Trump empowers deportation agents to target migrants allowed into U.S. legally
The far-reaching move empowers federal immigration agencies to target a population of migrants who came to the U.S. with the government's permission.
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Camilo Montoya-Galvez is the Immigration Correspondent at CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple programs and platforms, including national broadcast shows, CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and the organization's social media accounts.
Montoya-Galvez has received numerous awards for his groundbreaking and in-depth reporting on immigration, including a national Emmy Award, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award and several New York Emmy Awards.
Over several years, he has built one of the leading and most trusted national sources of immigration news, filing breaking news pieces, as well as exclusive reports and in-depth feature stories on the impact of major policy changes.
Montoya-Galvez was the first reporter to obtain and publish the names of the Venezuelan deportees sent by the U.S. to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, with little to no due process. Using that list, he co-produced a "60 Minutes" report that found most of the deported men did not have apparent criminal records, despite the administration's claims that they were all dangerous criminals and gang members. Montoya-Galvez was also the first journalist to interview Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador and imprisoned at the CECOT prison.
In 2025 alone, Montoya Galvez broke dozens of other exclusive stories. He disclosed the internal Trump administration plan to revoke the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela; landed the first national network sit-down interviews with the current heads of ICE and Border Patrol; and obtained government data showing that illegal crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border in fiscal year 2025 plummeted to the lowest level since 1970 amid Trump's crackdown.
Montoya Galvez's North Star is to cover immigration with nuance and fairness, in a nonpartisan, comprehensive and compelling way that respects the dignity of those at the center of this story
Before joining CBS News, Montoya-Galvez spent over two years as an investigative unit producer and assignment desk editor at Telemundo's television station in New York City. His work at Telemundo earned three New York Emmy Awards. Earlier, he was the founding editor of After the Final Whistle, an online bilingual publication featuring stories that highlight soccer's role in contemporary society.
Montoya-Galvez was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in New Jersey. He earned a bachelor's degree in Media and Journalism Studies and Spanish from Rutgers University.
The far-reaching move empowers federal immigration agencies to target a population of migrants who came to the U.S. with the government's permission.
The offices were designed to give migrants legal immigration options and dissuade them from crossing the U.S. southern border illegally.
Trump administration officials are considering deploying as many as 10,000 soldiers to the border and using military bases to hold migrants awaiting deportation.
U.S. border agents have been instructed to summarily deport migrants crossing into the country illegally without allowing them to request legal protection.
Expedited removal allows U.S. immigration officials to deport migrants who lack proper documents through a streamlined process that bypasses the lengthy and massively backlogged immigration court system.
The Trump administration revoked a Biden-era policy that prohibited ICE arrests at or near schools, places of worship and other "sensitive locations."
Donald Trump is signing roughly 200 executive actions, memoranda and proclamations upon taking office Monday.
President Trump invoked muscular presidential powers to begin a sweeping crackdown on immigration.
The CBP One app allows migrants in certain parts of Mexico to request a time to be processed by American immigration officials at legal border entry points, also known as ports of entry.
The locations expected to be targeted by deportation teams from ICE include those with large populations of immigrants, one source said.
A federal appeals court on Friday declared the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals immigration policy unlawful.
Kristi Noem, Trump's pick to lead the sprawling Department of Homeland Security, took questions from lawmakers on border policies and disaster relief.
Mike Banks, who has spearheaded Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's border crackdown, is expected to be appointed Border Patrol chief after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office.
The Biden administration announced it would extend the temporary legal status of nearly 1 million immigrants from El Salvador, Sudan, Ukraine and Venezuela.
The government will issue refunds to tens of thousands of unauthorized immigrants married to American citizens who applied for a program that was struck down in court.