Developments
The Washington politics website Punchbowl News reported that talks have broken down among a small group of senators discussing tightened asylum standards and other possible migration restrictions in exchange for Republican support for a big funding bill for Ukraine, Israel, and the border. The small group was to keep discussing a possible compromise over the December 2-3 weekend, but has not met since Thursday. The Senate’s Democratic majority may introduce the supplemental funding bill as early as December 7 without any of the migration curbs that Republicans are demanding; Republicans may filibuster it.
- “Senate Border Talks Break Down” (Punchbowl News, December 4, 2023).
- Dara Lind, “What We Know About the Senate Negotiations That Could Wreck Asylum in the Us” (American Immigration Council, December 1, 2023).
- Al Weaver, “Progressives Heap Pressure on Democrats as Border Talks Screech to Halt” (The Hill, December 3, 2023).
- Julia Ainsley, Mike Memoli, Peter Nicholas, “No Good Answers for Biden as Voters Recoil Over Border Crossings” (NBC News, December 2, 2023).
- Christian Hall, Ellen M Gilmer, “Senate Border Policy Talks Drag, Jeopardizing Us Aid to Ukraine” (Bloomberg, December 1, 2023).
One of the Republican negotiators, Sen. James Lankford (Oklahoma), voiced optimism on December 3 that “we can get this done by the end of the year.”
- Alicia Diaz, “Gop Negotiator Sees Us Border Policy Deal Possible by Year’s End” (Bloomberg, Bloomberg, December 3, 2023).
- Paul Kane, “Lankford Enters Arena of Bipartisan Talks, With Global Security Package on the Line” (The Washington Post, December 2, 2023).
The federal judiciary’s Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas on December 1 to remove the “buoy wall” that Gov. Greg Abbott (R) had ordered built in the middle of the Rio Grande in June near Eagle Pass. Abbott said he would appeal to the Supreme Court.
- Kevin Vu, “Texas Must Remove Floating Barrier From Rio Grande, Fifth Circuit Court Orders” (The Texas Tribune, December 1, 2023).
- Aaron Torres, Todd J. Gillman, “Appeals Court Tells Texas to Remove Anti-Migrant Buoys, in Setback at Border for Abbott” (The Dallas Morning News, December 1, 2023).
- Valerie Gonzalez, “Court Orders Texas to Move Floating Buoy Barrier That Drew Backlash From Mexico” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 1, 2023).
Border Patrol’s Tucson, Arizona Sector reported apprehending 17,500 migrants in the week ending December 1. If sustained over a month, that rate would hit a monthly threshold—70,000 apprehensions in a single sector—that has only been reached twice after 2000. CBPannounced that it will temporarily close its port of entry in remote Lukeville, Arizona so that officers stationed there may help Border Patrol to process the large numbers of asylum seekers turning themselves in nearby.
- “Statement From Cbp on Operations in Lukeville, Az” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, December 1, 2023).
- “John R. Modlin @Usbpchieftca on Twitter” (Twitter, December 1, 2023).
- Anita Snow, “Us Border Officials Are Closing a Remote Arizona Crossing Because of Overwhelming Migrant Arrivals” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 1, 2023).
- Paul Ingram, “Lukeville Border Crossing to Close Monday as More Migrants Appear in Nearby Wilderness” (The Tucson Sentinel (Tucson Arizona), December 1, 2023).
- Emily Bregel, “Asylum Seekers Face Cold, Hunger in Arrival Crush on Arizona Border” (The Arizona Daily Star, December 1, 2023).
A group of 18 migrants from Mexico and Guatemala, including children, was kidnapped after flying from Tijuana to Matamoros for their “CBP One” appointments at the U.S. port of entry there. As of December 3, as many as 17 of the 18 victims may have been released after making ransom payments. The incident highlights the risks to migrants in Tamaulipas, the only Mexican border state to have a Level Four travel warning from the U.S. State Department.
- Khennia Reyes, Migrantes Temen Viajar a Matamoros Tras Secuestro (El Imparcial (Tijuana Mexico), Sunday, December 3, 2023).
- Khennia Reyes, Secuestran a Migrantes Que Viajaron de Tj a Matamoros: Rivera Colon (El Imparcial (Tijuana Mexico), Friday, December 1, 2023).
- Said Betanzos, “Secuestran a Grupo de Migrantes Que Viajaban a Tamaulipas” (Milenio (Mexico), December 1, 2023).
Analyses and Feature Stories
For the second time in ten days, the New York Times published an analysis of Chinese citizens’ increased migration to the U.S.-Mexico border. “Every immigrant I interviewed this year who passed through the Darién Gap,” reporter Li Yuan wrote, “came from a lower middle-class background. They said that they feared falling into poverty if the Chinese economy worsened, and that they could no longer see a future for themselves or their children in their home country.”
- Li Yuan, “Why More Chinese Are Risking Danger in Southern Border Crossings to U.S.” (The New York Times, December 3, 2023).
Honduras’s ContraCorriente reported on the harrowing experience of Honduran women migrating in an attempt to flee domestic or gender-based violence.
- Laura Garcia Caceres, “Escapar de su Agresor para Enfrentar Mas Violencia: La Historia de una Migrante Hondurena” (Contra Corriente, December 2, 2023).
WOLA’s Adam Isacson testified in a November 30 hearing of the House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee about “the U.S. Border Crisis and the American Solution to an International Problem.” WOLA has posted a page with video excerpts and the text of the written and oral testimonies delivered.
- “Testimony: WOLA Urges Congress to Protect Asylum and Update Obsolete Border Policies” (Washington Office on Latin America, December 1, 2023).
On the Right:
- Chuck Devore, “As Biden’s Border Disintegrates, Texas Democrats Plot With Mexico” (Fox News, December 1, 2023).