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Developments

For the second consecutive month, Ali Bradley of the right-leaning NewsNation outlet published leaked CBP migration data from March to her social media accounts. (Bradley’s early-March leak of February data turned out to be very close to the final count released weeks later.)

Bradley reported 137,557 Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants at the border in March, which would be a 2 percent decrease from February—only the second time, in the 25 years for which we have data, in which migration declined from February to March.

The leaked data point to migration increasing since February from three countries (Mexico +5%, Venezuela +88%, Ecuador +35%) and decreasing from two (Guatemala -35%, Cuba -4%).

This would be an important increase in migration from Venezuela: during January and February, U.S. encounters with Venezuelan migrants lagged far behind Mexico’s, indicating that a large number of Venezuelan migrants have been stuck in Mexico.

The leaked data indicate increased migration in two Border Patrol sectors (San Diego, California +7% and El Paso, Texas +27%) and reduced migration in another two (Tucson, Arizona—the busiest sector— -15%, Del Rio, Texas -20%).

• “Ali Bradley @Alibradleytv on Twitter” (Twitter, April 1, 2024).

Mexican authorities yesterday surged police, immigration agents, and national guard personnel to their side of the border between Ciudad Juárez and El Paso, Border Report reported.

• Julian Resendiz, “Mexico Steps Up Patrols on Rio Grande” (Border Report, April 1, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

At the American Prospect, Dara Lind of the American Immigration Council calls for investing in the U.S. asylum and refugee systems, expanding support for humanitarian migrants, and not abandoning the post-World War II commitment to the Refugee Convention at a time of record-high global migration. “America still loves a refugee,” Lind concludes. “It’s just not clear whether the American government is up to the task.”

• Dara Lind, “Still Bring Us Your Tired” (American Immigration Council, The American Prospect, April 1, 2024).

Two attorneys from the WilmerHale firm, writing for Bloomberg Law, find zero basis for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) claim that migration to his state meets the constitutional definition of an “invasion.”

• Charlie C. Bridge, Mark C. Fleming, “Texas Claim of Immigration Invasion Buckles Under Constitution” (WilmerHale, Bloomberg Law, April 1, 2024).

An essay from the Niskanen Center’s Gil Guerra draws attention to increasing migration from Colombia, Ecuador, China, and India.

• Gil Guerra, “Four Countries That Will Shape Migration in 2024 – and Beyond” (Niskanen Center, April 1, 2024).

The Council on Foreign Relations’ Will Freeman warned that worsening political turmoil and corruption in Peru portend further increases in migration of that country’s citizens to the U.S.-Mexico border, which is already at a historic high.

• Will Freeman, “Peru’s Brewing Migration Storm” (Council on Foreign Relations, Americas Quarterly, April 1, 2024).

Despite some recent reporting and rhetoric giving the opposite impression, an InsightCrime analysis finds that Venezuela’s fast-growing “Tren de Aragua” organized crime group “appears to have no substantial U.S. presence and looks unlikely to establish one.”

• Venezuela Investigative Unit, “Is Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua ‘Invading’ the Us?” (InsightCrime, April 1, 2024).

An article in the medical journal Cureus found “lower extremity” and “lumbar spinal” injuries to be common in a sample of 108 people who had fallen from the border wall between 2016 and 2021.

• Andrew Mccague, Austin Henken-Siefken, Sharmeen Azad, “A Retrospective Study on the Outcomes of Injuries From Border Wall Falls” (Cureus, April 1, 2024).

“A lot of people living in the world’s borderlands experience what scholars refer to as a human rights encounter,” wrote Arizona-based journalist John Washington at High Country News. “In such an encounter, you meet someone who has crossed the border despite being legally barred from doing so, in which moment you’re presented with a choice: You can help the person with water, shelter or a ride—but if you do so, you risk being arrested, prosecuted, and even imprisoned.”

• John Washington, “A Border Need Not Be a Wall” (High Country News, April 1, 2024).

