Here is the bill submitted by the Senate’s “Gang of Eight” regarding immigration reform. It is 844 pages long. You can download it here. The bill is titled, “The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act.” “Gang of Eight” Immigration Bill: Full Text

Here is what Florida Senator Marco Rubio issued this morning in response to the news that major progress has been made on a comprehensive immigration bill: I’m encouraged by reports of an agreement between business groups and unions on the issue of guest workers. However, reports that the bipartisan group of eight senators have agreed […]

The United Nations Human Rights Office is once again calling for a multinational force to intervene in Haiti after its latest report found that gangs there have killed at least 531 people, injured 300, and kidnapped 277 since the year began.

Some 96,000 people have fled their homes in Haiti’s capital, the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration said Friday, as the country faces a crisis that has prompted the government to request the immediate deployment of foreign troops.

The U.N. Security Council planned to vote Friday on a resolution that would demand an immediate end to violence and criminal activity in Haiti and impose sanctions on a powerful gang leader.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador’s congress granted a request Wednesday by President Nayib Bukele for a second extension of the country’s anti-gang emergency decree.

El Faro obtained audio files of conversations between a senior Bukele official and the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), revealing that the covert negotiations with the gangs fell apart after MS-13 considered the surprise arrest of a group of its leaders a violation of the agreement they brokered in 2019 for a reduction in homicides.

On Tuesday, President Nayib Bukele ordered changes to the Penal Code that press advocates warn censor journalism about gangs and would impede news outlets from questioning the official narrative on issues such as security policy and the government’s secret negotiations with the gangs.

El Salvador’s Congress, pushing further in the government’s dramatic crackdown on gangs, has authorized prison sentences of 10 to 15 years for news media that reproduce or disseminate messages from the gangs, alarming press freedom groups.

Speaking at a graduation ceremony for new police officers and soldiers, President Nayib Bukele said that if the gangs “unleash a wave of crimes, we are going to cut off food in the prisons.”

Security forces intensified operations against El Salvador’s street gangs Tuesday with mass arrests, the cordoning off of neighborhoods and house-by-house searches under a state of emergency that has raised concerns among some organizations it could open the door to human rights abuses.

A number of civil liberties will be suspended for 30 days in El Salvador as a government response to the alarming spike in gang-attributed homicides. The violence casts further doubt on the efficiency of President Bukele’s security policy, already under scrutiny because of revelations of secret gang negotiations.

Salvadoran prosecutors obtained groundbreaking evidence confirming that the Bukele administration negotiated a reduction in homicides with the country’s three gangs and that top prison officials removed potentially incriminating evidence from their facilities.

The letter calls on Alejandro Mayorkas and the Biden Administration to end the prioritization of persons for detention and deportation who are labeled as gang-affiliated.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele denied a report Friday that his government has been negotiating with one of the country’s most powerful gangs to lower the murder rate and win their support in mid-term elections in exchange for prison privileges.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Sealing some Salvadoran prisoners’ cells with sheet metal is a draconian measure sure to draw accusations of human rights violations, but President Nayib Bukele circulated photos of the cell modifications himself, counting on the support of a population traumatized by gang violence.

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Far from receding during the pandemic, Mexico’s homicide rate actually rose during March as the country started lockdowns to combat the coronavirus, according to figures provided Friday by the government.

There’s been a sharp increase in reports of religiously motivated crimes in Rio de Janeiro since 2016, in particular attacks on “terreiros”—the temples of the Candomblé and Umbanda faiths.

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — A court in El Salvador has sentenced 373 convicted members of the notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang to prison terms of up to 74 years for crimes ranging from murder and arms trafficking to terrorist association in a mass trial historic for the sheer number of defendants, authorities said Friday.

Drug cartel gunmen ambushed three SUVs, killing three women and six children.

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaidó rejected allegations Friday that he has ties to an illegal armed group in Colombia, as officials launched an investigation based on photos appearing in social media purportedly showing him posing with members of the gang.