Adam Isacson

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Daily Border Links are following a sporadic publication schedule between May 3 and July 19. Regular daily updates will return on July 22.

Developments

Border Patrol recorded about 3,000 migrant apprehensions on May 20, according to data obtained by CBS News. No full month of the Biden administration—not even February 2021—has recorded a daily average as low as that.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that “the drop stems from several factors, including the administration’s efforts to expand legal migration channels and increase deportations of those who enter illegally, as well as more immigration enforcement by Mexico.” This appears to acknowledge that Mexico has been accepting a larger number of deportations of Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens into its territory under the Biden administration’s post-Title 42 “asylum ban” rule.

• “Camilo Montoya-Galvez @Camiloreports on Twitter” (Twitter, May 21, 2024).

As the Senate majority Democratic leadership seeks to bring the Border Act to a vote this week, with new restrictions on access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, it’s increasingly possible that the bill might get fewer votes than it did in February, when a similar measure attached to Ukraine and Israel aid failed in the face of Republican opposition.

All but five Senate Democrats voted for the bill in February, but the number of defections could be larger this time since Ukraine aid is not at stake—that aid package passed separately in April.

• Sen. Cory Booker (D-New Jersey), who voted for the bill in February, declared his opposition.
• A statement from leadership of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus warned that “if this bill passes, it will set back real comprehensive immigration reform by years.”
• Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), the lead Republican in November-February negotiations that appeared to have led to a bipartisan deal on the legislation, said that he will vote “no” this time, changing his vote from February. The Border Act, Lankford told CNN, “is no longer a bill, now it’s a prop.”
• Moderate Republican senators who voted for the bill in February (Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Mitt Romney of Utah) are sounding unenthusiastic about voting for it this time, though they still might do so.

Either way, the bill is certain to fail to get the 60 votes that it needs, under Senate rules, to proceed to debate and a vote on passage.

• Burgess Everett, Ursula Perano, “Senate Democrats Set to Lose Support From Their Own Side on Second Border Vote” (Politico, May 21, 2024).
• “Savannah Behrmann @Savbehrmanndc on Twitter” (Twitter, May 21, 2024).
• “Chc Leadership Statement on Senate Efforts to Pass Border Bill” (U.S. House of Representatives, May 21, 2024).
• Kaitlin Lewis, “Republican Will Vote Against His Own Border Bill” (Newsweek, May 22, 2024).
• “Burgess Everett @Burgessev on Twitter” (Twitter, May 21, 2024).
• Daniel Trotta, Nandita Bose, “Biden Reaches Out to Republican Leaders for Support of Border Bill” (Reuters, Reuters, May 21, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

The Guardian reported San Diego-area aid workers’ struggle to help newly arrived asylum seekers navigate the complicated U.S. system, and to provide supplies to people seeking to turn themselves in to Border Patrol in increasingly remote border areas. “The philanthropic funding, I think due to a lot of the anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from both sides of the aisle, has really dried up,” said Erika Pinheiro, director of local aid and advocacy group Al Otro Lado.

• Paulina Velasco, “At the US’s Latest Border Hotspot, Aid Workers Brace for Volatility” (The Guardian (Uk), May 22, 2024).

As the House Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing today on the use of AI for border and other domestic security missions, Faiza Patel and Spencer Reynolds of the Brennan Center for Justice issued policy recommendations to break DHS’s reliance on “unproven programs that rely on algorithms and risk the rights of the tens of millions of Americans.”

• Faiza Patel, Spencer Reynolds, “As Dhs Implements New Ai Technologies, It Must Overcome Old Shortcomings” (Brennan Center for Justice, Just Security, May 21, 2024).

The Texas Observer profiled Laredo environmental advocate Tricia Cortez, who has led forceful local opposition to federal and state attempts to build border walls in and near her city.

• Justin Miller, “Want to Build a Wall? Don’t Try It in Her Town.” (The Texas Observer, May 21, 2024).

“There have been an unusually high number of migrants hospitalized, including young children, in Eagle Pass after coming into contact with the razor wire” that Texas state authorities have laid down along the Rio Grande, noted a USA Today report from the mid-Texas border city.

• Carlie Procell, Rick Jervis, Stephen J. Beard, “Operation Lone Star Explained: What’s Happening in Eagle Pass, Texas?” (USA Today, May 22, 2024).

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Daily Border Links are following a sporadic publication schedule between May 3 and July 19. Regular daily updates will return on July 22.

Developments

The White House and Senate majority Democratic leadership remain determined to bring the Border Act to a vote this week.

Among its many provisions, this bill includes a temporary mechanism that would shut down access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when daily migrant encounters exceed 4,000 per day (discretionary) or 5,000 per day (mandatory). If passed, this would be a historic rollback of threatened individuals’ half-century-old right to petition for asylum on U.S. soil.

Nonetheless, the White House issued a statement of “strong support” for the bill, and President Joe Biden called Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to urge them to support the bill.

Republicans, however, appear poised to block the Border Act in the Senate, where it needs 60 senators to agree to proceed to debate and a vote. Nearly identical legislation, attached to Ukraine and Israel aid, failed to clear this hurdle in the Senate on February 7.

Republicans contend that the bill is not restrictive enough, and are likely unwilling to hand Biden a legislative win on the border-migration issue in an election year. Democrats appear to be calculating that even a legislative loss helps shield them from campaign-season accusations of being insufficiently “aggressive” at the border.

• “Statement From White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on Senate Plans to Vote on the Bipartisan Border Security Agreement” (The White House, May 20, 2024).
• “Jake Sherman @Jakesherman on Twitter” (Twitter, May 20, 2024).
• Frank Thorp V, Sahil Kapur, Scott Wong, “Senate Democrats Revive Bipartisan Border Security Bill as Gop Vows to Block It Again” (NBC News, May 20, 2024).
• Luke Broadwater, “Senate to Vote Again on Border Deal as Democrats Seek Political Edge” (The New York Times, May 20, 2024).

Asked by CBS News about the state of Texas’s legal attacks on Annunciation House, a Catholic migrant shelter in El Paso, Pope Francis replied: “That is madness. Sheer madness. To close the border and leave them there, that is madness. The migrant has to be received. Thereafter you see how you are going to deal with him. Maybe you have to send him back, I don’t know, but each case ought to be considered humanely. Right?”

• Norah O’Donnell, “Pope Francis tells 60 Minutes in rare interview: ‘the globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease’” (CBS News, May 19, 2024).
• Rebecca Falconer, “Pope Francis on U.S. Border Crisis: Migration “Makes a Country Grow”” (Axios, May 20, 2024).

We’ve heard no new updates on local media reports citing allegations that members of the Texas National Guard severely beat a Honduran migrant on May 17 and pushed him across the borderline from El Paso to Ciudad Juárez, where he died of his injuries on the riverbank.

• Herika Martinez Prado, “Atemoriza a Migrantes Muerte de Hondureno” (El Diaro de Juarez (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), May 20, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A UNHCR factsheet noted that 2024 financial requirements for integrating Venezuelan migrants in Latin American countries are only 15 percent fulfilled, increasing the likelihood that some may fail to integrate and move on to the United States.

