REBECCA SANTANA

Homeland Security reporter

Santana covers the Department of Homeland Security for The Associated Press. She has extensive experience reporting in such places as Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

FILE - A migrant walks along a road shadowed by the steel columns of the border wall separating Arizona and Mexico after crossing into the United States, Friday, Dec. 15, 2023, near Lukeville, Ariz. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

A deal on US border policy is closer than it seems. Here’s how it is shaping up and what’s at stake

Amid grueling negotiations between senators and the White House, the contours of a bipartisan border security and immigration deal are beginning to take shape.

The Capitol is seen under a winter sky in Washington, Monday, Dec. 18, 2023, as White House and Senate negotiators are struggling to reach a U.S. border security deal that would unlock President Joe Biden's request for billions of dollars worth in military aid for Ukraine and national security. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Biden’s push for Ukraine aid stalls in Senate as negotiations over border restrictions drag on

President Joe Biden’s push to have Congress replenish wartime aid for Ukraine as part of a deal on border and immigration policy changes will almost certainly drag into next year.

FILE - Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions confirmation hearing on April 20, 2023, in Washington. Prominent Latinos in Congress looked on quietly, at first, privately raising concerns with the Biden administration over the direction of border security talks. Padilla was on the phone constantly with administration officials questioning why the Senate negotiations did not include any meaningful consideration of providing pathways to citizenship for long-time undocumented immigrants. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Latino Democrats shift from quiet concern to open opposition to Biden’s concessions in border talks

Prominent Democratic Latinos in Congress quietly raised concerns at first about negotiations between the Biden administration and a group of senators over border security and asylum restrictions.

FILE - Asylum-seekers walk to a U.S. Border Patrol van after crossing the nearby border with Mexico, Tuesday Sept. 26, 2023, near Jacumba Hot Springs, Calif. Migrants continue to arrive to desert campsites along California's border with Mexico, as they await processing. Congress is discussing changes to the immigration system in exchange for providing money to Ukraine in its fight against Russia and Israel for the war with Hamas. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy, File)

Biden and Congress are mulling big changes on immigration. What are they and what could they mean?

President Joe Biden is taking a more active role in Senate negotiations over changes to the immigration system that Republicans are demanding in exchange for providing money to Ukraine and Israel.

FILE - Hoboken Police officers stand watch outside the United Synagogue of Hoboken, Nov. 3, 2022, in Hoboken, N.J. A new guide from the Department of Homeland Security aims to help churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship protect themselves at a time of heightened tensions in faith-based communities across the country. (AP Photo/Ryan Kryska, File)

A new Homeland Security guide aims to help houses of worship protect themselves

A new guide from the Department of Homeland Security aims to help churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship protect themselves during heightened tensions in faith-based communities across the country.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., speaks during the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the West Front of the Capitol, Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Congress is eying immigration limits as GOP demands border changes in swap for Biden overseas aid

Republican demands to stop the flow of migrants at the Mexico-U.S. border have left Congress scrambling.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, attends a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing on worldwide threats to the United States, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Mayorkas warns of dangers to the US if it loses tools to block terrorists from using drones and WMD

The U.S. government is at risk of losing key tools for preventing terrorists from using drones, chemicals or weapons of mass destruction if Congress doesn’t take action soon.

People attend the March for Israel rally Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2023, on the National Mall in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Tens of thousands of supporters of Israel rally in Washington, crying ‘never again’

Supporters of Israel have rallied by the tens of thousands on Washington’s National Mall, voicing solidarity in the fight against Hamas and crying “never again.”

Demonstrators gather outside of the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Court of Appeals ahead of an asylum hearing, Tuesday, Nov. 7, 2023, in Pasadena, Calif. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)

Biden administration warns of major disruption at border if judges halt asylum rule

The Biden administration is urging an appeals court to allow sweeping new restrictions on asylum to stay in place, warning that halting them would be “highly disruptive” at the border.

FILE - Afghan fire fighters extinguish vehicles on fire after an attack at the main gate of International Hamed Karzai Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 10, 2015. At a time when Americans are deeply divided along party lines, a new poll shows agreement on at least one issue: the United.States' two-decade long war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting. (AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, File)

Republicans and Democrats agree that the Afghanistan war wasn’t worth it, an AP-NORC poll shows

At a time when Americans are deeply divided along party lines, a new poll shows agreement on at least one issue: The United States’ two-decade-long war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

FILE - In this June 17, 2018, file photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP, File)

Settlement over Trump family separations at the border limits future separations for 8 years

A proposed court settlement prevents the government from policies to separate migrant parents from their children at the border for eight years.

