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:

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:

• CBP publishes February border data: As the Trump administration shut down asylum access at the border and canceled the CBP One program, the number of people entering CBP custody at the border has plummeted. There are now at least four uniformed security personnel for every apprehended migrant. Migration is also way down in the Darién Gap. Fentanyl seizures are also very low.
• “Mass deportation” updates: ICE arrested 32,809 people in the U.S. interior during the first 50 days of the Trump administration. Congress is considering budget measures to make deportations truly “massive.” ICE is increasingly targeting families as it reopens family detention facilities.
• Active-duty deployment nears 9,600 soldiers: Troops keep arriving at the border, playing supporting roles.
• Guantánamo base is currently empty: The entire population of 40 detainees at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station has been returned to the United States. The operation’s cost so far has averaged $55,000 per detainee.
• The impact in Panama and elsewhere: On short-term visas, Panama’s government released 112 Asian, African, and European migrants whom the Trump administration had sent there despite their fears of return. It isn’t clear what their next steps are.
• Congressional opponents grow more vocal: Letters and statements from congressional Democrats voiced more alarm and outrage about Trump administration anti-immigration measures, even as a CNN poll showed respondents narrowly approving of Trump’s performance on migration policy.

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:

• Citing cross-border fentanyl trafficking, Trump again imposes and then withdraws tariffs on Mexico: President Trump followed up on a threat to impose 25 percent tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada. The main reason cited was production and trafficking of fentanyl, which has been declining, though it seems apparent that the President’s disdain for trade agreements is a larger factor. Trump later lifted tariffs on most goods for another month.
• Vance brings cabinet members to Eagle Pass: Vice President Vance went to the border with the Homeland Security and Defense secretaries. His remarks focused mainly on organized crime in Mexico, not migration.
• February saw the fewest Border Patrol migrant apprehensions this century, and perhaps since the 1960s: Donald Trump revealed that Border Patrol apprehended 8,326 migrants along the border in February, which would be the fewest since at least 2000, the earliest year for which public data are available. Monthly averages were lower than that from the mid-1950s to the mid-1960s and during and before World War II. As occurred during the first months of Trump’s first term, migrants and smugglers are pausing their decisions to try to enter the country.
• The U.S. military presence grows at the border: With the deployment of a Stryker brigade combat team and general support aviation battalion, the number of active-duty military personnel at the border will soon reach 9,000. The overall number of uniformed personnel could be over four times the number of monthly migrant apprehensions.
• “Mass deportation” slows a bit, pending new money from Congress: Deportation flights increased modestly in February, and costly military flights have nearly halted since February 21. The Guantánamo Bay naval base is receiving fewer detainees amid cost concerns and interagency coordination issues. The White House is disappointed by its slow start, but a giant spending measure moving haltingly through Congress could remove its funding bottlenecks. Policy changes underway range from easing the firing of immigration judges to expanding expedited removal throughout the country to reopening family detention facilities.
• Notes on the impact in Mexico and further south: Asylum applications are way up in Mexico even as migrant shelters empty. Numbers of migrants giving up and returning to South America have grown to the point that Costa Rica and Panama are facilitating southbound transportation.

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:

• Reports of southbound migration as people abandon hope of seeking protection in the United States: As Trump administration measures shut off the possibility of seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, some people who had migrated to Mexico to do that are turning around. Several dozen per day have been boarding boats through dangerous currents to avoid traveling southbound through the Darién Gap.
• Another Guantánamo flight arrives, as released detainees reveal horrific conditions: The Trump administration sent 17 more undocumented migrants to the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station, just 3 days after removing to Venezuela all who had been at the base for up to 16 days. Those released from the facility told of horrific and abusive conditions.
• “Mass deportation” updates: The House passed a budget resolution that, like a Senate measure passed a week earlier, could provide a gigantic amount of funding for the administration’s mass deportation plans. These plans appear to include widespread use of military bases and invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
• “Bridge deportations” continue: The Trump administration sent to Costa Rica a second plane with migrants aboard from Asia, eastern Europe, and Africa. In Panama, 112 of 299 migrants whom the administration flew there are in a jungle camp, cut off from access to attorneys, as they voice fear of return to their countries of origin.
• The impact on Mexico: President Trump appears determined to levy tariffs on Mexican goods on March 4, citing continued flows of fentanyl. U.S. deportation flights to Mexico are now taking people as far south as possible, near the Guatemala border.
• Update on CBP’s border drug seizures: Despite Donald Trump’s tariff threats, CBP is finding less fentanyl at the border. Seizures dropped 21 percent from 2023 to 2024, and another 22 percent in the first four months of fiscal 2025, compared to the same period a year earlier. All drugs except marijuana—which continues a sharp decline in seizures—continue to be overwhelmingly encountered at ports of entry.

