The United States Treasury has announced sanctions on a Mexico-based migrant-trafficking gang that supplied asylum seekers with false papers to game the process.

For nationalities that don’t need a visa, Mexico can be the ticket to seeking asylum in the United States.

This September 2018 photo shows the beach at the popular tourist resort of Puerto Peasco in the state of Sonora, Mexico. The spat in the small community of Sonoyta erupted against a backdrop of local rivalries and resentments, international politics and growing fears about virus spread along the 2,000-mile border. Although authorities in Puerto Peasco told visitors on the city's website they should be waved by if they can prove they have reservations in the coastal city, Jacquez said they cannot pass. Claudia Pavlovich Arellano announced all non-essential travel from Arizona into her state would be banned over the July 4 weekend. When Monday rolled around, social media reports said Sonoyta protesters were blocking the southbound route again.

Caseloads eased by Wednesday but only after the El Centro hospital sent seven new patients to San Diego County for treatment and Pioneer transferred nine patients elsewhere in Southern California. Imperial's roughly 180,000 residents rank it 30th among the California's counties for population but its 74 hospitalized virus patients on Wednesday made it the seventh-highest for those patients. The cross-border traffic is also driven by Mexican shoppers seeking cheaper goods or more variety, with cars with Mexican license plates often filling the Imperial Valley Mall parking lot. Our malls are here because of the Mexicali consumer, not Imperial Valley, said El Centro Mayor Efrain Silva. Authorities cannot prevent U.S. citizens who live south of the border from heading to Imperial Valley hospitals for treatment.