Developments
The populist candidate leading polls for Panama’s May 5 presidential elections is promising to block migration through the Darién Gap. “We are going to close Darien and we are going to repatriate all these people as appropriate, respecting human rights,” José Raúl Mulino told reporters. Mulino did not specify how he would manage to close to migrants a 2,200-square-mile region of dense jungle.
- “Candidato Presidencial en Panama Promete “Cerrar” Selva del Darien” (Agence France Presse, Milenio (Mexico), April 16, 2024).
Leaders of the Republican-majority House of Representatives formally delivered articles of impeachment for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Democratic-majority Senate, more than two months after approving them by a single vote on their second attempt. The Republican legislators contend that Mayorkas’s management of the border and migration is grounds for impeachment; Senate Democratic leaders are likely to introduce a motion to dismiss the case without going to trial, and they appear to have the votes.
- Annie Grayer, Priscilla Alvarez, “House Sends Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to the Senate” (CNN, April 16, 2024).
- Anna Giaritelli, “House Delivers Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to Divided Senate” (The Washington Examiner, April 16, 2024).
Mayorkas testified yesterday in the House Homeland Security Committee, which originated his impeachment process last year. “With the authorities and the funding that we have, it [the border] is as secure as it can be,” Mayorkas told a Republican questioner.
Mayorkas said he did not recall telling Border Patrol agents that “higher than 85 percent” of encountered migrants were being released into the United States. (Judging from CBP custody statistics, more than 70 percent of encountered migrants received “notices to appear” during the first six months of fiscal 2024.)
- Josh Christenson, “Mayorkas Tells Congress Border ‘as Secure as It Can Be,’ Cannot ‘Recall’ Saying 85% of Migrants Are Released Into Us” (The New York Post, April 16, 2024).
At the hearing, Republican legislators presented a flier, first promoted on Twitter by the Heritage Foundation, supposedly produced by a Jewish immigrant aid organization in Texas. The document, which urges migrants to vote for Joe Biden in November, is an obvious fake.
- “Fabricated Flier a New Low in Congressional Anti-Immigrant and Anti-Democratic Conspiracy Narrative” (Americas Voice, April 16, 2024).
Brazilian fishermen discovered the remains of nine people in a boat drifting off the coast of the country’s northeast on Saturday. They appear to have been migrants from Africa, probably Mali and Mauritania.
- Renata Brito, “9 Bodies Found Adrift in a Boat Off Brazil Were Likely Migrants From Mauritania and Mali, Police Say” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 16, 2024).
A Border Patrol checkpoint on Interstate 35 north of Laredo, Texas is receiving $15 million in upgrades that will make it the largest interior road checkpoint in the United States, Border Report reported.
- Sandra Sanchez, “‘Checkpoint Charley’ Expansion Will Make It the Largest in Us” (Border Report, April 16, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
“Realistically speaking, having this [Biden administration] asylum ban applied to 100 percent could mean only a few hundred people more a month being ordered removed. Not a huge shift,” pointed out the American Immigration Council’s Aaron Reichlin-Melnick in a factually dense interview with the Border Chronicle’s Melissa del Bosque.
- Melissa del Bosque, “Can President Biden Really Shut Down Asylum at the Border? A Q&A With Immigration Expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick” (The Border Chronicle, April 16, 2024).
A Bloomberg analysis examined the drift of the Biden administration’s border and migration policies, noting inconsistencies and failures to anticipate new challenges. “The first year of Biden’s term felt like it was a series of good plans getting halted, with frequent leadership changes on the issue,” a former official noted.
- Eric Martin, Maya Averbuch, Patricia Laya, “Biden Once Rejected Trump’s Migrant Policies. Now His Ideas Echo Them” (Bloomberg, Yahoo, April 16, 2024).
On the Right
- Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), “Mayorkas Must Be Held Accountable at His Senate Trial” (The American Conservative, April 17, 2024).
- Maryann Martinez, “Over 100 Migrants Caught Scaling, Cutting Border Fence Near School” (The Daily Mail (UK), April 16, 2024).