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 many actions and changes following Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration force a change in this week’s Border Update format. Instead of narratives organized under three or four topics, this Update organizes brief points under the following headings:

• Migration dropped in January in anticipation of Trump asylum shutoff: Customs and Border Protection reported a 36 percent drop in migrant encounters at the border from December to January, deepening a 13-month-long decline in migration. Restrictive Trump policies are the main cause for the new drop. Border Patrol apprehensions are now averaging 285 per day.
• Darién Gap migration declines sharply: Migration through the treacherous jungle route from Colombia to Panama dropped to 72 people per day in January, the fewest since February 2021.
• Deportation flights send third countries’ citizens to Panama and Costa Rica: In what is being called “bridge deportations,” the Trump administration sent 299 migrants from mostly Asian countries to Panama and 135 to Costa Rica. Both countries are keeping people in remote camps pending their repatriation. The situation of those with protection needs is uncertain.
• Guantánamo detainees sent back to Venezuela via Honduras: The Trump administration sent all but one of 178 Venezuelan migrants whom it had been holding at the Guantánamo Bay Naval Station in Cuba to Honduras, where a Venezuelan government plane retrieved them and brought them to Caracas.
• Congress readies a massive border and deportation spending package: The Senate passed a framework bill that could pave the way for $175 billion in new border hardening and “mass deportation” spending, which could pass without a single Democratic vote. The timetable is uncertain, though, as House and Senate Republican leaders disagree on the way forward.
• “Mass deportation” updates: Top Trump administration officials are dissatisfied with the “flagging” pace of Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations so far. The administration plans to cancel Temporary Protected Status for Haitians.
• Notes on the impact in Mexico: Mexico has still not seen a big increase in cross-border deportations from the United States. For now at least, migrant shelters in Mexico are emptying while smugglers raise their prices.

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 many actions and changes following Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration force a change in this week’s Border Update format. Instead of narratives organized under three or four topics, this Update organizes brief points under the following headings:

• Migration plummeting along the U.S.-bound route as the new U.S. administration leads people to pause: In part because of the Trump administration’s near-complete ban on asylum access, in part because of Mexico’s crackdown, migration levels are low from South America to the U.S.-Mexico border. Large numbers of people are coming to terms with extended stays in Mexico.
• Guantánamo: as planes keep bringing migrants, some are not “the worst of the worst”: The Trump administration has taken about 100 people, likely all of them Venezuelan, to detention at the Guantánamo Bay naval base in Cuba. Some do not appear to have criminal backgrounds. Groups are suing to allow attorneys to gain access.
• “Mass deportations”: as Trump blasts their pace, Congress begins work on a giant spending measure: President Trump is reportedly angry that arrests and deportations from the U.S. interior are not increasing faster. Agencies lack capacity, but that could be vastly increased by a spending package, now underway in Congress, that could add $175 billion for border and migration crackdowns.
• Venezuela sends two planes to pick up deportees: Following a friendly meeting between a Trump administration representative and Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan regime sent two planes to Texas to retrieve deported Venezuelan citizens.
• Updates about the U.S. military border deployment: The number of active-duty troops and National Guard (state and federal) deployed to the border may now exceed 10,000. Air Force personnel running deportation flights are removing name tape and unit insignias from their uniforms. Those flights cost about three times as much as civilian deportation flights.
• Eight Latin American criminal groups to be added to the U.S. terrorist list: The Trump administration is adding eight criminal groups from four countries to the State Department’s list of foreign terrorist organizations. This will affect the asylum cases of people threatened by these groups, strengthening some cases and devastating others.
• U.S. aid freeze affects programs designed to integrate migrants and receive deported people: The administration’s 90-day freeze in most forms of foreign assistance has dealt a blow to Mexican shelters. It also weakens programs that aim to integrate migrants into countries like Colombia so they might not continue their journeys northward.

