This one has a weekly Border Update, new data from the Darién Gap, a podcast about Guatemala's tenuous but hopeful political moment, an interview about the border, and some links from the past month about civil-military relations in the Americas. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one has a weekly Border Update, new data from the Darién Gap, a podcast about Guatemala’s tenuous but hopeful political moment, an interview about the border, and some links from the past month about civil-military relations in the Americas. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
a weekly Border Update, two explainers about the Senate border deal (which may be dead anyway), some recommended Latin America security long-reads, two posts with charts illustrating migration trends and the futility of deterrence policies, a radio interview about Texas, and a TV interview about El Salvador. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one has a weekly Border Update, two explainers about the Senate border deal (which may be dead anyway), some recommended Latin America security long-reads, two posts with charts illustrating migration trends and the futility of deterrence policies, a radio interview about Texas, and a TV interview about El Salvador. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
This week's edition is as jam-packed as you'd expect from someone working on border and migration policy at this moment. There's a weekly Border Update, a podcast, nine charts explaining December migration data, links about organized crime-tied corruption in the Americas, and a Spanish podcast about the U.S. elections. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This week’s edition is as jam-packed as you’d expect from someone working on border and migration policy at this moment. There’s a weekly Border Update, a podcast, nine charts explaining December migration data, links about organized crime-tied corruption in the Americas, and a Spanish podcast about the U.S. elections. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
This week's edition has a fair amount of content, including a weekly Border Update, a panel discussion, and a look at Colombia's peace process over the past month.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This week’s edition has a fair amount of content, including a weekly Border Update, a panel discussion, and a look at Colombia’s peace process over the past month. And of course, upcoming events and some recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
On September 10, I decided to make my Twitter account "dormant," posting instead to my own site, along with other spaces. Traffic to my site has multiplied roughly eightfold in four months.
I was a heavy Twitter user, posting a few times per day, with a healthy following. But by last year, months into the Musk reign, I’d had enough. On September 10, I decided to make my Twitter account “dormant,” using it only to post links to resources published elsewhere, like on this site.
The result, measured in visits to this site, has been staggering:
From just over 1,000 visits per month to nearly 10,000, in about 4 months.
I’m regretting not having moved earlier to cut back my social media use, and intensify blogging which, though 25 years old, remains a very vital tool for communicating.
I've created a Google Group mailing list, so you can get our Daily Border Links updates in your inbox as soon as I publish them. Just click the link and add your e-mail address if you're interested.
I’ve established a pretty good morning workflow to produce these “daily border links” updates, a key part our 2024 rapid-response approach to migration and border security issues. So in order to make them even more accessible, I’ve created a Google Group mailing list, so you can get them in your inbox as soon as I publish them.
Just click the link and add your e-mail address if you’re interested.
Link to the latest edition of my regular email update, which draws heavily from this site.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one has a bit less new material since I’m just back from break. But this one has some updates from early January, links about civil-military relations in the region, and links to upcoming events.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
This site is going into suspended animation for about a week, as I take a break with the family from January 4 through 10. I’ll be back, and posting again, on Thursday the 11th.
This site is going into suspended animation for about a week, as I take a break with the family from January 4 through 10. I’ll be back, and posting again, on Thursday the 11th.
I don’t expect to post anything here while I’m off, unless inspiration strikes and Internet access is reliable. See you in a week.
The last email of the year has the weekly Border Update, more new migration numbers, a panoramic WOLA podcast episode, some written congressional testimony about Colombia, and the usual links
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
I’d said in the previous email that it was the last email of the year. But it turns out that there are were few additional items to share from this past week. So this is the last email of the year. It has the weekly Border Update, more new migration numbers, a panoramic WOLA podcast episode, some written congressional testimony about Colombia, and the usual links.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This is almost certainly my last e-mail of the year, and it’s packed with links to stuff we’ve made, all of which has already been linked from this page. It’s got a great video from Colombia, this week’s Border Update, another congressional testimony, some charts, links to stuff to read, and more. There are no links to Latin America-related events, because I couldn’t find any announcements for events during the week before Christmas.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one is a bit shorter because I’ve been drafting a report on my late October-early November trip to Colombia. But there’s still the weekly border update (and a daily one), links to a few recommended articles, and links to upcoming events, among other stuff.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one is a day or so late because last week’s House hearing pushed all of my work into the future and I’m still catching up. It has a link to the Border Update, links to my hearing testimonies, some new infographics about migration and the security forces in Mexico, and links to recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
However, the hearing lasted four hours—a lot of members came and participated—and I’m behind on everything. There will be no Weekly Border Update in the morning, but I’ll have it up as soon as I can despite a heavy meeting schedule tomorrow.
