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Developments
CBS News obtained unpublished post-2022 Border Patrol data about the number of remains of deceased migrants that the agency has recovered along the U.S.-Mexico border. “The number of migrant deaths recorded by Border Patrol increased to 568 in fiscal year 2021 and then soared to nearly 900 [890] in fiscal year 2022—an all-time high. In fiscal years 2023 and 2024, Border Patrol recorded 704 and 560 migrant deaths respectively.”
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Justo Robles, Suvro Banerji, “Finding Missing Migrants Along the U.S.-Mexico Border, the World’s Deadliest Land Migration Route” (CBS News, September 19, 2024).
Chris Magnus, a former Tucson police chief who headed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for about a year early in the Biden administration, told Arizona Luminaria that he was troubled by a recent incident in Arizona, when Border Patrol failed to assist a man who fell from the wall, leaving him lying on the Mexican side of the barrier with a compound fracture. The incident, Magnus said, “speaks to a more significant cultural problem that’s not unique to the Border Patrol but deeply troubling anywhere in law enforcement when those sworn to protect forget that protecting lives must be their top priority regardless of politics, bureaucracy, burn-out, or fear of repercussions.”
- John Washington, “Border Patrol’s Refusal to Rescue an Injured Man by Cutting the Wall Shows a Larger “Cultural Problem,” Former Cbp Commissioner Says” (Arizona Luminaria, September 19, 2024).
After more than a week of baseless attacks on a Haitian migrant population in Ohio, the Trump-Vance campaign may shift focus to Venezuelan migrants in Colorado. Colorado Public Radio reported that Donald Trump plans to visit Aurora, a Denver suburb where—despite emphatic local police and government denials—rumors spread that Venezuela’s “Tren de Aragua” organized-crime group had taken control of an apartment complex.
- Caitlyn Kim, “Trump Says He’s Coming to Aurora, Doubles Down on Claims of Venezuelan Gang Violence” (Colorado Public Radio, September 19, 2024).
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) criticized Gov. Greg Abbott (R) of neighboring border state Texas for ordering National Guard troops to lay barbed wire along the borderline between the states. Texas’s state government billed the move as a measure to keep migrants who cross into New Mexico from entering Texas. “Gov. Abbott seems to be pushing to make Texas its own country without regard for his neighbors,” Lujan Grisham said.
- Fallon Fischer, “New Mexico’s Governor Blasts Texas for Placing Razor Wire on Border Between Their States” (Valley Central, September 19, 2024).
At this moment of reduced migration, Texas’s state government is planning to close and consolidate some of its police and military deployment along the border. “Officials with the State National Guard revealed that two of the four operation base camps, one in Laredo and one north of Eagle Pass, will be shut down,” an Austin television station reported. “A base camp near Del Rio is also being downsized.” Some will be reassigned to a large base that Texas recently built near Eagle Pass.
- Rudy Koski, “Texas Border Deployment Going Through ‘Realignment’: Officials” (FOX 7 (Austin Texas), September 19, 2024).
“An unidentified foreign national” punched and bit a Border Patrol agent in an altercation on Mount Cristo Rey, on the western edge of El Paso, Border Report reported. Mexican police “have three people in custody.”
- Julian Resendiz, “Border Patrol Agent Bitten in Face During Assault on Mount Cristo Rey” (Border Report, September 19, 2024).
Three El Paso and New Mexico-area nonprofits petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus for four Venezuelan citizens who have been held for nearly a year at the Otero Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Chaparral, New Mexico. Venezuela’s government is refusing to allow deportation flights, and the detained people have voiced fear of deportation into Mexico.
- Julian Resendiz, “Venezuelan Migrants Sue for Release After Nearly a Year at Ice Detention Center” (Border Report, September 19, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Reporting from Sunland Park, New Mexico, an area near El Paso where migrant deaths are surging, Associated Press reporter Morgan Lee found that Democrats representing border districts “are promoting border enforcement as seldom before.”
- Morgan Lee, “The Politics of Immigration Play Differently Along the Us-Mexico Border” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 20, 2024).
Former Biden National Security Council official Katie Tobin published an article for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace upholding the 2022 Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection, which “largely” continues to guide many Western Hemisphere nations’ commitments to improve integration of migrants and coordination of migration policies. The article praises increased cooperation, increased reparations, and the U.S.-backed “Safe Mobility Office” initiative. It laments a lack of economic investment, some countries’ “lack of political will,” and persistent migration through the Darién Gap.
- Katie Tobin, “The los Angeles Declaration Continues to Shape the Regional and Global Migration Response” (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, September 19, 2024).
Dr. Belén Ramírez of Doctors Without Borders published an account of the organization’s work at an aid camp in Arizona where volunteers provide humanitarian assistance to asylum seekers waiting in the desert to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. Many are now coming from countries in Asia and Africa, which presents new language barriers.
- Dr. Belen Ramirez, “48 Hours at the Us-Mexico Border” (Doctors Without Borders, September 19, 2024).
An analysis by photojournalist Adri Salido at the Guardian, reported from Guatemala, pointed to temporary work programs as a solution to reduce the number of people who make the dangerous journey to the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Adri Salido, “Is Circular Migration a Solution to the Crisis at the Us Border? Guatemala Provides a Clue” (The Guardian (Uk), September 19, 2024).
On the Right
- Adam Shaw, “Ex-Border Patrol Chief Rips Biden Admin for Allegedly Suppressing Info on Migrants With Potential Terror Ties” (Fox News, September 19, 2024).