Developments
In Texas, the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has temporarily reversed a district judge’s February 29 decision blocking S.B. 4, the Texas state government’s new law empowering local law enforcement to arrest people who cross the border irregularly, and to imprison them if they do not return to Mexico. S.B. 4 could now go into effect soon, though the Court gave plaintiffs in the suit against Texas—the Biden Justice Department, the ACLU, and other organizations—seven days to appeal to the Supreme Court. This case’s outcome may determine whether individual states can carry out their own independent immigration policies.
- J. David Goodman, “Appeals Court Intervenes in Legal Showdown on the Texas Border” (The New York Times, March 3, 2024).
After a five-day pause, migration has resumed through the treacherous Darién Gap region straddling Colombia and Panama. During the week of February 19, Colombia’s navy had seized two of the boats that ferry migrants across the Gulf of Urabá to Acandí, where the jungle route begins. Boat operators carried out a “strike,” ceasing operations and causing the beachside towns of Necoclí and Turbo, migrants’ departure point, to fill up with about 5,000 stranded people from many countries.
The strike has ended, and boats have resumed, following a meeting between boat operators, Colombian local and national government officials, and a representative of the U.S. embassy in Colombia. They agreed that from now on, all migrants aboard the boats must register on a mobile phone app.
- Julie Turkewitz, “Migration From South America Through the Perilous Darien Gap Resumes” (The New York Times, March 2, 2024).
- Juan Forero, Kejal Vyas, “For a Few Days, Flow of Migrants to U.S. Halted in Key Jungle Corridor” (The Wall Street Journal, March 1, 2024).
- Juan Miguel Hernandez Bonilla, “Miles de Migrantes Varados en las Playas de Necocli a la Espera de una Lancha para Llegar al Darien: “Estamos en el Infierno”” (El Pais (Spain), March 3, 2024).
At the other end of the Darién route in Panama, about 250 migrants staged a disturbance at the San Vicente Temporary Migratory Reception Station. Acts of vandalism damaged or destroyed about 10 modular buildings. Panama plans to prosecute 44 people.
- “Migrant Brawl at Reception Center in Panama’s Darien Region Destroys Shelter” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 2, 2024).
- “Migrantes Vandalizaron Estacion de Recepcion Migratoria en Darien” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 3, 2024).
At least 11 migrants were injured, 3 of them parents who were traveling with children, after falling from the border wall in San Diego on March 2. On February 27, a man from Mexico died from a fall off the wall elsewhere in San Diego County, in Otay Mesa.
- Blake Nelson, “Nearly a Dozen Injured After Falling From Border Wall, Officials Say” (The San Diego Union-Tribune, March 2, 2024).
- Khaleda Rahman, “Mass Casualty Incident at Us-Mexico Border” (Newsweek, March 4, 2024).
In the camera frame with ex-president Donald Trump during his February 29 border remarks in Eagle Pass, Texas was a uniformed U.S. Air National Guard general, a situation that raised alarms about norms of civil-military relations in the United states. Gen. Thomas Suelzer, a 2-star general in Texas’s National Guard, heads the Texas state Military Department and oversees border operations.
Though he is under the command of Gov. Greg Abbott (R), Suelzer’s uniform is identical to that worn by federal troops, and the National Guard is often used for federal duty. As the general stood behind Trump, the candidate tore into President Biden and the governor of California, among others, in a politicized speech that Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) called “disgusting.” “racist and xenophobic.”
In a March 1 Twitter thread, Military Times reporter Davis Winkie explained the complex arrangements under which National Guard personnel operate, concluding that while Gen. Suelzer’s presence may have run afoul of norms, it was not illegal.
- James Bickerton, “Military Presence Behind Donald Trump During Border Speech Raises Alarm” (Newsweek, March 1, 2024).
- Filip Timotija, “Senate Democrat Calls Trump Border Speech ‘Disgusting’ and ‘Racist’” (The Hill, March 1, 2024).
- “Davis Winkie @davis_winkie on Twitter” (Twitter, March 1, 2024).
A letter from 17 Democratic Senators called on President Biden to include “robust funding for border security and drug interdiction efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl and similar illicit drugs” in the 2025 budget request that the White House will send to Congress on March 11.
- Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware), “Senator Coons, Colleagues Urge Biden to Prioritize Border Security, Fentanyl Crackdown in Budget Request” (U.S. Senate, March 1, 2024).
“More than 8 million asylum seekers and other migrants will be living inside the U.S in legal limbo by the end of September,” up from 3 million in 2019, according to data obtained by Axios.
- Stef W. Kight, “Scoop: Migrant Backlog to Hit 8 Million Under Biden by October, Data Reveal” (Axios, March 2, 2024).
Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa, discussed migration in a March 1 phone call with New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has vocally asserted that New York is unable to absorb the current flow of asylum seekers.
- “Presidente Daniel Noboa y Eric Adams, Alcalde de Nueva York, Analizaron la Situacion de Migrantes Ecuatorianos” (El Universo (Ecuador), March 2, 2024).
U.S. border authorities encountered migrants from Senegal 20,231 times between July and December 2023, according to data obtained by the New York Post. (Senegal is one of many nationalities that Customs and Border Protection does not specify in its monthly reporting, lumping it in an ever-expanding “Other” category.)
- Rich Calder, “Senegalese Migrants Illegally Crossing Us Border Relying on Tiktok, Whatsapp to Plan Out Their Journeys” (The New York Post, March 2, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
The latest quarterly “asylum processing” report from the University of Texas Strauss Center finds migrants waiting up to six months in northern Mexico to obtain CBP One appointments at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry, while “walk-up” appointments for the most vulnerable are exceedingly scarce. Human rights violations against migrants include a 70 percent rise in reports of sexual violence along with more kidnappings in Reynosa, and a Mexican government policy of busing migrants to the country’s interior that has caused some to miss their U.S. appointments.
- Caitlyn Yates, Stephanie Leutert, “Asylum Processing at the U.S.-Mexico Border: February 2024” (University of Texas Strauss Center, March 1, 2024).
At The Hill, Rafael Bernal noted that whether President Biden pursues an executive order curbing asylum access or a big expansion to the asylum system, he currently lacks the budget to do either.
- Rafael Bernal, “Biden Hunt for Border Actions Coming Up Empty” (The Hill, March 2, 2024).
“As long as the United States is a destination for migrants, we’ll need organizations like El Paso’s Annunciation House,” a non-profit shelter that has come under attack from Texas’s ultraconservative state government, wrote Laura Collins of Southern Methodist University’s George W. Bush Institute at the Dallas Morning News. At the American Immigration Council’s Immigration Impact blog, Dara Lind agreed that “Texas is trying to eliminate one of America’s strongest bulwarks against chaos at the U.S./Mexico border.”
- Laura Collins, “Annunciation House Makes the Crisis at the Border Better, Not Worse” (George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, The Dallas Morning News, March 4, 2024).
- Dara Lind, “Texas Isn’t Just Creating Cruelty at the Border—It’s Breaking Things That Work” (American Immigration Council, March 1, 2024).
Raúl Ortiz, who was chief of Border Patrol for about two years of the Biden presidency and is now retired, had critical words for both Texas Gov. Abbott and the Biden administration in a CBS News 60 Minutes feature about the situation at the Texas-Mexico border. “We’re gonna be barricading every area where people are crossing,” Abbott told reporter Cecilia Vega.
- Cecilia Vega, “Texas and Federal Government Clash Over How to Deter Illegal Border Crossings” (CBS News, March 3, 2024).
At the Atlantic, former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote that with his alleged ability to control migration flows, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador may have the power to determine the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.
- David Frum, “The Man Who Now Controls the U.S. Border” (The Atlantic, March 1, 2024).