This will be the last Daily Border Links post until January 2, unless events demand otherwise. Best wishes for a happy holiday.
Developments
“Border Patrol made about 10,500 apprehensions along the southwest border on Tuesday, according to two sources familiar with the data,” ABC News reported. “Agents made roughly 10,600 migrant apprehensions along the southwest border on Wednesday. That was only a slight decline from Monday, and still high.” NBC News reported, “approximately 27,000 migrants were in CBP custody as of Wednesday night, another record.”
- Quinn Owen, “What’s Behind the Historic, ‘Serious Challenge’ at the Southern Border” (ABC News, ABC 7 New York, December 21, 2023).
- Didi Martinez, Julia Ainsley, “Many Migrants in Arizona’s Tucson Sector, One of the Busiest, Are Being Released Directly Onto the Streets” (NBC News, December 21, 2023).
President Biden called Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador yesterday to discuss measures to manage very heavy current arrivals of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border. They agreed that “additional enforcement actions are urgently needed,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said. It is not clear what those actions might be. Biden is sending a delegation to Mexico, probably on December 27, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, and White House Homeland Security Adviser Liz Sherwood-Randall.
- Priscilla Alvarez, “Biden Ramps Up the Pressure on Amlo as Border Surge Inflames a Longstanding Political Problem” (CNN, December 21, 2023).
- Nick Miroff, “Facing New Record Border Surge, Biden Again Turns to Mexico” (The Washington Post, December 21, 2023).
- Chris Megerian, Mark Stevenson, “Top Us Officials to Visit Mexico for Border Talks as Immigration Negotiations With Congress Continue” (Associated Press, Associated Press, December 21, 2023).
Large numbers of people continue to cross from Piedras Negras, Coahuila into Eagle Pass, Texas. “They were telling me that there are about six thousand just today (yesterday) and last week about five thousand every day, thousands of people are crossing the river with their families and children,” the sheriff of Maverick County (which includes Eagle Pass), Tom Schmerber, told Mexico’s Milenio.
- Sandra Gomez, “Miles de Migrantes Cruzan en Eagle Pass al Dia” (Milenio (Mexico), December 22, 2023).
Visiting El Paso, Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas) tweeted that Border Patrol has about 4,500 migrants in custody in that sector, and claimed “a rise in Venezuelan gang activity in these U.S. processing centers. Venezuela’s largest criminal organization – Tren de Aragua has assaulted Border Patrol agents and harasses other illegal aliens.”
- “Tony Gonzales @tonygonzales4tx on Twitter” (Twitter, December 21, 2023).
- Julian Resendiz, “Gonzales: El Paso Going Through Migrant Crisis, Too” (Border Report, December 21, 2023).
- Anna Giaritelli, “Rep. Tony Gonzales Pleads With Biden Over Border: ‘Beyond’ Breaking Point” (The Washington Examiner, December 21, 2023).
The head of Mexico’s migration authority reported that its migrant encounters have “increased considerably in the final stretch of the year.”
- Daniel Santiago, “Mas de 100 Mil Migrantes Ingresaron a Mexico en Noviembre y Diciembre” (Milenio (Mexico), December 22, 2023).
International aid agencies are warning that thousands of migrants could become stranded in Honduras if the country’s congress fails to prolong a suspension of a $261 fine charged to every irregular in-transit migrant. Honduras suspended the fine in May 2022 and has to renew the “amnesty” periodically; the next time is in January.
- Breidy Hernandez, “Urgen al Congreso Nacional Aprobacion de Amnistia Migratoria” (Criterio (Honduras), December 21, 2023).
Analyses and Feature Stories
In Arizona’s borderlands, “the percentage of human-smuggling and drug-trafficking crimes committed by undocumented immigrants has gone down, whereas the number committed by U.S. citizens or others with lawful status has gone up,” Geraldo Cadava reported at the New Yorker.
- Geraldo Cadava, “When Americans Are the Threat at the Border” (The New Yorker, December 21, 2023).
On the Right
- Speaker Mike Johnson, Letter to President Biden (U.S. House of Representatives, December 21, 2023).
- Giulia Carbonaro, “Republican Brags About Sabotaging Border Security Deal” (Newsweek, December 22, 2023).