Staff are taking a few days off. Daily links will resume on January 11.
Developments
After breaking records before the holidays, arrivals of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border have dropped sharply, at least for the moment. Border Patrol apprehended 2,500 migrants on January 1, down from over 10,000 during several days in mid-December. On a call with reporters, unnamed U.S. officials praised Mexico for taking “enhanced enforcement actions” including deportation flights to Venezuela, which the officials said that they also expect to “ramp up.” With less need to divert personnel into migrant processing, by January 4 CBP will reopen its Lukeville, Arizona port of entry, as well as a temporarily shuttered PedWest pedestrian crossing south of San Diego, California, a pedestrian crossing in Nogales, Arizona, and one of two border bridges between Piedras Negras, Coahuila and Eagle Pass, Texas.
- “Statement From Cbp on Resumption of Field Operations in Arizona, California, and Texas” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, January 2, 2024).
- Nick Miroff, “U.S. Prepares to Reopen Southern Border Crossings as Migrant Numbers Ease” (The Washington Post, January 2, 2024).
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “U.S. Reopening 4 Entry Points at Southern Border Following Dramatic Drop in Migrant Crossings” (CBS News, January 3, 2024).
- Jack Healy, “Vital Crossing Between Mexico and Arizona Set to Reopen This Week” (The New York Times, January 3, 2024).
- Daniel Gonzalez, Jose Ignacio Castaneda Perez, Rafael Carranza, “Lukeville Port of Entry to Reopen: Here’s What to Know” (The Arizona Republic, January 2, 2024).
- Paul Ingram, “After Month-Long Closure, Lukeville Border Crossing to Reopen Thursday” (The Tucson Sentinel (Tucson Arizona), January 2, 2024).
- Kristina Cooke, Ted Hesson, “Us to Reopen Border Crossings as Illegal Immigration Drops” (Reuters, Reuters, January 2, 2024).
- “Mexico Celebra Que se Reanuden Operaciones en 4 Cruces Fronterizos Con Estados Unidos” (EFE, El Imparcial (Tijuana Mexico), January 2, 2024).
- Adam Shaw, “Biden Admin Eyes More Deportation Flights to Venezuela as Migrant Numbers Shatter Records” (Fox News, January 2, 2024).
- Anna Giaritelli, “Border Crisis Hits New High as 302,000 Immigrants Processed in December” (The Washington Examiner, January 2, 2024).
- Alisa Reznick, “Mexico Restarts Repatriation Flights for Migrants From Venezuela” (Fronteras Desk, January 2, 2024).
Congress begins its 2024 session on Monday, but a small group of Senate negotiators is already back in Washington, as they continue seeking a deal that would allow the body to move forward with the Biden administration’s emergency request for $110.5 billion in aid to Ukraine and Israel, more border measures, and other priorities. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), James Lankford (R-Oklahoma), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona) met for 90 minutes yesterday, along with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Republican legislators are insisting on changes to U.S. law that would put asylum and other legal pathways out of reach for many more migrants. “We gotta do something. They ought to give me the money I need to protect the border,” President Biden told reporters yesterday.
- “Burgess Everett @Burgessev on Twitter” (Twitter, January 2, 2024).
- “Manu Raju @Mkraju on Twitter” (Twitter, January 2, 2024).
- “Priscilla Alvarez @Priscialva on Twitter” (Twitter, January 2, 2024).
- “Haley Talbot @Haleytalbotcnn on Twitter” (Twitter, January 2, 2024).
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) will lead a delegation of more than 60 House Republicans today to the border at Eagle Pass, Texas. If senators manage to reach and approve a deal on a spending bill, House Republicans are likely to demand even stricter limits on asylum and other legal migration pathways once their chamber takes up the legislation. Speaker Johnson’s visit is under attack from the Republican far right. Leading border hawk Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said he will not be in Eagle Pass because “our people are tired of meetings,” while onetime Trump chief of staff Steve Bannon dismissed the trip as a “photo op.”
