asylum seekers

Day laborers congregate outside of a Home Depot in Brooklyn, NY in June 2024.

Economy

An asylum seeker's long road to a work permit

7:52pm July 11, 2024

There are currently just under 65,000 migrants in New York City's shelter system, stretching the city's outworn social service systems. Today on the show, we follow one asylum seeker's journey from Venezuela to New York and explore why the process is lengthy and complicated.

Related episodes:
Is the 'border crisis' actually a labor market crisis? (Apple / Spotify)
'Welcome to the USA! Now get to work.' (Apple / Spotify)
The migrant match game (Apple / Spotify)

For sponsor-free episodes of The Indicator from Planet Money, subscribe to Planet Money+ via Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org.

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National

At the border, migrants ‘wait and see’ as encounters with Border Patrol dip 40%

2:28pm June 27, 2024

by Jasmine Garsd

The Biden administration touts the recent decline in border crossings as a policy win. But one family's story of risking the journey shows why asylum restrictions aren't a long-term solution.

Abandoned tents remain at the migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, that is at the center of a controversy involving viral images of a flyer encouraging migrants to vote for President Biden.

A flyer in her name told migrants to vote for Biden. But she says she didn't write it

4:41pm May 15, 2024

by Jude Joffe-Block

Viral images of the flyer were filmed in portable toilets of a migrant camp in Mexico, and they energized members of Congress. But NPR's reporting suggests the flyer is not what it purports to be.

The Wahweap Marina, squeezed by the dropping and encroaching shoreline of Lake Powell on the Colorado River behind the Glen Canyon Dam outside Page, Ariz., on Feb. 20, 2023. The bathtub ring marking the once-high level of the lake is visible on the red rock formations in the distance. Full story here.

National

2023 in photos: NPR station photographers share memorable moments

11:54am December 26, 2023

From across the country, NPR member station visual journalists have documented events in their states and cities. These images represent some of the year's most remarkable stories.

Clockwise, from top left: former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and former President Donald Trump.

Where the Republican presidential candidates stand on immigration

12:42pm December 13, 2023

by Jasmine Garsd

Immigration has become one of the cornerstone issues of the 2024 campaign as GOP presidential hopefuls try to stand out as the toughest on both illegal and legal immigration.

People believed to be migrants walk in Dungeness, a headland on the coast of England, on Aug. 16.

World News

U.K. Supreme Court to weigh legality of plan to deport migrants to Rwanda

5:02am October 07, 2023

by Lauren Frayer

To discourage migrants, the U.K. wants to deport to Rwanda some who arrive by boat without a visa. Human rights groups have sued, and the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on Oct. 9.

Ukrainian refugees enter the El Chaparral border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego in April 2022. The foreign-born share of the U.S. population, which had been roughly flat since 2017, rose to nearly 14% last year.

National

The immigrant population in the U.S. is climbing again, setting a record last year

5:45am September 14, 2023

by Joel Rose

Census Bureau data show the number of foreign-born people rose by nearly a million in 2022 after years of little growth. Experts say the increase coincides with a gradual reboot of legal immigration.

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A migrant in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, displays the CBP One app used to apply for an appointment to claim asylum in the U.S.

National

Judge blocks Biden administration's new rules for asylum-seekers at the border

4:23pm July 25, 2023

by Joel Rose

U.S. District Judge Jon Tigar blocked a similar policy during the Trump administration, and immigrant advocates had urged him to do the same in this case.

Migrants try to stay warm as they wait in the rain after turning themselves over to U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing over from Mexico in Fronton, Texas on May 12.

Immigration judge says trial workloads and resource constraints are 'a problem'

1:36pm May 15, 2023

by Destinee Adams

NPR's A Martinez asks Mimi Tsankov, president of the National Association of immigration judges, about the end of Title 42.

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U.S. military stop migrants from crossing into El Paso, Texas, seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022. The U.S. Supreme Court issued a temporary order to keep pandemic-era limits on asylum-seekers in place, though it could be brief, as conservative-leaning states push to maintain a measure that allows officials to expel many but not all asylum-seekers.

The U.S. asks court to end asylum limits, with a short delay

12:29am December 21, 2022

by The Associated Press

Asylum-seekers at the border waited for a Supreme Court ruling that could allow them to enter the United States as the U.S. government asked the Supreme Court not to lift the limits before Christmas.