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 many actions and changes following Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration force a change in this week’s Border Update format. Instead of narratives organized under three or four topics, this Update organizes brief points under the following headings:

• A tariff threat and a Mexican military deployment: after President Trump threatened to levy tariffs on Mexican imports, the Mexican government agreed to send 10,000 National Guard personnel to the U.S. border zone.
• Reduced migration, and almost no asylum access, as groups file suit: fewer migrants are arriving at the border, in part because it is now impossible to exercise the right to asylum; a new lawsuit challenges the Trump administration’s border shutdown.
• The U.S. military at the border and in the deportation effort: the new administration has now sent about 2,100 active-duty troops to the border as the new defense secretary paid a visit and military deportation flights—including one to India—continue.
• First detainees taken to Guantánamo: two military planes have taken less than two dozen detained migrants, apparently people with ties to a Venezuelan organized crime group, to the notorious terrorist detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
• Administration cancels TPS for Venezuelans: nearly 350,000 Venezuelans will lose their ability to live and work in the United States in April as the Trump administration reverses an extension that the Biden administration had granted in January. A similar number of Venezuelans face the same fate in September.
• “Migration diplomacy” in Venezuela and Central America: a Trump administration envoy met with Venezuela’s dictator and appears to have secured a deal to allow deportation flights. The new secretary of state visited Central America and secured increased cooperation against migration, including a deal to send prisoners to El Salvador’s growing jails.
• Mass deportation proceeds as Congress prepares a big funding bill: ICE is ramping up its arrests, detentions, and removals in the U.S. interior as Congress prepares a spending measure that could total $150 billion for border security.
• Texas seeks reimbursement for “Operation Lone Star”: Texas’s governor, a Trump ally, is offering the federal government use of facilities built with state funds while asking for reimbursement of $11 billion spent on its border crackdown. Texas National Guard troops may now arrest migrants for CBP.

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.

This Update is the product of interviews and the review of over 270,000 words of source documents since January 23. 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 many actions and changes following Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration force a change in this week’s Border Update format. Instead of narratives organized under three or four topics, this Update organizes brief points under the following headings:

• An already quiet border gets quieter
• Mass deportation
• The U.S. military role
• Controversies about military deportation flights to the Americas
• The impact on Mexico
• El Salvador may receive deported migrants from other countries
• Incidents reported along the border

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.

This Update is the product of interviews and the review of over 210,000 words of source documents since January 18. 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 many actions and changes following Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration force a change in the format of this week’s Border Update. Instead of narratives organized under three or four topics, this Update organizes brief points under the following headings:

• CBP One appointments canceled
• Shutdown of processing migrants and asylum seekers
• “Remain in Mexico” restarts
• Humanitarian parole programs end
• Declaring that the United States is under “invasion”
• Domestic use of the U.S. armed forces
• Placing criminal groups on the “terrorist list”
• Foreign relations
• Other provisions
• Reactions in Mexico and elsewhere
• Initial analyses

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.

This update is later than usual because of staff travel and congressional testimony in recent days. It reflects events as of the end of January 17, making it slightly out of date. Weekly publication will resume on time on Friday, January 24.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The Incoming Administration’s Likely Initial Actions

Media are reporting that about 100 executive orders will follow Donald Trump’s inauguration, many related to the border and migration. We can expect an end to the CBP One mobile phone app and humanitarian parole programs for Cubans, Haitians, Nicarguans, and Venezuelans. We can expect a push to renew “Remain in Mexico,” possibly Title 42 and “safe third country” agreements: programs that require the cooperation of Mexico and other nations. A gigantic piece of spending legislation to fund this, plus a mass deportation plan, may soon move in Congress.

• Mass Deportation

The Wall Street Journal reported that ICE may begin raids seeking to detain undocumented migrants in Chicago immediately after Inauguration Day. Near Bakersfield, California, Border Patrol agents spread fear among farmworkers by carrying out a large-scale operation of their own. Officials like “Border Czar” Tom Homan are promising conflict with so-called “sanctuary cities” as they call for more detention and deportation capacity, while Mexico prepares to receive large numbers of people.