• “Venezuela Situation Factsheet May 2024” (UN Refugee Agency, May 20, 2024).

On the Right

• Jennie Taer, “Migrants Rushing to Cross Border Now in Case Biden Loses in November: ‘We Don’t Want Trump’” (The New York Post, May 20, 2024).

Daily Border Links are following a sporadic publication schedule between May 3 and July 19. Regular daily updates will return on July 22.

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Developments

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) confirmed that the body’s Democratic majority intends to bring the “Border Act” to a vote this week. The legislation incorporates provisions of a bill that failed in the Senate in early February after months of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans.

Of its many provisions, the most controversial is a mechanism that would shut down access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border if daily migrant encounters exceed 4,000 or 5,000 per day.

This provision’s inclusion in the earlier bill, which also included Ukraine and Israel aid, was a large concession for Democrats, but Republicans still rejected it, echoing Donald Trump’s argument that it did not go far enough.

If the Border Act goes to a vote this week, it is unclear whether any Republicans will support it. But it would be the second time in three months that Senate Democrats go on the record supporting a historic rollback of threatened migrants’ right to seek asylum in the United States.

The White House and some leading Senate Democrats view the bill as a means to take the border issue away from Republicans during the election year by appearing “aggressive.” However, migrants’ rights advocates are urging Senate leaders not to take this step because of its potential for harm.

• “Sahil Kapur @Sahilkapur on Twitter” (Twitter, May 19, 2024).
• Daniel Trotta, “Schumer Says Us Senate Will Try Again to Pass Border Bill” (Reuters, Reuters, May 19, 2024).
• Mj Lee, Priscilla Alvarez, “White House and Democratic Lawmakers Plot Ways to Strengthen Their Hand on Border Security” (CNN, May 18, 2024).

Local media are reporting that a Honduran migrant died just south of the borderline between El Paso and Ciudad Juárez after being severely beaten. Other migrants allege that the victim’s assailants were members of the Texas National Guard, who prevented them from crossing to the U.S. side to turn themselves in to U.S. federal authorities.

If accurate, the incident would be the first time in decades that a U.S. soldier purposefully killed a civilian on U.S. soil.

• Liliana Torreso, “‘Pedimos Ayuda Pero No Nos Hicieron Caso’: Migrantes por Hondureno Asesinado en el Rio” (El Heraldo de Juarez (Mexico), May 17, 2024).
• Juan Carlos Ortega, “Migrante Hondureno Muere en la Frontera de ee.uu. Tras Ser Golpeado por Policias” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), May 19, 2024).

After U.S. authorities sent another deportation flight to Haiti on May 16, UNHCR’s U.S. office urged them to refrain from doing that again while the Caribbean nation’s public security emergency persists.

• “Unhcr United States @Unhcrusa on Twitter” (Twitter, May 17, 2024).

Despite concerns about the Salvadoran security forces’ human rights record and democratic backsliding, the U.S. government has granted them drone equipment valued at $4.5 million, which “will be employed along the border regions to reinforce El Salvador’s security against illegal smuggling and migrant crossings,” EFE reported, citing a U.S. embassy statement. The recipient unit is the armed forces’ Sumpul Task Force, a unit that focuses primarily on borders.

• “Estados Unidos Dona Drones a el Salvador para Vigilar Los “Cruces Ilegales” de Migrantes” (EFE, Swissinfo.ch, May 18, 2024).

Of the nine sectors into which Border Patrol divides the U.S.-Mexico border, the two that have seen the most migration since January are Tucson, Arizona and San Diego, California. Both sectors have seen two weeks of declining migrant encounters, according to Twitter posts from their chiefs.

• “Adam Isacson @adam_wola on Twitter” (Twitter, May 20, 2024).
• Elliot Spagat, “The Latest Hot Spot for Illegal Border Crossings Is San Diego. But Routes Change Quickly” (Associated Press, Associated Press, May 17, 2024).
• Alexandra Mendoza, “Shifting Migrant Routes Make San Diego the New Hot Spot for Illegal Border Crossings” (The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 18, 2024).

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has been claiming that his state government’s border crackdown has reduced migration there and pushed it to states further west. In fact, though, Arizona—not Texas—has seen the steepest declines in migration since the record-setting month of December, according to data released last week by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Migrant encounters have in fact risen 5 percent in Texas since January as they declined 30 percent in Arizona.

• “Adam Isacson @adam_wola on Twitter” (Twitter, May 17, 2024).

“Historically, this sector had been number one in irregular migrants,” Andres Garcia, a Border Patrol spokesman in the agency’s Rio Grande Valley sector in south Texas, told a gathering of Latin American journalists. “Now we are down to number four. What is happening? It doesn’t depend on us, it depends on the ‘logistics’ on the Mexican side. I’m talking about the criminal organizations that move this traffic through other areas of the border.”

• Arturo Sanchez Jimenez, “Bajo Control de Carteles, el Flujo a Eu de Migrantes Irregulares: Border Patrol” (La Jornada (Mexico), May 19, 2024).

The presidents of Mexico and Guatemala met in the border-zone city of Tapachula, Chiapas, on May 17. Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Bernardo Arévalo agreed to deepen collaboration on border and migration management and to improve official border crossing infrastructure.

• “Mexico and Guatemala Strengthen Border Collaboration on Security and Human Mobility for the Wellbeing of Their Peoples” (Secretaria de Relaciones Exteriores (Mexico), May 17, 2024).
• Edgar H. Clemente, “Mexican and Guatemalan Presidents Meet at Border to Discuss Migration, Security and Development” (Associated Press, Associated Press, May 17, 2024).

The director of Panama’s migration agency, Samira Gozaine, told the Associated Press that high costs and coordination challenges would make it impossible for incoming President-Elect José Raúl Mulino to carry out his campaign pledge to deport migrants passing through the treacherous Darién Gap region.

• Alma Solis, “Panama No Puede Hacer Deportaciones Masivas de Inmigrantes, Reconoce Funcionaria” (Associated Press, Associated Press, May 17, 2024).

CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility is investigating whether top Border Patrol officials, including Chief Jason Owens and Rio Grande Valley Sector Chief Gloria Chavez, properly disclosed their contacts with Eduardo Garza, owner of a prominent Laredo-based customs brokerage company.

NBC News broke the story, adding to an earlier report that “Owens and Chavez are already under investigation by CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility for their contacts with [tequila maker Francisco Javier] González, who wanted to make a Border Patrol-branded tequila to celebrate the agency’s 100th anniversary this month.”

• Didi Martinez, Julia Ainsley, Laura Strickler, “Border Patrol Officials Who Partied With Tequila Mogul Are Also Under Investigation for Ties to Wealthy Border Businessman” (NBC News, May 17, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Since 2014, U.S. immigration courts have heard 1,047,134 asylum cases, and granted asylum or other deportation relief in 685,956 of them (66%), according to Syracuse University’s TRAC Immigration data project.

• “Two-Thirds of Court Asylum Applicants Found Legally Entitled to Remain” (TRAC Immigration, May 17, 2024).

