Developments
In a new escalation against humanitarian workers, Texas’s attorney-general, Ken Paxton (R), is seeking to revoke the license of a 47-year-old Catholic non-profit migrant shelter in El Paso. Annunciation House works with CBP and El Paso’s city government to receive asylum seekers released from federal custody, helping migrants to avoid being left on the city’s streets and to connect to destinations in the U.S. interior. Paxton accuses the shelter of facilitating human smuggling, and demanded that it hand over a large trove of client records with no advance notice.
- William Melhado, “Ken Paxton Sues to Revoke an el Paso Nonprofit’s State Registration After It Didn’t Immediately Hand Over Client Records” (The Texas Tribune, February 20, 2024).
- Robert Moore, “Annunciation House Targeted by Texas Ag in Latest Escalation of State Immigration Enforcement” (El Paso Matters, February 20, 2024).
Annunciation House will hold a press conference on Friday.
- “Bob Moore @BobMooreNews on Twitter“ (Twitter, February 20, 2024).
Texas has spent over $148 million to bus 102,000 migrants to Democratic Party-governed cities elsewhere in the United States. That is $1,451 per bus ride. The figure comes from public records obtained by The Texas Newsroom, a public radio journalism outlet.
- Sergio Martinez-Beltran, “Texas Has Spent Over $148 Million Busing Migrants to Other Parts of the Country” (The Texas Newsroom, February 20, 2024).
“Let him put as many as he wants,” said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in response to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) plan to install a state military base near Eagle Pass. “Supposedly this is how he is going to detain the migrants. Pure politicking! It is not serious.”
- Nick Mordowanec, “Mexico’s President Mocks Greg Abbott Using Military Against Migrants” (Newsweek, February 20, 2024).
Mexico’s army killed two people from Venezuela, and captured three others, in a confrontation in rural Michoacán. Those killed and arrested were reportedly migrants recruited by organized crime.
- Iris Velazquez, “Abate Ejercito a 2 Venezolanos en Michoacan; Caen Otros 3” (Reforma (Mexico), February 20, 2024).
NBC News identified the reason why Border Patrol’s acting deputy chief, Joel Martinez, was suspended from his post: an investigation into multiple claims of sexual misconduct and harassment on the job. The Washington Post had broken the Martinez story last week without identifying the reason for his suspension. The case recalls late 2022 allegations against Tony Barker, then Border Patrol’s number-three official.
- Julia Ainsley, “Border Patrol’s Second-Highest Official Opts to Retire Amid Sexual Misconduct Allegations” (NBC News, February 20, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
The Washington Post detailed the Trump campaign’s unprecedented plan for large-scale migrant deportations if the former president is re-elected. Proposals include challenging birthright citizenship, using the military to remove people, and building mass pre-deportation camps.
- Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, Nick Miroff, “Trump and Allies Plotting Militarized Mass Deportations, Detention Camps” (The Washington Post, February 21, 2024).
“We documented a handful of cases where people ended up in the emergency room” because Border Patrol confiscated asylum seekers’ prescription medications and did not return them, Noah Schramm of ACLU Arizona, a principal author of a mid-February report on confiscation of belongings, told the Border Chronicle.
- Melissa del Bosque, “It’s Not Trash, It’s People’s Belongings: A Q&A With Noah Schramm From the Aclu” (The Border Chronicle, February 20, 2024).
The National Immigration Forum published an overview of the “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act” (H.R. 7372), legislation sponsored by moderate Republicans and centrist Democrats that would allow some U.S. aid to Ukraine and Israel while enabling expulsions, a renewed “Remain in Mexico” program, and other limits on the right to seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
- Christian Penichet-Paul, “Defending Borders, Defending Democracies Act: Bill Summary” (National Immigration Forum, February 20, 2024).
Recent poll data do not show any improvement in the Biden administration’s approval rating on border and migration issues after Republicans scuttled the Senate “border deal,” according to the Washington Post.
- Aaron Blake, “Despite n.Y. Special Election Win, the Border Still Dogs Biden” (The Washington Post, February 20, 2024).
A fact-check from the Colombian outlet La Silla Vacía pointed out that while broad-based U.S. sanctions exacerbated Venezuela’s economic crisis, large-scale migration from the country had already begun, for other reasons, before the Trump administration imposed them.
- Alejandra Gamez, Maria Jose Echeverry, Santiago Amaya Barrantes, “Petro se Equivoca: “Bloqueo Economico” No Produjo la Migracion Venezolana” (La Silla Vacia (Colombia), February 21, 2024).
On the Right
- Nolan Rappaport, “Why Is Biden Letting in Millions of Illegal Border Crossers?” (The Hill, February 20, 2024).