Adam Isacson

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Migration is reduced at the border, but may be activating in southern Mexico

Preliminary data indicate that Border Patrol apprehended fewer migrants at the border in November than any month since July 2020. An expected post-election rush, with migrants seeking to get to the United States before Donald Trump’s inauguration, has not happened. In southern Mexico, though, people appear to be arriving in larger numbers and seeking to migrate in large groups.

• Relations with Mexico following Trump’s tariff threat

President-Elect Trump appeared to pull down his November 25 threat to slap tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods until they stop the entry of migrants and drugs, following a reportedly cordial phone call with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum. However, Sheinbaum showed a willingness to push back, disputing Trump’s characterization of what was agreed. A future area of disagreement may be Mexico’s willingness to accept deportations of migrants from third countries.

• Notes on the incoming Trump administration’s border and migration plans

This section lists several analyses and reports about the incoming administration’s hardline approach to the border and migration. Topics include potential use of the U.S. military, the Texas state government’s crackdown serving as a model or template, the shaky future of alternative migration pathways, and signs that at least some Democrats are moving rightward.

THE FULL UPDATE:

Due to the U.S. holiday, there will be no Weekly Border Update on November 29, 2024. Updates will resume on December 6.

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The Trump administration assembles an ultra-hardline border and migration team

In the days following his election to the presidency, Donald Trump has named three officials with direct border and migration responsibilities. All of them represent the Republican Party’s hard line on border security crackdowns and restriction of immigration. Stephen Miller will be Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy at the White House. Tom Homan will be in the White House as a “border czar.” Kristi Noem is the nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security. They will manage a planned “mass deportation” campaign while seeking to do away with legal migration pathways that the Biden administration preserved or established. Secretary of State-designate Marco Rubio will lead a foreign policy toward the Western Hemisphere, especially Mexico, for which migration will be a dominant issue.

• A possible rush to the border before January 20?

Analysts and border-security planners continue to expect the number of migrants approaching the U.S.-Mexico border to increase ahead of Inauguration Day as people race to reach U.S. soil before a crackdown. So far, though, this has not materialized: Border Patrol apprehensions have actually dropped since Election Day.

• Migration dips modestly in October in the Darién Gap

22,914 people migrated in October through the treacherous Darién Gap region straddling Colombia and Panama. That is a modest drop from 25,111 in September, which may be due at least in part to weather conditions. The number of migrants from Venezuela (19,522) barely dropped from September.

• Senate committee produces text of 2025 Homeland Security Appropriations bill

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, chaired by Democrats until the chamber switches to Republican control, published the text of its version of the 2025 appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security. It includes more money for CBP, especially for ports of entry, and more funding for shelters and local jurisdictions receiving and integrating released migrants. It does not include additional money to hire Border Patrol agents or to build new border barriers. It is unclear whether this bill will move forward. Republicans may seek to write their own bill after they assume the Senate majority in January, though that would require keeping the U.S. government open after December 20, the deadline for passing a 2025 budget.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Border communities and migrants brace for another Trump administration

Donald Trump’s election points to a return, and likely intensification, of ultra-hardline border and migration policies at the U.S.-Mexico border and elsewhere. We can expect a suspension or curtailment of most legal migration pathways, from CBP One to asylum access to humanitarian parole. We can expect a “mass deportation” campaign in the U.S. interior. This section lists and explains some of the president-elect’s promised and likely initiatives, and what they mean for U.S.-Mexico relations.

• Possibility of a jump in migration ahead of Inauguration Day

Trump’s victory creates an incentive for some migrants to try to reach U.S. soil before Inauguration Day, January 20, rather than await CBP One appointments. In Mexico, “caravans” are already forming, while migrants in shelters along the route voice anxiety about their future.

• Soldiers kill migrants, again, in Mexico

Members of Mexico’s National Guard, a recently created force made up mostly of transferred soldiers, opened fire on a vehicle carrying migrants along the border east of Tijuana. Two Colombian people were killed. It is the second such incident since October 1, when Mexican Army soldiers killed six migrants in Chiapas. In both incidents, military leadership claims that the soldiers were returning fire, or thought that they were; witnesses dispute that.

• Darién Gap notes

Migration through the Darién Gap jungle region straddling Colombia and Panama appears to have dropped modestly from September to October. However, reports are pointing to an increase in people entering Colombia from Venezuela. Since August, Panama has operated 25 deportation flights, with U.S. support, to Colombia, Ecuador, and India.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Pre-election notes

While border security and migration have been top issues in the too-close-to-call  U.S. presidential campaign, its last full week was not dominated by a single theme, narrative, or developing story. This section presents a series of links to coverage of incremental developments and links to substantial analyses of both candidates’ positions, likely outcomes if each is elected, views from swing states and border states, and how policy debates have shifted in 2024.