Of the more than 500,000 Nicaraguan people who have migrated to the United States since a 2018 crackdown on dissent, many have not applied for asylum, leaving their documented status uncertain, the Inter-American Dialogue’s Manuel Orozco told the independent media outlet Confidencial.

• Carlos F. Chamorro, “Medio Millon de Migrantes Nicas Necesitan Asilo Politico en Ee. Uu.” (Confidencial (Nicaragua), May 20, 2024).

Due to an extended period of staff travel and commitments, we are producing “Daily Border Links” posts less regularly between May 3 and July 19. We will be unable to post Daily Border Links at all between May 3 and May 17. Following this period, Daily Border Links will again be “daily,” with minor interruptions, between July 22 and the end of the year.

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Developments

The chief of Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector—the westernmost of the agency’s nine U.S.-Mexico border sectors—reported that agents there apprehended 10,023 migrants during the week of April 24-30. That cements San Diego’s status as the border’s busiest sector, a position it has not held since the late 1990s.

• Chief Patrol Agent Patricia D. McGurk-Daniel @USBPChiefSDC on Twitter (Twitter, May 1, 2024).

Border Patrol agents had already been making asylum seekers wait for hours or days in the open air at the sector’s California borderline before being able to process them. Now, the Washington Examiner’s Anna Giaritelli reported based on a leaked internal document, some migrants are hiking into rural California seeking to turn themselves in directly to Border Patrol stations or other law enforcement facilities.

• Anna Giaritelli, “Illegal Immigrants Hiking Miles Into California in Search of Police as Border Patrol Is Stretched Thin” (The Washington Examiner, May 1, 2024).

A letter from 32 Democratic members of Congress urged House appropriators to avoid funding any federal government activities that involve collaboration with the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star.” The letter noted that “groups have documented repeated cases of Border Patrol turning over migrants to Texas state law enforcement instead of processing them for immigration purposes and ensuring they have access to legal protections for those fleeing violence and danger.”

• Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas), “Congressmen Greg Casar, Joaquin Castro, & Colleagues Are Urging Federal Agencies to Not Participate in Operation Lone Star” (U.S. House of Representatives, May 1, 2024).

In leaked audio of a phone conversation with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham complained that Border Patrol is focusing resources on seizing state-licensed cannabis at interior checkpoints. “They’re saying that they’re worried about fentanyl. So they’re taking all of our cannabis,” the governor was heard saying. “For the love of God, put them at the border in Sunland Park [west of El Paso] where I don’t have a single Border Patrol agent, not one. And people pour over, and so I’m cranky with the secretary.”

• Tommy Lopez, “Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham Heard Voicing Frustration Over Border Issue in Phone Call” (KOB (Albequerque New Mexico), May 2, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A report from Human Rights Watch detailed how rules mandating use of the CBP One app restrict access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, forcing many to wait for months in precarious and vulnerable conditions inside Mexico. The report included examples of people kidnapped for ransom by Mexican criminal groups while awaiting appointments. CBP personnel, it found, routinely turn asylum seekers away from ports of entry, even when they say they are in danger, because they did not use the app to make appointments. The report called on DHS to stop making the app’s use mandatory and instead increase processing capacity at border ports of entry, while increasing adjudication capacity to reduce asylum case backlogs.

• “‘We Couldn’t Wait’ Digital Metering at the Us-Mexico Border” (Human Rights Watch, May 1, 2024).
• Thomas Graham, “Us Asylum App Strands Migrants and Aids Organised Crime, Rights Group Says” (The Guardian (Uk), May 1, 2024).
• Sandra Sanchez, “Report: ‘Fundamental’ Asylum Rights Denied by Cbp One App” (Border Report, May 1, 2024).

“The Right Way,” a video produced by ProPublica and the Texas Tribune, profiled a Venezuelan family who had to wait for five months in Ciudad Juárez for a CBP One appointment, during the 2023 period when 40 migrants died in a detention center fire in the city.

• Gerardo del Valle, ““the Right Way”: From Venezuela to Juarez and New York to Denver, One Family’s Asylum Journey” (Propublica, Texas Tribune, ProPublica, May 2, 2024).

An article by the Migration Policy Institute evaluated the Title 42 pandemic expulsions policy, which expired a year ago on May 11. Despite nearly 3 million expulsions, it found, migration at the U.S.-Mexico border reached new highs during the 38 months that the policy was in place. The report debunked claims that bringing back Title 42 or a similar “asylum shutdown” policy would deter or significantly reduce irregular migration: “While Title 42 offers a campaign-style slogan to shut down the border, the reality is that it never met that promise. And whatever outcomes it had came at the very sizeable cost of reneging on decades of U.S. commitments to guaranteeing humanitarian protection.”

• Julian Montalvo, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Muzaffar Chishti, “Title 42 Postmortem: U.S. Pandemic-Era Expulsions Policy Did Not Shut Down the Border” (Migration Policy Institute, May 1, 2024).

On the Right

• Michael Lee, “Mexico’s Migrant Bussing Spree a Lifeline for Biden on Border Crisis: Expert” (Fox News, May 1, 2024).

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Developments

Migration through the Darién Gap has declined in April, a surprising development confirmed by an April 29 press release from Panama’s migration authority. The release reported that 136,523 people had migrated through the treacherous region since January 1, a number that stood at 110,008 on March 31. That means the average daily traffic through the Darién was 947 people per day during the first 28 days of April. That is the second-lowest daily average of any month since February 2023.

Similarly, a look at Honduras’s statistics shows a daily average of 1,281 over the first 24 days of April, which is also down significantly from 1,473 in March and 1,701 in February.

• Gozaine Reitera Que Darien No Es una Ruta y Destaca Personas Con Record Criminal Que Utilizan la Selva para Seguir su Paso Hacia Norteamerica (Servicio Nacional de Migración (Panama), Monday, April 29, 2024).

The Huffington Post’s Roque Planas, who broke a story in February about Border Patrol agents’ frequent use of the slur “tonk” to describe migrants, published new revelations from the agency’s internal emails and text messages. The communications, from 2017 to 2020, reveal agents joking about beating or poisoning migrants. “Now you’re leaning left and sounding like a snowflake,” wrote one agent after a colleague used the word “migrant” to describe a migrant.

• Roque Planas, “Uncovered Emails Reveal Border Patrol Agent’s Horrific Jokes About Children” (The Huffington Post, April 30, 2024).

Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) top official, Troy Miller, testified Tuesday before the House of Representatives’ Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Questioning noted that Border Patrol’s apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen recently to about 3,900 per day; members of Congress credited Mexico’s stepped up migrant interdiction operations. Miller noted that he has “an individual, a senior advisor assigned to me that is solely dedicated to working with Mexico.”

• Hearing of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee on Fiscal Year 2025 Request for Customs and Border Protection (U.S. House of Representatives, April 30, 2024).

A front-page Washington Post story cites U.S. officials’ belief that the Mexican government’s crackdown on migration is “the biggest factor” explaining 2024’s relative decline in migration at the border. Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions in April totaled “about 130,000,” reporter Nick Miroff revealed; that would be a decline from 140,638 reported in February and 137,480 in March. “The next several weeks will be a key test” of Mexico’s interdiction operations, officials told Miroff.

