Developments
Smugglers abandoned four unaccompanied migrant children on an inflatable raft in the Rio Grande near Brownsville, Texas, Border Patrol reported.
- Billal Rahman, “Border Agents Rescue Four Migrant Children From Raft on Rio Grande“ (Newsweek, October 30, 2024).
CBP reported that a man whom officers shot and wounded at Nogales, Arizona’s DeConcini port of entry on October 16 had 3,140 rounds of AK-47-style rifle ammunition stashed in his vehicle’s spare tire.
- Paul Ingram, “Man Shot at Nogales Border Crossing Had 3k Rounds of Ammo Stashed in Spare Tire“ (The Tucson Sentinel (Tucson Arizona), October 30, 2024).
Fox News covered the Trump campaign’s pledge to take down billboards in Texas, posted by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Immigration Detention Ombudsman (OIDO), reminding people with relatives in immigration custody that those relatives have recourse if they are being abused. Republican legislators have sought to defund and shut down OIDO, which was created in response to 2019 Democratic-led legislation.
- Adam Shaw, Bill Melugin, “‘Coming Down’: Trump Vows to Dismantle Billboards Pushing Rights for Illegal Immigrants if He Wins“ (Fox News, October 30, 2024).
Texas’s state government has named the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan criminal organization, a “tier 1” gang threat, alongside “notorious prison gangs the Texas Syndicate and the Mexican Mafia, as well as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas, the Crips, the Bloods, and the Latin Kings,” according to the Dallas Morning News.
- Zacharia Washington, “What We Know About the Rise of Venezuelan Gang Activity in Texas“ (The Dallas Morning News, October 30, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Yesterday’s WOLA-organized discussion of state forces’ human rights abuse at the Texas-Mexico border, with experts and advocates from Human Rights Watch, Hope Border Institute, Eagle Pass Border Coalition, and Alliance San Diego, is viewable on YouTube. Border Report published highlights of the event.
- “Texas’s Operation Lone Star: Excessive Use of Force on the Borderline” (YouTube, October 30, 2024).
- Julian Resendiz, “Texas’ Border Takeover a Factor in Migrant, Us Citizen Deaths, Activists Say“ (Border Report, October 30, 2024).
Writing for Puente News Collaborative and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Alfredo Corchado profiled Arvin West, the sheriff of Hudspeth County, Texas, just east of El Paso. A prominent border hardliner, West has become disillusioned with the politicization of the national debate on border security and migration and now supports more pragmatic, local approaches.
- Alfredo Corchado, “A Lawman’s Change of Heart“ (Puente News Collaborative, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, October 30, 2024).
A detailed analysis by Lillian Perlmutter at Rolling Stone discussed the harder-line turn in the Biden administration’s border policies, including strict limits on asylum access. “In their attempt to find a message that resonates with the American public,” Perlmutter wrote, “Democrats have forced hundreds of thousands of migrants into potentially deadly situations.”
- Lillian Perlmutter, “Democrats Are, in Fact, Cracking Down at the Border“ (Rolling Stone, October 30, 2024).
At America: The Jesuit Review, David Agren covered the Mexican government’s undeclared but vigorous effort, launched at the beginning of the year, to block migrants attempting to transit Mexico’s territory and reroute many of them to the country’s south. Agren added that many people migrating in Mexico feel an urgency to obtain CBP One appointments before Donald Trump, if he wins the November 5 elections, terminates the program. Brian Strassburger, a Jesuit priest working in south Texas and Tamaulipas, Mexico, said that the wait for CBP One appointments is now often seven months for non-Mexican migrants and ten months for Mexicans.
- David Agren, “The Other Border Crisis: How Mexico Is Enforcing Migration Policies Ahead of the U.S. Election“ (America The Jesuit Review, October 31, 2024).
Reporting from El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Agénce France Presse noted how the Biden administration’s restrictions on asylum between ports of entry have reduced unauthorized border crossings and channeled migrants into long waits for CBP One appointments.
- Herika Martinez, Sofia Miselem, “As Us Election Rhetoric Heats Up, Illegal Border Crossings Fall“ (Agence France Presse, Barron’s, October 31, 2024).
Reflecting on a recent visit to the Darién Gap in the Los Angeles Times, Human Rights Watch director Tirana Hassan called for more robust U.S. measures against Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and his inner circle, and to do much more to “uphold the rights of migrants and asylum seekers fleeing the crisis in Venezuela.” Hassan laments that instead, the Biden administration “has put Venezuelans in further danger and undercut their access to asylum.”
- Tirana Hassan, “What Venezuela’s Turn Away From Democracy Means for U.S. Migration“ (Human Rights Watch, The Los Angeles Times, October 31, 2024).
Data that the Cato Institute obtained via the Freedom of Information Act reveals that the Trump administration “released nearly 58,184 noncitizens with criminal records, including 8,620 violent criminals and 306 murderers,” often to clear detention space for asylum seekers arriving at the border. Cato’s David Bier noted that the Title 42 pandemic expulsions policy, which the Trump administration launched in March 2020, “removed consequences for convicted criminals who crossed the border illegally, enabling them to try again and again.”
- David J. Bier, “New Data on Trump’s Border Security Record: Releasing Criminals to Jail Asylum Seekers“ (The Cato Institute, October 30, 2024).
Writing for Mother Jones, Isabela Dias covered immigrant rights defense groups’ scenario planning and preparations for responding to a possible Donald Trump victory in Tuesday’s elections. “Strategic litigation is only part of their calculus. Another huge component is community education and readiness.”
- Isabela Dias, “Immigrant Rights Advocates Are Preparing For “The Worst” Under Trump. Will It Be Enough?“ (Mother Jones, October 30, 2024).
At Washington Monthly, Bill Scher looked at the data and concluded that the Trump administration was more effective at curbing legal migration than reducing unauthorized migration to the United States.
- Bill Scher, “Trump Won’t Tell You How He Takes Aim at Legal Immigration“ (Washington Monthly, October 31, 2024).
Reporting from North Carolina, the Australian network ABC concluded that Republican political candidates are having some success spreading the inaccurate belief that migrants bring fentanyl across the U.S.-Mexico border. (More than 90 percent is seized from vehicles, and more than 80 percent of those arrested at ports of entry are U.S. citizens.)
- Adam Harvey, Rahni Sadler, “‘Fentanyl Does Not Discriminate’ Who It Kills but Trump Is Conflating It With Migration to Win Votes“ (ABC (Australia), October 31, 2024).