• Updates about migration in Mexico

Along with the Biden administration’s June restrictions on asylum, a key reason why migration has declined during the 2024 election year is an unstated but vigorous Mexican government strategy of stepped-up interceptions of migrants, many of whom Mexican authorities then transfer to the country’s far south. This section presents links to several accounts of the impact this policy is having on people along the route through Mexico.

• Panama decrees fines for at least some Darién Gap migrants

Panama’s recently inaugurated president issued a decree requiring migrants to pay fines for unlawful entry after they emerge from the treacherous Darién Gap jungle route. These fines may be waived or adjusted according to migrants’ “vulnerability.” President Raúl Mulino said he hopes to expand an ongoing program of deportation flights to include citizens of Venezuela. After rising sharply from August to September, the number of migrants transiting the Darién appears to have leveled off or increased slightly during the first half of October.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• CBP publishes fiscal 2024 border data

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released information about migration in September, the final month of the U.S. federal government’s fiscal year. It showed a 25 percent year-on-year drop in Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions, with most of the reduction happening since January and more sharply since June. That is the result of a Mexican government crackdown on migration transiting the country, along with the Biden administration’s new restrictions on asylum access. Data also show a 26 percent drop in seizures of the drug fentanyl, the first decline since fentanyl began appearing in the mid-2010s.

• Ninth Circuit strikes down “metering” at ports of entry

The federal judiciary’s Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an earlier district court verdict finding that the practice of “metering”–posting CBP officers on the borderline to turn asylum seekers back from border ports of entry—is illegal. The decision caps seven years of litigation from migrant rights advocates. It does not directly affect the Biden administration’s current policy of turning back asylum seekers who have not made appointments at ports of entry using the CBP One app; legal challenges continue in that case.

• Notes from along the migration route

“Caravans” of migrants, some saying they fear losing access to asylum and CBP One pathways after the U.S. election, have been forming in Mexico’s far south. Darién Gap migration appears to be leveling off in October after a sharp increase in September. Insecurity is worsening in Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, where many migrants are blocked or awaiting CBP One appointments.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• 2024 campaign notes

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump used a visit to Aurora, Colorado—site of recent claims of Venezuelan gang activity—to call for a large-scale deportation campaign, probably using the U.S. military and relying on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In Arizona, Trump proposed adding 10,000 agents to Border Patrol, a force that is struggling to hire enough agents to rise above 20,000. In a FOX News interview and other campaign appearances, Democratic candidate Kamala Harris has continued to avoid positions on the border and migration that could be considered progressive.

• Migration increased in the Darién Gap, led by more Venezuelan citizens, in September

After two months of sharp declines, data from Panama showed a 51 percent increase, from August to September, in migration through the treacherous Darién Gap region. This included a 69 percent jump in migration of citizens of Venezuela, where the government has ratcheted up repression after rejecting a very probable opposition victory in July 28 elections. Reports from Refugees International and Colombian groups point to vastly unmet humanitarian needs, and high vulnerability to organized crime, among the population transiting the Darién.

• Possible early indicators of increased migration, fentanyl smuggling into Texas

Three and a half years into the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star” border crackdown, Border Patrol’s Del Rio Sector (mid-Texas) is experiencing an increase in large groups of asylum seekers trying to turn themselves in. Although 96 percent of fentanyl seizures have been happening in California and Arizona, Mexican authorities raided a lab and seized 130,000 pills in recent days in Ciudad Juárez, across from the El Paso, Texas metropolitan area.

• Texas notes

A collection of links to other news about the situation along the Texas-Mexico border, noting the state’s dependence on undocumented migrant labor, the state’s security forces’ misuse of force on the borderline, and an ongoing legal offensive against nonprofits that assist migrants.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• September Border Patrol apprehensions remained in the mid-50,000s

Border Patrol apprehended 53,881 migrants in September between the U.S.-Mexico border’s ports of entry, according to preliminary data. That would be the lowest monthly total since August 2020 and the third straight month of apprehensions in the mid-50,000s. A crackdown in Mexico, followed months later by a Biden administration rule restricting asylum access, substantially explains the reduction from record levels in late 2023. Numbers have ceased going down, however, indicating that the drop may not be long-lasting..

• Notes about the 2024 campaign and the border

A collection of links to news coverage of border and migration issues in the campaign. They include Donald Trump’s false linking of disaster assistance and migrant assistance, Trump’s comments indicating that migrants have brought “bad genes,” Kamala Harris’s 60 Minutes interview, and polls showing contradictory points of view.

• Humanitarian parole recipients will not be able to renew their status

The Biden administration will not renew a two-year humanitarian parole status granted to up to 30,000 citizens per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. In order to avoid falling into a legal limbo, parole beneficiaries will have to adjust their status, applying for Temporary Protected Status, asylum, or other options if they exist.