- Karoun Demirjian, “Johnson Heads to Border, Turning Up Heat on Biden for an Immigration Deal” (The New York Times, January 3, 2024).
- Emily Brooks, Rebecca Beitsch, “House Gop to Begin 2024 With Focus on Border” (The Hill, January 2, 2024).
- Monica Madden, “Speaker Johnson to Tour Eagle Pass Amid Surge at the Border” (Border Report, January 2, 2024).
- Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), “‘It’s Time to Act With Urgency’: Roy Pushes Gop Colleagues to Leverage Funding to Shut Down Border Crisis” (U.S. House of Representatives, January 2, 2024).
- Nick Mordowanec, “Steve Bannon Rips Mike Johnson’s “Photo Op” Border Visit” (Newsweek, January 2, 2024).
Mexican authorities are still searching for a group of 31 migrants, from a few countries, kidnapped from a bus in northern Mexico near the border on December 30. The mass abduction happened in Mexico’s easternmost border state, Tamaulipas, which is notoriously dangerous. Authorities freed a group of five Venezuelans, including two minors, who according to Reuters were not part of the bus group. Kidnappers in Tamaulipas “take 10 to 15 migrants a day who come to Reynosa or Matamoros for their CBP appointments,” Father Francisco Gallardo of the Diocese of Matamoros, a longtime shelter director, told Milenio.
- Diego Ore, Laura Gottesdiener, “Authorities Search for 31 Migrants Kidnapped in Northern Mexico” (Reuters, Reuters, January 2, 2024).
- “Pablo de la Rosa @Pblodlr on Twitter” (Twitter, January 2, 2024).
- Idalia Gomez, Jesus Garcia, “Secuestran de 10 a 15 Migrantes a Diario en Tamaulipas” (Milenio (Mexico), January 3, 2024).
The Biden administration Justice Department is asking the Supreme Court for an emergency ruling to decide whether Border Patrol agents have the right to cut through the hundreds of miles of razor-sharp concertina wire that Texas state authorities have laid along the Rio Grande. Texas had sued in federal court in late October to prevent agents from cutting the wire to access asylum seekers on the riverbank, except in emergency situations. (Once on U.S. soil, people have a right to ask U.S. authorities for asylum.) A district court judge denied Texas’s request, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals sided with Texas on December 19.
- Todd J. Gillman, “Justice Dept. Asks Supreme Court to Let Feds Keep Cutting Texas Razor Wire at Border” (The Dallas Morning News, January 2, 2024).
- Hannah Rabinowitz, “Biden Administration Asks Supreme Court to Let Border Patrol Remove Razor Wire on Us-Mexico Border” (CNN, January 2, 2024).
- Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson, “Us Asks Supreme Court for Permission to Remove Border Fencing” (Bloomberg Law, January 2, 2024).
A “migrant caravan” that made U.S. headlines over Christmas has ended in the municipality of Mapastepec, about 75 miles from Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where remaining caravan participants have turned themselves in to Mexican migration authorities. According to La Jornada, activist and organizer Luis García Villagrán said “an agreement could be reached for the delivery of documents” allowing more than 3,000 migrants to stay legally and possibly to travel through Mexico.
- “Caravana de Miles de Migrantes para y por Este Motivo se Entrega a Autoridades Mexicanas en el Sur de Mexico” (EFE, Prensa Libre (Guatemala), January 2, 2024).
- Edgar H. Clemente, “Caravana Extranjera Recibio el Ano Nuevo en Mapastepec, Chiapas” (La Jornada (Mexico), January 2, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
“On a warming planet, migration is not the security risk. The security risk is the backlash to it,” Tom Ellison of the Center for Climate and Security wrote at Just Security.
- Tom Ellison, “The Security Problem With Climate Migration Isn’t the Migration” (Center for Climate and Security, Just Security, January 2, 2024).