Posting to this site could be a bit infrequent or erratic over the next couple of days, because I’ve just been added as a witness to Thursday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing about the U.S.-Mexico border and migration. Wish me luck, or come by the Capitol Visitors’ Center at 2:00PM Thursday and send good energy.
(You don’t have to do that. It will always be on YouTube.)
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
I missed my usual weekend send date for this one because I was up to my eyeballs in border infographics, and I won’t send one this coming weekend because it’s the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States. So this is the last e-mail until the beginning of December. It has a link to the Border Update, our memo about what’s happening in Congress, infographics about migration, and links to recommended readings.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
At WOLA’s Border Oversight site, I’ve updated all of our giant collection of charts and graphics about border security and migration at the U.S.-Mexico border, and along the U.S.-bound migration route.
There’s about 90 charts there. That’s hard to navigate. In order to fix that, I’ve added a table of contents to the archive.
Here, through the magic of copy-and-pasting, is that table of contents:
Visualizations of data related to U.S. border governance and migration
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, by year and by country, since 2007 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, by year since 1960, and by year and by country (Mexico and non-Mexico) since 2000 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, by year since 1960, and by year and by demographic category since 2012 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, by year and by demographic category since 2012, showing the proportion of children and families (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with all migrants, last three full years by country, three-column presentation (View) (Data table)
Monthly Apprehensions or Encounters
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, by month and by country, since October 2020 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with all migrants, by month and by country, since October 2020 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with single adult migrants, by month and by country, since October 2020 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with family-unit and accompanied child migrants, by month and by country, since October 2020 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with unaccompanied child migrants, by month and by country, since October 2020 (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol + CBP encounters with all migrants, last three months by country, three-column presentation (View) (Data table)
Border Patrol apprehensions of all migrants, last three months by country, three-column presentation (View) (Data table)
CBP port-of-entry encounters with all migrants, last three months by country, three-column presentation (View) (Data table)
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one is full of stuff. A link to the Border Update, and to a photo collection. Updates about what’s happening in Congress. Some new infographics about migration. An event video. Links to recommended reading and to upcoming events.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
I only just returned mid-day Saturday from two weeks in Colombia, so there’s no news links or analysis in this one. But it does have links to upcoming events and lots of photos from my trip.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one’s very short, as I’m on the road, in Colombia, and shouldn’t be posting about the region that I’m currently in. So it’s mainly just my October 27 post about the Darién region.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one’s shorter because I’m somewhere in Colombia right now, at the beginning of a two-week research trip to a few regions. That’s keeping me from “generating content” like the weekly border updates. But there’s still some good stuff here, and I’ll aim to keep posting these from the road.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
I’m leaving today for a 2-week research trip to a region where a lot of migration is happening. I plan to post about where I’ve been after I leave each territory.
Posts here will be less frequent, because the schedule is packed, but I look forward to sharing.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one features the border update; a statement about basic values at a time of record protection-seeking migration; current migration numbers from the U.S. border and the Darién Gap; links to a few recommended articles; and some upcoming events.
E-mails may be shorter and more irregular for the next three weeks, as I’m planning some work travel that will disrupt regular “content generation”—on this site, also.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one features the border update; a podcast with experts on non-violent social change in the Americas; a commentary on the administration’s October 5 border wall announcement; more data insights about migration trends and border drug seizures; short commentaries on historical U.S. aid and judicial presence in Colombia; links to a few recommended articles; and some upcoming events.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
This site is connected to ActivityPub (the “Fediverse”). That means that on Mastodon, Pleroma, Lemmy, and similarly connected platforms (perhaps including Threads at some point), you can get some version of these posts in your feed. Just search for the account @adamisacson@adamisacson.com.
Here’s a new “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them.
This one has links or excerpts from the Border Update; a video about migration; some infographics; links about Tamaulipas, Mexico, El Salvador, and a new UN report on the United States; a couple of recent video clips; links to a few recommended articles; some upcoming events; and just a few funny posts from others.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
After an inexcusably long time, I’ve produced a “weekly” e-mail about stuff I’ve been working on, for those who’ve signed up to receive them. Resuming these was delayed by the collapse of the service I was using to send them, but that’s no excuse: it’s been on my to-do list since January (yes, I’ve been clicking “postpone 7 days” every week since January, which is pathetic).