• Nick Miroff, “A Quieter Border Eases Pressure on Biden, With a Hand From Mexico” (The Washington Post, April 30, 2024).

The Associated Press reported, citing White House national security spokesman John Kirby, that U.S. cooperation with Mexico to curb migration will intensify in the areas of “prevent[ing] major modes of transportation from being used to facilitate illegal migration to the border, as well as the number of repatriation flights that would return migrants to their home countries.”

• Seung Min Kim, “Us and Mexico Will Boost Deportation Flights and Enforcement to Crack Down on Illegal Migration” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 30, 2024).
• George R. Tyler, “Why Is Mexico Helping to Solve Biden’s Border Problem?” (The National Interest, April 30, 2024).

A release from the Government Accountability Project regretted that CBP’s testimony did not address whistleblowers’ complaints about contracting failures in the agency’s medical care system for migrants in custody, which they allege contributed to a child’s preventable death in Texas in May 2023. Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-Illinois) asked Miller about measures taken in the aftermath of 8-year-old Anadith Danay Reyes Alvarez’s in-custody death.

• “Statement Urging Congressional Oversight of Cbp Medical Budget” (Government Accountability Project, April 30, 2024).

Two women were hospitalized and in need of “higher level care” after falling from the border wall in San Diego, local news reported. In San Diego, the report added, “This year so far, at least five migrants have died as a result of a border wall fall, while dozens more have been injured.”

• Danielle Dawson, “Two Migrants Injured in Fall From Border Wall Near San Diego” (Border Report, April 30, 2024).

Four U.S. senators—two Democrats and two Republicans—sent a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas voicing concerns, and requesting information about, CBP’s warrantless searches of travelers’ electronic devices at border crossings. The signers included Sen. Gary Peters (D-Michigan), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

• Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Oregon), Wyden, Peters, Paul, and Crapo Press Dhs on Use of Authority to Download Personal Device Data at Borders (U.S. Senate, Monday, April 29, 2024).
• Kyle Davidson, “Peters Presses Dhs Officials on Searching Electronic Devices at the Border” (Michigan Advance, May 1, 2024).

NOTUS reported that two Texas border counties’ police departments—Webb (Laredo) and Val Verde (Del Rio)—have purchased “TraffiCatch,” surveillance technology that tracks cellphone and Bluetooth signals and matches them to license plates. The counties used federal grant money (Operation Stonegarden) to buy the systems. “We are well beyond the idea that people have no privacy in public,” said Jennifer Granick of the ACLU. “Here, they’re installing this mass surveillance system. The public doesn’t know about it.”

• Byron Tau, “War Zone Surveillance Technology Is Hitting American Streets” (NOTUS, April 30, 2024).

Mexico has sent 600 troops to its northeastern border states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León amid worsening violence between competing criminal groups.

• Julian Resendiz, “Mexico Sends 600 Soldiers to Border States Amid Spike in Violence” (Border Report, April 30, 2024).

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) imposition of secondary state “safety inspections” at El Paso ports of entry—apparently a tactic to force Mexico to do more to block migrants—has snarled cargo traffic from Ciudad Juárez, “stopping the movement of 1,344 units in two days, representing 87.4 million dollars in merchandise,” according to a local freight transportation association.

• Axel Sanchez, “Canacar: Revision de Camiones en Chihuahua-Texas Frena 87.4 Mdd” (Milenio (Mexico), April 30, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A ProPublica and Texas Tribune investigation drew a straight line between years of U.S. border and migration policies—including “outsourcing” of enforcement to Mexico—and the March 2023 detention facility fire that killed 40 migrants in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Nothing has changed about U.S. policy since; “If migrant deaths would lead to policy change, we would have changed policies a long time ago,” migration expert Stephanie Leutert told reporter Perla Trevizo.

• Perla Trevizo, “How Shifting U.S. Policies Led to One of the Deadliest Incidents Involving Immigrants in Mexico’s History” (Propublica, Texas Tribune, The Texas Tribune, May 1, 2024).

Noticias Telemundo and the Centro Latinoamericano de Investigación Periodística (CLIP) published a third installment of a series, begun yesterday, documenting the increasing and dangerous use of tractor-trailers to transport migrants across Mexico. The illicit smuggling business has come more directly under big national cartels’ control and depends on widespread corruption among immigration and security forces. The report, relying on a database of more than 170 trucks that crashed, were detained, or were abandoned between 2018 and 2023, offers many examples.

• Albinson Linares, Angela Cantador, Ronny Rojas, “Traileres, Trampa para Migrantes” (CLIP, Noticias Telemundo, Chiapas Paralelo (Chiapas), April 30, 2024).

Human Rights Watch released a report moments ago documenting rights violations resulting from CBP’s requirement that asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border use the CBP One app, combined with the Biden administration’s post-Title 42 asylum “transit ban” rule.

• “HRW Blasts Us Use of Mobile App for Asylum Seekers” (Agence France Presse, Barron’s, May 1, 2024).

The New York Times dug into the story of a counterfeit flier, attributed to a migrant aid group in Matamoros, Mexico, that urged migrants to vote for Joe Biden. Though it was a forgery, the Heritage Foundation think tank and several Republican politicians shared it publicly.

• Ken Bensinger, “A Mysterious Flier, a Tiny Charity and a Disinformation Campaign at the Border” (The New York Times, April 30, 2024).

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Developments

In an April 28 phone conversation, U.S. President Joe Biden and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador discussed joint action to keep border crossing numbers down. “The two leaders ordered their national security teams to work together to immediately implement concrete measures to significantly reduce irregular border crossings while protecting human rights,” read a joint statement.

The statement did not specify what these new measures might be, but an unnamed senior Biden administration official told the New York Times that possibilities included efforts “to prevent railways, buses and airports from being used for illegal border crossing and more flights taking migrants back to their home countries.”

The call took place at Biden’s request. An ongoing Mexican crackdown is a widely cited reason for a drop in irregular migration since January at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, Border Patrol chiefs’ weekly updates have noted increases in migration to San Diego and Tucson, and recent days saw large numbers of migrants arriving, mostly by train, in Ciudad Juárez across from El Paso.

• “Joint Statement by the President of the United States Joe Biden and the President of Mexico Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador” (The White House, April 29, 2024).
• Hamed Aleaziz, Michael D. Shear, “Biden and Mexico’s President Vow Combined Action on Illegal Immigration” (The New York Times, April 29, 2024).
• Maria Verza, Seung Min Kim, “President Joe Biden, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador Discuss Migration in Latest Call” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 29, 2024).
• Rafael Bernal, “Biden, Mexican President Eye ‘Significantly’ Reducing Border Crossings” (The Hill, April 29, 2024).
• Isabella Cota, Miguel Jimenez, “Biden and Lopez Obrador Agree to Take Measures to Tackle Migration on Us-Mexico Border” (El Pais (Spain), April 29, 2024).

A collaborative effort among several Latin American journalistic outlets documented migrant smugglers’ dangerous but widespread use of tractor-trailers as a key vector for moving people through Mexico to the U.S. border.

In Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state, an organization called the Cartel de Chamula, whose members are largely Indigenous Tzotzil people and which has been aligned with the Sinaloa Cartel, dominates migrant smuggling operations, the reporters found. Chiapas was the scene of a December 2021 tractor-trailer accident that killed 56 of about 200 migrants whom smugglers had stuffed into its container. The report found that endemic corruption at all levels of government enables the smugglers’ operation.

• Angela Cantador, Ángeles Mariscal, Brenda Medina, Jody Garcia, Maria Teresa Ronderos, Ronny Rojas, “Crimen, Impunidad y Muerte Detras de la Migracion en Chiapas” (Chiapas paralelo, CLIP, ICIJ, Plaza Pública, Telemundo, ContraCorriente (Honduras), April 29, 2024).

The reporting project interviewed “Alberto,” a truck driver whom criminal groups have coerced into transporting migrants from Michoacán to Mexico’s northern border state of Tamaulipas, where the Gulf Cartel “is the one that transports migrants.” The migrants aboard pay steep fees—often about US$800—for their transport, which is facilitated by corrupt arrangements, including bribes to Mexican National Guardsmen and other officials.

The truck driver detailed how corrupt authorities allow his human cargo to pass through road checkpoints. The National Guard’s price, Alberto said, is “500 pesos per migrant” (about US$30) every time guardsmen stop the truck. If the National Migration Institute (INM) stops the truck because no payments were made in advance, Alberto added, the migration agents charge 1,000 pesos (US$60) per migrant.

• Martha Olivia Lopez, “Testimonio de un Trailero: Como Es Traficar Migrantes a la Fuerza” (ContraCorriente (Honduras), April 29, 2024).

The Texas state government’s aggressive “secondary inspections” of cargo trucks entering El Paso have increased truckers’ wait times in Ciudad Juárez from the usual one hour to eight hours, costing the industry about $32 million per day. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) uses these “safety” checks, which force truckers to undergo double inspections at border crossings—first federal, then state—“to pressure U.S. and Mexican officials to prevent mass illegal migration,” Border Report noted. CBP is responding by increasing hours of operation at nearby ports of entry.

• Julian Resendiz, “Texas Inspections Again Snarl Truck Traffic at Mexican Border” (Border Report, April 29, 2024).
• Julian Resendiz, “Texas Truck Inspections Costing Border Industry $32 Million a Day, Juarez Official Says” (Border Report, April 29, 2024).

New UNHCR reports estimated that more than 166,000 irregular migrants crossed into southeastern Honduras from Nicaragua during the first three months of 2024. Only about 20 percent of migrants did not register with the Honduran government, which is a required step for boarding buses across the country. At least 148,000 exited Honduras into Guatemala during the first quarter.

The number of people transiting Honduras is greater than that of people transiting the Darién Gap because many migrants are flying into Nicaragua, which has loose visa requirements for many nationalities.

• “Honduras – Mixed Movements South-Eastern Border Situation Report #6 – March 2024” (UN Refugee Agency, April 29, 2024).
• “Honduras – Mixed Movements Western Border Situation Report #1 – March 2024” (UN Refugee Agency, April 29, 2024).

A joint statement following an April 29 U.S.-Brazil migration dialogue praised Brazil’s “Operation Welcome,” which has documented and integrated over 500,000 Venezuelan migrants since 2018.

• “Joint Statement on United States – Brazil Bilateral Dialogue on Migration Policies, Humanitarian Issues, and Refugee Protection” (U.S. Department of State, April 29, 2024).

Following a mistrial last week after the jury could not agree on a verdict, prosecutors in Nogales, Arizona will not seek to retry George Alan Kelly, a rancher who fired his AK-47 at a group of migrants on his cattle ranch in January 2023, killing a 48-year-old Mexican man.

• “Prosecutors Say They Will Not Retry George Alan Kelly, Arizona Rancher Accused of Murder Near the Us-Mexico Border” (CBS News, April 29, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

While migration and the border are top-tier issues for voters in the 2024 U.S. election campaign, “migration occupies a secondary place” on voters’ list of concerns ahead of Mexico’s June 2024 elections, columnist Olga Pellicer wrote at Mexico’s Proceso. As more migrants become stranded in Mexico, Pellicer noted, the danger of xenophobia rises, and the Mexican government’s lack of an institutional framework becomes more evident.

• Olga Pellicer, “Elecciones y Migracion” (Proceso (Mexico), April 29, 2024).

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Developments

Over 1,000 migrants arrived in Ciudad Juárez atop train cars, despite Mexico’s months-long operations to block northbound migration. Many headed to the Rio Grande to seek to turn themselves in to Border Patrol to seek asylum, but Texas state authorities have blocked most of them on the riverbank.

• “Miles de Migrantes Que Llegan en Tren a Mexicana Ciudad Juarez Deambulan por el Rio Bravo” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), April 26, 2024).

It is one of the largest mass arrivals of migrants at the border during a 2024 calendar year marked by a Mexican government crackdown that has made it more difficult for migrants to get across Mexico’s territory. “Some U.S. officials are attributing the surge to a concerted effort by transnational criminal organizations” in Mexico to move migrants northward, according to Border Report.

• Julian Resendiz, “Border Patrol Says It’s Ready for New Migrant Surge in el Paso” (Border Report, April 25, 2024).

In response, Texas’s state National Guard has stocked up on less-lethal “pepperball” ammunition, while state police have stepped up “safety inspections” of cargo trucks crossing into El Paso. The state checkpoints begin shortly after trucks cross official ports of entry. This double inspection—federal, then state—is causing hours-long delays at border crossings into El Paso.

• Jennie Taer, “Texas Authorities Armed With ‘Thousands’ of Pepperballs Instructed to Go Full Force Against Migrants Arriving by ‘the Beast’ Train to el Paso Border” (The New York Post, April 26, 2024).
• Jesus Estrada, Ruben Villalpando, “La Jornada: Larga Espera en el Cruce de Juarez por Doble Revision a Camiones” (La Jornada (Mexico), April 28, 2024).

Migrants in Ciudad Juárez told EFE that they crossed to the U.S. side of the Rio Grande to ask U.S. authorities for asylum, but Texas state National Guard personnel aggressively pushed them back into Mexico.

The mostly Venezuelan migrants added that they fear Mexican organized crime more than Mexican migration authorities, but their fear of authorities mistreating them—or even handing them over to criminals—prevents them from asking for help.

• “Migrantes Temen a Crimen Organizado Tras Matanza en Ciudad Juarez” (EFE, Milenio (Mexico), April 28, 2024).

Mexican authorities stopped a Ciudad Juárez-bound tractor trailer with 131 migrants inside. 108 were from Guatemala, 22 from Ecuador, and 1 was from El Salvador. Fourteen were unaccompanied children.

• Julian Resendiz, “Mexico Stops Trailer With 131 Migrants South of Juarez” (Border Report, April 25, 2024).

Someone on the Mexico side of the U.S.-Mexico border fired a weapon at an agent near San Elizario, in eastern El Paso county, on April 25. CBP has reported no injuries or other information about the incident.

