VOA Immigration Weekly Recap, September 18–24
Here is a look at immigration-related news around the US this week
As U.S. midterm elections approach, immigration remains one of the country's most contentious political issues, mostly concerning the number of people trying to enter the U.S. at the southwestern border. . Venezuelan migrants flown to the upscale Massachusetts island of Martha's Vineyard sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his transportation secretary Tuesday for engaging in a "fraudulent and discriminatory scheme" to relocate them. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Boston, alleges that the migrants were told they were going to Boston or Washington, "which was completely false," and were induced with perks such as $10 McDonald's gift certificates, . The number of Venezuelans, Cubans, and Nicaraguans who were taken into custody at the U.S. border with Mexico soared in August as migrants from Mexico and other traditional sending countries were stopped less frequently, authorities said Monday, . After strapping on knee-high snake guards and bowing his head to invoke God's protection, Oscar Andrade marched off into a remote desert at dawn on a recent Sunday to look for a Honduran migrant missing since late July, . When nearly 80,000 Afghans arrived in the United States, refugee resettlement agencies quickly became overwhelmed, still scrambling to rehire staff and reopen offices after being gutted as the Trump administration dropped refugee admissions to a record low, . The Spanish charity Open Arms has rescued 372 people seeking to cross the central Mediterranean to Europe in unseaworthy smugglers' boats and recovered the body of a man who had been shot by smugglers, officials said Sunday, . A human rights expert blasted the international community in a report released Thursday for failing to protect and uphold the rights of the people of Myanmar in the face of mass atrocities allegedly committed by the country’s military rulers. . — U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services  was available to those affected by natural disasters and other circumstances.