Developments
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) released data about its encounters with migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border in January. The numbers showed a 50 percent drop in Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants from December, which had set a record for the most migration in a single month. (50 percent is the steepest one-month drop in apprehensions that we’ve seen in more than 24 years of monthly data going back to October 1999.)
In particular, Border Patrol’s apprehensions of Venezuelan citizens between the ports of entry dropped 91 percent. Venezuela fell from the number-two nationality of apprehended migrants in December to number seven in January.
Possible reasons for the decline include false rumors urging people to cross in December before the border “closed” at the end of the year; seasonal patterns; and the Mexican government’s stepped-up migration enforcement.
- “Cbp Releases January 2024 Monthly Update” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, February 13, 2024).
- Hamed Aleaziz, Miriam Jordan, “Illegal Border Crossings Plummeted in January” (The New York Times, February 13, 2024).
- Elliot Spagat, Rebecca Santana, “Illegal Border Crossings From Mexico Plunge After a Record-High December, With Fewer From Venezuela” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 13, 2024).
- Anna Giaritelli, “Major Decline in Number of Immigrants Encountered at Border Is First Since Last Summer” (The Washington Examiner, February 13, 2024).
NewsNation visited an example of Mexico’s new efforts to block northbound migrants, a military and National Guard “command center” across from Jacumba Hot Springs, California, where large numbers of asylum seekers have been crossing to turn themselves in to Border Patrol.
- Jorge Ventura, “Inside New Mexican Military Operation at San Diego-Tijuana Border” (NewsNation, February 14, 2024).
After failing by one vote last Wednesday, the House of Representatives’ Republican majority succeeded, again by one vote, in impeaching Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
While the Democratic-majority Senate is certain not to convict and may not even hold something resembling a “trial,” this is the second-ever impeachment of a cabinet official in U.S. history and the first since 1876. All but three Republicans agreed that Mayorkas’s management of the border constitutes “high crimes and misdemeanors”; all Democrats voted “no.”
The vote outcome changed because Rep. Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana) returned after receiving cancer treatments, and Rep. Judy Chu (D-California) contracted COVID and could not be present to vote.
- Karoun Demirjian, “House Republicans Impeach Mayorkas for Border Policies” (The New York Times, February 13, 2024).
- Caitlin Yilek, “House Impeaches Alejandro Mayorkas in Historic Vote, Punishing Dhs Chief Over Handling of U.S.-Mexico Border” (CBS News, February 13, 2024).
- Rebecca Santana, “The House Has Impeached the Homeland Security Secretary. Here’s What You Should Know and What’s Next” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 13, 2024).
- Isabela Dias, “The House Just Voted to Impeach Mayorkas. How Did We Get Here?” (Mother Jones, February 13, 2024).
- Jordain Carney, “House Gop Impeaches Mayorkas After Previous Vote Failure” (Politico, February 13, 2024).
Border security and immigration were the number-one issue of contention in a special congressional election in New York to replace expelled Rep. George Santos (R). Constant attacks seeking to tie him to President Joe Biden’s border and migration policies failed to prevent Tom Suozzi from winning by at least seven percentage points. The House now has 219 Republicans and 213 Democrats.
- David Weigel, Kadia Goba, “Tom Suozzi Thinks He Has the Democrats’ Answer to the Migrant Crisis in the Ny-3 Race” (Semafor, February 13, 2024).
The “borderless” foreign aid bill that passed the Senate on Monday left out Senators’ failed “border deal,” and also cut out $20 billion in border and migration money that the Biden administration had requested. Without that money the Washington Post reported, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is facing a $700 million budget deficit and may have to release thousands of detained people.
- Nick Miroff, “After border bill failure, ICE considers mass releases to close budget gap ” (The Washington Post, February 14, 2024).
Now that the “borderless” bill has passed the Senate, House Republican leadership is vowing not to bring it to a vote because it lacks border provisions. However, Punchbowl News reported, “There’s already discussion in the House Republican Conference about attaching some border provisions to the bill,” including elements of H.R.2, the draconian bill that passed the House without a single Democratic vote last May.
The House and Senate will both be out of session next week.
- Jake Sherman, “Why Ukraine Aid May Be Dead — and What Can Save It” (Punchbowl News, February 14, 2024).
Guatemala is dissolving its police force’s border unit (Dipafront), which has been tarred with widespread corruption allegations.
- Hedy Quino Tzoc, “Gobernacion Disuelve la Dipafront Ante Denuncias de Corrupcion” (La Hora (Guatemala), February 13, 2024).
Guatemala also reported expelling 1,642 people into Honduras so far this year: 76 percent from Venezuela, and the rest from Haiti, Ecuador, Honduras, and Colombia.
- Sergio Morales, “Guatemala Expulsa a Mil 754 Extranjeros Que Habian Ingresado Sin Autorizacion” (La Hora (Guatemala), February 13, 2024).
Mexico has quietly reduced its own deportations of migrants, according to an analysis by Tonatiuh Guillén, who headed the country’s migration authority (INM) during the first months of Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s presidency.
- Tonatiuh Guillen Lopez, “¿Tensiones Bajo la Mesa? Amlo, Biden y la Migracion” (UNAM, Proceso (Mexico), February 13, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
A report from ACLU of Arizona and partner organizations detailed Border Patrol’s, and other U.S. immigration agencies’, confiscation of asylum seekers’ belongings on “hundreds” of documented occasions. Confiscated and trashed items include medications and medical devices, identification documents, religious garb and items, money, cellphones, and irreplaceable family heirlooms.
- “From Hope to Heartbreak: The Disturbing Reality of Border Patrol’s Confiscation of Migrants’ Belongings” (ACLU of Arizona, February 13, 2024).
A Human Rights First fact sheet explained that Black asylum seekers, including many stranded in Mexico awaiting appointments at ports of entry, “face significant discrimination and barriers within the U.S. asylum system and encounter targeted violence and mistreatment.”
- “U.S. Border and Asylum Policies Harm Black Asylum Seekers” (Human Rights First, February 13, 2024).
“West Texas oil billionaires continue to bankroll the chaos and xenophobic rhetoric” employed by prominent Texas Republican politicians, wrote Melissa del Bosque at the Border Chronicle.
- Melissa del Bosque, “Oil Billionaires Bankroll the Border “Chaos”” (The Border Chronicle, February 13, 2024).