An increasing number of conservative states are mandating that state and local social service providers verify and report the immigration status of the people they serve — in some cases threatening stiff penalties for public employees who fail to comply.

Under federal law, immigrants who are in the United States illegally are generally barred from receiving public benefits such as nonemergency health care, food aid and housing help, though a handful of left-leaning states use their own money to provide such benefits.

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The wife of a U.S. Army soldier has been released from federal custody after spending a month in an immigration detention center. Deisy Rivera Ortega, married to Sgt. First Class Jose Serrano, was arrested at an immigration office in El Paso, Texas, on April 14. Sen. Tammy Duckworth’s (D-Ill.) office told The Hill that the…

Cruise ships are convenient floating hotels by which to see far-flung parts of the world – but as an epidemiologist, I know they are also everything an infectious pathogen could want: thousands of strangers packed into enclosed spaces for days or weeks, sharing dining rooms and high-touch surfaces such as elevator buttons and handrails, breathing recirculated air.

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