Developments
The U.S. Senate is wrapping up business today and will shortly adjourn for 2023, with no deal on a $110.5 billion “national security supplemental” spending package, requested by the Biden administration, to aid Ukraine and Israel and to fund border operations. Republicans continue to demand restrictions on asylum and other migration pathways, and a small group of Senate negotiators has been unable to come up with either a framework compromise or legislative language. The group pledges to keep trying, even “in the time remaining this year.” Congress returns on January 8.
- Karoun Demirjian, “Congress Abandons Ukraine Aid Until Next Year as Border Talks Continue” (The New York Times, December 19, 2023).
- Makini Brice, Richard Cowan, “Us Senate Will Not Finish Ukraine, Border Deal This Year” (Reuters, Reuters, December 19, 2023).
- “Jake Sherman @Jakesherman on Twitter” (Twitter, December 19, 2023).
- Sen. James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), “Lankford Issues Statement on Supplemental National Security Negotiations” (U.S. Senate, December 19, 2023).
The ACLU filed litigation, on behalf of El Paso County, Texas the Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center, and American Gateways, challenging the radical immigration law that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed on December 18. SB4 allows Texas police to arrest people on charges of irregularly crossing the border from Mexico, and to jail them if they don’t go back to Mexico. Statements from the governments of Mexico and Guatemala reject the new law.
- “Las Americas v. Mccraw Complaint” (American Civil Liberties Union, December 19, 2023).
- Uriel J. Garcia, “Immigrant Rights Groups Sue Texas to Halt New Law Allowing Arrests of Migrants” (The Texas Tribune, December 19, 2023).
- Aaron Torres, “El Paso County, Immigration Rights Groups Sue Texas Over Controversial Immigration Law” (The Dallas Morning News, December 19, 2023).
- J. David Goodman, “El Paso County Sues Texas in a Bid to Block New Migrant Arrest Law” (The New York Times, December 19, 2023).
- Acacia Coronado, “Groups Sue Over New Texas Law That Lets Police Arrest Migrants Who Enter the Us Illegally” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 19, 2023).
- Fiona Harrigan, “Texas’ New Immigration Law Will Lead to More Policing With Less Accountability” (Reason, December 19, 2023).
- Nick Robertson, “Mexican President Says He’ll Fight Texas Migrant Crossing Law” (The Hill, December 19, 2023).
- Suzanne Gamboa, “Mexico’s President and Texas Governor Clash Again Over Immigration” (NBC News, December 19, 2023).
- Cesar Perez Marroquin, Efe, “Guatemala Rechaza la Ley Antiinmigrante sb4 de Texas Que Permite a la Policia Efectuar Capturas y Expulsiones” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), December 19, 2023).
A video shared by Texas Public Radio shows Texas National Guardsmen ignoring a migrant woman and baby crying for help in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass. “Eyewitnesses attested that both mother and child ‘went under for a while’ after several minutes of struggling, before resurfacing again.” A federal CBP airboat speeds by, a few feet away from the woman and child, offering no assistance.
- Pablo de la Rosa, “Video Shows Texas National Guard Soldiers Appearing to Ignore a Mother and Baby’s Pleas for Help in the Rio Grande” (Texas Public Radio, December 19, 2023).
According to data that the Washington Examiner obtained from CBP personnel, U.S. authorities encountered 14,509 migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border on December 18. That’s probably about 13,000 Border Patrol apprehensions between ports of entry (official border crossings) and about 1,500 people reporting to the ports of entry, nearly always with CBP One appointments. It was the largest number of migrant arrivals at the U.S.-Mexico border in any day since at least 2000, and it may owe to rumors circulating in Mexico that the U.S. government is about to close the border and shut down CBP One. The past few weeks’ increases in migration are unusual because they come after sharp decreases in migration transiting the Darién Gap and Honduras in November.
- Anna Giaritelli, “Biden Border Crisis Shatters Record With 14,509 Illegal Immigrants Encountered in One Day” (The Washington Examiner, December 19, 2023).
- Elliot Spagat, “Illegal Crossings Surge in Remote Areas as Congress and the White House Weigh Major Asylum Limits” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 19, 2023).
- Adam Isacson, “Unusual: Even as Migration Drops Along the U.S.-Bound Route, It Jumps at the Border” (Adam Isacson, December 19, 2023).
- Alicia A. Caldwell, Santiago Perez, “U.S. Closes Several Southwest Border Bridges to Contain Migrant Surge” (The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2023).
- Jorge Ventura, “Eagle Pass Faces Unprecedented Migrant Surge: Border Patrol Sources” (NewsNation, December 19, 2023).
- “Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @Reichlinmelnick on Twitter” (Twitter, December 19, 2023).
- “Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @Reichlinmelnick on Twitter” (Twitter, December 19, 2023).
Arizona’s senators, Mark Kelly (D) and Kyrsten Sinema (I), wrote a letter to DHS officials calling for new Shelter and Services Program funding for humanitarian services amid large-scale arrivals at remote parts of the state’s border.
- Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Arizona), “Kelly, Sinema Urge Allocation of Additional Border Funds to Arizona” (U.S. Senate, December 19, 2023).
- Miriam Davidson, “The Desperate Need for Migrant Aid in Arizona” (The Progressive, December 19, 2023).
Two children from Guinea (Africa), aged 10 and 13, spent days on their own in the Bogotá, Colombia airport after being abandoned there. Bogotá is one of a few airports where migrants from Africa change planes along an emerging route that leads to Nicaragua, which does not require visas of most of the continent’s nationalities. From Managua, they travel to the U.S.-Mexico border to seek asylum.
- Astrid Suarez, Manuel Rueda, “2 Guinean Children Are Abandoned in Colombian Airport as African Migrants Take New Route to Us” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 19, 2023).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Reporting mainly from the Darién Gap, the New York Times’s Julie Turkewitz found that “as migrants stream their struggles and successes to millions back home, some are becoming small-time celebrities and influencers in their own right.”
- Julie Turkewitz, Live From the Jungle: Migrants Become Influencers on Social Media (The New York Times, Wednesday, December 20, 2023).
Following a visit to the Darién Gap’s gateway in northwestern Colombia, Dan Restrepo of the Center for American Progress recommended greater emphasis on “host community solutions” and “development finance tools” to integrate migrants in Latin American countries.
- Dan Restrepo, “Migration Won’t Be Solved at the Us-Mexico Border” (Center for American Progress, The Messenger, December 19, 2023).
An increasing amount of punditry predicts that public perceptions of the border situation might provide the Trump campaign with the momentum it needs to win the 2024 election, even as the ex-president repeats “poison the blood” rhetoric paraphrasing Mein Kampf.
- Melissa del Bosque, “The Lucrative Business of “Border Chaos”” (The Border Chronicle, December 19, 2023).
- Miranda Nazzaro, “Texas Democrat Agrees Border Situation ‘Hurting’ Biden’s Campaign” (The Hill, December 19, 2023).
- Anders Hagstrom, “Biden campaign co-chair admits she’s ‘afraid’ Biden will lose big due to border crisis” (Fox News, December 19, 2023).
- Anna Giaritelli, “Declining Situation at Southern Border Ups Ante on Senate Immigration Talks” (The Washington Examiner, December 19, 2023).
- Chris Cameron, “Mcconnell and Other Senate Republicans Criticize Trump’s Talk on Immigrants” (The New York Times, December 19, 2023).
On the Right
- Paul Bedard, “Up to 38% of Border Patrol Shifted From ‘Enforcement’ to ‘Processing’” (The Washington Examiner, December 19, 2023).