• Mexico’s new government is indicating no break with its predecessor’s migration policies

Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has named a new head of the Mexican government’s migration agency (INM). Sergio Salomón Céspedes will not take office until December, when he finishes his term as governor of Puebla, and the current INM director, Francisco Garduño, will stay on. This may point to some continuity in the new government’s approach to migration. Civilian prosecutors have meanwhile begun investigating an October 1 incident in Chiapas in which Army personnel fired on a vehicle carrying migrants, killing six of them.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Harris visits the border in Arizona

Vice President Kamala Harris paid her first visit to the U.S.-Mexico border since becoming the Democratic presidential candidate. She was in Douglas, Arizona, on September 27. While there, she praised the contributions that immigrants have made to the United States, but also promised to maintain or strengthen curbs on access to asylum at the border.

• Administration tightens its asylum rule

With a September 30 proclamation and final rule, the Biden administration tightened curbs on migrants’ access to the U.S. asylum system if they cross the border without securing one of a limited number of appointments at land-border ports of entry. The rule’s original version, issued June 4, halts most asylum access when Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions average 2,500 per day, and would restore asylum access when apprehensions average less than 1,500 per day over 7 days. The revised rule would require that average be maintained for 28 days, further cementing the asylum ban.

• The border in the vice-presidential debate

Candidates JD Vance and Tim Walz argued over migration in an October 1 vice-presidential debate. Walz incorrectly claimed that Donald Trump built “less than 2 percent” of border wall. Vance incorrectly claimed that there are “20, 25 million illegal aliens who are here in the country,” that “we have 320,000 children that the Department of Homeland Security has effectively lost,” that the CBP One program is illegal, and that migrants are a cause of the fentanyl crisis. Walz, like Harris in Arizona, attacked Donald Trump for torpedoing compromise legislation that would have hired more border agents, built more border wall, and placed curbs on asylum.

• Mexican soldiers kill migrants in Chiapas

In Mexico’s southern state of Chiapas, Mexican Army soldiers chased, then fired on, a pickup truck carrying 33 migrants on the evening of October 1, killing 6 of them and wounding 12. A military statement contended that soldiers fired at the vehicle after hearing “detonations.” The deceased victims were reportedly from Nepal, Egypt, and Pakistan. The incident heightens concerns about the Mexican government’s expanding placement of combat-trained soldiers in internal law-enforcement roles.

• Texas updates

Recovered migrant remains totaled a record-breaking 175 in Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector as fiscal 2024 drew to a close. More reports of Texas National Guard soldiers firing projectiles at migrant families who pose no threat. Texas’s Attorney-General opened a fifth investigation into a group assisting migrants in the border region. FBI data show violent crime rates in Texas border cities are lower than all cities’ average.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions increased in August—slightly, but for the first time in six months

Migration at the border remains at its lowest level since the fall of 2020, according to new CBP data released in August, following a crackdown on migratory movements that Mexico launched in early 2024 and a June Biden administration ban on most asylum access between border ports of entry. The August total, however, was 3 percent greater than July—the first month-to-month increase in six months—which may indicate that these crackdowns’ deterrent impact is flattening or even eroding.

• 2024 campaign and the border

Kamala Harris called out the Trump campaign’s “mass deportation” plans. Donald Trump and running mate JD Vance doubled down on false and racist claims about Haitian immigrants living and working legally in Ohio. A national poll revealed immigration and the border remains among voters’ top concerns.

• Notes on recent oversight of Border Patrol

A report from Arizona attorneys revealed a high portion of unaccompanied children reporting verbal and physical abuse while in Border Patrol custody. A FOIA result points to more than 200 CBP personnel under investigation for serious misconduct. Reports on the Uvalde, Texas school shooting response and complications in prosecuting migrant smugglers in Arizona.

• Texas updates

Border Patrol’s recoveries of migrant remains in its El Paso Sector now stand at a record 171 since October. Investigations from the ACLU, NPR, and the Border Network for Human Rights and Texas Civil Rights Project reveal troubling aspects of the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star.”

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• The border and migration in the presidential debate

Migration and the border were principal topics at the September 10 presidential campaign debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. Harris avoided specifics and pledged to support compromise legislation, which failed in the Senate in February, that would restrict asylum access. Trump made vitriolic and racist comments about migrants, some of which debate moderators had to fact-check on the spot.

• Darién Gap migration plummeted in August, may be up in September

The number of migrants transiting the Darién Gap, a treacherous jungle region straddling Colombia and Panama, fell in August to the fewest since June 2022. Some of the drop may be a “wait and see” effect as migrants evaluate the actions of a new president in Panama who has promised increased deportation flights with U.S. support. Data from the first eight days of September, however, seem to point to a 41 percent increase in per-day Darién Gap migration over August’s average.