Joann Woodson keeps a flower after placing a wreath at the headstone of her husband Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr. during a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2023 in Arlington, Va. During the D-Day invasion, the landing craft Cpl. Waverly B. Woodson Jr. was in took heavy fire and he was wounded before even getting to the beach, but for the next 30 hours he treated 200 wounded men while under intense small arms and artillery fire before collapsing from his injuries and blood loss, according to accounts of his service. With Joann Woodson, are her son, Steve Woodson, center, and Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

A Black medic wounded on D-Day honored for treating dozens of troops under enemy fire

An African American combat medic who was wounded while landing on Omaha Beach during the D-Day invasion of France but went on to tend to dozens of troops has been posthumously honored.

FILE - An emergency alert is displayed on a cellphone, Oct. 30, 2020, in Rio Rancho, N.M. The U.S. government on Wednesday conducted its once-every-three-years nationwide test of the emergency alert system. The last nationwide test was Aug. 11, 2021. Besides cellphone messages, alerts also went out on radio and television. (AP Photo/Susan Montoya Bryan, File)

That blaring noise you heard? It was a test of the federal government’s emergency alert system

If your cellphone was on at 2:20 p.m. Eastern time you should have heard a loud noise and seen a message flash across your screen.

FILE - People line up against a border wall as they wait to apply for asylum after crossing the border from Mexico. Tuesday, July 11, 2023, near Yuma, Ariz. As the number of migrants coming to the U.S.'s southern border is climbing, the Biden administration aims to admit more refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean over the next year. The White House Friday, Sept. 29, released the targets for how many refugees it aims to admit over the next fiscal year starting October 1 and from what regions of the world. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

More refugees to come from Latin America, Caribbean under Biden’s new 125,000 refugee cap

As the number of migrants coming to the U.S.’s southern border is climbing, the Biden administration aims to admit more refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean over the next year.

FILE - Migrants who crossed the Rio Grande and entered the U.S. from Mexico are lined up for processing by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept. 23, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. As the number of migrants coming to the U.S.'s southern border is climbing, the Biden administration aims to admit more refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean over the next year. The White House Friday, Sept. 29, released the targets for how many refugees it aims to admit over the next fiscal year starting October 1 and from what regions of the world. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

The Biden administration is expected to keep cap on refugees admitted to the US at 125,000

The Biden administration is expected to keep the cap on refugees admitted to the United States at 125,000 for the next fiscal year, which begins Sunday.

President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. Biden was in New York to address the 78th United Nations General Assembly. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

US allows Israeli citizens to travel to US visa-free as Israel joins a select group of countries

The Biden administration has admitted Israel into a select group of countries whose citizens are allowed to travel to the United States without getting a visa in advance.

President Joe Biden meets with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Afghans who recently arrived in US get temporary legal status from Biden administration

The Biden administration is giving temporary legal status to Afghan migrants who have already been living in the country for a little over a year.

Migrants who crossed into the U.S. from Mexico wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023, in Eagle Pass, Texas. Migrants have always come to the U.S., but the immigration system now seems strained nationwide more than ever. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

As mayors, governors scramble to care for more migrants, a look at what’s behind the numbers

Migrants have always come to the U.S., but the immigration system now seems strained nationwide more than ever.

President Joe Biden speaks as he meets with Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in New York, Wednesday, Sept. 20, 2023. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The US is allowing hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in the country to work legally

The Biden administration says it’s granting temporary legal status to hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans already in the country.

The US government is eager to restore powers to keep dangerous chemicals out of extremists’ hands

When Congress returns this week, Homeland Security officials and those in the chemical industries will be watching to see if a program regulating the chemical sector will be on its agenda.

FILE - Afghan refugees walk through an Afghan refugee camp at Joint Base McGuire Dix Lakehurst, N.J., on Sept. 27, 2021. More than 840,000 Afghans who applied for a resettlement program aimed at people who helped the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan are still there waiting, according to a report that lays out the challenges with a program intended to help America's allies in the two-decade long conflict. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

840,000 Afghans who’ve applied for key US resettlement program still in Afghanistan, report says

More than 840,000 Afghans and their families who applied for a resettlement program aimed at people who helped the U.S. war effort in Afghanistan are still there waiting.

