit. The union endorsed Trump in 2016 and 2020 and is expected to do so again this year.

The president could have at least feigned concern for northern cities like Boston and New York that have been struggling to deal with thousands of new migrants. Its not like he hasnt had the opportunity to publicly tour a migrant shelter in the north: Hes visited Boston and New York to court donors in recent months. At a campaign reception at the Westin Boston Seaport District Hotel in December, the president had enough time to point out that Republicans refused to act on his suggestions for border reform. It seems he didnt have enough time to visit one of the nearby emergency shelters. There are now more than 7,500 families in Massachusetts emergency shelters, many of which are migrant families, and Governor Maura Healey recently put $250 million into the emergency shelter system.

Not that a visit would have done much. New York hosted a visit by Homeland Security officials in August, with the administration remarking on the exceptional efforts by New York officials to accommodate the migrants. But instead of promising to stem the flow at the border, DHS officials pledged $140 million, left a list of 11 federal sites across the state where migrants could be sheltered, and greenlighted access to a hangar at JFK airport as a shelter.

After the visit, Mayor Eric Adams criticized the administrations handling of the crisis and was subsequently kicked off the presidents reelection committee, perhaps freeing him to spend more time finding shelter space. If you average 10,000 people a month and if the national plan is to have New York City continue to find spaces, that is not an answer, Adams said in August. How do we stop this flow?

DHS officials also visited Massachusetts in October, with little to show for it. At the end of January, Healey and eight other governors blamed the strain from migrant arrivals in their states on the lack of congressional action on infrastructure and policies. Its a whole lot of jargon from Democratic governors who dont want to call out the presidents lack of leadership, but the underlying message is the same as Adamss: do something.

If Biden actually cared about fixing the border, he would have been there early and often or would have at least sent his supposed border czar, Vice President Kamala Harris. Hes finally considering an executive order to restrict migrants from seeking asylum if they crossed the border illegally between ports of entry, something he could have tried earlier. He hasnt always been allergic to executive actions on immigration: In the first 100 days of the presidency, the administration undertook 94 executive actions on immigration, 52 of which were targeted at undoing Trump-era policies.

Its true that Republicans should have voted for the border bill. They could have even tried to negotiate stronger terms. But that blunder came after a long trail of policy failures from this administration and previous ones, including Trumps. At Brownsville, Biden said, its long past time to act. Yes, it is. Welcome to the border crisis, Mr. President. Its been waiting for you.

Carine Hajjar is a Globe Opinion writer. She can be reached at carine.hajjar@globe.com.

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Biden should know that the migrant crisis is also in Massachusetts - The Boston Globe

Mr Abbott has ramped up Operation Lone Star, his anti-migrant initiative launched in March 2021, with extreme measures to fortify the river against the flow of migrants.

Shelby Park, where thousands of migrants arrived each day in the US, was seized from the federal Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, and placed under the custody of the states National Guard.

Under the latest measures watched closely by border hawks in the UK the river has been blocked by a floating barrier of spiked buoys, anchored to the riverbed, while eight miles of razor wire has been installed on the US bank.

An island has been cleared of brush by the Texas National Guard to make it easier to spot attempted crossings, while regular bus services have been organised to take successful migrants to other cities run by Democrat politicians.

More is planned. This week, Mr Abbott promised to install a military base to house 2,300 national guardsmen in the town, while a local hotel, the Comfort Inn, is being used to house troops deployed from Florida with the blessing of Ron DeSantis, the states governor.

The data shows the measures appear to be working. Last month, the number of migrants crossing at Eagle Pass was down by a few hundred a day and the CBP says the hotspot for undocumented arrivals are now in desert areas of the border in other states, such as Lukeville, Arizona, and Californias Jacumba Hot Springs.

We still get them, says a National Guard soldier, who spoke to The Telegraph from behind the metal bars of a five-metre fence at Shelby Park.

Theyre coming every day, but in smaller numbers than they were before.

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Spiked buoys and razor wire: Texas tackles the migrant crisis with brutal border defences - The Telegraph