Developments
Congressional Republicans’ effort to attach hardline border measures to Ukraine aid legislation formally ended on Saturday, when the House of Representatives approved a Ukraine and Israel aid bill with no border or migration content.
The GOP demand, issued last fall, spurred a months-long Senate negotiation process, yielding a deal that would have changed the law to, among other provisions, halt asylum access at the border when migration reached certain levels. That deal failed when Republican senators rejected it in early February.
In a gesture to border hardliners, House Republican leadership allowed a separate bill to come to a vote on Saturday that would have effectively shut down the right to seek asylum at the border. H.R. 3602, the “End the Border Catastrophe Act,” included most of the provisions of H.R. 2, a strict bill that the House passed in May 2023 without a single Democratic vote. Because it was rushed to the floor in suspension of the House’s rules, H.R. 3602 failed by a 215-199 vote on Saturday. Unlike H.R. 2, though, it got 5 Democratic “yes” votes.
- Jon Michael Raasch, “House Border Security Measure Spectacularly Fails, Democrats Tank Vote” (The Daily Mail (UK), April 20, 2024).
Border Patrol’s San Diego, California Sector experienced a weekly jump in migrant apprehensions and now firmly leads the Tucson, Arizona Sector as the apparent busiest region of the U.S.-Mexico border. While both sectors saw increases last week, San Diego reported 8,959 apprehensions during April 10-16 (28 percent more than the previous week) and Tucson reported 7,500 during April 12-18 (12 percent more than the previous week).
- Jeanette Quezada, “Large Group of Migrants, Including Children, Cross Us-Mexico Border Near San Ysidro” (NBC San Diego, April 19, 2024).
- “Chief Patrol Agent Patricia D. McGurk-Daniel @USBPChiefSDC on Twitter” (Twitter, April 17, 2024).
- “John R. Modlin @USBPChiefTCA on Twitter” (Twitter, April 19, 2024).
An Albuquerque Journal report from New Mexico’s Cibola County Correctional Center noted an increase in the number of Venezuelan migrants being deported from the Center into Mexico.
- Austin Fisher, “Venezuelan Refugees Detained in Nm Fearful of More Deportations to Mexico” (The Albuquerque Journal, April 19, 2024).
Edixon Del Jesus Farias-Farias, a 26-year-old citizen of Venezuela and a detainee in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facility in Conroe, Texas, died on April 18. “An autopsy is pending to determine the official cause of death,” reads an ICE release.
- “Venezuelan National Passes Away in Ice Custody” (Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), April 19, 2024).
Though licensed cannabis is now legal in New Mexico, Border Patrol continues to seize the drug, which remains illegal on the federal level, at the agency’s interior checkpoints in the state, the Associated Press reported. This “prompted a discussion this week” between Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
- Morgan Lee, “Cannabis Seizures at Checkpoints by Us-Mexico Border Frustrate State-Authorized Pot Industry” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 19, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
A greater share of this year’s reduced population of migrants is coming to the border in states west of Texas. The Texas Tribune examined Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) claims that his state government’s hardline border policies are causing the westward shift, concluding that the reasons “are much more complicated” and that the trend is probably temporary.
- Naomi Choy Smith, Sumi Somaskanda, “Us Migrant Crisis Shifts From Texas to California Border” (BBC (UK), April 21, 2024).
- Alejandro Serrano, “Migrant Apprehensions Are Down at the Texas Border. Have State Policies Had an Impact?” (The Texas Tribune, April 22, 2024).
Gov. Abbott’s office reported busing 112,700 migrants to Democratic-governed cities since April 2022.
- “Operation Lone Star Combats Drug, Human Smuggling Across Border” (Texas Governor’s Office, April 19, 2024).
A significant cause of the border-wide decline is the Mexican government’s 2024 crackdown on migration transiting the country. However, “uneven enforcement and widespread corruption” ensure that Mexico rarely “blocks” migrants: its actions “make migrants’ journey north riskier, costlier, and slower,” Christine Murray reported at the Financial Times.
- Christine Murray, “How Mexico’s ‘Kabuki Pantomime’ Fails to Stop Us-Bound Migrants” (Financial Times (UK), April 21, 2024).
Despite rhetoric about terrorists potentially crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, “since 1975, the annual likelihood of an American being murdered in a foreigner-committed terrorist attack is about one in 4.5 million,” recalled the Cato Institute’s Alex Nowrasteh.
- Alex Nowrasteh, “The Manufactured Crisis of Migrant Terrorists at the Border” (Cato Institute, Reason, April 19, 2024).
Ecuadorian migrants transiting Mexico who spoke to Agénce France Presse said that they were nervous about identifying themselves to Mexican authorities as citizens of Ecuador, two weeks after Ecuador’s government raided the Mexican embassy in Quito, triggering a breakdown in diplomatic relations.
- “Migrantes Temen Que Ruptura de Relaciones Complique su Camino a Eu” (Agence France Presse, Milenio (Mexico), April 19, 2024).
While most of the thousands of migrants per week transiting Honduras pass through the country quickly, some need to stay and seek temporary work, medical assistance, and shelter, the Honduran online outlet ContraCorriente reported. While some formal shelters and humanitarian aid exist, many migrants rely on informal shelters provided by local citizens or stay in rented rooms in private homes.
- Daniel Fonseca, “Un Lugar para Refugiarse en el Camino” (ContraCorriente (Honduras), April 19, 2024).
“The next administration in Mexico will inherit an incomplete and deficient action plan to deal with migration” from Central America, wrote Brenda Estefan of IPADE Business School at Americas Quarterly, calling for a renewed and more collaborative focus on “root causes” of migration after President Andrés Manuel López Obrador leaves office at the end of the year.
- Brenda Estefan, “Mexico Needs a New Strategy for the Northern Triangle” (IPADE Business School, Americas Quarterly, April 22, 2024).
Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania) penned a column endorsing the Dignity Act, a bipartisan bill that includes border and migration provisions that reflect some priorities of border hardliners and some priorities of migrant rights defenders.
- Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pennsylvania), “It’s Time to Do Something About the Southern Border” (The Morning Call, April 20, 2024).
On the Right
- Adam Shaw, “Border State Lawmaker Sounds Alarm on Bloodthirsty Venezuelan Gang Entering Us: ‘They Have No Rules’” (Fox News, April 19, 2024).