• Fernie Ortiz, “El Paso Border Agent Involved in Use-of-Force Incident, Agency Says” (Border Report, April 26, 2024).
• Aaron Martinez, “Suspect in Mexico Shot at Us Border Patrol Agent Near San Elizario” (The El Paso Times, April 25, 2024).

USA Today covered Mexican forces’ strategy, intensified so far in 2024, of busing migrants away from the U.S. border zone and into the country’s interior, often Mexico’s far south. This, analysts told reporter Lauren Villagrán, has done more than Texas’s state crackdown to reduce recent migration into Texas. The Mexican government is relying less on international deportation or long-term detention.

• Lauren Villagran, “The Real Migrant Bus King of North America Isn’t the Texas Governor. It’s Mexico’s President.” (USA Today, April 28, 2024).

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he plans to meet with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo at the end of May, probably near the two countries’ border. Migration will be among the topics of discussion between the outgoing Mexican president and the recently inaugurated Guatemalan leader.

• “Presidentes de Mexico y Guatemala se Reuniran en la Frontera” (ACAN-EFE, Prensa Libre (Guatemala), April 28, 2024).

Guatemala’s Attorney General’s Office raided the Guatemala City offices of Save the Children, apparently looking for evidence of abuse of migrant children. Prosecutors “claimed Save the Children and a number of other non-governmental groups could ‘be participating in child trafficking operations,’” the Associated Press reported.

Save the Children stated that its staff have done nothing wrong, and noted that the prosecutor’s office has made no specific allegations.

Political motivations, with U.S. links, are a likely factor. The secretary general of the Attorney General’s Office issued a video, distributed by Fox News, calling on Texas state Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) to aid his investigation. Paxton recently sought legal action against Annunciation House, an El Paso migrant shelter, but was rebuffed by a state judge.

In Guatemala, the attorney general is a separate branch of government, not part of the executive branch headed by President Arévalo. The current attorney-general, Consuelo Porras, has aggressively sought to prosecute anti-corruption judicial operators and journalists, is a frequent hindrance to Arévalo, and faces strict U.S. sanctions for links to corruption and anti-democratic behavior.

• Sonia Perez D., “Save the Children Disputes Abuse Allegations After Guatemalan Prosecutors Raid Offices” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 26, 2024).
• Heidi Loarca Oliva, “Aliado del Mp Revela Intencion de Allanar Save the Children” (La Hora (Guatemala), April 26, 2024).
• Cesar Perez Marroquin, “Feci Allana Oficinas de Save the Children por Caso de Abuso Contra Ninos” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), April 25, 2024).
• Alan Amaury, “Save the Children Niega Acusaciones de Trafico en Guatemala” (Milenio (Mexico), April 25, 2024).
• “Mp de Guatemala @mpguatemala_en” (Twitter, April 25, 2024).

San Diego’s county supervisor said that Border Patrol agents in the border’s westernmost sector—rather suddenly the busiest part of the border—apprehended 2,000 people on April 23 alone. CBP has released more than 30,000 migrants onto the city’s streets since February, when a county-run reception center shut down for lack of funding.

• Andrea Castillo, “San Diego Is Now the Top Border Region for Migrant Arrivals” (The Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2024).
• Salvador Rivera, “San Diego Is the ‘Epicenter’ for Illegal Immigration, County Supervisor Says” (Border Report, April 26, 2024).
• Lauren Irwin, “San Diego Official Says City Is ‘New Epicenter’ of Border Crisis” (The Hill, April 26, 2024).

In Colombia, a draft resolution appeared to indicate that the government was going to begin requiring Venezuelan citizens in the country to possess a passport. If that were to occur and Venezuelans faced such a barrier to documented status in Colombia, a U.S.-bound exodus through the Darién Gap would be likely. After an outcry, the Colombian government walked this back; President Gustavo Petro denied that a passport requirement was in the offing.

• “Polemica por Pasaportes Venezolanos Reaviva el Debate Sobre la Politica Migratoria” (El Espectador (Colombia), April 26, 2024).

Legislation sponsored by Rep. Lou Correa (D-California) urges CBP to explore making greater use of artificial intelligence at the border.

• Hanna Kang, “Bill Asks if Ai Could Strengthen Border Security” (Orange County Register, Government Technology, April 26, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

An update from UNHCR broke down, by country, the 1.157 million refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people currently in Mexico and Central America. This is about double the figure from 2020.

• “Forced Displacement in and From El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras | Jan 2024” (UN Refugee Agency, April 26, 2024).

An article from the Migration Policy Institute recalled that the pandemic-era Title 42 expulsions policy did not reduce migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

• Julian Montalvo, Kathleen Bush-Joseph, Muzaffar Chishti, “Title 42 Postmortem: U.S. Pandemic-Era Expulsions Policy Did Not Shut Down the Border” (Migration Policy Institute, April 25, 2024).

A report from the Center for Migration Studies calls for deep, long-term reforms to the U.S. immigration court system’s staffing and infrastructure, along with other reforms to the immigration system, to reduce the system’s backlog of more than 2.5 million cases. Because of that backlog, most asylum seekers released into the U.S. interior from the border can expect to remain in the immigration court system for years. A “BacklogPredictor” tool helps estimate future backlogs and resource needs based on different assumptions.

• Brendan Kerwin, Donald Kerwin, “What Will It Take to Eliminate the Immigration Court Backlog? Assessing “Judge Team” Hiring Needs Based on Changed Conditions and the Need for Broader Reform” (Center for Migration Studies, April 29, 2024).

The New York Times reported on how portraying migration at the border as an “invasion,” which only recently was considered an extreme, marginal position, is now a staple of mainstream Republican politicians’ rhetoric.

• Jazmine Ulloa, “Talk of an Immigrant ‘Invasion’ Grows in Republican Ads and Speech” (The New York Times, April 26, 2024).

The mistrial of George Kelly, an Arizona rancher who shot and killed a migrant on his property, is emblematic of the polarized, politicized, and complicated situation along the border today, explained an essay by Rachel Monroe at the New Yorker.

• Rachel Monroe, “What George Kelly’s Mistrial Says About How We See the Border” (The New Yorker, April 25, 2024).

An Axios poll found half of U.S. respondents favoring mass deportations of undocumented migrants. On the other hand, 58 percent said they support expanding legal immigration pathways, and 46 percent favored protecting asylum seekers with “legitimate” cases.

• Margaret Talev, Russell Contreras, “Exclusive Poll: America Warms to Mass Deportations” (Axios, April 25, 2024).

Texas state “border czar” Mike Banks, a former career Border Patrol agent, told USA Today, “Over the next five years … we’re going to continue building tactical infrastructure. We’re going to continue building border wall. Right now, our current pace is about one mile a week. We’re going to put up things like the border buoy barriers.”

• Lauren Villagran, “Should Americans Be Worried About the Border? The First Texas Border Czar Says Yes.” (USA Today, April 25, 2024).

On the Right

• Lewis M. Andrews, “Why Are the Charities Enabling Illegal Immigration Still Tax-Exempt?” (Children’s Educational Opportunity Foundation, The American Conservative, April 28, 2024).
• Virginia Allen, “6 Reasons Why Chinese Nationals Are Illegally Crossing California’s Southern Border” (The Daily Signal, April 28, 2024).