• As Mexico rolls out CBP One transportation, alarms sound about the trauma of transiting the country

Mexico has begun having security force personnel accompany buses transporting migrants who have CBP One appointments at the U.S. border. Some press coverage last week covered the kidnappings, extortions, and other trauma suffered by migrants who seek to transit Mexico on their own.

• Texas notes

Texas’s state government is persisting in a legal offensive against charities that assist migrants released from CBP custody at the border, and refusing a federal order to dismantle security-related construction on an island in the Rio Grande.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Administration considers toughening its asylum rule further

The Biden administration’s June rule keeps asylum out of reach for most people who cross between ports of entry, but would restore asylum access if migrant encounters average 1,500 per day for a week. With encounters averaging over 1,800 per day, the administration is now reportedly considering moving the goalposts, requiring the average to remain below the 1,500 threshold for a month and including unaccompanied children in the count.

• Mexico’s migrant encounters remain near all-time highs

Though migrant encounters have dropped in recent months in the United States, Panama, and Honduras, Mexico recorded its fifth-largest-ever number in July as a crackdown on in-transit migration continues. In July, for the first time, Mexico’s migrant encounters exceeded U.S. authorities’ southern-border encounters.

• Mexico to ease transportation for some CBP One appointments

Mexico announced that it will provide security to buses transporting migrants who have secured a limited number of appointments at U.S. ports of entry using the CBP One smartphone app. Escorted buses will depart the southernmost states of Chiapas and Tabasco. The measure raises hope for a reduction in organized crime groups’ ransom kidnappings of northbound migrants.

• Harris calls for “consequences” for unauthorized border crossings

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, continues to voice strong support for the “Border Act,” a bill that failed in the U.S. Senate in February 2024 following negotiations that led to a bipartisan compromise. The bill includes measures, conceded to Republican legislators, that the Democratic Party did not support during the Trump years, like asylum restrictions, more migrant detention, and some wall-building.

• Notes on migrant deaths and humanitarian responses

Links to updates and analyses about Border Patrol’s flawed missing migrant program, humanitarian groups’ efforts to rescue migrants and locate remains, a tragic train derailment near Ciudad Juárez, and other items.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• 2024 campaign notes

Some campaign coverage considered Democratic candidate Kamala Harris’s support for a February 2024 “border deal” legislative compromise to be a “flip-flop” on the border wall, since that bill required spending past years’ wall-building funds. Other analysis looked at the obstacles standing in the way of Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out mass deportations if elected.

• Signs of slight increase in migration exiting post-election debacle Venezuela

Amid turmoil and repression following the government’s illegitimate claim to have won July 28 presidential elections, there is no massive wave of people fleeing Venezuela, at least not yet. However, numbers do appear to have risen slightly.

• Mayorkas meets with Colombia and Panama counterparts as Darién Gap deportation flights continue

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met in Colombia with the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama; the officials signed commitments to collaborate further on territorial control and migration management in the Darién Gap region. Panama is proceeding with U.S.-funded deportation flights, the expected tempo appears to be about three or four planes per week.

• CBP refuses to share nationalities of migrants suspected of terrorist ties

CBP turned down a Fox News Freedom of Information Act request to identify the nationalities of migrants encountered at the border who appeared in the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Dataset. Republicans have cited a recent increase in such encounters in criticism of the Biden administration, but we do not know where the people showing up in the database of people with alleged terror ties are coming from. Colombia, where two groups on the U.S. list have demobilized this century, is a strong possibility.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Notes from CBP’s July data release

Data released on August 16 show that Border Patrol’s migrant apprehensions fell in July to their lowest level since September 2020. This is largely the result of dual crackdowns: Mexico’s interceptions of migrants and the Biden administration’s June rule curbing asylum access between ports of entry. Border Patrol’s interior releases of asylum seekers were way down, and it placed its largest-ever share into expedited removal. The Texas state government’s border security crackdown has not been a significant factor.

• Deportation flights commence amid reduced Darién Gap migration

Panama’s new president, who ran on a promise to crack down on migration through the treacherous Darién Gap jungle region, announced a deportation flight of Colombian citizens, which flew to Medellín on August 20. José Raúl Mulino’s inauguration has been followed by a drop in migration through the Darién Gap to just over 400 people per day in August, down from over 1,100 during the first half of 2024. As with most lulls in migration following policy changes, the current decline is likely to be temporary.

• The border at the Democratic Convention

The Democratic Party Convention, taking place this week, includes a platform calling for a law making permanent bans on asylum access between ports of entry during busy periods—a position that the party would have been unlikely to adopt in the past. President Biden, nominee Kamala Harris, and other speakers attacked Donald Trump for urging Republican senators to torpedo a bill that would have imposed that asylum bar. Trump paid a campaign visit to the border in southeast Arizona.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Views of the summer 2024 decline in migration

The U.S.-Mexico border is at the lowest point for migration since the Biden administration began, because of a crackdown in Mexico and sharp new limits on asylum access. As shelters report lower capacity, reports of kidnappings and deaths are up, especially around El Paso. Numbers are down in the Darién Gap as well. The drop is most likely a temporary phenomenon.