• “Laken Riley” Bill Nears Passage

Enough Democratic senators voted “yes” to break a filibuster and permit likely passage of the Laken Riley Act. The Republican-led bill, named for a woman murdered by a Venezuelan migrant, would allow migrants with pending immigration cases to be detained even if just arrested and charged with a petty crime, and would empower state attorneys-general to challenge aspects of U.S. immigration law in court. The Senate’s cloture vote passed with the votes of 10 of 45 Democratic-aligned senators present, all of them from electorally competitive states.

• Migration continued to decline in December

December 2024 saw the fewest Border Patrol apprehensions per day of the entire Biden administration. The administration’s June rule barring most asylum access between ports of entry is the main reason. For the second time ever, more migrants were encountered at the official border crossings than apprehended by Border Patrol between them. Texas’s Rio Grande Valley Border Patrol Sector measured the most apprehensions, edging out San Diego, which had been number one since June 2024.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

Due to end-of-year staff vacation time, WOLA will not publish Border Updates for the next two weeks. Updates will resume on January 10, 2025.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Signs of at least a modest pre-inauguration migration increase

November data showed migration levels at the border continuing to decline following Donald Trump’s election, to such an extent that, for the first time, port-of-entry arrivals exceeded Border Patrol apprehensions. Still, some reports from Texas point to an increase in mid-December as some people try to reach U.S. soil before Inauguration Day. Rumors sent some migrants to attempt to turn themselves in at a border wall gate in El Paso, where state forces repelled them violently. Caravans continue to form in southern Mexico, but none remain intact beyond Mexico’s southernmost states.

• Mass deportation

As Trump administration officials ramp up plans to deport undocumented migrants on a massive scale likely requiring the use of military aircraft, concern is sweeping throughout communities where many families are “blended”: citizens living with non-citizens. Fear is spreading in south Texas, while council members and law enforcement in San Diego disagree on cooperation.

• Auctioning unused border wall segments

Conservative media and Donald Trump complained bitterly about the Biden administration’s auctioning off of border wall parts left over when construction halted after Joe Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. In fact, the selloff was mandated by the 2024 National Defense Authorization Act.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Congressional Republicans’ hardline early-2025 border agenda coming into focus

Following likely confirmation of the incoming Trump administration’s choice for Homeland Security secretary, the 119th Congress will move by late January on a package of hardline border and immigration measures whose total cost could be more than $100 billion. As it will move under a special Senate rule called “reconciliation,” it could pass the chamber, where Republicans lead by a 53-47 margin, by a simple majority.

• Setting the stage for mass deportation

Without offering much detail, President-Elect Trump and other White House officials have been previewing plans to carry out a promised campaign of mass deportations of undocumented migrants in the United States. They are exhibiting a willingness to deport U.S. citizen children together with their undocumented parents, and are preparing aggressive tactics against Democratic state and local officials who do not cooperate.

• The impact in Mexico and elsewhere along the migration route

Many migrants cannot be deported quickly or inexpensively because they come from distant countries, or countries whose governments do not allow deportation flights. The incoming Trump administration is seeking third countries to accept some deportees, including a reluctant Mexico that may already find itself receiving large numbers of its own citizens across the land border. Impacts of imminent policy changes are evident all along the U.S.-bound migration route, including the Darién Gap which saw, in November, the lightest migration flow since April 2022.

• Personnel changes at border and migration agencies

The incoming administration announced nominees to head CBP and ICE, along with White House and ambassadorial choices. CBP nominee Rodney Scott, a former Border Patrol chief, is an outspoken critic of the Biden administration whose past activities raise concerns among rights defenders. A former Border Patrol union chief is the nominee to head the U.S. embassy in Chile.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Migration is reduced at the border, but may be activating in southern Mexico

Preliminary data indicate that Border Patrol apprehended fewer migrants at the border in November than any month since July 2020. An expected post-election rush, with migrants seeking to get to the United States before Donald Trump’s inauguration, has not happened. In southern Mexico, though, people appear to be arriving in larger numbers and seeking to migrate in large groups.

