Developments
Border Patrol apprehended about 140,000 migrants in February, up from 124,000 in January, CBS News reported. If that is the final number, February will end up being the 7th-heaviest month for migration at the border, of the Biden administration’s 37 full months.
CBS reporter Camilo Montoya-Galvez noted that, as usually happens during spring, migration numbers are now increasing more rapidly: “On some days this past week, U.S. border officials processed more than 7,000 migrants in 24 hours.”
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Migrant Crossings Along the Southern Border Increase as Officials Prepare for Larger Spike” (CBS News, March 4, 2024).
The Supreme Court has delayed the State of Texas’s implementation of S.B. 4 until March 13, while justices decide whether to allow the controversial state law to take effect while appeals continue. Passed in December and originally set to go into effect on March 5, the state law would empower Texas law enforcement to jail migrants, or deport them into Mexico, if they crossed the border irregularly; in the state’s interior, rights defenders fear that police may use their new powers profile non-White people.
The Biden Justice Department, the ACLU, and other organizations’ challenge to S.B. 4 is currently before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, after a lower-court judge temporarily blocked it on February 29.
- J. David Goodman, “Supreme Court Agrees to Weigh in on Texas Immigration Law” (The New York Times, March 4, 2024).
- Uriel J. Garcia, William Melhado, “Scotus Temporarily Blocks Texas Immigration Law, Reversing 5th Circuit Ruling” (The Texas Tribune, March 4, 2024).
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Biden Administration Asks Supreme Court to Block Texas From Arresting Migrants Under sb4 Law” (CBS News, March 4, 2024).
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) yesterday vetoed a somewhat similar law (the “Arizona Border Invasion Act”) that her state’s Republican-majority legislature sent to her.
- Jack Healy, “Arizona Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Police to Arrest Migrants” (The New York Times, March 4, 2024).
3,000 people have departed Necoclí, Colombia since Friday to begin their journey through the Darién Gap, following a five-day stoppage by operators of the boats that ferry migrants across the Gulf of Urabá. The boat operators were protesting Colombian authorities’ late-February seizure of two vessels.
- Astrid Suarez, Manuel Rueda, “Transit of Migrants Through the Darien Gap Resumes as Colombian Boat Companies End Work Stoppage” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 4, 2024).
Passage through the Darién jungles is more treacherous than ever. Doctors without Borders, which maintains health posts in reception centers where the trail ends in Panama, reported treating 233 victims of sexual violence in January and February alone; the organization reported 676 cases in all of 2023. “In the latest assaults, the level of brutality is extreme. A dozen armed men are holding more and more migrant groups of between 100 and 400 people.”
- “Msf Denuncia el Aumento de la Brutalidad Contra Migrantes en la Selva del Darien y Exige Acciones para Frenarla” (Medicos Sin Fronteras, Saturday, March 2, 2024).
Measured by the number of removal flights per weekday, February 2024 was ICE’s busiest month for aerial deportations of the past 12, according to the latest monthly report from Tom Cartwright at Witness at the Border. 99 of 137 planes went to El Salvador, Guatemala, or Honduras. 10 went into Mexico’s interior (Morelia, Guadalajara, Mexico City). The rest went to Colombia (7), Ecuador (4), Peru (3), the Dominican Republic (2), Nicaragua (2), and one each to Brazil, Jamaica, Cuba, Senegal, Nigeria, South Korea, Nepal, Bangladesh, Chad, and Egypt.
- Tom Cartwright, “Ice Air Flights February 2024 & Last 12 Months” (Witness at the Border, March 4, 2024).
Border Patrol agents reportedly engaged in an exchange of gunfire on March 3 with “a crew aiming to rob migrants” along the border east of San Diego, the Los Angeles Times reported. Agents killed one person. The incident occurred in an area where asylum seekers have been waiting for hours or days outdoors to turn themselves in to agents.
- Grace Toohey, “‘Gun Battle’ Involving U.S. Border Agents Kills One in San Diego County Near Mexico Border” (The Los Angeles Times, March 4, 2024).
A Pew Research Center survey found that, compared to the general U.S. adult population, Latino U.S. citizens are less likely to favor tough measures against asylum seekers, though they do share the view that high levels of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border constitute “a major problem or a crisis.”
- Luis Noe-Bustamante, “Latinos’ Views on the Migrant Situation at the U.S.-Mexico Border” (Pew Research Center, March 4, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
At Arizona Luminaria, John Washington explained the asylum process and what it looks like right now at the Arizona-Mexico border, where CBP offers just 100 “CBP One” appointments per day. “In Arizona, the average wait time, as of early 2024, for a recently arrived migrant to have an asylum hearing in immigration court is 984 days, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.”
- John Washington, “8 Things to Know About People Seeking Asylum in Arizona” (Arizona Luminaria, March 4, 2024).
In Senegal, the Associated Press reported, social media has made it widely known that travel to Nicaragua, which does not require visas for those visiting by air, offers a way to migrate to the U.S.-Mexico border without having to pass through the Darién Gap. Smugglers charge about $10,000 for the trip.
- “Baba Ahmed, In Senegal’s Capital, Nicaragua Is a Hot Ticket Among Travel Agents as Migrants Try to Reach US (Associated Press, Associated Press, Saturday, March 2, 2024).
The Guardian looked at Border Patrol agents’ continued use of the derogatory word “tonk” to refer to migrants (reported by the Huffington Post in February) and concluded that banning the language won’t make a difference: a “cultural change” is necessary.
- Matthew Cantor, “The Anti-Immigrant Slur Us Border Patrol Tried to Ban: ‘It Reflects Sanctioned Violence’” (The Guardian (Uk), March 4, 2024).
Using a “virtual reality tour,” Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation explained U.S. border agencies’ deployment of surveillance technology along the border to reporter Monique Madan at the Markup. It raises civil liberties questions: “you start to see things like towers that are able to look into people’s back windows, and towers that are able to look into people’s backyards, and whole communities that are going to have glimpses over their neighborhood all the time.”
- Monique O. Madan, “A Virtual Reality Tour of Surveillance Tech at the Border: A Conversation With Dave Maass of the Electronic Frontier Foundation” (The Markup, Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 4, 2024).
The Southern Poverty Law Center warned that “border calls to action,” like one issued by an extremist group calling itself the “United Patriot Party of North Carolina,” could facilitate violence against migrants and Border Patrol agents.
- Rachel Goldwasser, “Border Battle in Context: Border Calls to Action Are Dangerous to Migrants, Federal Agents and Communities” (Southern Poverty Law Center, March 4, 2024).
On the Right
- “Editorial: A Judge Stops Texas at the Border” (The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2024).