This one has links or excerpts from the Border Update, some charts reflecting new data about migration, a couple of brief analyses about Colombia, some news links, a list of upcoming events, and just a few funny posts from others.
If you visit this site a lot, you probably don’t need an e-mail, too. But if you’d like to get more-or-less regular e-mail updates, scroll to the bottom of this page or click here.
My Twitter account is now dormant. It’s not fun walking away from a platform where more than 16,000 people follow you. But remaining on that platform is even less fun, and no longer defensible.
The thought process behind my decision to leave is in the table at the bottom of this post. From now on, I’ll still check Twitter for news that I might not see elsewhere, mainly the accounts on a private “news posters” list that I maintain. But I don’t plan to post content, or to like or retweet content that I see.
I’m still posting lots of things, though. I’m just doing it elsewhere.
Here’s where you can find me.
This site, which I’ll be improving over the coming months.
At Mastodon, I post very often on a micro-small instance that I pay for myself (using masto.host): elefanti.co/@adam.
On Threads, where I’m getting into the habit of sharing things, but so far, with little original content that can’t be found elsewhere: threads.net/@adamisacson.
On post.news, again with very little original content unavailable elsewhere: post.news/@/adamisacson
On Tumblr, where I’ve been at adam-wola.tumblr.com/ for many years. That’s mostly reposts of things I’ve put here.
On Bluesky, where I’m infrequently posting what passes for humor, little of it work-related: adamisacson.bsky.social.
On Medium, where I’ll occasionally share longer-form things that usually appear here first: medium.com/@adam_wola.
At WOLA’s web page, where links to recent work are at the bottom of this page, under “Adam’s Work.”
WOLA’s Border Oversight page also has constantly updated sections documenting abuses, sharing infographics, and linking to reports.
I’m trying to do it as much as possible on platforms I own, and copying it elsewhere. (What the IndieWeb folks call POSSE, “Publish [on your] Own Site, Syndicate Elsewhere.”) At those “elsewhere” platforms, I’m still figuring out what makes them different, if anything.
I’ve also been posting a bunch of shorter videos over the past several weeks. I’m sharing them at some experimental accounts for video content:
I have a good follower count that includes a lot of people who I’d want to read and be aware of my work.
No other platform has anywhere near the same follower count or view count for most of my posts.
Journalists, government officials, and NGO colleagues do continue to use it. While this is declining, reporters will still often get in touch because they saw a tweet.
Some argument along the lines of “we can’t let the bad billionaire win, we need to protect this space.” (This particular train may have left the station by now.)
Elon Musk’s promotion of abhorrent views is intolerable. The “ick factor” is off the charts. What am I contributing content to here? I should’ve gone when he was attacking trans people, and I’m sorry for staying. Attacking the Anti-Defamation League is the final straw for me.
Elon Musk’s treatment of people who work for the company he purchased is vile.
Probably because I don’t pay $8 per month, the number of people who see my tweets has declined sharply. I have 16,900 followers but tweets routinely get less than 1,000 views. Why stay when you’re being throttled?
I don’t own or control my space at Twitter, which makes it less worth my time.
Barriers to third-party API access have made Twitter much less useful. For work-related activity, shutting off RSS access made Twitter a lot less useful.
It’s just not “cool,” you know? I’m far from the coolest person in the world, but I like to spend my scarce time in places that have that ineffable quality. And Twitter today is the opposite of that. Not cool at all.
This makes four weeks in a row that I’ve tried using my new office space at “renovated WOLA” to make quick little mobile-friendly promo videos for things we’ve published. This is the first one with the teleprompter setup that I’ve jury-rigged: a fast overview of the latest Weekly Border Update.
These are “experimenting in public,” figuring out the production, the hardware, and the software as I go. They’ve performed modestly on Twitter and invisibly on Mastodon, but reasonably well on TikTok (where they reliably attract obnoxious far-right commenters) and on Instagram.
As you can tell from the last few posts here, I’ve been updating my collection of border and migration infographics (a fancy word for “charts”). I’m done now.
Those all live in a section at WOLA’s Border Oversight website. There, they’re organized by category and by when they were last updated. For nearly all of them, I’ve now added a link to a Google spreadsheet with the underlying data.
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