Adam Isacson

Defense, security, borders, migration, and human rights in Latin America and the United States. May not reflect my employer’s consensus view.

Video

Video: “Migrant Justice in Times of Militarized Borders”

This was a great panel on November 7, with speakers in four countries (the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia). We talked about challenges for dignified migration at a time of hardening borders and more military and police involvement in migration control throughout the region.

Many thanks to Hispanics in Philanthropy and Open Society Foundations for organizing it and inviting me to participate.

At WOLA: Migration Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Blocked. But it Can be Managed.

Here’s an 1,100-word statement recalling and highlighting some of the basic principles underlying our border and migration work. Backed up with lots of numbers and data, of course.

The main points:

  1. Most migrants arriving in the United States are exercising their right to seek asylum
  2. The United States needs to invest in managing, in a humane and timely manner, migrants and asylum seekers—NOT in more border security
  3. Legislative proposals from “border hawks,” like the “Secure the Border Act” (H.R2), would endanger thousands of lives

Read it here. It comes with an embedded video:

Video for This Week’s Border Update

I think I’m getting better at making these? Obtaining a cheap teleprompter helped.

In this week’s WOLA U.S.-Mexico Border Update:

  • Two breaking items: new border wall and Venezuela deportations
  • Border Patrol apprehended about 210,000 migrants in September
  • Proposals call for increasing deportations from Mexico and Panama
  • Mexico updates
  • Darién Gap updates

Video: A lot of migration at the border isn’t “illegal.”

We hear a lot that people at the U.S.-Mexico border are being allowed into the United States “illegally.” Well, no.

For decades, U.S. law has stated that if you fear for your life or freedom if returned to your country, you are entitled to due process. Asylum seekers are doing something legal. And many of them qualify.

Here’s a two-minute explanation:

“Unboxing”: Migración en la Era de Biden

Here (en español) is an episode of DemocraciaAbierta’s #Unboxing program, in which host Sandra Borda (of Colombia’s Universidad de los Andes) and I discuss the Biden administration’s post-Title 42 changes to immigration policy. We recorded this in late May, so it’s not razor-sharp current, but we do go into some detail that you don’t often get in a video interview.

“The Window” by Ratboys

I’m angry at Ratboys (a group I’ve seen twice, because they’re always touring and open for everybody) for writing a song that’s absolutely brilliant and instantly catchy—but I can’t seem to hear without tearing up.

Stereogum explains why:

“I wrote this song a few days after the death of my grandma in June 2020,” says Ratboys’ Julia Steiner. “She didn’t have COVID, but because of the pandemic my grandpa wasn’t able to visit her in person at the nursing home to say goodbye. He ended up standing outside her room and saying goodbye through an open window. A lot of the lyrics are direct quotes of things he said to her in those final moments.”

Gorgeous but gutting. Damn it, got something in my eye again.

Video for September 1, 2023 WOLA Border Update

This makes four weeks in a row that I’ve tried using my new office space at “renovated WOLA” to make quick little mobile-friendly promo videos for things we’ve published. This is the first one with the teleprompter setup that I’ve jury-rigged: a fast overview of the latest Weekly Border Update.

These are “experimenting in public,” figuring out the production, the hardware, and the software as I go. They’ve performed modestly on Twitter and invisibly on Mastodon, but reasonably well on TikTok (where they reliably attract obnoxious far-right commenters) and on Instagram.

More asylum appointments desperately needed at the Arizona border

Here’s another foray into brief video, as I continue practicing use of some very complicated software.

This one is about the border with Arizona. During a very hot summer, the busiest part of the U.S.-Mexico border has made only 100 appointments per day available to asylum seekers.

Instead of reporting to a point of entry, thousands are crossing in dangerous desert during record heat. The number of CBP One appointments needs to increase in Nogales.

Video: August 11, 2023 Border Update

I’m trying something new here. If I don’t manage to keep it up after a few weeks, I’ll never mention it again.

It’s a quick overview of this week’s WOLA Border Update, for use in social media.

I’m trying out both my brand-new office space (WOLA just completed a renovation), and my low-on-the-learning-curve Adobe Premiere skills.

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