Developments
Tonight President Joe Biden will give his last State of the Union address before the 2024 election. Los Angeles Times immigration reporter Andrea Castillo expects the President’s address to mention the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border and related policy proposals, referencing his February 29 visit to Brownsville and his embrace of a Senate deal that would have allowed some expulsions of people seeking asylum. Because polling shows the border and migration to be a weak spot for Biden, though, press previews agree that his speech will probably not dwell on them for very long.
Members of Congress seek to draw attention to the border and migration situation by inviting relevant guests to view the speech from the House of Representatives’ gallery. These range from migrants’ rights activists and DACA recipients to Border Patrol agents, border-area sheriffs, and victims of crimes committed both by migrants and by people motivated by anti-migrant hate.
- Andrea Castillo, “What Will Biden Say on Immigration? Border Agent and ‘Dreamers’ Expected at State of the Union” (The Los Angeles Times, March 7, 2024).
- “State of the Union Guests Spotlight Divide on Abortion and Immigration but Offer Some Rare Unity” (Associated Press, Associated Press, Thursday, March 7, 2024).
- “Vulnerable Democrats Want Biden’s State of the Union to Focus on Border and Economy” (National Public Radio, Thursday, March 7, 2024).
- “Sen. Cruz State of the Union Guest: Texas Sheriff on Front Lines of Biden Border Crisis” (U.S. Senate, March 6, 2024).
Citing “authorities in Mexico,” Breitbart reported that 50 migrants have died so far in 2024, mainly of drownings in the Rio Grande, along the border between Coahuila and mid-Texas. The number includes two men whose remains authorities recovered from the river this week in Eagle Pass. “The drownings come as rising water levels of the Rio Grande result in swifter, more dangerous currents.”
- Jordan Boyd, “Graphic: Two Migrants Drowned This Week in Texas-Mexico Border River” (Breitbart, March 6, 2024).
A migrant woman abandoned in the New Mexico desert by her smugglers died on Monday after being struck by a train.
- Julian Resendiz, “Woman Can’t Keep Up With Smugglers, Gets Run Over by Train” (Border Report, March 6, 2024).
Campo, California—about 50 miles east of San Diego, where the Pacific Crest Trail begins—has replaced nearby Jacumba Springs as the principal site in the central California border where migrants are crossing, usually to turn themselves in to Border Patrol to seek asylum. According to Border Report, the geographic shift owes to Mexican security and migration forces stepping up patrols across from Jacumba Springs.
- Salvador Rivera, “Campo Now a Hot Spot for Unlawful Migrant Crossings Into California” (Border Report, March 6, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
CBP intercepted 1,171 southbound guns at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2023, up from 173 in 2019, The Trace reported. But In the six years between 2017 and 2022 alone, Mexican authorities seized 83,000 guns at crime scenes that came from the United States.
- Alain Stephens, “U.S. Agents Are Seizing More Guns at the Mexican Border” (The Trace, March 7, 2024).