immigration

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., speaks during a news briefing after a weekly Senate Republican Policy Luncheon at the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 5, 2023 in Washington, D.C. McConnell said Dec. 6 that Republicans would block a supplemental spending package that would have provided aid to Israel and Ukraine because it “fails to address America’s top national security priorities in a serious way.” (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Divided over immigration, U.S. Senate blocks advancing aid for Ukraine, Israel

BY: - December 6, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate failed to move forward Wednesday with a $111 billion spending package that would have bolstered aid to Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and the Southern border amid deep disagreement about immigration policy. The 49-51 procedural vote, which needed at least 60 senators to advance the bill toward final passage, represents a significant […]

House moves to bar use of public lands for housing migrants; SD’s Johnson votes yes

BY: - November 30, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House Thursday passed a bill to bar the use of public lands for temporary housing for migrants applying for asylum. The bill, H.R. 5283, passed with a majority of Republicans in support (including South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson), 224-203.  It’s dead on arrival in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats hold a […]

Gov. Kristi Noem with members of the South Dakota National Guard in Texas at the U.S.-Mexico border in September 2023. (Courtesy of the Governor's Office)

Details scant on Guard’s border deployment as Noem visits troops

BY: - September 26, 2023

Gov. Kristi Noem confirmed Tuesday that 50 South Dakota National Guard soldiers are on a previously announced deployment to the nation’s southern border, but she didn’t say what unit they’re from, how long they’ll be there, what it’ll cost, or exactly what they’re doing. South Dakota Searchlight sent messages about those and other aspects of […]

Lah Soe speaks before the start of a Miss Knaw pageant at Huron in July 2023. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Bridge generation: Children of southeast Asian refugees carve out niche in Huron

BY: - September 15, 2023

HURON — Until age 6, Kler Hae roamed the highlands of southern Thailand after school with his friends, hunting birds with slingshots and stones. If they got lucky, they’d bring home dinner. Now he’s a real estate agent in Huron, an eastern South Dakota town of about 14,000.  At age 12, Pywe Der moved to […]

The "World's Largest Pheasant" greets visitors to Huron. (John Hult/South Dakota Searchlight)

Desperation and renewal: How Huron embraced new Americans and thrived

BY: - September 15, 2023

That Huron came to be a major hub of Karen culture in the Midwest was at least partially a side effect of desperation. What began as desperation for workers morphed into desperation for a school system struggling to manage its migrant population and the community’s response to it.  Today, about a decade after the dust settled […]

COMMENTARY
Gov. Kristi Noem shakes hands with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Aug. 21, 2023, near the nation's southern border. Also pictured, from left, are Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa and Gov. Jim Pillen of Nebraska. (Courtesy of Gov. Noem's office)

At the border, politicians play while migrants pay

BY: - August 25, 2023

Sister Teresa Ann Wolf from the Mother of God Monastery in Watertown recently comforted a young, pregnant Guatemalan woman who collapsed in pain after crossing the Rio Grande River, her baby breached and both lives in peril. Gov. Kristi Noem recently flew to the Texas border, where she joined Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and a […]

Gov. Kristi Noem speaks on Aug. 21, 2023, near the nation's southern border. With Noem are, from left, Govs. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Greg Abbott of Texas, and Jim Pillen of Nebraska. (Courtesy of Gov. Noem's office)

Noem says National Guard deployment to southern border will begin next month

BY: - August 21, 2023

Gov. Kristi Noem said during a press conference Monday that a previously announced South Dakota National Guard deployment to the border will begin Sept. 1.  Noem made the comments during a livestreamed appearance at the border with fellow Republican governors Greg Abbott of Texas, Kim Reynolds of Iowa, Jim Pillen of Nebraska and Kevin Stitt […]

Immigrants wait overnight next to the U.S.-Mexico border fence to seek asylum in the United States on Jan. 7, 2023, as viewed from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. (John Moore/Getty Images)

Public schools banned from sheltering migrants under bill passed by U.S. House

BY: - July 19, 2023

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House on Wednesday night passed a bill to bar the use of public K-12 school facilities to provide shelter for migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. The bill, approved 222-201 with a yes vote from Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, is known as the “Schools Not Shelters Act” and is a rebuke […]

Hundreds of people gathered at Washington Square Park in New Orleans on March 31, 2023, for a march to mark Transgender Day of Visibility. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)

U.S. House Republicans spar with HHS secretary over transgender youth, child labor

BY: - June 13, 2023

WASHINGTON — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Tuesday defended access to health care for transgender people, as well as his agency’s actions in connection with unaccompanied migrant children. Republicans at a U.S. House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing grilled Becerra about gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including puberty […]

A farmhand preps dairy cow udders for milking inside the parlor building at Boadwine Farms in Baltic. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Lack of action on immigration is ‘holding SD back,’ dairy farmers say

BY: - June 9, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This story on dairy farmers is the second of two examining the challenges some South Dakota businesses face as they attempt to hire international workers. The first story examined problems in the tourism industry. — The Department of Homeland Security wanted to do a routine work authorization audit of the Turner County Dairy […]

H2-B worker Francisco (whose last name has been withheld by request) and Janet Boyer pull a couple of tap beers at Mt. Rushmore Brewing Company ahead of the tourist season in Custer. (Paul Horsted/for South Dakota Searchlight)

Volatile, costly international visa program strains SD’s tourism industry

BY: - June 8, 2023

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first of two stories examining the challenges some South Dakota businesses face as they attempt to hire international workers. The second story examines challenges in the agricultural industry. — Janet Boyer estimates she spent over $40,000 arranging housing for international workers and transporting them to the Black Hills before she […]

Gov. Kristi Noem visits troops during the 2019 Golden Coyote Exercise at Rapid City in 2019. (U.S. Army Reserve photo by Spc. Jamaal Turner)

Noem plans to use emergency and disaster money to pay for border troop deployment

BY: - June 2, 2023

Gov. Kristi Noem’s funding source for a troop deployment to the U.S.-Mexico border is the state’s Emergency and Disaster Fund, a revelation that caused a top-ranking legislator to criticize the plan and question its legality. Noem announced the impending troop deployment Thursday in a news release, saying she plans to send at least 50 National […]