Ukrainian children in U.S. custody find unlikely sponsors
The Department of Health and Human Services is currently housing 30 unaccompanied children from Ukraine in shelters across the country, a U.S. official tells CBS News.
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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 Department of Health and Human Services is currently housing 30 unaccompanied children from Ukraine in shelters across the country, a U.S. official tells CBS News.
U.S. shelters have already received more than 70,000 unaccompanied migrant children from border officials in fiscal year 2022, according to data obtained by CBS News.
Due to Trump-era restrictions and the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. refugee admissions reached back-to-back record lows in fiscal years 2020 and 2021.
The plan includes an expansion of expedited removal, a fast-track deportation process that allows U.S. officials to deport certain migrants without court hearings.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday heard arguments in a case that could determine whether the Biden administration can terminate the so-called "Remain in Mexico" policy.
Since its inception in March 2020, the Title 42 authority has allowed U.S. authorities along the Mexican border to expel migrants over 1.8 million times to Mexico.
U.S. citizens or groups can now file applications to show they can financially support displaced Ukrainians seeking to come to the U.S.
In an interview with CBS News, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his department is trying to reduce border apprehensions by referring some migrants for criminal prosecution.
U.S. immigration officials have processed nearly 15,000 undocumented Ukrainians in the past three months, most of them along the Mexican border.
Border officials also reported processing a record number of Ukrainians, many of whom are flying to Mexico hoping to enter the U.S.
The move could benefit thousands of Ukrainians who have been processed by U.S. officials along the Mexican border in recent weeks.
The increase in border arrivals comes as the U.S. prepares to wind down the Title 42 pandemic-era rule, which allows authorities to swiftly expel migrants.
The Department of Homeland Security said Cameroon cannot safely accept the return of its citizens because of the country's ongoing civil war.
Advocates said Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is using migrants and asylum-seekers as political pawns by busing them to the nation's capital.
The vast majority of the unaccompanied children in U.S. care hail from Central America, but officials have recently received a small but growing number of Ukrainian minors.