• CBP settles pregnancy discrimination suit

CBP reached a $45 million settlement with over 1,000 female employees of its Office of Field Operations, who claimed in a lawsuit that the agency systematically penalized those who disclosed pregnancies. The settlement drew fresh attention to the male-dominated culture at an agency that has made only very slow progress increasing the number of women in its workforce.

• The 2024 campaign and the border

A collection of links points to the Kamala Harris campaign’s efforts to “flip the script” and attack Donald Trump on border and migration policy, including pledges to hire more agents, along with new analyses of the Vice President’s border and migration policy record and other electoral developments.

• Notes from Texas

Texas’s Republican governor is requiring hospitals to inquire about patients’ migration status, while laying down fresh razor wire amid mounting questions about state National Guard and police use of force along the borderline. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops defended Catholic migrant shelters that Texas’s attorney general has targeted for legal action.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Tim Walz’s record on the border and migration

On border and immigration issues, the record of Democratic vice presidential candidate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, is not lengthy but diverges little from positions associated with liberal members of the Democratic Party. Walz condemned Trump-era policies that harmed migrants’ rights and, as governor, championed efforts to integrate refugees and the undocumented population.

• Asylum restrictions reduce migration, increase reports of endangerment

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris, along with Walz, is seeking to “lean into” the border and migration issue during the campaign, seeking a line of attack against Republican nominee Donald Trump for Trump’s February effort to kill “border deal” legislation in the Senate. By doing so, the candidates are endorsing that legislation’s limits on asylum access at the border, as well as a June 5 Biden administration rule that bans most asylum access between border ports of entry. That rule has driven migration to lows not seen since 2020, but comes with a sharp cost in denials of protection to people who may need it, according to a new report from several U.S. groups.

• Panama carries out Darién Gap deportations with U.S. backing

The Atlantic published a deeply reported look at migration through the treacherous Darién Gap region, concluding that cracking down on migration, while failing to reduce it, makes it more costly and benefits criminal groups who dominate smuggling. Panama deported 28 people from the Darién aboard a commercial flight to Colombia, the first big deportation within the framework of a deal with the United States to facilitate more repatriations. Darién Gap migration was a key subject as the commander of U.S. Southern Command paid a visit to Panama.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Amid crackdowns, border sees the fewest migrant apprehensions since September 2020

Preliminary reports indicate that Border Patrol apprehended 57,000-60,000 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in July 2024. That is the smallest monthly total of the Biden administration and the fewest since September 2020. The drop illustrates the short-term impact of Mexico’s crackdown on migration in transit and the Biden administration’s June 5 rule restricting asylum access. Numbers are also down further south along the U.S.-bound migration route, in Panama and Honduras.

• Remembering Eddie Canales of the South Texas Human Rights Center

Eduardo (Eddie) Canales (1948-2024), founder of the South Texas Human Rights Center in Falfurrias, Texas, died on July 31 following a bout with pancreatic cancer. A pillar of the humanitarian and advocacy communities, Canales saved many lives by placing water stations throughout Brooks County, Texas, where dozens of migrants die each year of dehydration. Canales helped many relatives of missing migrants achieve closure by helping locate and identify remains.

• Updates: the border and the U.S. election

The border was the subject of attack ads and campaign rhetoric as the U.S. general election campaign moved into full gear. Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris sought to attack Donald Trump from the right, blaming him for the February failure of legislation that would have restricted asylum access. Harris’s campaign manager pledged that if elected, the Vice President would keep in place the Biden administration’s asylum restrictions, which rights defense organizations are currently challenging in court. The Trump campaign meanwhile sought to portray Harris as a “border czar” (a title she did not hold) who has been “soft” on border security.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• With Asylum Out of Reach, Daily Border Patrol Apprehensions Near 1,500 Threshold

A double crackdown—Mexico’s stepped-up blocking of migrants and the Biden administration’s June 5 asylum-restriction rule—has brought a sharp short-term downturn in the number of migrants seeking to cross the border between ports of entry. Border Patrol apprehensions dipped below 1,500 on July 22, nearing the threshold under which the June 5 rule could be suspended.

• Death in the Darién Gap

Ten migrants drowned to death in a rain-swollen river while attempting to cross the treacherous Darién Gap in Panama. The country’s new president, who had pledged to stop Darién migration through stepped-up deportations, said that U.S.-backed repatriation flights would be voluntary.