An Associated Press analysis asserts that Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant message, which failed to appeal to swing voters in 2018, 2020, and 2022, could land harder this year because migrants with economic needs have been arriving in more areas in the U.S. interior.

• Jill Colvin, Will Weissert, “Why Trump’s Alarmist Message on Immigration May Be Resonating Beyond His Base” (Associated Press, Associated Press, April 1, 2024).

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Developments

From the first to the fourth week of March, the number of migrants whom Border Patrol apprehended in its busiest border sector—Tucson, Arizona—dropped by 5,000 or 41 percent, according to regular Twitter updates from the sector chief. Tucson agents apprehended 12,200 migrants during the week of March 1-7; that number has declined during each subsequent week, reaching 7,200 during March 22-28. The reason for the sharp drop is unclear.

• “John R. Modlin @USBPChiefTCA on Twitter” (Twitter, March 29, 2024).

At the end of the first quarter of 2024, the number of people who have migrated through Panama’s Darién Gap stands at 109,069, up from 87,390 during the same period in 2023. The month-to-month trend is flat, though: 36,001 people in January, 37,165 in February, and 35,903 in March. Of this year’s migrants, 69,568 (64 percent) have been citizens of Venezuela, a proportion similar to 2023.

• “Mas del 60 % de los 109.000 Migrantes Que Atravesaron el Darien en 2024 Son Venezolanos” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 31, 2024).

U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee, who oversees the Flores settlement agreement governing the treatment of children in CBP custody, presided over a March 29 hearing about Border Patrol’s practice of requiring asylum seekers to wait outdoors for long periods at the borderline in order to turn themselves in. Children are among those subsisting in makeshift encampments in Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector. Government attorneys argued that migrants at the camps are technically not in U.S. custody and don’t require care.

• Elliot Spagat, “Judge Questions Border Patrol Stand That It’s Not Required to Care for Children at Migrant Camps” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 29, 2024).

Eight people from China died off the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico after the boat in which they were migrating capsized.

• Marlon Sorto, Omar Fajardo, Yong Xiong, “Eight Chinese Migrants Found Dead on Mexico Beach After Boat Capsizes” (CNN, April 1, 2024).
• Ramon Bragana, “Cuerpos Hallados en Costas de Oaxaca Son de Migrantes Chinos, Confirman Autoridades” (Milenio (Mexico), March 30, 2024).

A CBP release documented the death of a Guatemalan woman, who fell from the border wall after pleading for help on the evening of March 21 east of San Diego.

• “Woman Dies After Fall From International Border Fence Near Otay Mesa Port of Entry” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 29, 2024).

An AP-NORC poll found majorities of U.S. respondents favoring the hiring of more Border Patrol agents and more immigration judges. Only 42 percent supported building a border wall. 58 percent ranked immigration “as an extremely or very important issue to them personally.”

• “Most Favor Hiring More Border Patrol Agents and Immigration Judges” (AP-NORC, March 29, 2024).

42 percent of people in Ecuador surveyed by Cedatos declared an intention to migrate; of that number, 55 percent named the United States as their desired destination.

• “Mas de la Mitad de los Ecuatorianos Con Deseo de Migrar Buscan Llegar a Estados Unidos, Segun Encuesta de Cedatos” (El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), March 30, 2024).

The number of people whom Texas’s state government has placed on buses to Democratic-governed cities now stands at 108,600 since April 2022, a small fraction of the population released from CBP custody during that period. Over two-thirds of the buses have gone to New York and Chicago. Texas also claims that its law enforcement forces have arrested 41,200 migrants “with more than 36,700 felony charges,” usually for trespassing.

• “Texas Surges Soldiers, Resources to Boost Border Security in el Paso” (Texas Governor’s Office, March 29, 2024).

An El Paso magistrate judge released some of the migrants caught on video on March 21 pushing past Texas national guardsmen in order to turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents at the border wall.

• Maura Zurick, “Texas Judge Allows Release of Migrants Arrested After Border Stampede” (Newsweek, March 31, 2024).