FILE - The FBI seal is pictured in Omaha, Neb., Aug. 10, 2022. The Biden administration said Tuesday that it detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the United States and that at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

US says a smuggler with terrorist ties helped get migrants from Uzbekistan into the country

The Biden administration says it has detected and stopped a network attempting to smuggle people from Uzbekistan into the United States and says at least one member of the network had links to a foreign terrorist group.

Valerie Laveus greets her brother Reginald Malherbe Daniel as he arrives for the first time to the United States from Haiti at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wednesday, Aug. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Jim Rassol)

A Republican lawsuit threatens a Biden immigration policy thousands have used to come to the US

A trial this week will shine a spotlight on a key part of President Joe Biden’s immigration policy. Under the humanitarian parole program, the U.S. allows up to 30,000 people monthly from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Afghan refugees hold an indoor rally to demand their U.S. visa to be processed in Islamabad, Pakistan, Friday, July 21, 2023. When the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, it carried tens of thousands of Afghans to safety. But two years later, many others are still waiting to be resettled. Those are Afghans who helped the war effort by working with the U.S. government and military or Afghan journalists and aid workers whose former work puts them at risk under the Taliban. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

Two years after fall of Kabul, tens of thousands of Afghans languish in limbo waiting for US visas

When the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021 it airlifted tens of thousands of Afghans to safety.

FILE - People line up against a border wall as they wait to apply for asylum after crossing the border from Mexico, July 11, 2023, near Yuma, Ariz. An appeals court Thursday, Aug. 3, allowed a rule restricting asylum at the southern border to stay in place. The decision is a major win for the Biden administration, which had argued that the rule was integral to its efforts to maintain order along the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Appeals court allows Biden asylum restrictions to temporarily stay in place as case plays out

An appeals court is allowing a rule restricting asylum at the southern border to temporarily stay in place in a major win for the Biden administration.

FILE - Migrants are escorted by a U.S. Army soldier after entering into El Paso, Texas from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to be processed by immigration authorities, May 10, 2023. The Pentagon is pulling 1,100 active duty troops from the U.S.-Mexico border it deployed earlier this year as the government prepares for the end of asylum restrictions linked to the pandemic. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)

The Pentagon is pulling 1,100 troops from the US-Mexico border mission

The Pentagon is pulling 1,100 troops from the U.S.-Mexico border that it had deployed in response to a surge in migrant crossings.

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Oversight of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, July 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

House Republicans grill Mayorkas on ‘disastrous’ border policy and renew calls to impeach him

Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faced a barrage of criticism by House Republicans who, in recent months, have floated impeaching the cabinet official over what they see as his dereliction of duty in securing the southern border.

FILE - Migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border, Jan. 6, 2023, near Yuma, Ariz. A federal judge on Tuesday, July 25, blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without first applying online or seeking protection in a country they passed through. But the judge delayed his ruling from taking effect immediately to give the administration time to appeal. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

A judge blocks limits on asylum at US-Mexico border but gives Biden administration time to appeal

A federal judge has blocked a rule that allows immigration authorities to deny asylum to migrants who arrive at the U.S.

FILE - Migrants wait to be processed after crossing the border, Jan. 6, 2023, near Yuma, Ariz. A judge will hear arguments Wednesday, July 19, in a lawsuit opposing an asylum rule that has become a key part of the Biden administration’s immigration policy. Critics say the rule endangers migrants trying to cross the southern border and is against the law, while the administration argues that it encourages migrants to use lawful pathways into the country and prevents chaos at the border. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)

Biden administration tells judge that its new asylum rule is not a reboot of Trump’s efforts

The Biden administration is arguing that its new asylum rule is vastly different than versions put forward under President Donald Trump.

Friends and family watch as the body of Nasrat Ahmad Yar, 31, is placed into a grave during a funeral service at the All Muslim Association of America cemetery on Saturday, July 8, 2023 in Fredericksburg, Va. Ahmad Yar, an Afghan immigrant who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, was shot and killed on Monday, July 3, while working as a ride-share driver in Washington. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)

An Afghan man who spent years helping US forces in Afghanistan is shot and killed in Washington

A former Afghan interpreter for the U.S. military was killed in a shooting this past week in Washington has been laid to rest.