Adam Isacson

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Your donation to WOLA is crucial to keeping these paywall-free and ad-free Updates going. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Case and Nayib Bukele’s Washington visit: A high-stakes legal battle continues between the federal courts and the Trump administration over the case of a Salvadoran man who was wrongly deported and sent to a notorious mega-prison in his home country. During an Oval Office visit, the country’s authoritarian-trending president struck a defiant tone alongside President Trump, calling into question the administration’s compliance with a Supreme Court requirement that it “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland) met Abrego Garcia briefly during a visit to El Salvador.
• The Alien Enemies Act: Evidence continues to show that most of the 238 Venezuelan men sent to the Salvadoran mega-prison on March 15 faced no allegations of criminal activity or gang ties. A judge who had sought to stop their removal is now considering whether to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court.
• The Roosevelt Reservation and other military developments: The White House has declared that a 20-yard fringe of territory along the border in California, Arizona, and New Mexico is now the equivalent of a “military installation.” This raises important questions about the role of the U.S. military on U.S. soil. As is widely expected, these questions will deepen if the administration invokes the Insurrection Act of 1807.
• March migration data show further declines: With 7,181 Border Patrol apprehensions, March 2025 was one of the quietest months at the U.S.-Mexico border since the 1960s. The main reason is the Trump administration’s shutdown of asylum access at the border. The ratio of uniformed personnel at the border to March migrant apprehensions is now about 4.6 to 1.
• Mass deportation and the coming “reconciliation” funding bill: Congress is edging closer to considering a massive budget bill that would multiply the U.S. government’s ability to deport undocumented migrants on an enormous scale. The Trump administration’s unstated goal appears to be 1 million deportations during its first year, which seems unlikely. Meanwhile, the administration is rapidly undoing documented statuses granted by the Biden administration.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Your donation to WOLA is crucial to keeping these paywall-free and ad-free Updates going. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• El Salvador renditions reach the Supreme Court: The Supreme Court made two rulings related to the Trump administration’s practice of sending migrants to a mega-prison in El Salvador. The first requires that people subjected to rapid expulsion under the Alien Enemies Act have a reasonable chance to defend themselves. The second upholds, though softens, a lower-court judge’s requirement that the administration seek the release and return of a wrongfully expelled Salvadoran man. The President of El Salvador is to visit Washington on April 14.
• Evidence points to little criminality among those rushed to El Salvador’s mega-prison: As experts cast doubt on tattoos as a sign of Venezuelan gang membership, three studies indicate that a substantial majority of those rendered to El Salvador had no known criminal records.
• A $45 billion bill for migrant detention foreseen as budget bill moves slowly through Congress: A request for proposals issued to contractors foresees ramping up migrant detention spending sixfold, to $45 billion over two years. That would be paid for by a giant one-time appropriation slowly working through the Republican-majority Congress, which cleared an important initial hurdle this week.
• New measures to undo legal pathways and punish the undocumented: This week saw CBP One app recipients receive an order to self-deport, a proposal to fine migrants up to $998 per day if they stay after receiving removal orders, movement toward a registry of undocumented migrants, and a continued legal fight over Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans.
• A woman dies by suicide in Border Patrol custody as internal oversight is decimated: A female citizen of China died by suicide in a California Border Patrol station. This and other recent incidents raise questions about oversight at a time when the Trump administration has effectively closed down the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) internal investigative agencies.
• Notes on the impact in Mexico: Media reports covered the situation of migrants stranded in Mexico by the Trump administration’s revocation of asylum access at the border, including Venezuelans requesting repatriation flights and Haitians who are especially vulnerable to harm.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Your donation to WOLA is crucial to keeping these paywall-free and ad-free Updates going. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The Alien Enemies Act invocation and El Salvador renditions have days in court: The Trump administration sent 17 more detained people—10 Salvadorans and 7 Venezuelans—from Guantánamo to El Salvador’s Center for Containment of Terrorism (CECOT) prison. Federal courts are probing violations of a restraining order against the use of the Alien Enemies Act, as we continue to learn about people removed to the Salvadoran prison despite a lack of criminal background. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recognized that at least one man, Kilmar Ábrego García, was removed in error, but the administration is not asking El Salvador to release him.
• Notes about deportation flights: A Boston federal judge barred the Trump administration from deporting migrants to third countries without allowing them to argue that they might be harmed. Deportation flights to Venezuela have resumed. Reports highlight unsafe conditions and abuse aboard ICE’s deportation flights with little accountability or transparency.
• Budget resolution to move in Senate: The Senate is preparing to vote on a budget resolution that sets the stage for a larger spending bill advancing President Trump’s “mass deportation” and border-hardening agenda. The forthcoming “reconciliation” bill could allocate $90–175 billion over 10 years for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Passed by a simple majority, it would bypass the filibuster and exclude Democrats.
• Notes on the U.S. military’s border and migration role: The U.S. military presence at the border has grown to over 6,700 active-duty troops, expected to grow to 10,000. Roles and equipment are expanding, and the price tag since January 20 is now $376 million since January 20. The Guantánamo base now holds about 85 migrants at a very high cost. Senators visiting the base criticized it as a wasteful, likely illegal attempt to bypass due process.
• Low border numbers in March: Border Patrol recorded 7,180 migrant apprehensions in March, the lowest monthly total in decades, amid a near-total shutdown of asylum access. Shelters are empty, aid groups are scaling back, and migrant injuries from wall falls have declined. In Panama, migration through the Darién Gap plummeted to less than 200 in March.
• Noem’s travel to Latin America: Homeland Security Secretary Kristie Noem visited El Salvador, Colombia, and Mexico. Her appearance at El Salvador’s CECOT, shooting a video using jailed people as a backdrop,  drew criticism. In Colombia, Noem signed a biometric data-sharing agreement. In Mexico, she claimed some progress toward a similar deal.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Note: next week’s Border Update may be delayed by possible (still unconfirmed) staff congressional testimony.

Your donation to WOLA is crucial to keeping these paywall-free and ad-free Updates going. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Invocation of Alien Enemies Act raises due process, democracy, and foreign relations concerns: The Trump administration has employed a 227-year-old law to expel hundreds of Venezuelan men to El Salvador’s feared prison system without due process and in likely defiance of a judicial order to divert the aircraft carrying them. As officials resist supplying a federal court with basic information about the incident, legal analysts warn of a constitutional crisis.
• U.S. military presence at the border continues to expand: The administration may be planning to declare a 60-foot buffer zone along much of the border to be a “military installation,” allowing soldiers to “hold” migrants there. A Navy destroyer is to carry out a mission where the border meets the Gulf of Mexico.
• Travel ban appears imminent: In a much larger version of a “travel ban” implemented during Donald Trump’s first term, his administration may soon ban the arrival of 43 countries’ citizens to the United States, dividing them into three tiers of prohibition.
• Border wall construction resuming: The administration is using funds appropriated in 2021 to build seven miles of border wall in south Texas, potentially including a segment running through a private butterfly reserve. “Gap-filling” projects are getting underway near Nogales, Arizona, and San Diego, California.
• Notes on Congress: Congressional Democrats issued letters protesting the administration’s renewed use of family detention and termination of Temporary Protected Status for Venezuelans. ICE is warning Congress of a $2 billion budget shortfall for fiscal 2025.

THE FULL UPDATE: