Developments
President Joe Biden and ex-president and Republican candidate Donald Trump paid coinciding visits to the Texas-Mexico border yesterday.
Biden met with Border Patrol, law enforcement, and local political leaders in Brownsville, but did not reach out to the many nonprofits working with the migrant population in south Texas’s Rio Grande Valley.
In his public remarks, the President maintained a “triangulation” stance, moving rightward on border and migration issues in an attempt to reduce Trump’s apparent polling advantage on an issue that election-year voters have identified as a top concern.
In Brownsville, Biden seized on Republicans’ rejection of a compromise Senate bill that, much to migrant rights’ advocates alarm, would have suspended the right to asylum at the border. Among its new bars to asylum, the bill would have imposed Title 42-style migrant expulsions when daily arrivals average 4,000 or 5,000 people. With that legislation now far from passage, the President is considering executive actions that might do something similar.
“Join me—or I’ll join you—in telling the Congress to pass this bipartisan border security bill,” Biden said, addressing Trump. While he has moved toward Trump on the border issue, the New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher pointed out, Biden is trying to distinguish his position with an argument about democracy: he would pursue these hardline changes through the institutional process, not through the authoritarian means that Trump promises.
Trump met with Texas state government and law enforcement, along with Border Patrol union activists, in Eagle Pass. Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott (R) visited the city’s riverfront Shelby Park, where Abbott has ordered state forces to deny entry, under most circumstances, to the federal Border Patrol. “We have languages coming into our country, we have nobody that even speaks those languages” was one of the ex-president’s many warnings about cross-border migration.
- Shane Goldmacher, “How the Biden-Trump Border Visits Revealed a Deeper Divide” (The New York Times, February 29, 2024).
- Michael Collins, Rick Jervis, John C. Moritz, Lauren Villagran, “Joe Biden, Donald Trump Clashing Visits Thrust Border Fight Further Into Spotlight” (USA Today, February 29, 2024).
- Arelis R. Hernandez, “Biden and Trump Visits to Texas Offer a Tale of Two Border Cities” (The Washington Post, February 29, 2024).
- Marianne Levine, Yasmeen Abutaleb, “Biden and Trump Trade Accusations at Southern Border” (The Washington Post, February 29, 2024).
- Erica L. Green, Michael Gold, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “In Dual Border Visits, Biden and Trump Try to Score Points at a Political Hot Spot” (The New York Times, February 29, 2024).
- Mariana Alfaro, “Congress Paralyzed on Immigration Issues as Biden, Trump Visit the Border” (The Washington Post, February 29, 2024).
- Eli Stokols, Lisa Kashinsky, Myah Ward, “Biden and Trump Face Off at Southern Border in Dueling Visits” (Politico, February 29, 2024).
- Adolfo Flores, Annie Linskey, Tarini Parti, “Biden and Trump Make Dueling Border Visits Amid Migrant Crisis” (The Wall Street Journal, February 29, 2024).
- Mariana Alfaro, “Congress Paralyzed on Immigration Issues as Biden, Trump Visit the Border” (The Washington Post, February 29, 2024).
- Madaleine Rubin, Uriel J. Garcia, “In Two Texas Border Towns, Biden and Trump Push for Different Immigration Approaches” (The Texas Tribune, February 29, 2024).
- Zachary B. Wolf, “Democrats Pivot on Immigration as Republicans Take a Stand Against Biden” (CNN, February 29, 2024).
- Mj Lee, Priscilla Alvarez, Stephen Collinson, “Biden and Trump’s Dueling Border Visits Will Encapsulate a Building Election Clash” (CNN, February 29, 2024).
- Alexandra Marquez, Gabe Gutierrez, Megan Lebowitz, “Biden Invites Trump to Work Together to Lobby Congress on an Immigration Bill as Both Candidates Visit Border” (NBC News, February 29, 2024).
- David Smith, “Biden Calls for Compromise While Trump Goes Full Red Meat at Us-Mexico Border” (The Guardian (Uk), February 29, 2024).
- Ronald Brownstein, “How the Gop’s Rightward Shift on Immigration Helps Explain Trump’s Primary Success” (CNN, February 29, 2024).
- Colleen Long, Jill Colvin, Seung Min Kim, “On the Rio Grande, 300 Miles Apart, Biden and Trump Try to Use Immigration to Election Advantage” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 29, 2024).
- Karen Musalo, “Is Biden About to Close the Border in the Name of Election Year Politics?” (Center for Gender and Refugee Studies, The Los Angeles Times, February 29, 2024).
- Hans Nichols, Stef W. Kight, “Split Screen: Biden, Trump and Two Very Different Border Trips” (Axios, February 29, 2024).
- April Rubin, Sareen Habeshian, “Biden Pushes Failed Border Deal in Texas Visit, Blasts Gop for Neglecting Crisis” (Axios, February 29, 2024).
In Austin, Federal District Judge David Ezra blocked implementation of Texas’s controversial new law empowering state law enforcement to arrest people who cross the border irregularly and imprison them if they do not return to Mexico. S.B. 4 was to go into effect on March 5.
Texas is appealing the decision of Judge Ezra, a Reagan appointee, but this is a victory for the Biden administration and non-governmental plaintiffs including the ACLU.
- J. David Goodman, “A Legal Showdown on the Border Between the U.S. and Texas: What to Know” (The New York Times, February 29, 2024).
