March 28, 2024

Developments

A Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel decided, by a two-to-one margin, to maintain a stay on Texas’s controversial S.B. 4 law, preventing it from going into effect while the Court considers legal challenges. The law would empower Texas law enforcement to arrest people anywhere in the state on suspicion of having crossed the border improperly; if found guilty, defendants would have the choice of prison or deportation into Mexico. (Mexico’s government has declared that it will not permit state-government deportations.)

The court will hear arguments on S.B. 4’s constitutionality on April 3. At stake is whether states can devise and implement their own independent immigration policies, and whether there is any validity to the claims of politicians like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) that asylum seekers and other migrants meet the constitutional definition of an “invasion.”

Maria Sacchetti, “U.S. Appeals Court Keeps Block on Texas Immigration Law” (The Washington Post, March 27, 2024).
Julián Aguilar, “Texas’ Immigration-Enforcement Law Again Kept on Hold by Federal Appeals Court” (The Texas Newsroom, Houston Public Media, March 27, 2024).
Madlin Mekelburg, “Texas Deportation Law Stays Blocked Until Appeal Is Resolved” (Bloomberg Law, March 27, 2024).
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Appeals Court Keeps Hold on Texas’ sb4 Immigration Law While It Consider Its Legality” (CBS News, March 27, 2024).

In Ciudad Juárez, the Casa del Migrante, one of the city’s principal migrant shelters, “has been filling up in recent days as families and single adults looking for an opportunity to seek asylum in the United States are again arriving in Juarez in large numbers,” according to Border Report. Rev. Francisco Bueno Guillen, the shelter’s director, said it “went from being 20 percent full a couple of weeks ago to 75 percent capacity as of Monday.” The city’s municipal shelter is also three-quarters full.

Julian Resendiz, “New 2,000-Strong Migrant Caravan Heading for Us” (Border Report, March 27, 2024).

The Los Angeles Times reported from “Gate 36” in the border wall south of El Paso, across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Juárez, where Texas national guardsmen have been confronting asylum seekers hoping to turn themselves in to the federal Border Patrol.

Patrick J. Mcdonnell, “The Standoff at Gate 36: Texas Sends in the Troops to Block Migrants From Seeking Asylum” (The Los Angeles Times, March 27, 2024).

481 organizations sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to extend Temporary Protected Status for Haitian migrants in the United States, to halt deportation flights and maritime returns to Haiti, and to increase the monthly cap on access to Humanitarian Parole for people still in the country, where governance is near collapse.

Syra Ortiz Blanes, “Advocates and Lawmakers Ask Biden to Expand Protection for Haitians, Stop Deportations” (The Miami Herald, March 27, 2024).

Participants in a “Migrant Via Crucis” march through Mexico’s southernmost state, Chiapas, told EFE that they reject Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s offer of $110 per month, six-month stipends for citizens of Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela who return home.

“Migrantes Rechazan el Apoyo de 110 Dolares de Mexico para Ser Deportados a Sus Paises” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 27, 2024).
Marta Quinteros, “El Cuestionado Programa de Lopez Obrador Que Da Dinero a Migrantes Venezolanos para Evitar su Reingreso a Mexico” (La Tercera (Chile), March 27, 2024).

Asked during his visit to Washington whether he believes that border walls work, Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo told CBS News, “I think that history shows they don’t. What we need to look for is integrated solutions to a problem that is far more complex than just putting a wall to try to contain.”

Ed o’keefe, Fin Gomez, Gillian Morley, Nidia Cavazos, “Guatemala’s President Says U.S. Should Invest More to Deter Migration” (CBS News, March 27, 2024).

The six construction workers presumed dead in the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge were people who had migrated from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Claudio Escalon, “Central American and Mexican Families Mourn the Workers Lost in the Baltimore Bridge Collapse” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 28, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A jump in Mexican encounters with Venezuelan migrants contrasts with low numbers of Venezuelan migrants on the U.S. side of the border, indicating that many Venezuelan citizens are stuck in Mexico right now. The Associated Press confirms that Mexico’s increased operations to block migrants have many Venezuelan citizens stranded in the country’s south, including in Mexico City, which is within the geographic range of the CBP One app and its limited number of available appointments.

Christopher Sherman, Elliot Spagat, Valerie Gonzalez, “Venezuelans Are Increasingly Stuck in Mexico, Explaining Drop in Illegal Crossings to Us” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 28, 2024).

NBC News highlighted the dilemma of migrant women who were raped by criminals in Mexico while en route to the United States, and now find themselves in states like Texas where, following the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, it is illegal to obtain an abortion. Often, the rapes occur while migrants are stranded—usually for months—in Mexican border cities as they await CBP One appointments.

Kay Guerrero, Paola Ramos, “Migrant Women Who Were Raped Before Crossing the Border Grapple With Restrictive Abortion Laws in the U.S.” (NBC News, March 27, 2024).

At the London Review of Books, Pooja Bhatia combined a narrative of Haiti’s deteriorating security situation with an account of the challenges that Haitian asylum seekers face at the U.S.-Mexico border. Bhatia reported from the dangerous border in Tamaulipas, Mexico, and highlighted the role of humanitarian workers and service providers, including staff of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.

Pooja Bhatia, “Leaving Haiti” (London Review of Books, March 28, 2024).

Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh and Muzaffar Chishti of the Migration Policy Institute explained that many of today’s proposals to restrict asylum access and otherwise crack down on migration will not work because the U.S. government can no longer “go it alone.” Reasons include the diversity of countries migrants are coming from, as well as the policies of other governments, such as varying visa requirements, refusals to accept repatriations, and the Mexican government’s unwillingness to receive expelled migrants from third countries.