• Relations with Mexico following Trump’s tariff threat

President-Elect Trump appeared to pull down his November 25 threat to slap tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods until they stop the entry of migrants and drugs, following a reportedly cordial phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. However, Sheinbaum showed a willingness to push back, disputing Trump’s characterization of what was agreed. A future area of disagreement may be Mexico’s willingness to accept deportations of migrants from third countries.

• Notes on the incoming Trump administration’s border and migration plans

This section lists several analyses and reports about the incoming administration’s hardline approach to the border and migration. Topics include potential use of the U.S. military, the Texas state government’s crackdown serving as a model or template, the shaky future of alternative migration pathways, and signs that at least some Democrats are moving rightward.

THE FULL UPDATE:

Due to the U.S. holiday, there will be no Weekly Border Update on November 29, 2024. Updates will resume on December 6.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The Trump administration assembles an ultra-hardline border and migration team

In the days following his election to the presidency, Donald Trump has named three officials with direct border and migration responsibilities. All of them represent the Republican Party’s hard line on border security crackdowns and restriction of immigration. Stephen Miller will be Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House. Tom Homan will be in the White House as a “border czar.” Kristi Noem is the nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security. They will manage a planned “mass deportation” campaign while seeking to do away with legal migration pathways that the Biden administration preserved or established. Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio will lead a foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere, especially Mexico, for which migration will be a dominant issue.

• A possible rush to the border before January 20?

Analysts and border-security planners continue to expect the number of migrants approaching the U.S.-Mexico border to increase ahead of Inauguration Day as people race to reach U.S. soil before a crackdown. So far, though, this has not materialized: Border Patrol apprehensions have actually dropped since Election Day.

• Migration dips modestly in October in the Darién Gap

22,914 people migrated in October through the treacherous Darién Gap region straddling Colombia and Panama. That is a modest drop from 25,111 in September, which may be due at least in part to weather conditions. The number of migrants from Venezuela (19,522) barely dropped from September.

• Senate committee produces text of 2025 Homeland Security Appropriations bill

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Democrats until the chamber switches to Republican control, published the text of its version of the 2025 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. It includes more money for CBP, especially for ports of entry, and more funding for shelters and local jurisdictions receiving and integrating released migrants. It does not include additional money to hire Border Patrol agents or to build new border barriers. It is unclear whether this bill will move forward. Republicans may seek to write their own bill after they assume the Senate majority in January, though that would require keeping the U.S. government open after December 20, the deadline for passing a 2025 budget.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Border communities and migrants brace for another Trump administration

Donald Trump’s election points to a return, and likely intensification, of ultra-hardline border and migration policies at the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere. We can expect a suspension or curtailment of most legal migration pathways, from CBP One to asylum access to humanitarian parole. We can expect a “mass deportation” campaign in the U.S. interior. This section lists and explains some of the president-elect’s promised and likely initiatives, and what they mean for U.S.-Mexico relations.

• Possibility of a jump in migration ahead of Inauguration Day

Trump’s victory creates an incentive for some migrants to try to reach U.S. soil before Inauguration Day, January 20, rather than await CBP One appointments. In Mexico, “caravans” are already forming, while migrants in shelters along the route voice anxiety about their future.

• Soldiers kill migrants, again, in Mexico

Members of Mexico’s National Guard, a recently created force made up mostly of transferred soldiers, opened fire on a vehicle carrying migrants along the border east of Tijuana. Two Colombian people were killed. It is the second such incident since October 1, when Mexican Army soldiers killed six migrants in Chiapas. In both incidents, military leadership claims that the soldiers were returning fire, or thought that they were; witnesses dispute that.

• Darién Gap notes

Migration through the Darién Gap jungle region straddling Colombia and Panama appears to have dropped modestly from September to October. However, reports are pointing to an increase in people entering Colombia from Venezuela. Since August, Panama has operated 25 deportation flights, with U.S. support, to Colombia, Ecuador, and India.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Pre-election notes

While border security and migration have been top issues in the too-close-to-call  U.S. presidential campaign, its last full week was not dominated by a single theme, narrative, or developing story. This section presents a series of links to coverage of incremental developments and links to substantial analyses of both candidates’ positions, likely outcomes if each is elected, views from swing states and border states, and how policy debates have shifted in 2024.

