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Here’s a CNN Español segment I recorded at the studio (which is one neighborhood away from home) on Monday evening. It’s about State Department sanctioning, for serious human rights allegations, a general who was a key U.S. “partner” at the outset of Plan Colombia in the early 2000s. Also, the Colombian government’s request to pardon a FARC leader currently in the federal Supermax prison in Colorado after being extradited in 2005.
Every week between August 7 and October 30—that is, 12 times—I threw together a script and some visuals on Tuesday afternoon, and then on Wednesday morning WOLA’s terrific communications team would set me up with a camera and a microphone to record, then edit and distribute, a 2-minute video about the U.S.-Mexico border and migration.
It was a good experience as we “learned by doing.” While they never went viral, we got much more sophisticated over those three months in communicating the message. They still look thrown together quickly, but the more recent ones look far less like “hostage proof-of-life” videos than the earlier ones.
Here is the entire YouTube playlist, and a page that WOLA has created to host some of the videos.
And below, after the jump, is each video embedded individually, in reverse chronological order.
Read MoreThis one is about a certain presidential candidate’s proposal for “Mass Deportation.”
That would require a domestic use of the US military that obliterates historic democratic norms. If a Latin American nation were to do similar, we’d call it a danger to civil-military relations and evidence of democratic backsliding.
This one is about September’s jump in Darién Gap migration. I wore a suit because I had to give a lecture shortly afterward at the Inter-American Defense College.
We’ve done one of these two-minute videos about the border and migration every Wednesday since August 7. The plan is to do two more and end the “season,” evaluating what has and hasn’t worked. Feedback is always welcome.
WOLA’s latest border video:
The Biden administration toughened its restrictions on migrants’ access to asylum at the US-Mexico border.
What does that mean? We explain in a new WOLA video.
Me 20 years ago: “Interrupt a member of Congress during a hearing? Heavens no.”
Me today:
I got to testify in a low-profile House subcommittee hearing today. It had its contentious moments, most of which didn’t involve me—except this one.
My written testimony is here, as a PDF.
At issue was whether New York is now having to manage fewer migrants, which the congressman wasn’t current about. Life comes at you fast:
Dual crackdowns—Mexico blocking migrants, the US blocking access to its asylum system—have reduced migration at the US-Mexico border. But signs point to the big 2024 drop “bottoming out”: there’s only so much that crackdowns can do. They’re no substitute for reform.
In this week’s WOLA border video: Vice President Harris is promising to sign a “tough border bill” into law. What is that bill?
Here’s a 2-minute explanation of the “Border Act” compromise, and how it signs Democrats onto some unusually hardline policies, like rolling back asylum.
This week’s WOLA border video asks why more migrants are dying on US soil, when fewer migrants overall are actually coming.
This is the preventable result of policy decisions: antiquated laws, a blind belief in “deterrence,” and a broken asylum system placed out of reach.
This week’s WOLA video (our second, after this one) is an update about the Darién Gap: starting with Caitlin Dickerson’s Atlantic cover story, then explaining current migration levels, Panama’s recent deportations, and U.S. assistance.
Here’s today’s panel at Medellín, Colombia’s Universidad de Antioquia, where I presented with Carolina Moreno of Bogotá’s Universidad de los Andes. (It’s in Spanish, which means that viewers have to puzzle through my Spanish. I’m not much more articulate in English, honestly.)
Until I ran out of time, I spoke about current migration trends, what’s happening with U.S. border and migration policy, and the poor choices that countries have for managing in-transit migration.
You can download a PDF file of the slides I used at bit.ly/2024-adam-unal-med.
My deepest thanks to professors Lirio Gutiérrez and Elena Butti of the Universidad Nacional Sede Antioquia for leading the great team of faculty and students who have organized this two-day conference. I’ve learned a lot from the panels.
And there’s another in-person day to go. I’m moderating a panel at 9:00AM tomorrow local time (10:00 on the U.S. east coast) and the discussions of migration go on until 4:00PM.
So it’s time to get some rest. But first, a few snapshots.
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
In the March 22, 2024 WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
In this week’s WOLA Border Update:
I enjoy giving “101-level” explanatory presentations with lots of graphics. I especially enjoy it when the time limit is not too tight.
I gave a talk about the border and migration to an audience last week and will do so again this week. In between, I recorded this screencast for practice, and I’m happy to share it.
This is an in-depth, graphical overview of what’s happening at the U.S.-Mexico border right now. Questions addressed include:
Download the graphics shown here as a single PDF at bit.ly/border-101-march-2024.
For even more of WOLA’s border and migration work, see:
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
I don’t get to work on Venezuela very often, but I did get to record a conversation in 2010 with activist and civil-military relations expert Rocío San Miguel. Here’s an excerpt where we discussed the military’s politicization.
Rocío was arrested last Friday in Caracas. Authorities are accusing her of terrorism and treason, which is as horrifying as it is absurd.
I haven’t done one of these since October.
It’s a 43-second video, but it takes nearly two and a half hours to script, make graphics, film, edit, add subtitles, and export 16:9 and 9:16 versions.
I’m still not convinced these are the best use of my time, but as with the infographics and the podcasts, I think it’s important to experiment with formats other than text. (Even though my 1980s-90s liberal arts education barely equips me for it.)
Here (en español) is a panel discussion, recorded Friday, on Voice of America. I joined Salvadoran analyst Napoleón Campos to talk about the implications of authoritarian-trending leader Nayib Bukele’s likely blowout re-election victory in today’s election in El Salvador.
Many thanks to New York-based Network 20/20, an organization “that bridges the gap between the private sector and foreign policy worlds,” for inviting me to participate in a virtual panel last Thursday. With Elizabeth Oglesby of the University of Arizona and Diego de Sola of Glasswing International, we talked about the causes of migration away from Central America, and the good and bad of U.S. policies, past and present.
New Waxahatchee song with MJ Lenderman (from Wednesday and solo stuff) on guitar? Yes please.
WOLA videographer Sergio Ortiz Borbolla was with us in northwestern Colombia at the end of October, and produced this brilliant 1:47 video depicting what we saw and heard. This is what Necoclí, and the gateway to the Darién Gap, looked and felt like.
In English, with my voiceover:
En español, narrado por Laura Dib, directora del programa de Venezuela de WOLA:
This was a really useful discussion, and I’m glad it’s in the record. My testimony starts at 19:05 here:
This was a great panel on November 7, with speakers in four countries (the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia). We talked about challenges for dignified migration at a time of hardening borders and more military and police involvement in migration control throughout the region.
Many thanks to Hispanics in Philanthropy and Open Society Foundations for organizing it and inviting me to participate.
Here’s an 1,100-word statement recalling and highlighting some of the basic principles underlying our border and migration work. Backed up with lots of numbers and data, of course.
The main points:
Read it here. It comes with an embedded video:
I think I’m getting better at making these? Obtaining a cheap teleprompter helped.
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:
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