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Developments

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released data about migration and enforcement at the U.S.-Mexico border through August.

• Last month, Border Patrol apprehended 58,038 people at the border. That is up slightly from July (56,399), but still the second-fewest since September 2020. It was the first time since February that Border Patrol’s apprehensions increased over the previous month. This may be a sign that the drop in migration at the border has “bottomed out” following a beginning-of-year crackdown in Mexico and a sweeping June Biden administration asylum-access restriction.
• As it strictly enforced the Biden administration’s June 2024 asylum restriction rule, Border Patrol released fewer people with “notices to appear” (9,936) than in any month since February 2021.
• Border Patrol’s fiscal year 2024 migrant apprehensions are on track to be 21 percent fewer than last year’s.
• An additional 49,465 people were able to enter custody at ports of entry (official border crossings). About 44,700 of that total were people who had made appointments using the CBP One app. CBP continues to allow about 1,450 CBP One appointments per day; the monthly port-of-entry total has changed little since June 2023.
• Combining Border Patrol and ports of entry, the nationalities most frequently encountered in August were citizens of Mexico (37,601), Venezuela (15,214), Cuba (10,423), Guatemala (7,099), and Honduras (6,943). Nearly all encounters with Cubans and Venezuelans took place at ports of entry.
• Of the nine sectors into which Border Patrol divides the border, San Diego, California (14,436) measured the most migrant apprehensions. El Paso, Texas-New Mexico (13,282) was in second place; it was last in the “top two” in April 2023. Tucson, Arizona (11,922) was third.
• Combining Border Patrol and ports of entry, 34 percent (36,016) of August’s migrant encounters were with members of family units, and 7 percent (7,130) were unaccompanied children. 32 percent of families and 35 percent of unaccompanied children were Mexican.
• CBP has seized 18,981 pounds of fentanyl at the border during the first 11 months of fiscal year 2024. For the first time since fentanyl first appeared in the mid-2010s, border seizures of the drug are almost certain to be fewer than they were in the year before (26,719 pounds in 2023). Fiscal 2024’s fentanyl seizures are on pace to be 23 percent fewer than in 2023.
• As in previous years, 88 percent of fentanyl has been seized at ports of entry, and another 5 percent at Border Patrol’s interior vehicle checkpoints.

• “Cbp Releases August 2024 Monthly Update” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, September 16, 2024).
• “Arrests for Illegal Border Crossings Jump 3% in August, Suggesting Decline May Be Bottoming Out” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 16, 2024).
• Priscilla Alvarez, “Biden Administration Says Number of Illegal Border Crossings Has Drastically Fallen as Trump Seizes on Immigration” (CNN, September 16, 2024).
• Kierra Frazier, “Activity Along the Southern Border Returns to Trump-Era Levels” (Politico, September 16, 2024).

Asylum seekers interviewed by EFE in Ciudad Juárez said that while they disliked the several-months-long waits for CBP One appointments, the app offered a process for entering the United States and turning themselves in to U.S. authorities that is “more orderly” and “a little safer.”

• “Frontera Mexico-Eu Esta Mas Ordenada por Medidas Cbp: Migrantes” (EFE, Milenio (Mexico), September 16, 2024).

11,023 Nicaraguans requested refuge in Costa Rica during the first 7 months of 2024, Nicaragua Investiga reported. While that is 9,280 fewer than the same period last year, it is not far behind the 17,868 Nicaraguan citizens whom U.S. authorities encountered at the U.S.-Mexico border during those 7 months.

• “Los Nicas Siguen Huyendo de Dictadura: Mas de 11,000 Llegaron a Costa Rica en Lo Que Va de 2024” (Nicaragua Investiga, September 17, 2024).

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) designated Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, an organized crime group, a “terrorist organization,” calling them “an extreme version of the heinous MS-13 gang.” Border Patrol union representative Chris Cabrera, present at the announcement, said, “As a federal agent, we have no way of vetting these people other than the honor system. If they tell us their name, we can’t check against Venezuela’s database.”

• “Governor Abbott Designates Tren de Aragua as Terrorist Organization” (Texas Governor’s Office, September 16, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

The debunked, racist tropes that the Trump-Vance campaign issued in recent days are nothing new for Haitian migrants, wrote Nadra Nittle at the 19th: “Due to the unique ways race, religion and resistance have intersected in Haiti’s history, immigrants from the Caribbean nation have experienced a specific brand of xenophobia in the United States.”

• Nadra Nittle, “Trump’s Claims About Haitians Draw From a Centuries-Long Narrative. These Women Explain Why.” (The 19th, September 16, 2024).

“From what I’ve read and seen from Vice President Harris, I think she tries to take a balanced approach,” Adriel Orozco of the American Immigration Council told Mother Jones. “She tries to take a humanistic lens to migration, considering her background as a child of migrants, but she’s also a prosecutor.”

• Melvis Acosta, “What Immigration Experts Want From a Harris Administration” (Mother Jones, September 16, 2024).

Australian journalist Prue LeWarne reported about encounters with migrants—and migration agents—after journeying on Mexico’s “La Bestia” cargo train.

• Charlie Bell, Prue Lewarne, “I Travelled on Mexico’s Deadliest Train With Hundreds of Migrants Trying to Reach the Us” (SBS (Australia), September 16, 2024).

On the Right

• Jason Hopkins, “Biden Admin Touts Reduction in Border Crossings While Flying in Hundreds of Thousands of Migrants” (Daily Caller, September 17, 2024).