• Updates about migration in Mexico

Along with the Biden administration’s June restrictions on asylum, a key reason why migration has declined during the 2024 election year is an unstated but vigorous Mexican government strategy of stepped-up interceptions of migrants, many of whom Mexican authorities then transfer to the country’s far south. This section presents links to several accounts of the impact this policy is having on people along the route through Mexico.

• Panama decrees fines for at least some Darién Gap migrants

Panama’s recently inaugurated president issued a decree requiring migrants to pay fines for unlawful entry after they emerge from the treacherous Darién Gap jungle route. These fines may be waived or adjusted according to migrants’ “vulnerability.” President Raúl Mulino said he hopes to expand an ongoing program of deportation flights to include citizens of Venezuela. After rising sharply from August to September, the number of migrants transiting the Darién appears to have leveled off or increased slightly during the first half of October.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• CBP publishes fiscal 2024 border data

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released information about migration in September, the final month of the U.S. federal government’s fiscal year. It showed a 25 percent year-on-year drop in Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions, with most of the reduction happening since January and more sharply since June. That is the result of a Mexican government crackdown on migration transiting the country, along with the Biden administration’s new restrictions on asylum access. Data also show a 26 percent drop in seizures of the drug fentanyl, the first decline since fentanyl began appearing in the mid-2010s.

• Ninth Circuit strikes down “metering” at ports of entry

The federal judiciary’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier district court verdict finding that the practice of “metering”–posting CBP officers on the borderline to turn asylum seekers back from border ports of entry—is illegal. The decision caps seven years of litigation from migrant rights advocates. It does not directly affect the Biden administration’s current policy of turning back asylum seekers who have not made appointments at ports of entry using the CBP One app; legal challenges continue in that case.

• Notes from along the migration route

“Caravans” of migrants, some saying they fear losing access to asylum and CBP One pathways after the U.S. election, have been forming in Mexico’s far south. Darién Gap migration appears to be leveling off in October after a sharp increase in September. Insecurity is worsening in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, where many migrants are blocked or awaiting CBP One appointments.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• 2024 campaign notes

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used a visit to Aurora, Colorado—site of recent claims of Venezuelan gang activity—to call for a large-scale deportation campaign, probably using the U.S. military and relying on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In Arizona, Trump proposed adding 10,000 agents to Border Patrol, a force that is struggling to hire enough agents to rise above 20,000. In a FOX News interview and other campaign appearances, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has continued to avoid positions on the border and migration that could be considered progressive.

• Migration increased in the Darién Gap, led by more Venezuelan citizens, in September

After two months of sharp declines, data from Panama showed a 51 percent increase, from August to September, in migration through the treacherous Darién Gap region. This included a 69 percent jump in migration of citizens of Venezuela, where the government has ratcheted up repression after rejecting a very probable opposition victory in July 28 elections. Reports from Refugees International and Colombian groups point to vastly unmet humanitarian needs, and high vulnerability to organized crime, among the population transiting the Darién.

• Possible early indicators of increased migration, fentanyl smuggling into Texas

Three and a half years into the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star” border crackdown, Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector (mid-Texas) is experiencing an increase in large groups of asylum seekers trying to turn themselves in. Although 96 percent of fentanyl seizures have been happening in California and Arizona, Mexican authorities raided a lab and seized 130,000 pills in recent days in Ciudad Juárez, across from the El Paso, Texas metropolitan area.

• Texas notes

A collection of links to other news about the situation along the Texas-Mexico border, noting the state’s dependence on undocumented migrant labor, the state’s security forces’ misuse of force on the borderline, and an ongoing legal offensive against nonprofits that assist migrants.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• September Border Patrol apprehensions remained in the mid-50,000s

Border Patrol apprehended 53,881 migrants in September between the U.S.-Mexico border’s ports of entry, according to preliminary data. That would be the lowest monthly total since August 2020 and the third straight month of apprehensions in the mid-50,000s. A crackdown in Mexico, followed months later by a Biden administration rule restricting asylum access, substantially explains the reduction from record levels in late 2023. Numbers have ceased going down, however, indicating that the drop may not be long-lasting..

