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Daily Border Links are following a sporadic publication schedule between May 3 and July 19. Regular daily updates will return on July 22.

Developments

The Democratic-majority Senate held a “test vote” yesterday on the Border Act, a series of border security and migration measures that resulted from bipartisan negotiations between November and February. Those measures included a provision that would cut off protection-seeking migrants’ access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, Title 42-style, when daily migrant encounters exceed an average of 4,000 (discretionary asylum shutdown) or 5,000 (mandatory asylum shutdown).

The bill needed 60 votes to proceed to open debate and an eventual vote; it failed by a 43-50 margin, with all but 1 Republican voting “no,” along with 6 Democrats (or Democratic-caucusing independents). Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) called it “a sad day for the Senate, a sad day for America.”

The Border Act was identical to legislation that failed to clear a procedural vote in the Senate on February 7, by a 49-50 margin, when—in response to Republican demands—it was attached to Ukraine and Israel aid.

Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski was the only GOP senator to vote for the bill yesterday; three other Republicans changed their vote to “no.” Two Democrats changed their votes from “yea” to “nay,” as did Democratic-caucusing independent Kyrsten Sinema (Arizona), who helped draft the original February compromise.

• Luke Broadwater, “Border Deal Fails Again in the Senate as Democrats Seek Political Edge” (The New York Times, May 23, 2024).
• Mary Clare Jalonick, Rebecca Santana, Stephen Groves, “Border Bill Fails Senate Test Vote as Democrats Seek to Underscore Republican Resistance” (Associated Press, Associated Press, May 23, 2024).
• Clare Foran, Lauren Fox, Priscilla Alvarez, Ted Barrett, “Border Bill Fails in Senate for Second Time, Blocked by Gop Opposition and Democratic Divisions” (CNN, May 23, 2024).
• Rachel Dobkin, “The One Republican Who Voted for Border Bill” (Newsweek, May 23, 2024).

CBS News reported that during the first 21 days of May, Border Patrol has apprehended an average of just 3,700 migrants per day. If that pace continues through the end of the month, May 2024 would be the third-lightest month for migration at the border of the Biden administration’s forty months in office.

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Migrant Crossings at U.S.-Mexico Border Plunge 54% From Record Highs, Internal Figures Show” (CBS News, May 23, 2024).

A continuing crackdown in Mexico is a key cause for what has been about a 54 percent drop in migration since the record-setting month of December 2023. “Mexican officials have pledged to help keep encounters at the United States’ southern border below 4,000 a day. But that will depend on whether the country has the money to keep up enforcement,” the Economist reported.

• “Fewer Migrants Are Crossing America’s Southern Border” (The Economist (Uk), May 23, 2024).

4,281 Border Patrol agents left the agency between October 2020 and April 2024, an annual attrition rate of about 6 percent, according to data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act by Anna Giaritelli of the conservative Washington Examiner. The article cites unnamed agents blaming the Biden administration for low morale; many say morale is low because they cannot detain many apprehended migrants.

As Border Patrol underwent a surge of hiring in the years after September 11, 2001, a large number of agents are completing 20 years on the force and eligible for retirement, Giaritelli notes.

• Anna Giaritelli, “The Biden Effect? Border Patrol Has Lost a Quarter of Workforce Since 2020 Election” (The Washington Examiner, May 23, 2024).
• “Anna Giaritelli @Anna_Giaritelli on Twitter“ (Twitter, May 23, 2024).

Texas’s state Department of Public Safety released aerial video recorded several miles inside New Mexico, near the Santa Teresa Port of Entry, showing people throwing sand and a water bottle at Border Patrol agents seeking to apprehend migrants at the border wall.

• Fernie Ortiz, “Video: Border Agents, Migrants Clash at Border Wall” (Border Report, May 23, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

The Texas Observer and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting published an in-depth investigation of vigilante groups’ and militias’ activities along the border. The piece highlighted these groups’ illegal actions, their relationships with law enforcement including some media-friendly right-wing sheriffs and some Border Patrol agents, and the dangers they pose to migrants and the rule of law.

• Avery Schmitz, Francesca D’annunzio, “Border Vigilantes Are Blurring the Lines of Law Enforcement” (The Texas Observer, May 23, 2024).

An analysis by Christian Paz at Vox cited politicians’ rhetoric, the economy, and concerns about “chaos” as key reasons for a drop in support for immigration in U.S. public opinion.

• Christian Paz, “3 Theories for America’s Anti-Immigrant Shift” (Vox, May 24, 2024).

The U.S.-Mexico border region is “not a political football or plaything to be bandied about. It’s not the stick to whatever carrot was dangled before the immigrant rights movement,” wrote Marisa Limón Garza of El Paso’s Las Américas Immigrant Advocacy Center.

• Marisa Limon Garza, “Border Bills, Border Shenanigans & Our Border Reality” (Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center (El Paso Texas), May 23, 2024).