U.S. to seek rapid deportations of migrant families
Expedited removal allows U.S. border officials to expel migrants without a hearing before an immigration judge.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez is an award-winning reporter covering immigration for CBS News, where his reporting is featured across multiple CBS News and Stations platforms, including the CBS News 24/7, CBSNews.com and CBS News Radio.
Montoya-Galvez is also part of CBS News' team of 2024 political campaign reporters.
Montoya-Galvez joined CBS News in 2018 and has reported hundreds of articles on immigration, the U.S. immigration policy, the contentious debate on the topic, and connected issues. He's landed exclusive stories and developed in-depth reports on the impact of significant policy changes. He's also extensively reported on the people affected by a complex immigration system.
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.
He was born in Cali, Colombia's third-largest city, and raised in northern New Jersey.
He earned a bachelor's degree in media and journalism studies/Spanish from Rutgers University.
Expedited removal allows U.S. border officials to expel migrants without a hearing before an immigration judge.
U.S. Judge Andrew Hanen blocked tens of thousands of immigrant teenagers and young adults from accessing the Obama-era legal protections.
"Allow me to be clear: if you take to the sea, you will not come to the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned on Tuesday.
More than 81,000 immigrant teens and young adults are waiting for a decision on their DACA applications as a looming court ruling threatens the program's existence.
ICE is currently detaining more than 27,000 immigrants. So far, just over 1,300 detainees have received two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The Biden administration had already instructed ICE to focus on arresting immigrants with certain criminal convictions, recent border-crossers and foreigners deemed to pose a national security threat.
The Department of Homeland Security said it would review cases of immigrants whose deportations "failed to live up to our highest values."
The Department of Health and Human Services will continue to house migrant children at four emergency sites, including a tent camp at the Fort Bliss Army base.
A looming federal court decision threatens the Obama-era program, which offers deportation relief to undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children.
CBS News has reported that migrant children held at Fort Bliss are constantly monitored for self-harm, escape attempts and panic attacks.
The Biden administration has been slowly processing asylum-seekers who were previously required to wait in dangerous border cities and squalid tent camps in Mexico.
Migrant children held at a U.S. government site in Texas are constantly monitored for incidents of self-harm, panic attacks and escape attempts, sources said.
Many of the asylum cases filed by Central American migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border cite domestic violence and gang persecution.
Officials have portrayed the program as an alternative to the often dangerous trek migrant children take to reach the U.S. southern border.
The Biden administration facilitated the reunification of seven children with their parents in May and expects to reunite an additional 29 families in coming weeks.