• Kamala Harris’s Border and Migration Record Under Scrutiny

Shortly after Joe Biden’s July 21 withdrawal from the presidential campaign, opponents took aim at the border and migration record of his virtually certain successor, Vice President Kamala Harris, widely referring to her as the Biden administration’s “border czar.” No such position existed, and Harris’s role encompassed only “root causes” of migration from Central America. Nonetheless, a resolution that passed the Republican-majority House of Representatives on July 25 “strongly condemns” Harris’s performance in the putative “border czar” role.

• Texas Updates

For the second time, a state judge ruled against a Texas state government attempt to prosecute a border-area migrant shelter. State government jailings of migrants under “Operation Lone Star” are costing counties like El Paso millions of dollars. The National Guard Bureau’s chief says that “Lone Star” deployments are hurting the force’s military readiness. And despite the “Lone Star” crackdown, Border Patrol apprehensions have dropped only slightly more in Texas than they have in Democratic Party-governed Arizona.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Due to an extended period of staff travel and commitments, this will be the last Weekly Border Update until July 26; we look forward to resuming a regular publication schedule on that date.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Biden administration shuts down nearly all asylum access between border ports of entry

As of 12:01 AM on June 5, migrants who enter U.S. custody between U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry, with few exceptions, may no longer apply for asylum. The Biden administration made this long-signaled change with a proclamation and an “interim final rule” on June 4. Asylum access is “shut down” until daily migrant encounters at the border drop to a very low average of less than 1,500 per day. The ACLU, which challenged a similar asylum ban during the Trump era, plans to sue. It is not clear whether, with its current resources, the administration will be able to deport or detain a significantly larger number of  asylum seekers than it already is.

• Asylum requests in Mexico decline sharply

Mexico’s refugee agency, COMAR, reported receiving 36,860 requests for asylum during the first five months of 2024. That is 42 percent fewer than during the same period in 2023. As in recent years, Honduras, Cuba, and Haiti are the top three nationalities of asylum seekers in Mexico’s system, and most applications are filed in Tapachula and Mexico City. This year’s drop in applications is unexpected, as Mexico’s government reports stopping or encountering over 480,000 migrants between January and April alone.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Due to an extended period of staff travel and commitments, we will produce Weekly Border Updates irregularly for the next two and a half months. We will resume a regular weekly schedule on July 26.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• An executive order limiting asylum access could come as early as next week

After failing twice to enact such a measure through legislation, the Biden administration appears poised to issue an executive order that would allow U.S. border authorities to turn back or deport asylum seekers whenever the number of arriving migrants exceeds a specific threshold. The legal authority on which such an executive order would be based appears shaky, and there is a significant probability that it would not withstand challenges in the judicial system.

• For fourth straight month, Mexico encounters almost exactly 120,000 migrants

Mexico’s government reported encountering or stopping 120,879 migrants during the month of April, a record that only slightly exceeds similar numbers reported every month since January. Well over half of April’s total were citizens of South American nations. Mexico’s stepped-up efforts to block migrants, which appear to involve aggressive busing into the country’s interior more than deportations or detentions, have left large numbers of migrants stranded there amid a notable drop in U.S. authorities’ migrant encounters.

• On Border Patrol’s 100th anniversary, advocates focus on oversight and accountability

The U.S. Border Patrol was founded 100 years ago this week. Some analyses of the milestone have focused on the agency’s checkered human rights record. The Southern Border Communities Coalition and congressional Democrats, drawing attention to a recent GAO report’s findings, voiced concern that reforms aimed at more impartial oversight of use-of-force cases aren’t going far enough.

• South America migration updates

Colombia voices skepticism about Panama’s new president’s promise to shut down Darién Gap migration. UNHCR data continue to show that many Venezuelan migrants in the Darién first sought to settle elsewhere in South America. Ecuadorians are skipping the Darién route by flying to El Salvador.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Due to an extended period of staff travel and commitments, we will produce Weekly Border Updates irregularly for the next two and a half months. We will resume a regular weekly schedule on July 26.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Senate Democrats Again Bring “Asylum Shutdown” to an Unsuccessful Vote, While Executive Order Looms

For the second time this year, the U.S. Senate’s Democratic majority sought to bring to a vote a package of border legislation that would, among other provisions, implement Title 42-style suspensions of the right to seek asylum at the border when the number of migrants at the border exceeds certain thresholds. The “Border Act” failed by a 43-50 vote in the face of opposition from some Democrats uncomfortable with the asylum suspension, and nearly all Republicans, who argued that it was not aggressive enough. Media are reporting that the Biden administration plans to issue an executive order in June to enable a similar asylum “shutdown” mechanism at the border.

• The 2024 Migration Decline Continues into May

Although May is normally a peak month for migration, the daily average of Border Patrol migrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border had dropped to 3,700 so far in May, one of the lowest points of the entire Biden administration. Weekly data indicate that even border sectors that had seen migration increases in the first months of the year, like Tucson, Arizona and San Diego, California, are now experiencing reductions.

