Developments
President Biden will visit Brownsville, Texas tomorrow, the second U.S.-Mexico border visit of his administration. Republican candidate Donald Trump will be several hours’ drive west, at the border in Eagle Pass.
- Rob Garver, “In Border Visits, Biden and Trump Will Focus on Different Priorities” (Voice of America, February 27, 2024).
The President will not announce any new executive actions tomorrow, like new limits on asylum seekers’ ability to seek protection at the border, said White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre. Media reports last week indicated that the White House is considering such a step, despite a lack of firm legal footing for curbing asylum access.
- Bradford Betz, “KJP Says Biden Has No Plans to Announce Executive Order During Border Visit: ‘You Need a Legislative Solution’” (Fox News, February 27, 2024).
Border visits, the New York Times noted, have “become a compulsory bit of political theater for leaders who want to show they care about immigration.”
- Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “How Visiting the U.S. Border Became a Potent Form of Political Theater” (The New York Times, February 28, 2024).
Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas are meeting today with counterparts from Guatemala and Mexico to discuss “actions to strengthen humane migration management, joint collaboration to address the root causes of irregular migration and displacement, and ways to expand lawful pathways in the Western Hemisphere.”
- “Trilateral Migration Ministerial With Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States” (U.S. Department of State, February 27, 2024).
For the first time since 2019, a Gallup Poll found that immigration is what Americans regard to be “the most important issue facing the country.” 28 percent of respondents cited immigration, up from 20 percent a month ago.
- Jeffrey M. Jones, “Immigration Surges to Top of Most Important Problem List” (Gallup, February 27, 2024).
- Faith E. Pinho, “Immigration Rises to Top of Voters’ Minds Ahead of Super Tuesday, Polls Find” (The Los Angeles Times, February 27, 2024).
PBS NewsHour analyzed the February 22 murder of a Georgia nursing student, allegedly committed by a Venezuelan man whom Border Patrol released from custody in September 2022, when the Title 42 policy was still in place. Charis Kubrin, a professor of criminology, law and society at U.C. Irvine, recalled: “across all this research, by and large, we find that immigrants do not engage in more crime than native-born counterparts, and immigration actually can cause crime to go down, rather than up.”
- Amna Nawaz, Eliot Barnhart, “Murder of Georgia Student Fuels Heated Debate Over Immigration Policies” (PBS, February 27, 2024).
CalMatters covered the resumption of “street releases” of asylum seekers released from CBP custody in San Diego, where elevated numbers of migrant arrivals exhausted resources for a county-funded “welcome center,” which closed its doors last week. Confused migrants are now being left at a trolley station, as volunteers struggle to orient them. Advocates allege that the county’s money was not spent sustainably.
- Wendy Fry, “Border Patrol Is Dropping Off Hundreds of Migrants at San Diego Trolley Station After Welcome Center Closes” (CalMatters, February 27, 2024).
San Diego County supervisors voted down a motion asking the federal government to shut down the border temporarily at moments of large-scale arrivals of asylum seekers. (“Shutting down” the border would make little difference, as asylum seekers have already crossed the border onto U.S. soil where they have a legal right to petition for protection.)
- Allison Ash, “San Diego County Will Not Ask Federal Government to Close Tijuana Border” (NBC San Diego, February 27, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
A harrowing, in-depth report from Quinto Elemento Lab described criminal organizations’ trafficking of Honduran women in the dangerous southern Mexican border town of Frontera Comalapa, Chiapas, and the complicity of Mexican and Honduran government officials.
- Rodrigo Soberanes, “Honduras-Frontera Comalapa: La Ruta de la Trata” (Quinto Elemento Lab, Chiapas Paralelo (Chiapas), February 28, 2024).
A judicial settlement for victims of the Trump administration’s family separations allows them to apply for temporary legal status, work authorization, and some services in the United States, but does not guarantee them legal representation for their applications, reported Isabela Dias at Mother Jones.
- Isabela Dias, “The Migrant Families Separated Under Trump Are Still in Legal Limbo” (Mother Jones, February 27, 2024).
At the Guardian, Luke Taylor covered studies from the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the UN Refugee Agency indicating that in South America, integrating Venezuelan migrants and refugees will contribute 0.1 to 0.25 percentage points to host countries’ economic growth every year between 2017 and 2030.
- Luke Taylor, “Venezuelan Migrants Boost Economies of South American Countries, Studies Find” (The Guardian (Uk), February 27, 2024).