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Developments

The chief of Border Patrol’s San Diego, California sector reported that agents there apprehended migrants 9,513 times over the seven days ending April 23. That is a 6 percent increase over the previous week and a 36 percent increase over two weeks prior. For the first time since the late 1990s, San Diego is almost certainly the busiest of Border Patrol’s nine U.S.-Mexico border sectors.

Volunteers providing humanitarian aid to asylum seekers waiting in open-air sites along the California border say that numbers are increasing there; donors are encouraged to contribute needed items on an Amazon wishlist.

• “Chief Patrol Agent Patricia D. Mcgurk-Daniel @Usbpchiefsdc on Twitter” (Twitter, April 24, 2024).

Five centrist Democrats who had voted last Saturday for a very strict Republican-led border bill issued a statement yesterday doubling down on their position. The Democrats called on President Biden to reinstate the “Remain in Mexico” policy and to begin Title 42-style expulsions of asylum seekers, while full-throatedly endorsing the Border Patrol union’s hardline stance on border security.

• Andrew Solender, “Centrist Democrats Want to Refocus on Border Security” (Axios, April 24, 2024).
• “Andrew Solender @AndrewSolender on Twitter“ (Twitter, April 24, 2024).

In Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua, national guardsmen detained 150 Central American migrants who were staying in a hotel in the state capital. In Ciudad Juárez—Chihuahua’s largest city, across from El Paso—guardsmen, immigration agents, and municipal police carried out an operation to prevent 400 migrants who had arrived atop a cargo train from reaching the borderline.

• Julian Resendiz, “Hundreds of Migrants on Trains Arrive at el Paso-Juarez Border” (Border Report, April 24, 2024).
• Jesus Estrada, “Detienen en Chihuahua a 150 Centroamericanos” (La Jornada (Mexico), April 24, 2024).

The Biden administration has paused court-ordered remediation of environmental damage caused by Trump-era border wall construction, citing litigation in a separate case involving the state of Texas. The Sierra Club, Southern Border Communities Coalition, and ACLU announced yesterday that they are seeking to intervene in the Texas case in order to restart remediation projects.

• “Sierra Club, Southern Border Communities Coalition, and Aclu Act to Protect Border Wall Remediation Settlement Amid Texas Court Decision” (Southern Border Communities Coalition, April 24, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

The National Immigration Forum and other centrist groups (Niskanen Center, Hispanic Leadership Fund, Mormon Women for Ethical Government, State Business Executives, Association of Equipment Manufacturers, Border Perspective) published a proposed “border security and management framework” document. It calls for creating a corps of asylum officers to adjudicate most protection claims at the border in less than two months, along with increased resources for U.S. border security agencies and drug interdiction technologies.

• “Coalition Border Security & Management Framework” (National Immigration Forum, April 24, 2024).
• Sandra Sanchez, “Groups Release ‘Pragmatic’ Proposal for Border Security Framework Plan” (Border Report, April 24, 2024).

CalMatters reported on lengthening wait times at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego, amid increased cross-border traffic and longstanding CBP Field Operations staffing and infrastructure deficiencies.

• Wendy Fry, “Long Border Waits” (CalMatters, LAist, April 24, 2024).

Wait times for cargo at the busy commercial port of entry in Laredo, Texas have also been worsening, though Mexican government software glitches seem to be much of the cause.

• Sandra Sanchez, “Laredo Officials Vow to Better Tame Truck Backlog on Border Roadways” (Border Report, April 24, 2024).

On the Right

• John Binder, “Joe Biden’s Latest Billions for Ukraine Could Build Entire U.S. Border Wall” (Breitbart, April 24, 2024).
• Jordan Boyd, “Biden’s Trafficking Czar Ignores Human Trafficking on U.S. Border” (The Federalist, April 24, 2024).

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Developments

Mexican migration agents pulled 400 migrants off of a cargo train in rural Chihuahua, Mexico, leaving them stranded in the desert, the human rights organization Derechos Humanos Integrales en Acción (DHIA) denounced. The group included 150 children and 7 pregnant women. Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) stepped up its operations in Chihuahua, the northern border state that includes Ciudad Juárez, at the beginning of April.

• Veronica Martinez, “Frena Inm Tren Con Migrantes en Desierto de Samalayuca, Deja a las Personas Sin Agua y Alimentos” (La Verdad (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), April 23, 2024).
• “DHIA, A.C. @DhiaAc on Twitter“ (Twitter, April 22, 2024).

Asylum seekers who do arrive in Ciudad Juárez are now seeking to turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents at Gate 40 along the El Paso border wall on the bank of the Rio Grande. This is east of Gate 36, where Texas state police and National Guard have set up a large presence, with several coils of razor wire, to prevent asylum seekers from approaching federal authorities.

• Blanca Elizabeth Carmona, “Migrantes Llegan a Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua” (Milenio (Mexico), April 23, 2024).

A group of 141 migrants who had breached the Texas state barrier in El Paso on March 21 were indicted yesterday on misdemeanor rioting charges. The Texas state grand jury’s ruling came one day after a county judge had thrown out the charges, finding insufficient probable cause. The March 21 incident, showing migrants pushing past guardsmen to reach the border wall and Border Patrol agents, was caught on video and circulated widely on social media.

• “Migrants Indicted in Texas Over Alleged Border Breach After Judge Dismissed Charges” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 23, 2024).
• Julian Resendiz, Tirza Ortiz, “Judge Finds No Probable Cause to Hold Migrants in County Jail on State Riot Charges” (Border Report, April 23, 2024).

El Paso’s police have applied for a $2.8 million state grant to help it combat the Venezuelan-originated “Tren de Aragua” criminal organization. “We haven’t had contact with that gang (in criminal cases), but that’s not to say they are not here in El Paso,” a police spokesman told the El Paso Times.

• Daniel Borunda, “Tren de Aragua: Venezuelan Gang Raises Concerns on el Paso, Juarez Border” (The El Paso Times, April 23, 2024).

So far this calendar year, Mexican authorities have deported 5,689 Guatemalan citizens by land and another 1,831 by air. U.S. authorities returned 22,887 Guatemalans.

• Cesar Perez Marroquin, “Calor Sofoca a Arizona y Migrantes Guatemaltecos Corren Riesgo de Muerte” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), April 23, 2024).

A group of relatives of missing Central American migrants traveled to Tijuana to search for them. “It took more or less a year for them to add his file as a case for search in Mexico, because the communication from my country did not go through,” said the wife of a Guatemalan man whom she last heard from in Sonora in 2021.

• Khennia Reyes, “Buscan a Migrantes Centroamericanos Desaparecidos” (El Imparcial (Tijuana Mexico), April 23, 2024).

The International Committee of the Red Cross said it met with Mexico’s National Search Commission to seek improved exchange of forensic information about migrants who have gone missing in Mexico and Central America, especially fingerprints.

• “Cicr Urge a la Coordinacion Regional Atender Desaparicion de Migrantes” (Milenio (Mexico), April 23, 2024).