• Texas Updates

Migrants allege that Texas National Guard personnel beat a Honduran migrant so badly that he later died on the Rio Grande riverbank in Ciudad Juárez. Arizona, not Texas, has seen the sharpest migration declines in 2024 despite Gov. Abbott’s claims that his policies have shifted migrants westward. Those policies,some of which Pope Francis called “madness,” have included striking levels of racial profiling, according to an ACLU Texas report. State authorities’ razor wire in Eagle Pass has caused “an unusually high number” of hospitalizations in Eagle Pass, “including young children,” USA Today reported.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Due to an extended period of staff travel and commitments, we will produce Weekly Border Updates irregularly for the next two and a half months. We cannot publish Updates during the next two weeks; sporadic posting will begin in late May. We will resume a regular weekly schedule on July 26.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Data show a slight decline as Biden and López Obrador discuss migration

Preliminary numbers published by CBS News and the Washington Post indicate that Border Patrol agents apprehended 129,000 or 130,000 migrants in April, a slight decline from February and March. U.S. officials continue to credit Mexican efforts to block migrants, which were the subject of a phone conversation between Presidents Biden and López Obrador. Migration through Panama’s Darién Gap also appears to have declined in April.

• Drug seizure trends during the first half of fiscal 2024

With fiscal year 2024 half over, CBP’s border drug seizure data points to notable declines in opioids, including the first-ever drop in fentanyl seizures. Cocaine and methamphetamine are increasing compared to 2023, while seizures of cannabis—which decreased precipitously after U.S. states started regulating its use—remain at a low level. Except for cannabis, at least 82 percent of border drug seizures occur at land-border ports of entry.

• Investigations published this week on CBP One, Juárez fire, tractor-trailer smuggling, immigration courts

Human Rights Watch published a report on how the CBP One app denies access to asylum through “digital metering” at the U.S.-Mexico border. ProPublica and the Texas Tribune examined the relationship between U.S. border policies, including encouraging Mexico to interdict migrants, and tragedies like the March 2023 detention facility fire that killed 40 people in Ciudad Juárez. A consortium of journalists published a series on how organized crime, with corrupt officials’ collusion, transports migrants across Mexico in tractor-trailer containers.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Mexican forces’ migration controls intensify

Mexican security and migration forces’ stepped-up operations to interdict migrants, especially in the northern border state of Chihuahua, have been suppressing the number of migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, these have come with human rights complaints, and reductions are unlikely to last long as large numbers of people continue to migrate across Mexico’s southern border.

• Ukraine aid passes Congress without border provisions attached

The House of Representatives’ April 20 passage of a Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan aid bill formally ended Republican legislators’ monthslong effort to tie strict border and migration controls to any aid outlay. That effort had foundered after a negotiated deal in the Senate failed in February. House Republican leaders allowed consideration of a separate hardline border bill on April 20; it failed but attracted five votes from centrist Democrats.

• Panama, Guatemala, and Mexico report migrant removals

Panama reported removing 864 migrants, much of them with U.S. assistance, since April 2023. Guatemala has expelled over 7,900 migrants from other countries into Honduras and El Salvador so far this year. And Mexico has deported over 7,500 Guatemalans back to their country since January.

• DHS shares more detail about migrants’ nationalities

An upgrade to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report includes a list of the top 100 nationalities of migrants whom Border Patrol has apprehended since 2014. The data reveal that the apprehended migrant population was 97 percent Mexican and Central American a decade ago, but only 52 percent Mexican and Central American today.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• CBP releases March migration data

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) revealed in an April 12 data release that migration at the border declined from February to March for only the second time this century. The drop owes largely to the Mexican government’s stepped-up efforts to interdict migrants so far this year. San Diego may be surpassing Tucson as migrants’ number-one destination along the border.

• Mayorkas impeachment thwarted, House considers another hard-line bill

On a party-line vote, the Democratic-majority U.S. Senate dismissed impeachment charges that the House’s Republican majority brought against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Republicans had alleged that Mayorkas’s management of the border and migration merited the first impeachment of a cabinet secretary since 1876. The House may meanwhile consider a hardline border and migration bill, echoing provisions in H.R. 2, in coming days.

• Leading Panama candidate vows to “close” the Darién Gap

José Raúl Mulino, a conservative populist leading polls for Panama’s May presidential election, is promising to “close” the Darién Gap and repatriate migrants. This week a UNHCR survey (with a small sample), found one in five Darién migrants intending to settle somewhere other than the United States.

• A Guardsman fires his weapon, again, in El Paso

An Indiana National Guardsman serving under the Texas state government’s “Operation Lone Star” fired his weapon at an individual in El Paso who allegedly stabbed two people on the U.S. side of the Rio Grande riverbank. It was the third known event since January 2023 in which a National Guardsman working under Texas state authority has fired a weapon at, or in the presence of, migrants at the border.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Migration is down at the border and plateauing in countries further south

Migration continues to experience an unusual springtime lull across the U.S.-Mexico border, with numbers appearing to decline below January-March levels. San Diego, California, where migration is level, might soon become the border’s busiest sector, a change that has exceeded federal and local capacities there. Some of the drop in migration is a result of a Mexican government crackdown that began with the new year. Numbers of migrants are higher in Panama and Honduras than they were last year, but are not increasing.

• Executive action to limit asylum access: still on the table

President Biden told a Univisión interviewer that he is still considering taking executive action to “shut down” access to asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when daily migrant encounters cross a certain threshold. A possible legal justification for doing so, which courts have not upheld, is a broad presidential authority to block migrants whose entry is considered “detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

• DHS Secretary appears in hearings as Senate heads toward a quiet, swift impeachment acquittal

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared separately before House and Senate Appropriations subcommittees on April 10. He called for 2025 budget increases for the Department, including a flexible $4.7 billion border contingency fund that Republicans have opposed. The Senate still awaits the Republican-majority House of Representatives’ transmittal of impeachment articles against Mayorkas, alleging mismanagement of the border. Those articles narrowly passed the House in February; an actual Senate trial is unlikely.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Migration appears to have slowed in March, likely because of a Mexican government crackdown

The number of migrants entering Border Patrol custody declined from February to March, by about 2 percent, according to preliminary data. Migration usually increases in spring: this is only the second time this century that Border Patrol has recorded a February-to-March decline. Increased enforcement in Mexico may be a cause. Weekly data show Border Patrol apprehensions declining in Arizona and California from the beginning of March to the end of March.

• In San Diego: border wall falls and open-air encampments persist

A 24-year-old Guatemalan woman’s fatal March 21 fall from the border wall in San Diego drew new attention to the region’s sharply increased numbers of wall-related deaths and injuries. Elsewhere in San Diego, a federal judge ruled that outdoor encampments where Border Patrol makes asylum seekers wait to be processed violate a 1997 agreement governing the treatment of children in the agency’s custody.

• Texas’s S.B. 4 has a day in court

“Now, to be fair, maybe Texas went too far,” said Texas’s solicitor general in arguments before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which is considering the constitutionality of the state’s harsh new law, S.B. 4. The law, if allowed to go into effect, would permit Texas law enforcement to arrest, imprison, and even deport people for the crime of illegal entry from Mexico. However the appeals court rules, the law is almost certainly headed for the Supreme Court.

• Darién Gap migration clears 100,000; Human Rights Watch faults governments’ response

Panamanian authorities report that an average of 1,200 people per day migrated through the treacherous Darién Gap jungle region during the first quarter of 2024, well ahead of 2023’s record-setting pace. Human Rights Watch published a big report finding fault with the Colombian and Panamanian government’s responses to Darién Gap migration, and calling for the U.S. and other governments to expand legal migration pathways. The New York Times documented the alarming recent increase in cases of sexual assault committed against migrants in the Darién.

THE FULL UPDATE:

With this series of weekly updates, WOLA seeks to cover the most important developments at the U.S.-Mexico border. See past weekly updates here.

Support ad-free, paywall-free Weekly Border Updates. Your donation to WOLA is crucial to sustain this effort. Please contribute now and support our work.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF:

• Mexico’s intensified enforcement delays the United States’ expected spring migration increase

Migration at the U.S.-Mexico border usually  increases in springtime. That is not happening in 2024, although numbers are up in Mexico and further south. Increased Mexican government operations to block or hinder migrants are a central reason. Especially striking is migration from Venezuela, which has plummeted at the U.S. border and moved largely to ports of entry. It is unclear why Venezuelan migration has dropped more steeply than that from other nations.

• Insights from CBP’s February reporting about the border

Migration at the U.S.-Mexico border increased by 8 percent from January to February; the portion that is Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants grew by 13 percent. February’s levels were still on the low end for the Biden administration. Preliminary March data indicate no further increases this month.

• Is Texas’s crackdown pushing migrants to other states?

Texas’s governor, an immigration hardliner, is claiming credit for a westward shift of migration toward Arizona and California. Uncertainty over a harsh new law—currently blocked in the courts—could be leading some migrants to avoid Texas, but the overall picture is more complex. Migration declined slightly in Arizona in February and is still dropping there in March, while four out of five Texas border sectors saw some growth in February.

• Migration on the agenda of Guatemalan President’s visit to Washington

President Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala, in his third month in office, paid his first official visit to Washington, meeting separately with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The White House touted $170 million in new assistance to Guatemala and the operations of a U.S.-backed “Safe Mobility Office” that seeks to steer would-be migrants toward legal pathways. In 2023, Guatemala’s previous government expelled more than 23,000 U.S.-bound migrants, most of them from Venezuela, back across its border into Honduras.

THE FULL UPDATE: