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WASHINGTON - Editor’s note: We want you to know what’s happening, why and how it could impact your life, family or business, so we created a weekly digest of the top original immigration, migration and refugee reporting from across VOA. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales shake hands before a bilateral meeting in Guatemala City, Guatemala Aug. 1, 2019.

McAleenan traveled to Guatemala to promote safe third country agreement

U.S. Homeland Security acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan and Guatemalan officials outlined details of the safe third country agreement signed between the United States and Guatemala last week. Under the new deal, the Trump administration is planning to send asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador back to Guatemala to process their requests for help outside the U.S. Their claims would not initially go through the U.S. immigration courts. 

FILE - A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer looks on during an operation in Escondido, Calif., July 8, 2019.

One family’s gripping account after an immigration raid

The family opened the door thinking they were going to collaborate with law enforcement to help solve a crime. That is not what happened. It wasn’t local police. It was ICE.

ACLU sues Trump administration for continued child separations

The American Civil Liberties Union asked a federal judge Tuesday in San Diego to block the Trump administration to continue the separation of families despite last year’s court order against the practice. 

Children and adults play on pink seesaws along the U.S.-Mexico border in Sunland Park, N.M., July 28, 2019.

US-Mexico Border and seesaw bridges

Two California professors installed three pink seesaws through the steel border fence at an area near El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. It gave children on either side of the U.S.-Mexico border a chance to play together, despite the physical barriers that divide them.

FILE - Yazmin Juarez, mother of 19-month-old Mariee, who died after detention by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testifies before a House Oversight Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Human Services hearing in Washington, July 10, 2019.

Migrant mother sues private prison company

Yazmin Juarez’s 1-year-old daughter died weeks after they were released from an immigration detention center in Texas. She filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the private prison company that operates the facility. Juarez’s lawyers allege the medical staff at the Dilley facility didn’t properly treat the infant, then wrongly cleared her to travel.

D.C. Court, asylum rules and Trump administration

Judge Randolph D. Moss, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., Friday threw out a Trump administration policy that made anyone who crossed the border outside an official port of entry ineligible for asylum. 

From the Feds:

USCIS ends parole program for Filipinos and Haitians

The Trump administration is ending the Filipino World War II Veterans Parole program and the Haitian Family Reunification Parole Program, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced Friday. Under both policies, individuals with approved family-based immigrant petitions were authorized to enter and work in the United States while waiting for their green card to become available.

TPS extended for Syrians

Kevin McAleenan, U.S. Homeland Security acting secretary, has extended Syria’s Temporary Protected Status designation for 18 months after reviewing the country’s current conditions. TPS recipients can remain in the U.S. with work authorization through March 31, 2021.