- Uriel J. Garcia, “Texas Law Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants Suspected of Being in Country Illegally Blocked by Federal Judge” (The Texas Tribune, February 29, 2024).
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, Stefan Becket, “Federal Judge Blocks Texas’ sb4 Immigration Law That Would Criminalize Migrant Crossings” (CBS News, February 29, 2024).
- Andy Rose, “Federal Judge Blocks Enforcement of Controversial Texas Immigration Law” (CNN, February 29, 2024).
When President Biden told him, in a recent meeting, that Mexico’s government would not agree to a renewal of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program for asylum seekers, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) told reporters that he replied, “Mr. President. We’re the United States, Mexico will do what we say.”
- Rafael Bernal, “Speaker Johnson to Biden: Mexico ‘Will Do What We Say’” (The Hill, February 29, 2024).
Fact checks by the Washington Post and NBC News debunked the notion that migrants increase crime. This has been a frequent conservative talking point following the February 22 murder of a Georgia nursing student, allegedly committed by a man from Venezuela.
- Glenn Kessler, “The Truth About Illegal Immigration and Crime” (The Washington Post, February 29, 2024).
- Garrett Haake, Olympia Sonnier, “Trump’s Claims of a Migrant Crime Wave Are Not Supported by National Data” (NBC News, February 29, 2024).
A Mexican government crackdown has left about 800 migrants stranded in a tent encampment along the Suchiate River, at Mexico’s border with Guatemala near Tapachula. “People are being forced to wait up to seven days to get answers from the INM [Mexico’s migration agency] and be transferred to Tapachula or Tuxtla Gutierrez,” the capital of Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas, read a statement from local human rights defenders. “During this time, they do not receive any type of assistance.”
- “Denunciamos Que la Inoperancia y Discrecionalidad del Inm en el Rio Suchiate Esta Poniendo en Riesgo Inminente a Personas Con Necesidades de Proteccion Internacional” (Colectivo de Monitoreo Frontera Sur, Centro de Derechos Humanos Fray Matías de Córdova (Tapachula Mexico), February 29, 2024).
Authorities in Tijuana count four migrant deaths along the border with San Diego so far in 2024: two drownings, a hypothermia case, and a February 27 fall from the border wall.
- Salvador Rivera, “4 Migrants Have Died Crossing Tijuana-San Diego Border This Year” (Border Report, February 29, 2024).
Migrants are filling up the Colombian beach town of Necoclí, across the Gulf of Urabá from the entrance of the Darién Gap route to Panama, reported the Associated Press and Financial Times following a story published on Wednesday in the New York Times. The boats that take migrants cross the Gulf are on strike following the Colombian Navy’s seizure of two of them last week, leaving thousands stranded in Necoclí.
- Megan Janetsky, “Migration Through the Darien Gap Is Cut Off Following the Capture of Boat Captains in Colombia” (Associated Press, Associated Press, February 29, 2024).
- Joe Daniels, “Colombian Ferry Strike Halts Migration to Us via Treacherous Border Crossing” (Financial Times (UK), February 29, 2024).
The Times reported yesterday from Colombia‘s airport, where an increasing number of migrants, many from Africa, change planes en route to Nicaragua, which does not require visas for most nationalities, via El Salvador. This route, for which they pay more than $10,000 per person, allows migrants to bypass the treacherous Darién Gap jungles.
- Annie Correal, “The ‘Luxury Route’ to the U.S. for African Migrants” (The New York Times, February 29, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Federal funding will run out on March 31 for Tucson’s Casa Alitas migrant shelter, which received more than 195,000 people released from CBP custody in 2023 in what is now Border Patrol’s busiest sector, wrote John Washington at Arizona Luminaria.
- John Washington, “Casa Alitas Workers Eased the Flow of Nearly 200k Asylum-Seekers in Tucson. That Support Stops March 31.” (Arizona Luminaria, February 29, 2024).
At the Texas Tribune, Uriel García and William Melhado talked to Texas migrant shelters and local leaders resisting the state government’s legal attacks on El Paso’s Annunciation House and conservatives’ rhetorical attacks on other charities helping migrants.
- Uriel J. Garcia, William Melhado, “Ken Paxton’s Annunciation House Investigation Is the Latest Attack on Religious Organizations Aiding Migrants at the Border” (The Texas Tribune, February 29, 2024).
The Biden and Trump visits “were but another reminder of how the border is used for political theater,” wrote journalist Michelle García in a column at the New York Times, contending that much of today’s border debate recalls violence in Texas’s past.
- Michelle Garcia, “The Ugly History at the Root of the Border Standoff” (The New York Times, March 1, 2024).
In the Houston Chronicle, Mark P. Jones of Rice University looked at how the Texas state government’s hardline border and migration stances overlap with exceptionalist and even secessionist currents in the state’s politics.
- Mark P Jones, “This Is Texas Hold ‘Em – Why Texas Is Fighting the Us Government to Secure Its Border With Mexico” (Rice University, The Dallas Morning News, February 29, 2024).
On the Right
- Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), “Biden and Mayorkas Have Blood on Their Hands” (The American Conservative, March 1, 2024).
- Andrew Stanton, “Border Patrol Union Issues Scathing Warning to Biden” (Newsweek, February 29, 2024).
- Adam Shaw, Joe Schoffstall, “Gop Lawmakers Warned Mayorkas About Crime Risk From Venezuelan Illegal Immigrants but Never Got a Response” (Fox News, February 29, 2024).