Nicole Rodriguez

Who needs a wall? Less than a year into his presidency, Donald Trump is moving swiftly to reshape the nation's immigration system in more concrete ways, curtailing illegal crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border and sending a chill throughout Central America. In a stark reversal from the Obama era, the administration has ramped up round-ups of undocumented immigrants regardless of age or criminal history, expanded detention space and stepped up workplace raids.

President Donald Trump’s threats of mass deportations of migrants and refugees and his generally aggressive stance on immigration have been characterized by opponents as cruel and inhumane. Some policy analysts and physicians go even further, saying they have created a public health crisis for potentially millions of children in the United States. Pediatricians across the country report seeing increases in child patients with sleep and eating disorders, anxiety, depression and stress.

The evening of February 12 began uneventfully for Los Angeles-area resident Jesus Alonso Arreola. The 23-year-old undocumented immigrant from Mexico began his shift as a Lyft and Uber driver and picked up a fare in San Diego. The money for the trek three hours south would help pay his parents’ rent, care for his ailing sister and provide for his pregnant girlfriend, who was expecting the couple’s first child.

Cuban President Raul Castro’s enigmatic heir apparent is a rumored Beatles fan who reportedly once grew his hair long during the rise of Western pop music. He’s pushed for improved internet connectivity on the island essentially frozen in time since the 1960s and advocated for gay rights. But the chances Miguel Diaz-Canel, Cuba’s vice president who is expected to take the reins from the Castro family, will thaw President Donald Trump’s modern-day Cold War with the island are slim, analysts say.

The Trump administration on Wednesday imposed new travel and commerce restrictions on Cuba, making it harder for Americans to visit the island nation and to do business there. The sanctions, which take effect Thursday, seek to prevent the Communist-ruled country’s military, intelligence and security services from benefiting from American financial transactions, according to the Department of the Treasury.

Attacks on Border Patrol agents and customs officials have skyrocketed during the Trump administration despite a historic low in apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to data released Tuesday by Customs and Border Protection. Assaults on agents by undocumented immigrants have nearly doubled, to a six-year high of 847 from 584 last year, while border arrests have declined 25 percent from last year’s 415,816.

The U.S. economy would take a huge hit if the Trump administration decides to stop offering Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to thousands of immigrants who have fled natural disasters, political persecution and pandemics, immigration advocacy groups and lawmakers said. More than 300,000 immigrants from El Salvador, Honduras and Haiti have been granted TPS, and its elimination would result in the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) taking a $164 billion hit over the next decade.

The Trump administration on Monday announced thousands of Haitians seeking refuge in the U.S. must return to their poverty-stricken homeland. The administration will no longer offer Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to 59,000 Haitians, whose protections are set to expire January 22. They have 18 months to leave the U.S., senior administration officials said. Haitians received TPS in 2010 after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake shook the country, killing 220,000 people.

The Department of Justice is considering subjecting state and local officials to criminal charges if they implement or enforce so-called sanctuary policies that bar jurisdictions from cooperating with immigration authorities. Immigration advocates argue such a move would be illegal. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen made the disclosure Tuesday during a Senate committee hearing on the department’s operations.

Drug traffickers are sending a deluge of illicit and prescription drugs across the border, a sign traffickers aren’t intimidated by President Donald Trump’s beefed-up border security. Custom and Border Protection’s Office of Field Operations confiscated a combined 101,951 pounds of cocaine, methamphetamine and Fentanyl this year—the most on record since 2012, according to drug seizure statistics.