Developments
Panama’s government reported data through February about migration in the treacherous Darién Gap region. During the first two months of 2024, 73,167 people made the journey, much more than the 49,291 who did so during January-February 2023. By the end of 2023, a once-unthinkable total of 520,085 people had transited the Darién jungles.
Of this year’s migrant population, 64 percent are citizens of Venezuela—similar to 2023 (63 percent). The next four most frequent nationalities are Ecuador, Haiti, Colombia, and China—also similar to 2023. (View graphics and data of Darién Gap migration by year and month.)
- “Tránsito Irregular de Extranjeros por la Frontera con Colombia por Región Según Orden de Importancia: Año 2024” (Migración Panamá, 2024).
In 2023, U.C. San Diego Health “saw 500 head injuries” from migrants who had fallen from the 30-foot-high Trump-era border wall between San Diego and Tijuana, “with many patients needing surgery,” a local television station reported. The per-patient cost for surgery got treat traumatic head injuries is about $250,000; UCSD Health neurosurgeon Joseph Ciacci said that “taxpayers are footing the bill.”
- Ciara Encinas, “Brain Surgeon Says Traumatic Injuries on the Rise Following Border Wall Growth” (KGTV San Diego, March 13, 2024).
A Mexican National Guard and National Migration Institute (INM) deployment has brought a sharp drop in the number of asylum-seeking migrants coming to Jacumba Springs, California, just over an hour’s drive east of San Diego. Daily crossings, which were so frequent that people were stuck in encampments on the borderline waiting for Border Patrol to process them, have dropped from 800 to 70, said the INM delegate to Baja California. The official added that the agency expects people to seek to cross elsewhere as a result. (Border Report noted last week that crossings have increased sharply in nearby Campo, California.)
- Salvador Rivera, “Once-Hot Spot for Migrant Crossings in California Down 90%” (Border Report, March 13, 2024).
- Said Betanzos, “Inm Alerta Sobre Posible Retorno de Cruces Masivos de Migrantes en Bc” (Milenio (Mexico), March 13, 2024).
As the political and security situation in Haiti devolves further into a humanitarian emergency, CNN revealed that the Biden administration is considering reactivating a facility to process Haitians interdicted at sea, at the U.S. naval base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Those processed will be returned to Haiti or a third country.
- Priscilla Alvarez, “Biden Administration Discussing Using Guantanamo Bay to Process Possible Influx of Haitian Migrants” (CNN, March 13, 2024).
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), an opponent of protection-seeking migration from Latin America, has sent 250 national guardsmen and state police, and over a dozen air and sea craft, to the state’s southern coast to “combat illegal vessels” carrying “a potential influx of illegal immigrants” from Haiti, in DeSantis’s words.
- Michael Moline, “Desantis Mobilizes National Guard, State Police Off South Fl Against Any Influx of Haitians” (Florida Phoenix, March 13, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
WOLA’s Adam Isacson (this update’s author) made public a tool (cbpdata.adamisacson.com) that improves public access to CBP’s 2020-24 migration dataset. It generates custom tables of numbers revealing migrants’ nationalities, demographic characteristics, geographic areas of arrival, and whether they came to ports of entry or areas in between.
- Adam Isacson, “This form will make a table using CBP’s migration data since Fiscal Year 2020” (Adam Isacson, March 13, 2024).
On the Right
- Maryann Martinez, “Us Warned of Second Wave of Venezuelan Criminals Coming Over Border” (The Daily Mail (UK), March 13, 2024).
- Steve King, “‘They’re Going to Do Bad Things’: Sheriff Talks Possibility of Terrorists Crossing Us-Mexico Border” (WPBF (Palm Beach Florida), March 13, 2024).