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'This is America?' Migrants keep arriving at the border, despite tougher asylum rules
Migrants gather at an informal camp near Jacumba Hot Springs, California, on June 14, 2024. Once they cross the border into the U.S., they wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol, in their hope to claim asylum.
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Jacumba Valley, Calif.— On an early morning in late June, the heat in this remote area in San Diego County is oppressive.
As NPR drives along the border wall that divides the U.S. from Mexico, we spot a woman walking on the side of the road.
“This is America?” she asks.
“This is America,” we tell her.
“Oh God. Thank you, God,” she says, then walks off toward an unofficial migrant camp before we can ask her name.
She’s one of the many migrants who keep on coming, despite executive actions recently signed by President Joe Biden which severely restrict asylum for anyone crossing the southern border without authorization.
Border crossings’ ebb and flow
The renewed emphasis on enforcement is working, immigration analysts say, but only as a short-term measure.
Two weeks after the asylum restrictions kicked in on June 4, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 25% decrease in daily encounters along the southern border.
In the long run, these policies will not deter irregular immigration, says Adam Isacson, an analyst with the Washington Office on Latin America, a nonpartisan organization based in Washington, D.C.
“Every single one of those policies does push the numbers down for a few months, and then they start to recover and come right back,” says Isacson.
He says people will continue to attempt to come to the U.S. if the conditions pushing them to leave home – violence, war, poverty- are more horrific than the ones they may have to face on the journey.
As per the May 4 executive actions enacted by President Joe Biden, when there is a 7-day average of 2,500 unauthorized crossings across the entire Southern border, it triggers a closure to undocumented migrants seeking asylum.
There are a few exceptions, including for underage children and some victims of severe crimes.
But in practice, the rule permanently closes the border down to asylum seekers, since the weekly average is often well above 2,500.
Civil rights groups say these actions, similar to measures taken by former President Donald Trump during his administration, are illegal.
“If you get to U.S. soil and you get to a safe place, we will screen you for asylum,” says Lee Gelernt, a lawyer with the ACLU who sued the Biden Administration over the new asylum restrictions.
“We won’t necessarily give you asylum if you don’t have a credible claim,” he points out. “But we will at least screen you, and it doesn’t matter how you get to U.S. soil.”
But none of the people NPR spoke with at the camps in Jacumba had heard of the executive actions, much less of the lawsuit against it.
Their concerns are more immediate: surviving days of walking through rugged terrain under the scorching sun; being cut off from communication with their loved ones and without a court date to petition for asylum, at least not yet.
They are on U.S. soil, but not allowed to move. Stranded. Waiting.
Two migrants were handcuffed after an encounter with Border Patrol Agents on June 14, 2024 in Jacumba Hot Springs, California. Under newer asylum restrictions issued by the Biden administration, most migrants who cross the border with no autorization are to be denied the opportunity to request asylum.
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The purgatory of Jacumba
Unlike other migrant routes in San Diego, Jacumba is somewhat geographically exposed. Many people who cross through this area want to turn themselves into Border Patrol agents, to ask for asylum. They are then taken to one of several primitive campsites around the valley to wait for processing – sometimes for days.
These camps have no shelter from the desert elements, no water, no food, and only a handful of port-a-potties. At times, locals report as many as a thousand people waiting at the various locations.
NPR has repeatedly asked Customs and Border Protection for comment on these camps but has received no acknowledgment of their existence.
And yet, hundreds of migrants say they were told to stay put in them, or risk deportation.
New restrictions seed misinformation
On the day NPR arrived at one of the main camps in early June, about 150 people were waiting in an open field. Several said they’d been sleeping outside for days without shelter from the sun.
After a day of waiting in the heat, a man named Frank became dehydrated and started throwing up. A local humanitarian volunteer gave him first aid. Once Frank had stabilized, he told NPR his story, using only his first name to protect his family.
Frank says he owned a plot of land back home in Colombia, but trouble began when armed groups showed up demanding money from his family.
“I could not pay. They started extorting me. Saying they were going to kill me, kill my family,” he explains.
Frank and his wife couldn’t pay, so they fled to the U.S.
A coyote (a person who guides migrants to the U.S. and across the border), told him that the first 2,500 people to cross the border every day would be allowed to apply for asylum. And that Colombians like Frank, are allowed in.
This is all incorrect.
Misinformation about U.S. immigration policy runs rampant in the Jacumba camps. Some rumors are spread through word of mouth or social media. Others, like the account Frank got, are seeded by organized crime trying to make money off people’s desperation.
A U.S. Border Patrol agent inspects a grup of dozens of migrants waiting to be processed after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border on June 18, 2024 in Jacumba Hot Springs, San Diego, California.
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In limbo and exposed to the elements
When Border Patrol agents finally show up at this informal encampment in Jacumba, they line up the men and women separately.
An officer asks each woman if she is pregnant or sick, and announces that only the single women will be taken in for processing – no couples or families.
Frank looks at his wife. “Tell them you are single,” he urges. They’re going to give you asylum.”
She breaks down into sobs.
“Be strong,” Frank tells her. They kiss goodbye, and she climbs into the Border Patrol van.
Under the new rule, she will most likely be subject to expedited removal, unless she can convince officials of exceptionally harsh circumstances — for instance, that she was a victim of human trafficking.
Biden’s asylum restrictions are an attempt to send a message: without authorization, the border is closed.
A statement from CBP says: “The fact is that people without a legal basis to remain in the United States will be removed.”
But beyond official pronouncements and thousands of miles from Washington, in places like Jacumba, the humanitarian crisis could worsen as summer months roll in.
Volunteer aids and immigration protection groups say the most recent policies are punitive and push desperate migrants to cross through more dangerous, even deadly areas.
Dozens of migrants wait to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents after crossing into the U.S. from Mexico on June 14, 2024 in Jacumba Hot Springs, California.
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So close, yet so far
The Border Patrol van takes off, leaving about 80 remaining migrants in a cloud of dust.
One of them, a young man named David, starts to have a panic attack. He says he hasn’t eaten in three days.
Karen Parker, a local volunteer, rushes to assist him.
“Breathe,” she whispers. “Just breathe baby, just breathe.”
David wears thick tinted reading glasses that seem out of place in the rugged landscape where he’s now stuck.
“I can’t go back to Colombia,” he says.
When a gang in his neighborhood found out he was gay, David said he was beaten badly and was left partially blind.
He asked NPR not to use his last name, because his mother, still in Colombia, has also been threatened by the gang.
As the dust cloud settles, David exhales in relief as the volunteer Parker pours water over the back of his head.
“You are close. You are so close,” Parker tells him.
But for now, this might be the closest he’ll get to being allowed to stay in the United States.
On July 1, a host of new student loan changes from last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act will kick in, including the end of a short-lived Biden-era repayment plan, the start of two Republican-designed repayment plans and strict new borrowing limits for some students.
There’s a lot to parse, and not every change will impact every borrower. So we’ve designed this story to make it easy to find the guidance that does apply to you, or to the borrower in your life.
To get started, click on the student loan status that best describes your situation below:
You’re enrolled in the SAVE repayment plan
After a few contentious years of paused payments and a legal battle that made it all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, the Biden-era Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan is officially ending.
If you’re one of the more than 7 million borrowers still enrolled in SAVE — the most flexible and generous income-driven repayment plan — you may have already gotten a notice from the U.S. Department of Education warning you that you’ll have to switch plans soon. Well, you’ll likely be getting another note from your loan servicer, starting a roughly 90-day clock.
If you don’t act, the department says it will enroll you in one of the least flexible repayment plans.
Financial aid experts have told NPR that this effort, beginning July 1, to push millions of borrowers into repayment and into new plans that will cost more than SAVE, could exacerbate an alarming rise in student loan defaults – especially considering that many borrowers enrolled in SAVE precisely because their low incomes qualified them for a $0 monthly payment.
What are your repayment plan options? You’ve got lots. Keep reading.
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You’re a current borrower with old (pre-July 1) loans and no plans for new loans
Whoever you are, whatever your story, whether you enrolled in the SAVE plan or not, you’re in good company: About 43 million Americans hold about $1.7 trillion in federal student loan debt.
As long as your loans were issued before July 1, and you have no plans to borrow any more money, you’ll have quite a few repayment options, including one brand new plan. They are:
Standard Repayment Plan
- How it works: This plan divides your loan balance into equal monthly payments (plus interest, of course) over a 10-year period. If your loans have been consolidated, they may be spread out over a longer period, up to 30 years.
- The upside: Monthly payments are all the same, predictable as the sunrise.
- The downside: Payments can be pretty high relative to income-based plans.
- A note for borrowers: Republicans also created a new version of this Standard plan, called the Tiered Standard Plan, but it’s not available to borrowers with only older loans.
Graduated Repayment Plan
- How it works: Monthly payments start out low, but as the name suggests, they increase every two years and are spread out over a 10-year period. As with the Standard plan, borrowers with consolidated loans may qualify for a longer repayment term.
- The upside: It allows borrowers to start small, and, ideally, as your payments increase over time, so too does your income and your ability to keep up with them.
- The downside: Over time, your payments could grow, even double in size.
Extended Repayment Plan
- How it works: Monthly payments can be either fixed or graduated, but there’s one big difference. Payments can last up to 25 years, instead of the common 10 years.
- The upside: Twenty-five years makes for smaller monthly payments.
- The downside: You’re paying a lot in interest over the long run.
The plans above do not take a borrower’s income into account when calculating a monthly payment. So-called income-driven repayment plans do — and come with a few other perks:
Income-Based Repayment (IBR)
- How it works: If your loans are older than July 1, 2014, your monthly payments are based on 15% of your discretionary income and spread over a 25-year period. Anything left after that is forgiven. For loans taken out after July 1, 2014, monthly payments will be based on 10% of discretionary income and spread over 20 years before the remainder is forgiven.
- The upside: Loan forgiveness!
- The downside: Twenty to 25 years repaying a loan is a long time.
Income-Contingent Repayment (ICR)
- How it works: ICR bases monthly payments on a larger share of a borrower’s discretionary income — 20%. Borrowers also have to make payments over a relatively long period of time — 25 years — before they can qualify for forgiveness.
- The upside: Up to now, for Parent PLUS borrowers, this was often the only income-driven repayment plan they could qualify for.
- The downside: It will generally cost more each month than its fellow income-driven plans.
- A note for borrowers: This is arguably the least generous member of this plan family. It’s also being phased out by 2028, so, if you do enroll, you’ll have to change plans again in two years.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
- How it works: PAYE’s terms are similar to what newer IBR borrowers enjoy: Payments are based on 10% of discretionary income over a 20-year period, then the remainder is forgiven.
- The upside: Switching to PAYE, for now, could mean two years of lower payments.
- The downside: Like ICR, Republicans voted to shut down PAYE by July 1, 2028; so you’ll need to switch plans again within two years.
Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP)
- How it works: RAP bases monthly payments on a borrower’s adjusted-gross income (AGI). The more you make, the higher your monthly payment. For example, a borrower earning $30,001-$40,000 can expect a monthly payment around $75-$100. Earn $50,001-$60,000 and it jumps to $208.34-$250.
- The upside: RAP waives any monthly interest that exceeds the plan’s monthly payment. It also comes with a principal-matching payment that makes sure lower-income borrowers see their loan principals go down each month. And, for parents and caregivers, it allows you to slash $50 from your monthly payment for every dependent in your household.
- The downside: Unlike IBR, ICR and PAYE, RAP requires that borrowers be in repayment for 30 years before any remainder is forgiven. By then, there’ll be little if any debt left. And, a nerdy but important facet: This plan isn’t indexed for inflation, which means modest income gains could trigger big increases in monthly payments.
- A note for borrowers: This is the new kid on the block for legacy borrowers. You can enroll starting July 1.
We recommend using the department’s Loan Simulator — or maybe this one, developed in partnership with The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, a nonprofit — to see which plan makes the most sense for you.
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You’re a current borrower with old (pre-July 1) loans and future loan plans
So, you’ve already got some loans, and you’re planning to take out more. The good news/bad news is you won’t have a lot of repayment options to choose from.
Any borrower who takes out a loan on or after July 1 will be limited to the two new repayment plans created in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act: The Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) or the…
Tiered Standard Plan
- How it works: Like the original Standard, the new Tiered plan divides a borrower’s principal and interest into equal monthly payments over a set period. Again, predictable as the sunrise. What’s different is that that period of time grows with the size of the debt.
- Owe less than $25,000 — repay over 10 years.
- Owe $25,000-$49,999 — repay over 15 years.
- Owe $50,000-$99,999 — repay over 20 years.
- Owe $100,000 or more — repay over 25 years.
- The upside: A longer repayment period for larger balances means smaller payments.
- The downside: Longer repayment periods also mean, well, a long-term relationship with debt.
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You’re a new undergraduate borrower taking out loans after July 1
Hello, fresh face! Welcome to your higher education adventure. Let’s be honest, you’re probably not thinking much about your repayment options yet. You’re headed to school, and we wish you well.
As you get on your way, here are a few things to keep in mind: Lending limits haven’t changed for undergraduate borrowers. Dependent/independent undergrads are still limited to borrowing:
- $5,500/$9,500 in their first year
- $6,500/$10,500 in their second year
- $7,500/$12,500 in the third and subsequent years
In total, dependent/independent undergrads can borrow up to $31,000/$57,500.
When it does come time for repayment, you’ll likely have just two options to choose from: Either the Repayment Assistance Plan or the Tiered Standard Plan.
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You’re a new grad school borrower taking out loans after July 1
Many of you probably have undergraduate loan debt, though hopefully not too much. And for the moment, you’re probably not thinking about repayment since you’re headed back to school. We wish you well!
Still, there are a few things to keep in mind: As of July 1, lending limits change dramatically. Until now, grad students could borrow up to the cost of their program. Your program costs $40,000 a year? You could borrow $40,000 every year. Soon, though, you’ll be limited to $20,500 a year and a total of $100,000. That’s a big difference.
Only a small group of so-called “professional” degrees will be exempted from these lower limits and qualify instead for $50,000 a year in loans, or $200,000 in all. These degrees fall into 11 categories: chiropractic, clinical psychology, dentistry, law, medicine, optometry, osteopathic medicine, pharmacy, podiatry, theology and veterinary medicine.
You can learn more about these grad school loan caps at this link, including why they have many advocates worrying about an eventual shortage of nurses and other healthcare providers.
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You’re in graduate school right now. Do the new loan limits apply to you?
This is complicated. The Education Department is making some exceptions for grad school borrowers who are in the middle of their higher education adventures. You may be exempted from the new loan limits if:
- You were enrolled by June 30, 2026.
- By then, you also have to have received a loan for your program.
- And you have maintained enrollment in the same program, at the same school.
If you do qualify to be exempted from the new limits, the department’s website says you can lean on the old loan limits — i.e., borrow up to the cost of your program — for either three academic years or the difference between how long your program is supposed to last and how long you’ve already been enrolled, whichever number is smaller.
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You’re enrolling in a short-term job training program and you’d like help paying for it
One of the biggest changes going into effect on July 1 is an expansion of the traditional Pell Grant for low-income students to include what’s known as short-term workforce training.
A Pell Grant is essentially free money from the federal government – unlike a loan, it does not need to be paid back. For 2026-27, the largest grant a student in a traditional program can qualify for is $7,395. Awards for short-term training will likely be prorated for the program’s length.
This expansion of Pell is meant to help workers learn new skills to become, say, a certified nursing assistant or a welder. For the first time, students will be able to get federal help paying for these training programs, which last between eight and 15 weeks.
The first, most important step you need to take to qualify is to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). You can’t get a Pell Grant without it.
One huge caveat: This expansion is so new that many current training programs may not qualify. And because it comes with some pretty strict federal guardrails, some never will.
It will take states and the federal government some time to figure it all out, so you’ll need to be patient. And while you wait, fill out the FAFSA!
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You’re interested in Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF)
Greetings (aspiring) public servants.
The good news for you is that the program known as Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) still exists. It’s a policy quid pro quo: If you pledge to work full-time (at least 30 hours a week) in public service — as a nurse or police officer or school teacher, etc. — for 10 years while making 120 monthly payments toward your student loans through a qualifying repayment plan, then whatever debt is left will be forgiven by the U.S. government.
Which plans qualify for PSLF?
In the income-driven category, IBR, ICR, PAYE and the forthcoming RAP all qualify.
We recommend using the department’s Loan Simulator to see which plan makes the most sense for you, i.e., which plan has you paying the least over the next decade.
The other question you may have is: Wait! Didn’t I see stories about how the Trump administration is changing the PSLF rules, maybe making it harder to qualify?
Good memory! Yes. Here’s one of those stories.
Effective July 1, the department says it can deny loan forgiveness to workers whose government or nonprofit employers engage in activities with a “substantial illegal purpose.” The job of defining “substantial illegal purpose” belongs to the education secretary. Last year, the department offered this short list: “terrorism, child trafficking, and transgender procedures that are doing irreversible harm to children.”
In late 2025, several large cities, including Boston and Chicago, sued over the rule change, worried that the administration might try to use a city government’s politics to exclude its public workers from PSLF. The fight over this rule is very much still playing out, so stay tuned.
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You’re a parent interested in helping your student pay for college
The Parent PLUS program will see a few key changes take effect July 1. Here’s what to know:
- First of all, there will be new limits on how much parents can borrow. Parent PLUS loans will be capped at $20,000 per year, per dependent child, with an aggregate cap of $65,000 per dependent. That’s a big change from the previous rules which allowed PLUS loans up to the cost of a program.
- Repayment is also seeing big changes. Parent PLUS borrowers who take out a loan after July 1 will no longer qualify for any plan that bases their monthly payment on their income. They will only be able to use the new Tiered Standard Plan. This also means future Parent PLUS borrowers will no longer be able to qualify for either a plan that offers forgiveness after a set period of time or for PSLF.
- For Parent PLUS loans that were taken out before July 1, borrowers’ best bet for a long-term, income-driven plan is IBR, but only if you consolidate your loans first, make one payment on the less generous ICR plan (which, like PAYE, will be phased out in 2028) then switch to IBR. If this is news to you, it may already be too late. The Education Department’s website recommends borrowers start this process at least three months early to make sure their new consolidated loans are issued before the July 1 deadline.
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Edited by: Nicole Cohen and Nirvi Shah
new video loaded: Graham Platner Wins Maine Senate Primary
transcript
transcript
Graham Platner Wins Maine Senate Primary
Graham Platner, a progressive oyster farmer, won the Democratic nomination for Senate in Maine on Tuesday. He is set to face Senator Susan Collins, a five-term Republican, in November.
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Together, we will win back this Senate seat. It is deeply humbling to stand here as your Democratic nominee. I’ve made mistakes in my life, mistakes that I regret… But every day I wake up and I try to be a little bit better and a little bit kinder than I was the day before. Thank you, Maine.
By Shawn Paik
June 10, 2026
Democratic Attorney General Aaron Ford, left, will face Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo, right, in Nevada’s race for governor this November.
Charles Krupa/AP, Ethan Miller/Getty Images
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RENO, Nev. — The stage is set for what could be one of the most closely watched gubernatorial elections in the country. According to a race call by The Associated Press, Democratic voters in Nevada have selected two-time state Attorney General Aaron Ford as their party’s nominee to challenge incumbent Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Ford, who was elected as the state’s AG in 2018, defeated five other Democrats to claim the nomination. He focused his primary campaign on Lombardo, pointing to the rising cost of groceries, gas, housing and healthcare as failures of the one-term governor.
He’s also done everything he can to tie Lombardo to President Trump, who endorsed Lombardo and who has seen his popularity decline since winning the state by 3 points two years ago. That’s setting up a tough race for Lombardo. The Cook Political Report, which tracks elections, rates the race a toss-up.
Lombardo faced six primary challengers of his own, but sailed to victory Tuesday night. That was thanks in part to his relative success in the state legislature, despite Democratic majorities in both chambers. Among his top accomplishments are a bipartisan bill that looked to hold school districts more accountable, tightening criminal justice reforms enacted after George Floyd’s killing in 2020, and efforts to make housing more attainable. He also helped secure a public financing deal for a new stadium for Major League Baseball’s A’s, formerly of Oakland.
The governor has secured a sizeable war chest heading into the general election, but money alone isn’t enough to carry an election in the Silver State. Messaging and voter contact matter, and that’s where Ford may have an advantage. The state’s incredibly powerful Culinary Union, which represents hospitality workers across Nevada, officially endorsed Ford last month. The union, which claims as many as 60,000 members in Nevada alone, has become a voter turnout machine. It has integrated polling sites into casinos and resorts dedicated to hospitality workers.
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