Mexico will help to regulate the flow of Central American migrants passing through its territory to the United States, but the root causes behind the phenomenon must be tackled, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said Monday. Speaking after U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday threatened to close the U.S. southern border if Mexico did not halt illegal immigration immediately, Lopez Obrador said he would not have a confrontation with the United States. “I prefer love and peace,” Lopez Obrador told reporters at his regular morning news conference. Most of the people caught at the frontier trying to enter the United States illegally come from three violent and impoverished countries: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. Lopez Obrador has tried to persuade Trump to address the problem by fostering economic development in Central America. But on Saturday, the U.S. State Department said it was cutting off aid to El Salvador, Guatemala …

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday injected himself into one of the most consequential cases of the current Supreme Court term, saying the nation’s 2020 census would be “meaningless” without adding a citizenship question to the questionnaire. The comment on Twitter came ahead of an expected ruling from the Supreme Court on whether Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ decision to add the citizenship question violated federal law. “Can you believe that the Radical Left Democrats want to do our new and very important Census Report without the all important Citizenship Question,” Trump tweeted. “Report would be meaningless and a waste of the $Billions [ridiculous] that it costs to put together!” The citizenship question is among a series of White House policies signaling tighter control over immigration. These include Trump’s declaration in February of a national emergency to obtain funds for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, and his threat to close …

A 61-year-old Nebraska woman who served as a surrogate mother for her son and his husband has given birth to a baby girl. Matthew Eledge and Elliot Dougherty were talking about becoming parents when Eledge’s mother and Dougherty’s sister offered to help. Cecile Eledge was 60 at the time and had gone through menopause, but she was approved after extensive screening. Dougherty’s sister was the egg donor, and after doctors used Eledge’s sperm to fertilize the egg, the embryo was implanted. Cecile Eledge gave birth last week at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The family says they’ve received nothing but support. Dr. Ramzy Nakad is a maternal-fetal medicine specialist who worked with the family. Nakad tells the Omaha World-Herald that doctors keep older expectant mothers under heightened surveillance, and in this case, “Everything was aligned for a good outcome.” …

Guatemalan authorities say an 8-year-old boy in custody of the U.S. border patrol on Christmas Eve died of the flu and a bacterial infection. Oscar Padilla is Guatemalan consul in Phoenix, Arizona. He said Monday that the autopsy report of Felipe Gomez Alonzo was delivered in recent days. The report found traces of bacteria in the boy’s lungs, liver, spleen and adrenal glands. It says he suffered a rapid, progressive infection that led to multiple organ failure. Gomez was the second Guatemalan migrant child to die in U.S. custody in December. An autopsy released Friday on the other child, 7-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin, found that she too died from a bacterial infection. …

The majority Democrats on a House of Representatives committee are moving this week to subpoena the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and five former White House officials. The House Judiciary Committee had called for full disclosure by Tuesday of the nearly 400-page report and its underlying evidence. Attorney General William Barr said last week that he would release the report by mid-April, “if not sooner,” after confidential material had been redacted. With its Tuesday deadline unlikely to be met, the House panel plans to vote to authorize the subpoenas on Wednesday, allowing the committee’s chairman, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, to actually issue them as he sees fit. The House committee also plans to subpoena some of President Donald Trump’s closest one-time advisers — White House strategist Steve Bannon, communications director Hope Hicks, his first chief of staff Reince Priebus, …

David Johnston stands over a table full of peculiar items confiscated at Dulles International Airport: a glittery clutch with brass knuckles as a clasp. A perfume bottle shaped like a grenade. A rusted circular saw blade. A pocket-sized pitchfork. None of those is quite right. Then Johnston sees it: a guitar shaped like a semi-automatic rifle. Bingo. It will do nicely for the Transportation Security Administration’s social media accounts. Johnston, TSA’s social media director, is following in the footsteps of Curtis “Bob” Burns, who created unlikely internet buzz for the not-always-beloved agency by showcasing the weirdest stuff travelers pack in their carry-ons. He died suddenly in October at age 48. Burns’ work created a model for other federal agencies. The quirky photos combined with a hefty dose of dad humor helped lure in more than a million followers on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, who would then see important messages about …

The fiercest battle for campaign cash is playing out between the presidential candidates who might not be on your radar. Ahead of Sunday’s fundraising deadline for the first quarter, the underdogs of the Democratic primary were in a mad dash to coax as little as $2 from grassroots donors. It’s all part of their bid to clear a new threshold from the Democratic National Committee to earn one of 20 highly coveted spots in presidential debates that begin in June. “I’ll be blunt,” former Obama Cabinet member Julian Castro told prospective donors in one social media ad that was running as late as Thursday. “The Democratic Party’s new debate rules mean I might not make it onto the debate stage.” New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand sent multiple fundraising emails pleading her case, telling recipients in one that they could chip in $5 “to become a founding member” and “help get …

Two Marine pilots have died in a helicopter crash during a training mission in southwestern Arizona, U.S. Marine Corps officials said Sunday. The AH-1Z Viper crashed Saturday night while the pilots were conducting a training mission as part of a weapons and tactical instructor course, according to the Marine Corps. The cause of the crash is under investigation. Capt. Gabriel Adibe, a Marine Corps spokesman, said the helicopter crashed on the vast Marine Corps Air Station Yuma training grounds but no additional information was immediately available. The names of the pilots who died have not been released pending notification of their families. The station is located about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from Yuma and the 1,300-square-mile (3,367-square-kilometer) training ground is one of the world’s largest military installations. There have been several fatal crashes involving Marine Corps aircraft near Yuma over the years. In 1996, a Marine electronic-warfare plane went down …