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Developments

Panamanian police found the bodies of ten migrants, their nationalities not yet identified, who drowned in the Darién Gap while trying to cross a river swollen by seasonal rains. They had apparently sought to take a shorter route through the treacherous region, involving more boat travel and less walking, for which smugglers charge a higher fee.

Panama’s border police (SENAFRONT) urged migrants to cross the Darién using “the authorized passage for irregular migration leading to Cañas Blancas, where specialized patrols are available for their protection and humanitarian assistance.” Panama’s new government has sought to block some other routes with barbed wire.

• Luke Taylor, “Ten People Drown in Darien Gap While Trying to Cross Swollen River” (The Guardian (Uk), July 24, 2024).
• “Hallan 10 Cadaveres de Migrantes Que Murieron Ahogados en Panama” (EFE, Milenio (Mexico), July 24, 2024).

As the Biden administration’s June 5 asylum restrictions have brought a short-term drop in migration, Mexico’s migration authority (National Migration Institute, INM) is closing a tent shelter for migrants that it had established in Ciudad Juárez in late 2023. As of earlier this month, Border Report reported, Ciudad Juárez’s migrant shelters were more than half full, housing many families awaiting the 200 daily CBP One appointments at a port of entry across the Rio Grande in El Paso.

• Julian Resendiz, “Juarez to Close Tent Refuge, as Migrants Vanish” (Border Report, July 24, 2024).

A Texas state judge ruled that Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which runs a large shelter for migrants released from CBP custody in McAllen, does not have to give a sworn deposition to state prosecutors.

Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton (R) has launched a legal offensive against charities that receive released migrants, accusing them of encouraging illegal migration. A judge in El Paso recently struck down a similar effort to investigate El Paso’s Annunciation House shelter network, which is also associated with the Catholic faith. Paxton is appealing the Annunciation House ruling, and yesterday’s Catholic Charities decision only stops the deposition, not Paxton’s larger investigation.

• Sandra Sanchez, “Judge Rules in Favor of Catholic Charities Rgv in State of Texas’ Investigation” (Border Report, July 24, 2024).
• Valerie Gonzalez, “Judge’s Order Shields Catholic Charities From Deposition as Texas Investigates Border Aid Groups” (Associated Press, Associated Press, July 24, 2024).

Discussing Hamas cross-border raids into Israel before an audience of Texas sheriffs, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) added, “You can use my analogy, not to the same magnitude of course, but you can use my analogy, something that Texas law enforcement deals with” at the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Francesca D’annunzio, “Greg Abbott Compares Hamas Attacks to Texas Border Crossings at Sheriffs’ Conference” (The Texas Observer, July 24, 2024).

A look at Border Patrol apprehensions shows that the Texas state government’s $11 billion “Operation Lone Star” border crackdown has had little effect amid a border-wide drop in migration, and it has not pushed migration into other border states, as Gov. Abbott has claimed.

Since the record-setting month of December, after which Mexico began an aggressive campaign of blocking northbound migrants, Border Patrol apprehensions in Texas fell 82 percent by June—but they fell 70 percent in Democratic Party-governed Arizona and 67 percent border-wide.

Since January, migrant apprehensions in Arizona (-52%) have actually dropped more sharply than in Texas (-40%). From May to June, Texas fell 36 percent and Arizona 33 percent; the whole border fell 29 percent.

• Adam Isacson, “Texas’s Abusive Border Policies Haven’t Made Much Difference“ (Adam Isacson, July 24, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris’s role in border and migration policy continues to receive scrutiny. Many media outlets have clarified that, as vice president, Harris had no direct border responsibilities, and that oft-repeated Republican claims that she was a sort of White House “border czar” are false.

Harris was tasked, however, with a diplomatic effort to address the root causes of migration in northern Central America. While it is hard to link this long-term effort to short-term migration impacts, Central American migrants are among very few nationalities whose numbers have declined since 2021 at the U.S.-Mexico border. Comparing an average month in fiscal 2024 to an average month in fiscal 2021, migrant encounters with Hondurans have fallen 50 percent, with Salvadorans 39 percent, and with Guatemalans 14 percent. Border encounters with all nationalities’ migrants, meanwhile, are up 40 percent.

• Priscilla Alvarez, “Harris’ Immigration Work Comes Under Scrutiny as Campaign Takes Shape” (CNN, July 24, 2024).
• Maria Ramirez Uribe, “‘Border Czar’? Gop Talking Point Distorts Vp Harrris’ Role” (PolitiFact, July 24, 2024).
• Aline Barros, “Harris Was Never ‘Border Czar,’ Experts Say, Despite Republican Claims” (Voice of America, July 24, 2024).
• Jennie Taer, “Media Suddenly Changes Its Tune on Calling Kamala Harris the ‘Border Czar’ — Despite Giving Her the Title” (The New York Post, July 24, 2024).