• Notes about the 2024 campaign and the border

A collection of links to news coverage of border and migration issues in the campaign. They include Donald Trump’s false linking of disaster assistance and migrant assistance, Trump’s comments indicating that migrants have brought “bad genes,” Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview, and polls showing contradictory points of view.

• Humanitarian parole recipients will not be able to renew their status

The Biden administration will not renew a two-year humanitarian parole status granted to up to 30,000 citizens per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. In order to avoid falling into a legal limbo, parole beneficiaries will have to adjust their status, applying for Temporary Protected Status, asylum, or other options if they exist.

• Mexico’s new government is indicating no break with its predecessor’s migration policies

Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has named a new head of the Mexican government’s migration agency (INM). Sergio Salomón Céspedes will not take office until December, when he finishes his term as governor of Puebla, and the current INM director, Francisco Garduño, will stay on. This may point to some continuity in the new government’s approach to migration. Civilian prosecutors have meanwhile begun investigating an October 1 incident in Chiapas in which Army personnel fired on a vehicle carrying migrants, killing six of them.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Harris visits the border in Arizona

Vice President Kamala Harris paid her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate. She was in Douglas, Arizona, on September 27. While there, she praised the contributions that immigrants have made to the United States, but also promised to maintain or strengthen curbs on access to asylum at the border.

• Administration tightens its asylum rule

With a September 30 proclamation and final rule, the Biden administration tightened curbs on migrants’ access to the U.S. asylum system if they cross the border without securing one of a limited number of appointments at land-border ports of entry. The rule’s original version, issued June 4, halts most asylum access when Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions average 2,500 per day, and would restore asylum access when apprehensions average less than 1,500 per day over 7 days. The revised rule would require that average be maintained for 28 days, further cementing the asylum ban.

• The border in the vice-presidential debate

Candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz argued over migration in an October 1 vice-presidential debate. Walz incorrectly claimed that Donald Trump built “less than 2 percent” of border wall. Vance incorrectly claimed that there are “20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country,” that “we have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost,” that the CBP One program is illegal, and that migrants are a cause of the fentanyl crisis. Walz, like Harris in Arizona, attacked Donald Trump for torpedoing compromise legislation that would have hired more border agents, built more border wall, and placed curbs on asylum.

• Mexican soldiers kill migrants in Chiapas

In Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, Mexican Army soldiers chased, then fired on, a pickup truck carrying 33 migrants on the evening of October 1, killing 6 of them and wounding 12. A military statement contended that soldiers fired at the vehicle after hearing “detonations.” The deceased victims were reportedly from Nepal, Egypt, and Pakistan. The incident heightens concerns about the Mexican government’s expanding placement of combat-trained soldiers in internal law-enforcement roles.

• Texas updates

Recovered migrant remains totaled a record-breaking 175 in Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector as fiscal 2024 drew to a close. More reports of Texas National Guard soldiers firing projectiles at migrant families who pose no threat. Texas’s Attorney-General opened a fifth investigation into a group assisting migrants in the border region. FBI data show violent crime rates in Texas border cities are lower than all cities’ average.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions increased in August—slightly, but for the first time in six months

Migration at the border remains at its lowest level since the fall of 2020, according to new CBP data released in August, following a crackdown on migratory movements that Mexico launched in early 2024 and a June Biden administration ban on most asylum access between border ports of entry. The August total, however, was 3 percent greater than July—the first month-to-month increase in six months—which may indicate that these crackdowns’ deterrent impact is flattening or even eroding.

• 2024 campaign and the border

Kamala Harris called out the Trump campaign’s “mass deportation” plans. Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance doubled down on false and racist claims about Haitian immigrants living and working legally in Ohio. A national poll revealed immigration and the border remains among voters’ top concerns.

• Notes on recent oversight of Border Patrol

A report from Arizona attorneys revealed a high portion of unaccompanied children reporting verbal and physical abuse while in Border Patrol custody. A FOIA result points to more than 200 CBP personnel under investigation for serious misconduct. Reports on the Uvalde, Texas school shooting response and complications in prosecuting migrant smugglers in Arizona.

• Texas updates

Border Patrol’s recoveries of migrant remains in its El Paso Sector now stand at a record 171 since October. Investigations from the ACLU, NPR, and the Border Network for Human Rights and Texas Civil Rights Project reveal troubling aspects of the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star.”