The Biden administration released the 771-page text of a final rule to govern the treatment of unaccompanied migrant children in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

• “Kathleen Bush-Joseph @kathleenbushjo2 on Twitter” (Twitter, April 23, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A new data report from TRAC Immigration notes that U.S. immigration judges are ordering 50 percent more deportations now than in 2019, the peak year of the Trump administration. In the first half of fiscal year 2024, judges ordered 136,623 immigrants deported.

In 2019, 32 percent of migrants appearing in immigration court had attorneys; that has dropped to 15 percent this year.

38 percent of 2024’s rulings were asylum cases. Of those instances, only 21 percent were ordered removed; the rest received asylum or some other status allowing them to remain in the United States.

• “Top Places With the Most Immigrants Recently Ordered Deported” (TRAC Immigration, April 23, 2024).

An explainer from the National Immigration Forum dug into existing efforts and pending proposals to have USCIS asylum officers—not immigration judges—adjudicate more asylum cases for migrants who arrive at the border.

• Adjudication by Uscis Asylum Officers: Explainer (National Immigration Forum, Monday, April 22, 2024).

The Border Chronicle’s Melissa del Bosque interviewed Zachary Mueller of America’s Voice about the controversial and possibly illegal activities of “Border 911,” a pro-Trump group whose members include former top officials of Border Patrol, CBP, and ICE.

• Melissa del Bosque, “Border 911 and the Cruelty and Chaos Agenda” (The Border Chronicle, April 23, 2024).

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Developments

Panama’s government posted statistics showing that 110,008 people migrated through the Darién Gap during the first 3 months of 2024. That is 26 percent more migration than Panama measured during the first 3 months of 2023, a year in which 520,085 people ended up traveling through the Darién Gap.

22 percent of this year’s migrants were children. Of the adult population, 36 percent were women. 64 percent of this year’s total have been citizens of Venezuela, followed by Ecuador (8%), Haiti (7%), Colombia (6%), and China (6%).

The pace of migration has been unusually steady, averaging 1,161 migrants per day in January, 1,282 in February, and 1,188 in March. Last year, migration in the Darién jumped 55 percent from February to March.

• “Tránsito Irregular por Darién 2024“ (Panamá Migración, April 2024).

Between January 1 and April 16, Guatemalan authorities expelled 7,735 mostly U.S.-bound migrants into Honduras and 177 into El Salvador. In this respect, the new government of Bernardo Arévalo has made no changes to its predecessors’ approach to in-transit migration. Of this year’s expulsions, 77 percent have been citizens of Venezuela. Other frequently expelled nationalities include Colombia (9%), Ecuador (6%), and Haiti (2%). Guatemala’s expulsions included 44 citizens of China and 18 citizens of Turkey.

• Yesica Pena, “Migracion Ha Rechazado a Mas de 7,900 Extranjeros por Ingresar al Pais de Manera Irregular” (La Hora (Guatemala), April 22, 2024).

Some of the migrants whom Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) paid to have flown to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts in September 2022 have been granted “U” visas, a status for victims of crimes that are currently being investigated or prosecuted, the Miami Herald reported. A U.S. district judge in Massachusetts also found recently that the private contractor Florida hired to run the flight, Vertol Systems, may have “participated in a scheme to recruit vulnerable individuals through deceit so they could unwillingly and publicly be used as a prop in an extremely divisive national debate,”

• Ana Ceballos, “Some Migrants Flown by Desantis to Martha’s Vineyard Qualify for Victim Visas, Feds Say” (The Miami Herald, April 22, 2024).

Eight dead bodies abandoned along a highway near Chihuahua, the capital of Mexico’s northern border state of the same name, may be related to turf battles between migrant smuggling organizations in the area, Border Report reported.

• Julian Resendiz, “8 Dead in Fight for Control of Migrant Smuggling” (Border Report, April 22, 2024).

“Of Costa Rica’s 5.2 million inhabitants, one million are relatively recent migrants. Twenty percent of births are to Nicaraguan mothers and 20 percent of prisoners are of Nicaraguan origin,” said Costa Rica’s foreign minister, Arnoldo André Tinoco.

• “Canciller de Costa Rica: Con Nicaragua Tenemos “Magnifica” Relacion de Frontera Pero No en Derechos Humanos” (EFE, Confidencial (Nicaragua), April 22, 2024).

The independent Nicaraguan outlet Nicaragua Investiga reported on the two years of red tape and indifference that a family suffered as it tried to repatriate from Texas the remains of a young man who died of drowning in the Rio Grande in May 2022.

• “Familia Lucho Casi Dos Anos para Repatriar Cuerpo de Nicaraguense Fallecido en el Rio Bravo” (Nicaragua Investiga, April 22, 2024).

The jury was unable to agree on a verdict in the trial of Arizona rancher George Alan Kelly, who allegedly shot and killed Mexican migrant Gabriel Cuen-Buitimea on his property in January 2023. The judge in the case declared a mistrial.

• Anita Snow, “Arizona Judge Declares Mistrial in the Case of a Rancher Accused of Fatally Shooting a Migrant” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 22, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Speaking to analysts about migration patterns, a National Public Radio piece concluded that Mexico’s ongoing efforts to block migration will not reduce arrivals at the U.S. border for long, as flows into Mexico from the south remain robust.

• Sergio Martinez-Beltran, “Despite a Fortified Border, Migrants Will Keep Coming, Analysts Agree. Here’s Why.” (National Public Radio, April 22, 2024).

In a third in-depth report about U.S.-bound migration published in the past 10 days, the Honduran digital outlet ContraCorriente reported on the increasing diversity of nationalities of migrants taking the very risky journey through Mexico atop the “La Bestia” cargo train.

• Bryan Avelar, “Caminar Con la Mordida de ‘la Bestia’” (ContraCorriente (Honduras), April 22, 2024).

“The notion that there is a crisis caused by the border is fallacious,” economist James Gerber, author of the new book Border Economies: Cities Bridging the U.S.-Mexico Divide, told Sandra Dibble at Voice of San Diego. “There is a crisis in U.S. immigration policy, that’s the crisis. People are going to migrate and they’re going to migrate in bigger numbers over time because of the climate crisis. This is something that we need to learn how to manage better.”

• Sandra Dibble, “Border Report: The Tale of Twin Cities and Their Economies” (Voice of San Diego, April 22, 2024).

Even immigration restrictionist groups avoid using the term “invasion” to describe migration—as many Republican politicians are doing—because it is “inaccurate and incendiary,” reported Rafael Bernal at The Hill.

• Rafael Bernal, “Even Immigration Restrictionists Stay Away From Gop’s ‘Invasion’ Rhetoric” (The Hill, April 23, 2024).

“When we encounter someone fleeing starvation, political repression and threats to their life and liberty, we should see ourselves in them,” wrote Shmuly Yanklowitz, a rabbi who often works at the border in Arizona, in a Passover reflection published by the Chicago Tribune.

• Shmuly Yanklowitz, “The Border Crisis Demands Our Humanity. Passover Reminds Us How.” (The Chicago Tribune, April 23, 2024).