The U.S. is presently undergoing a sea wave of immigration, the biggest in decades, as millions seek safety and better economic opportunities. Since 2020, over nine million people have migrated to the U.S., both legally and illegally. That has caused overall population growth to swell by nearly 1.2% annually - compared with the 0.2% at which it would otherwise be growing due to falling birth rates.

Springfield, Ohio, was thrown into the middle of the national immigration debate in the wake of a tragic school bus crash last August that killed an 11-year-old boy and injured 23 other children. The driver in that crash was a Haitian immigrant-a fact that heightened local anxieties about the number of Haitian immigrants pouring into this part of America.

The Biden administration is considering revisions that would extend the tight asylum restrictions it imposed on the U.S.-Mexico border in June 2024. The revisions would lengthen the period where 28 consecutive days of fewer than 1,500 illegal crossings per day are recorded to lift the restrictions from the previous seven days.

A U.S. judge extended a temporary block on President Biden's "Keeping Families Together" program, designed to legalize the status of immigrant spouses of U.S. citizens. The decision by Texas-based District Judge J. Campbell Barker will keep the program on hold at least until September 23, 2024, while more legal arguments are heard.

Mexico has announced a new migration policy aimed at giving migrants humanitarian attention and sending them back to the United States border in safer conditions. Extra migrant care centers are to be created, along with the guaranteeing of safe passage routes through which migrants can travel with greater concern for safety and respect for the rights of those who arrive.

Former President Donald Trump promised to impose far-reaching tariffs on imports, similar to those imposed by President William McKinley, if elected to the presidency in 2024. In fact, this wide-ranging tariff would put a 10% tax on almost all imports, thereby raising the price of foreign goods and at the same time incentivizing U.S. manufacturing.

President Joe Biden will keep the target of U.S. refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year at 125,000, his administration said, maintaining its commitment to supporting humanitarian causes around the world. The ceiling initially set by Biden in 2021 reversed deep cuts implemented by the Trump administration.

Haitian migrants have moved to Springfield, Ohio, in a windfall that has increased its population in the city. Most of the Haitian immigrants have relocated to Springfield because of manufacturing and warehouse jobs. The emergence of thousands of migrants at once, though, has spurred hysteria among some residents particularly in the area of housing and public resources.

The Biden administration's stepped-up deportation activity and asylum crackdown is receiving criticism. The policies to deal with the continued flow into the United States at the southern border have become a target of immigrant advocates, who claim it is a betrayal of the promise for a more humane immigration system from this administration.

The Roman Catholic Church of the United States has sued the federal government over immigration restrictions that make it very cumbersome for foreign clergy to enter the country. For this reason, it is hard for the Church to bring in more priests from other countries, aggravating the shortage of clergy, especially in places with fewer U.S.-born priests.