April 5, 2024

Developments

Following a hearing last Friday, a federal court ruled that Border Patrol must care for children who are among the groups of asylum seekers whom the agency forces to wait for hours or days to be processed at the borderline in California. District Court Judge Dolly Gee ruled that conditions at the “open air detention site” encampments east of San Diego—where food, water, sanitation, and medical care come from volunteers, not agents—violate the 1997 Flores settlement agreement, which governs the treatment of child migrants in U.S. custody.

Border Patrol and CBP had been arguing that the children and other migrants at camps between border wall layers in San Diego and near Jacumba Springs, California, are not yet in the agency’s custody: they are still free to go back to Mexico. The court found otherwise: the children count as “in U.S. custody” and must receive care and be processed quickly. By May 10, CBP’s juvenile coordinator must provide a report about the number of children present at the outdoor camps and the steps the agency is taking to care for them.

The decision is a victory for the National Center for Youth Law, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, and Children’s Rights, which filed a motion before Judge Gee’s court, and for groups that have been providing aid and filing complaints, like Al Otro Lado, American Friends Service Committee, Universidad Popular, and the Southern Border Communities Coalition.

Emily Baumgaertner, “Judge Orders Timely Housing for Migrant Children Waiting at Border” (The New York Times, April 4, 2024).
Rebecca Santana, “Border Patrol Must Care for Migrant Children Who Wait in Camps for Processing, a Judge Says” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 4, 2024).
“Major Victory for Children Held in Open Air Detention Sites” (National Center for Youth Law, April 4, 2024).
“Federal Court Affirms What Advocates Have Said for Nearly a Year: Children Held in Open Air Detention Sites Are in Customs and Border Protection’s Custody” (Southern Border Communities Coalition, April 4, 2024).
Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Judge Orders Border Patrol to Quickly Relocate Migrant Children From Open-Air Sites in California” (CBS News, April 4, 2024).
Maanvi Singh, “What Are the Us-Mexico Border Camps and Why Are Children Held There?” (The Guardian (Uk), April 4, 2024).

CBS News and the Washington Examiner confirmed reports that Border Patrol’s apprehensions of migrants declined by 2 percent from February to March at the U.S.-Mexico border. This springtime drop is very unusual: available monthly data since 2000 only show this happening once before, in 2017.

“One of the reasons for the decrease was the government of Mexico’s continued significant enforcement efforts to disrupt some of the transportation networks moving people up to the border,” a CBP official told CBS.

Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Migrant Border Crossings Dip in March, With U.S. Officials Crediting Crackdown by Mexico” (CBS News, April 4, 2024).
Anna Giaritelli, “Border Patrol Sees Rare Decline in March Crossings at Southern Border” (The Washington Examiner, April 4, 2024).

In a video posted to Twitter, the top U.S. diplomat in Nicaragua called out “permissive Nicaraguan authorities who irresponsibly encourage migration” of West African countries’ citizens. Large numbers from Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea, and nearby nations have been arriving in Managua by air. Nicaragua does not require that they secure visas in advance; the authoritarian government instead charges steep fees upon arrival.

“Encargado de Negocios de Eeuu Senala a Nicaragua de Alentar el Trafico de Migrantes Irregulares Desde Africa” (Nicaragua Investiga, April 4, 2024).

The number of Russian and Ukrainian citizens requesting asylum or residence in Mexico has increased 170 percent since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Milenio reported.

Rafael Lopez Mendez, “Guerra Eleva Residencia de Rusos y Ucranios en Mexico” (Milenio (Mexico), April 5, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A WOLA feature, based on a series of interviews with service providers, documented a sharp increase in kidnappings and attacks on migrants, including sexual assaults, in Mexico’s organized crime-dominated border state of Tamaulipas. Corrupt Mexican officials allegedly facilitate these crimes. U.S. policies, the report finds, are not taking the danger into account: deportations into Tamaulipas are heavy, access to ports of entry is heavily restricted, and the state concentrates 43 percent of the insufficient number of border-wide CBP One appointments.

Ana Lucia Verduzco, Stephanie Brewer, “Kidnapping of Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the Texas-Tamaulipas Border Reaches Intolerable Levels” (Washington Office on Latin America, April 4, 2024).

The New York Times’s Julie Turkewitz highlighted worsening levels of sexual violence that criminal gangs commit against migrants passing through the Darién Gap. The report features an evasive answer from a U.S. diplomat in Panama, and questions the Panamanian government’s March decision to suspend Doctors Without Borders, the non-governmental organization that had most consistently been documenting rising sexual violence. Panamanian government officials, meanwhile, are facilitating the work of far-right U.S. social media influencers visiting the region.

Julie Turkewitz, “Sexual Assault of Migrants in Panama Rises to Level Rarely Seen Outside War” (The New York Times, April 4, 2024).

Reporting from the Colombian side of the Darién Gap, InsightCrime pointed out that the current route requiring boat travel across the Gulf of Urabá is not migrants’ most direct path to the Panamanian border. Other land routes are shut off, however, by the “Gulf Clan,” the organized crime group that controls the region, which reserves them “for other types of activities,” mainly cocaine trafficking.

Henry Shuldiner, Sergio Saffon, “Colombia’s Agc Squeezes Profits From Control of Key Migration Choke Point” (InsightCrime, April 4, 2024).

Under current U.S. immigration law, “If a person from a high-demand place such as Mexico, India, and China were to ‘get in line’ for residency today, they might be waiting anywhere from two to eight decades.” This is pushing people into the U.S. asylum system, Regina Lankenau observed in the Houston Chronicle.

Regina Lankenau, “Tiktok Makes Crossing the U.S. Border Look Easy. It Isn’t.” (The Houston Chronicle, April 5, 2024).

“Six months ago, we had never seen somebody from Bangladesh or Africa in this part of the desert,” Pastor Randy Mayer of Arizona’s Green Valley Samaritans told PBS NewsHour.

Amna Nawaz, Christine Romo, Sam Weber, “What Asylum-Seekers Face at the U.S. Border After a Grueling Journey Through Mexico” (PBS, April 4, 2024).

At the Huffington Post, Matt Shuham looked at some Republican politicians’ easily disprovable claim that the Biden administration’s well-publicized humanitarian parole initiative for four nationalities is a “secret flight program.”

Matt Shuham, “Republicans Are Blatantly Lying About a Biden Program That Is Actually Working” (The Huffington Post, April 5, 2024).

Washington Post data columnist Philip Bump refuted Donald Trump’s claims that increased migration of Chinese citizens owes in part to the Chinese government “building an army from within” made up of “very healthy young men.”

Philip Bump, “The New Border Fearmongering: China Is ‘Building an Army’ in the U.S.” (The Washington Post, April 4, 2024).

A Slate column by David Faris criticized the Biden administration for extending Temporary Protected Status to Venezuelan citizens without proper “follow-through,” like providing assistance to help with their integration into U.S. communities. It would be possible to transfer funds for these priorities, Faris argued, if Biden were to declare that a national emergency exists.