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The border and migration in the presidential debate

Migration and the border were principal topics at the September 10 presidential campaign debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. Harris avoided specifics and pledged to support compromise legislation, which failed in the Senate in February, that would restrict asylum access. Trump made vitriolic and racist comments about migrants, some of which debate moderators had to fact-check on the spot.

• Darién Gap migration plummeted in August, may be up in September

The number of migrants transiting the Darién Gap, a treacherous jungle region straddling Colombia and Panama, fell in August to the fewest since June 2022. Some of the drop may be a “wait and see” effect as migrants evaluate the actions of a new president in Panama who has promised increased deportation flights with U.S. support. Data from the first eight days of September, however, seem to point to a 41 percent increase in per-day Darién Gap migration over August’s average.

• As Mexico rolls out CBP One transportation, alarms sound about the trauma of transiting the country

Mexico has begun having security force personnel accompany buses transporting migrants who have CBP One appointments at the U.S. border. Some press coverage last week covered the kidnappings, extortions, and other trauma suffered by migrants who seek to transit Mexico on their own.

• Texas notes

Texas’s state government is persisting in a legal offensive against charities that assist migrants released from CBP custody at the border, and refusing a federal order to dismantle security-related construction on an island in the Rio Grande.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Administration considers toughening its asylum rule further

The Biden administration’s June rule keeps asylum out of reach for most people who cross between ports of entry, but would restore asylum access if migrant encounters average 1,500 per day for a week. With encounters averaging over 1,800 per day, the administration is now reportedly considering moving the goalposts, requiring the average to remain below the 1,500 threshold for a month and including unaccompanied children in the count.

• Mexico’s migrant encounters remain near all-time highs

Though migrant encounters have dropped in recent months in the United States, Panama, and Honduras, Mexico recorded its fifth-largest-ever number in July as a crackdown on in-transit migration continues. In July, for the first time, Mexico’s migrant encounters exceeded U.S. authorities’ southern-border encounters.

• Mexico to ease transportation for some CBP One appointments

Mexico announced that it will provide security to buses transporting migrants who have secured a limited number of appointments at U.S. ports of entry using the CBP One smartphone app. Escorted buses will depart the southernmost states of Chiapas and Tabasco. The measure raises hope for a reduction in organized crime groups’ ransom kidnappings of northbound migrants.

• Harris calls for “consequences” for unauthorized border crossings

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, continues to voice strong support for the “Border Act,” a bill that failed in the U.S. Senate in February 2024 following negotiations that led to a bipartisan compromise. The bill includes measures, conceded to Republican legislators, that the Democratic Party did not support during the Trump years, like asylum restrictions, more migrant detention, and some wall-building.

• Notes on migrant deaths and humanitarian responses

Links to updates and analyses about Border Patrol’s flawed missing migrant program, humanitarian groups’ efforts to rescue migrants and locate remains, a tragic train derailment near Ciudad Juárez, and other items.

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.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• 2024 campaign notes

Some campaign coverage considered Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s support for a February 2024 “border deal” legislative compromise to be a “flip-flop” on the border wall, since that bill required spending past years’ wall-building funds. Other analysis looked at the obstacles standing in the way of Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations if elected.

• Signs of slight increase in migration exiting post-election debacle Venezuela

Amid turmoil and repression following the government’s illegitimate claim to have won July 28 presidential elections, there is no massive wave of people fleeing Venezuela, at least not yet. However, numbers do appear to have risen slightly.

• Mayorkas meets with Colombia and Panama counterparts as Darién Gap deportation flights continue

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met in Colombia with the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama; the officials signed commitments to collaborate further on territorial control and migration management in the Darién Gap region. Panama is proceeding with U.S.-funded deportation flights, the expected tempo appears to be about three or four planes per week.

• CBP refuses to share nationalities of migrants suspected of terrorist ties

CBP turned down a Fox News Freedom of Information Act request to identify the nationalities of migrants encountered at the border who appeared in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Dataset. Republicans have cited a recent increase in such encounters in criticism of the Biden administration, but we do not know where the people showing up in the database of people with alleged terror ties are coming from. Colombia, where two groups on the U.S. list have demobilized this century, is a strong possibility.

THE FULL UPDATE: