Asylum Seekers

Today on Texas Matters: Stories about helping asylum seekers from the Interfaith Welcome Coalition and their book "Traveling Mercies."And one Texas death row inmate—who could be innocent—is closer to being executed while another death row inmate, thought to be innocent, is a step closer to being freed.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton asked the state’s Supreme Court on Monday to allow his office to continue its efforts to shutter Annunciation House, an El Paso-based shelter network that assists asylum seekers and other migrants.

Following several record-high months for migrants crossings at the U.S. southern border last year, President Biden is taking executive action to swiftly deport would-be asylum seekers when the seven-day average of unauthorized crossings exceeds 2,500. It echoes past Trump administration policies and, pending expected court challenges, implements provisions laid out in a doomed bipartisan reform proposal negotiated earlier this year. This episode: political correspondent Susan Davis, senior national political correspondent Mara Liasson, and immigration correspondent Sergio Martínez-Beltrán The podcast is produced by Jeongyoon Han, Casey Morell and Kelli Wessinger. Our intern is Bria Suggs. Our editor is Eric McDaniel. Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi. Listen to every episode of the NPR Politics Podcast sponsor-free, unlock access to bonus episodes with more from the NPR Politics team, and support public media when you sign up for The NPR Politics Podcast+ at plus.npr.org/politics.

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.

Mayor Ron Nirenberg said there is no guarantee that the city will get all the money it needs to run the MRC from the federal government and that they expected to learn more in the coming weeks.

The DOJ alleges that SpaceX intentionally rejected asylees and refugees from applying to the company.

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.

More than 100 organizations banded together to launch a public comment tool to ensure the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice hear from people who are against the new policy.

The new rule is being slammed by immigrant rights groups as a throwback to the inhumane policies of former President Trump.

El Paso has scrambled to move migrants off the streets and into shelters as temperatures plummet below freezing, but federal law dictates which migrants can stay inside city facilities.