Developments
Mexico’s army reported seizing over 900 kilograms (1,984 pounds) of cocaine in San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora, a border town near Yuma, Arizona. This one seizure is equivalent to one-fifteenth of all cocaine that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reported seizing at the border throughout fiscal 2024 (30,383 pounds, or 13,781 kilograms).
- Juan Carlos Cartas, “¡Fuerte Golpe al Narco! Aseguran Mas de 900 Kg de Cocaina en San Luis Rio Colorado, Sonora“ (Proyecto Puente (Mexico), October 28, 2024).
On Friday, hospitals in Texas must begin collecting information about their patients’ citizenship status, under an executive order from Gov. Greg Abbott (R).
- Ryan Chandler, “Texas Hospitals to Start Checking Citizenship Status This Week“ (Border Report, October 28, 2024).
Abbott’s state government has purchased a 1,400-acre ranch along the border in Starr County, in the southern part of Texas, where it plans to build a new length of border wall, Fox News reported.
- Adam Shaw, “‘Shut It Down’: Red State Makes Massive Land Buy to Ramp Up Border Wall Efforts Amid Migrant Surge“ (Fox News, October 28, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Reuters reported on Mexico’s policy, begun in January, of blocking in-transit migrants and systematically transporting many to the country’s south. The undeclared but vigorous effort is a central reason why the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border is down during the 2024 U.S. election campaign. Reuters revealed that Mexico’s migration authority has paid over $65 million to one charter bus company since last year.
- Diego Ore, Jose Luis Gonzalez, Laura Gottesdiener, Ted Hesson, “How Mexico’s Migrant Crackdown Influences the U.S. Election“ (Reuters, Reuters, October 28, 2024).
A New York Times analysis concluded that regardless of who wins the 2024 U.S. presidential election, curbs on the right to access asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border are likely to remain in place or become even stiffer. As a result, many asylum seekers in North America and Europe “are finding themselves increasingly stranded in desperate, unsafe conditions like camps or crowded boats.”
- Hamed Aleaziz, Jazmine Ulloa, “Under Trump or Harris, U.S. Asylum Curbs Are Likely to Endure“ (The New York Times, October 28, 2024).
At Vox, Nicole Narea evaluated Donald Trump’s oft-repeated campaign promise by examining past attempts at “mass deportation” and past challenges to the overuse of wartime powers.
- Nicole Narea, “Trump’s Mass Deportation Plan: Would It Actually Work?“ (Vox, October 29, 2024).
“Fearmongering over the threat that illegal immigration poses to native-born white women is misleading at best,” David Kirkpatrick wrote at the New Yorker. Still, Republican candidates and Fox News are winning over some voters in close states by amplifying cases like the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, allegedly by a man who recently migrated from Venezuela.
- David D. Kirkpatrick, “Will Laken Riley’s Murder Tip Georgia?“ (The New Yorker, October 29, 2024).
Anti-immigrant attitudes could also affect the election outcome in Wisconsin, a swing state where many migrants have settled in response to unmet labor needs, Alfredo Corchado and Dudley Althaus wrote at the San Antonio Express-News. However, they find that the state’s small Latino vote could counteract those attitudes.
- Alfredo Corchado, Dudley Althaus, “Immigration Could Shift Presidential Vote in Wisconsin, 1,000 Miles From Border“ (The San Antonio Express-News, October 28, 2024).
Similarly, the New York Times looked at how candidates in New York state have sought to gain an electoral advantage from a large increase in migrant arrivals to New York City during the Biden administration.
- Luis Ferre-Sadurni, “How New York City’s Migrant Crisis Became a Potent Campaign Issue“ (The New York Times, October 28, 2024).
At Caracas Chronicles, Carlos Rodríguez López wrote about how “unsustained allegations about an exponential rise of violent crime brought by Venezuelan gangs” have made Venezuelan migrants a “political football” in the 2024 election campaign. Only 35 percent of people of Venezuelan origin in the United States have U.S. citizenship, Rodríguez López points out: many are recent arrivals, and most cannot vote.
- Carlos Rodriguez Lopez, “Venezuelans: The Political Football of the U.S. Election“ (Caracas Chronicles, October 28, 2024).
- Tom Leonard, “How ‘la Barbie’ and Her Venezuelan Thugs Could Swing the Us Election“ (The Daily Mail (UK), October 28, 2024).
The New York Times’s Miriam Jordan told the story of José, a sixth-grader living with his parents in Houston, whom Border Patrol agents had separated from his family in May 2018, at the height of the Trump administration’s family separation policy. “I don’t trust anybody,” the boy said. “I just trust my mom and dad.”
- Miriam Jordan, “He Was 5 When a Trump Immigration Policy Separated His Family. He Hasn’t Forgotten.“ (The New York Times, October 28, 2024).
On the Right
- Elizabeth Elkind, Matteo Cina, “Scalise Details Trump’s Vision on Securing Border in First 100 Days“ (Fox News, October 28, 2024).
- Chris Nesi, Jennie Taer, “Kamala Harris’ Grim Border Czar Legacy: 2,700 Migrants Who Died Crossing Into Us“ (The New York Post, October 28, 2024).
- Benedict Smith, Ben Butcher, “The True Scale of Migrant Crossings Under Kamala Harris Revealed“ (The Telegraph (UK), October 28, 2024).
- Brandon Judd, “Congress Must Act: America’s Safety Hinges on Border Security, Not Presidential Promises“ (Newsweek, October 28, 2024).