Report uncovers hundreds of killings of Ethiopians at Yemen border

Human Rights Watch, a human rights organization based in New York, has released a report that exposes a disturbing pattern of killings of migrants and asylum seekers at the hands of Saudi security forces. The report details how border guards killed hundreds, and possibly more, people who were trying to cross the Yemen-Saudi border between March 2022 and June 2023 and the organization’s research indicates that the killings are ongoing. It goes on to show the escalation in abuses and killings at the hands of Saudi security forces from occasional shootings and mass detentions to repeated and rampant killings in recent years. The report states that “[s]uch killings would be crimes against humanity if they are both widespread and systematic and part of a state policy of deliberate murder of a civilian population.”

U.S. expands Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians

The Biden administration announced on Friday that it will allow 166,700 additional Ukrainians in the U.S. to apply for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), an immigration relief program that allows people who have migrated to the U.S. due to a crisis in their home country to obtain work permits and temporary protection from deportation.

The administration will also allow approximately 26,000 Ukrainians who have received TPS to continue their enrollment in the program through April 2025 and will change the cut-off date from April 11, 2022 to August 16, 2023 so that Ukrainians who have recently arrived can also qualify for the program.

Texas authorities confirm death of a toddler on one of the state’s migrant buses

A 3-year-old child died on a migrant bus on its way to Chicago from Texas last Thursday. The migrant bus was sponsored by the Texas government as part of Governor Abbott’s border policy in which migrants are shuttled from the state to other states throughout the country. The Texas emergency management agency reported that when the child began presenting with symptoms, the bus pulled over and the child was treated by paramedics and later died at a hospital in Illinois. Illinois officials stated that they were working with health officials and state and federal authorities “to the fullest extent possible to get answers in this tragic situation.”