Developments
As expected, President Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech last night referred to the situation of elevated migration at the U.S.-Mexico border. Biden repeated his call on Congress to pass a border bill based on a bipartisan Senate compromise, that was defeated amid Republican opposition in early February. Among its provisions was an authority to expel asylum-seeking migrants when daily encounters reach 4,000 or 5,000 per day, which migrants’ rights defenders vehemently oppose.
Less expected was Biden’s unscripted exchange with Republican House members heckling his remarks. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called on the President to say the name of Laken Riley, a nursing student murdered in February, allegedly by a Venezuelan migrant who had been released into the United States after turning himself in to Border Patrol in El Paso in 2022, when the Title 42 expulsions policy was in effect.
Biden complied, referring to the victim as an “innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” using a pejorative term to describe undocumented migrants that his administration has discouraged.
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “In State of the Union, Biden Urges Gop to Back Immigration Compromise: “Send Me the Border Bill Now”” (CBS News, March 7, 2024).
- Anna Giaritelli, “State of the Union 2024: Biden Goes Off Script to Say ‘Lincoln’ Riley Murdered by ‘an Illegal’ After Mtg Taunt” (The Washington Examiner, March 7, 2024).
- David Firestone, “Biden’s Border Taunts Clearly Hit a Republican Nerve” (The New York Times, March 7, 2024).
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), who left the Democratic Party in 2022 and helped negotiate the Senate border compromise, invited the head of Border Patrol’s union, an outspoken Biden critic, to be her guest at the State of the Union address. Brandon Judd had appeared alongside Donald Trump during his February 29 visit to the border in Eagle Pass, Texas. Sinema announced this week that she will not seek re-election in November.
- Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Arizona), “Sinema Announces National Border Patrol Council President Brandon Judd as State of the Union Guest” (U.S. Senate, March 7, 2024).
Earlier in the day, the Republican-majority House passed a bill called the “Laken Riley Act,” mandating the detention of migrants who enter the country irregularly and are charged with committing theft, as Riley’s alleged killer was. Though this bill will not move in the Democratic-majority Senate, 37 House Democrats voted for it despite language sharply criticizing the Biden administration’s border and migration policies.
- Annie Karni, “House Passes Migrant Detention Bill, Denouncing Biden Border Policies” (The New York Times, March 7, 2024).
The government of Panama has suspended that activities of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), which operates health posts at sites where migrants emerge from the days-long journey through the Darién Gap. The ostensible reason for the suspension is the lack of “a collaboration agreement in force” with Panama’s Ministry of Health. MSF stated that it “has been trying in vain to obtain such a renewal since October 2023.”
- “Medicos Sin Fronteras, Obligada a Suspender Atencion Medica a Migrantes en el Darien Panameno” (Medicos Sin Fronteras, March 7, 2024).
The suspension comes just a few days after MSF put out a statement denouncing a sharp increase in their encounters with victims of sexual violence along the Darién route: 233 cases in the first two months after 676 cases in 2023, of which a majority occurred during the final 3 months of last year.
- “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).
A Journal of the American Medical Association article, covered in the Washington Post, found a sharp increase in drowning deaths of migrants in the Pacific Ocean near San Diego after the Trump administration replaced existing border barriers with taller wall segments.
- Nick Miroff, “Migrant Drownings in Pacific Ocean Soared After Border Wall Expansion” (The Washington Post, March 7, 2024).
A Wall Street Journal poll found majority support for tougher border security, including the Senate border compromise, and strong support for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented migrants who have been in the United States for many years.
- Aaron Zitner, Michelle Hackman, “Americans Want the Immigration Bill Congress Won’t Pass, Wsj Poll Shows” (The Wall Street Journal, March 7, 2024).
A CBP statement provided more information about a Border Patrol agent’s fatal March 3 shooting of a man it identified as part of a gang robbing migrants at gunpoint along the borderline east of San Diego. A sniper killed an individual who “demanded money from the group, racked his pistol to chamber a round, and pointed the weapon at one of the migrants.”
- “Border Patrol Tactical Unit Marksman Fires Round Fatally Injuring Armed Man Assaulting Migrants in the Otay Mountains” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 7, 2024).
- Fernie Ortiz, “Border Patrol Sniper Fatally Shoots Man Threatening to Kill Migrant” (Border Report, March 7, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
A survey study by the UN Refugee Agency and non-governmental groups found that 56 percent of migrants who crossed Mexico in 2023 suffered some kind of abuse. Of 207 surveyed who had been deported by the United States, 139 were people “who may require international protection after “fleeing violence” in their countries.”
- El Impacto del Desplazamiento Forzado en la Movilidad Humana (UNHCR and several organizations, UN Mexico, Wednesday, March 6, 2024).
- “Mas de la Mitad de Migrantes Que Cruzaron Mexico en 2023 Sufrieron Abusos, Senala la Acnur” (Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 7, 2024).
At Arizona Luminaria, John Washington reported on the long wait for CBP One appointments in Nogales, Sonora, where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) makes only 100 appointments available each day at the port of entry. The nearest ports of entry offering appointments are hundreds of miles away in Calexico and El Paso. As a result, many migrants are tempted to cross in the desert and turn themselves in to Border Patrol.
- John Washington, “In Nogales, an Asylum Bottleneck Forces a Choice: Monthslong Wait or Dangerous Desert Crossing” (Arizona Luminaria, March 7, 2024).
Also reporting from Nogales, Todd Miller visited a garden tended by migrants at the city’s Casa de la Misericordia de Todas las Naciones shelter.
- Todd Miller, “The Garden at the Migrant Shelter: An Alternative View of the Border” (The Border Chronicle, March 7, 2024).
New York featured a collection of images from Alex Hodor-Lee, a photographer with a background in crafting images of luxury fashion goods, depicting objects that migrants abandoned after Border Patrol agents told them to throw away any “non-essential” belongings.
- Paula Aceves, “The Valuables Abandoned at the U.S.-Mexico Border” (New York, March 8, 2024).
On the Right
- Tiana Lowe Doescher, “How the International Economy Is Fueling the Invasion at the Southern Border” (The Washington Examiner, March 7, 2024).
- Shawn Fleetwood, “Johnson Proves Gop Isn’t Serious About Stopping Border Invasion” (The Federalist, March 7, 2024).