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This afternoon U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released a lot of new data about migrants at the border through February. Here are updated versions of some graphics, using official data, that put those numbers in context.
Tracking the U.S. relationship with Latin America’s security forces requires finding credible, citable data. For that, government documents are a goldmine. They’re primary sources, straight from the State and unfiltered through outside journalists or analysts. I find such documents so useful that since 2015 I’ve kept a database of them: those I’ve obtained as well as those I’m trying to get my hands on.
The reports listed here, all issued in 2017, are essential reading for Latin America security nerds. Many suffer from agencies’ blinders, or express policy priorities that I don’t share. But they are still rich in information that is nearly impossible to find elsewhere.
A Special Joint Review of Post-Incident Responses by the Department of State and Drug Enforcement Administration to Three Deadly Force Incidents in Honduras, Department of Justice and Department of State Inspectors-General, May 24, 2017
Government Police Training and Equipping Programs, Department of Defense, April 1, 2017
Counternarcotics: Overview of U.S. Efforts in the Western Hemisphere, Government Accountability Office, October 13, 2017
Southwest Border Security: Additional Actions Needed to Better Assess Fencing’s Contributions to Operations and Provide Guidance for Identifying Capability Gaps, Government Accountability Office, February 16, 2017
Metrics Developed to Measure the Effectiveness of Security Between Ports of Entry, Office of Immigration Statistics, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, September 14, 2017
Colombia: Background and U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service, November 14, 2017
Colombia’s Changing Approach to Drug Policy, Congressional Research Service, November 30, 2017
U.S.-Mexican Security Cooperation: The Merida Initiative and Beyond, Congressional Research Service, June 29, 2017
U.S. Strategy for Engagement in Central America: Policy Issues for Congress, Congressional Research Service, June 8, 2017
El Salvador: Background and U.S. Relations, Congressional Research Service, November 3, 2017
Foreign Military Training Report, Department of Defense, Department of State, December 2017
Colombia Human Rights Certification, Department of State, September 11, 2017
Section 2011 Report on Special Operations Forces Training, Department of Defense, April 1, 2017
National Drug Threat Assessment, Drug Enforcement Administration, October 2017
International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, Department of State, March 2, 2017
Challenges Facing DHS in Its Attempt to Hire 15,000 Border Patrol Agents and Immigration Officers, Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, July 27, 2017
Statement of Anthony D. Williams, Assistant Administrator – Chief of Operations, Drug Enforcement Administration before the Senate Caucus on International Drug Control, September 12, 2017I asked my “narrowdown.org” congressional web database which members of Congress most consistently sign on to legislation or letters, or join caucuses, having to do with U.S.-Mexico border security. The result was the below list of 19 “hardliners” and 20 “reformers” in the House of Representatives.
Of the 19 hardliners, 18 are Republicans who won their districts by more then 10 percentage points in November. (The other is the lone Democrat, Henry Cuellar of south Texas.) Only one is a woman. Three represent districts whose population is over 30 percent Latino. Five sit on committees that oversee border security policy.
Of the 20 reformers, all are Democrats who won their districts by more than 10 percentage points in November. Fourteen represent districts whose population is over 30 percent Latino. Four sit on committees that oversee border security policy.
This is an inexact tool: for instance, it omits hardliner Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and reformer Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-California), a committee chairman and a ranking Democrat whose positions lead them to sponsor fewer bills. But it still yields an interesting result.
Hardliners: favor building up border security and cracking down on immigration
Reformers: favor less coercive border security and welcome immigration
Reformers met at least two of these conditions. Three members met three (Brooks, King, and Smith):
Reformers met at least five of these conditions. One member met nine (Gutierrez):
I’ve owned the domain defenseassistance.org for several years; I use it for side projects related to work. The largest by far is one I started in mid-2015: a “database of everything” related to U.S. defense and security relations with Latin America.
This mammoth resource is just about complete. So I just took away the little “this site is under construction” warning and moved it to WOLA’s web space. It now lives at defenseoversight.wola.org.
This is a cool site: it’s where I keep everything work-related, except things that other apps do better, like calendar and e-mail. I share most of it with the public, because why not. It’s also super-fast: I used a lot of javascript nerdery so you don’t have to sit around waiting for pages to load.
There are four immense sections. All are searchable, or browsable by topic, country, aid program, and U.S. agency:
There’s also two private sections that I use to keep track of contacts and research questions. The rest is public—and now it’s a new subdomain on WOLA’s website.
I’ll keep the information gathered until now at the old defenseassistance.org domain. But that site will have a big warning at the top instructing visitors to go to defenseoversight.wola.org, and it will be hosted on a much slower (and cheaper) hosting plan.
I hope you find it useful.
This is from narrowdown.org and yes, I understand how nerdy it is.
I derived these using “Narrow Down Congress,” a web-app I coded over the holidays. It does one thing: find members of Congress who match more than one category. I invite you to play around with it.
The House and Senate Foreign Relations/Affairs Committees have subcommittees for the Western Hemisphere. They have a combined 23 members. Of these 23:
4 are under 50 (born since 1967):
4 are women:
4 were elected since 2014:
5 are Congressional Hispanic Caucus members:
5 come from U.S.-Mexico border states:
7 were last elected by a margin of less than 10 points:
These 34 Republicans are currently co-sponsoring at least one bill favoring more trade and travel with Cuba:
(There are three such bills, you can find them at narrowdown.org by typing “Cuba” into the blank that says “Search by name.”)
Of these 34 Republicans, only one represents a district that Trump lost in November:
And only one won his district by less than 10 percentage points:
These eight members of the Congressional Central America Caucus also co-sponsor the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act:
Of these eight, five are also on the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, which Rep. McGovern co-chairs:
Of the Mexico-U.S. Interparliamentary Group, the U.S.-Mexico Friendship Caucus, and the co-sponsors of House Resolution 104 “Reaffirming a strong commitment to the United States-Mexico partnership,” these 17 “friends of Mexico” are on two out of three:
Of these 17, the only one elected to Congress since 2014:
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