A record 68.5 million people had been driven from their homes across the world at the end of 2017. That total was 2.9 million more than at the end of 2016.
Pope Francis said he stands with the U.S. bishops who recently condemned the Trump administration's policy on immigration that has led to children being held in government shelters while their parents are sent to federal prisons.
The U.S. bishops "cannot, in good faith, endorse" an immigration bill submitted by the House's Republican leadership, said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, Texas, chairman of the bishops' Committee on Migration.
An Australian missionary nun ordered by Philippine authorities to leave the country is still in danger of being deported, despite winning a reprieve from the Justice Department, said a top government official.
An audio recording that appears to capture the heartbreaking voices of small Spanish-speaking children crying out for their parents at a U.S. immigration facility took center stage in the growing uproar over the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.