On the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande, separated from El Paso by Texas state authorities’ concertina wire, migrants bearing flags of several nations staged a “stations of the cross” ceremony on Good Friday.

• Jesus Estrada, Mireya Cuellar, “Escenifican Viacrucis para Pedir Asilo a Eu” (La Jornada (Mexico), March 30, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Many asylum seekers with disabilities cannot access the CBP One smartphone app to make appointments at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry, according to a complaint that the Texas Civil Rights Project and Civil Rights Education and Enforcement Center filed last week.

• Neelam Bohra, “Migrants With Disabilities Struggle to Access the U.S. Asylum System, Advocates Say” (The Texas Tribune, March 29, 2024).

CNN profiled volunteers doing humanitarian work along Arizona’s border with Mexico. This has involved using private vehicles to transport people in distress to Border Patrol custody, which is technically a federal crime.

• Rosa Flores, Sara Weisfeldt, “Volunteer Defends Helping Vulnerable Migrants on Arizona’s Perilous Southern Border” (CNN, March 30, 2024).

Together with a working group of legal experts and advocates, the International Refugee Assistance Project developed a document laying out a legal action agenda for individuals displaced by the effects of climate change.

• “Legal Action Agenda for Climate Displacement” (International Refugee Assistance Project, March 29, 2024).

Of the 545,043 people documented as migrating through Honduras in 2023, 47 percent were women, girls, and boys, reported the UN Refugee Agency. Of 1,381 interviewed by UNHCR and partners last year, 45 percent said they were “in need of international protection as they were forced to leave their country of origin due to violence and persecution.”

• “Honduras – Mixed Movements Protection Monitoring – Year 2023” (UN Refugee Agency, March 29, 2024).

On the Right

• Phillip Linderman, “Immigration to the U.S. Strengthens Communism in Cuba” (The American Conservative, March 30, 2024).
• Khaleda Rahman, “Migrants to Blame for Border Wall Injuries, Americans Say” (Newsweek, March 30, 2024).

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Developments

The New York Times reported from an open air holding site in the mountains east of San Diego, California, where asylum seekers often must wait outdoors for days for the opportunity to turn themselves in to Border Patrol. Agents provide no shelter, food, water, and medical care; that is up to volunteers. The situation threatens the migrants’ health, and “a Federal District Court judge in California could rule as early as Friday on whether the government is legally required to shelter and feed the children as they wait.”

• Emily Baumgaertner, “Health Concerns Mount for Migrant Children at Outdoor Holding Sites” (The New York Times, March 28, 2024).

Ten humanitarian organizations in Mexico City warned of the increasingly precarious situation of migrants from many countries stranded in Mexico’s capital. Most are attempting to secure online CBP One appointments at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry.

• “Situacion Migratoria en la Ciudad de Mexico y Zona Metropolitana” (Ten Organizations, March 28, 2024).

Nicaragua Investiga covered the Migrant Via Crucis march and protest in Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state. At least 2,000 migrants stranded near Mexico’s southern border began walking through the state on Monday, though their numbers have since dwindled. “Some of the participants in the mobilization claim that their goal is to reach Mexico City, but these marches generally disintegrate as they become too strenuous and as the authorities hand out [travel] permits while they are en route.”

• “«Viacrucis del Migrante», Miles Marchan en Mexico para Denunciar la «Crueldad»” (Nicaragua Investiga, March 28, 2024).

The House of Representatives’ Republican leadership will send the Senate articles of impeachment for Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on April 10. The move comes nearly two full months after the House impeached Mayorkas, by a one-vote party-line margin on their second try. Republican leaders allege that Mayorkas has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors” by not carrying out border and migration law to its fullest extent (which would cost far more than the amount of money that Congress appropriates). The Democratic-majority Senate could dismiss the case without going to a trial.

• Jordain Carney, Olivia Beavers, Ursula Perano, “House Gop Says When It Will Send Mayorkas Impeachment Articles to Senate” (Politico, March 28, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Jonathan Blitzer’s recent book about Central America, U.S. policy, and migration “effectively illustrates the timidity and opportunism of the US political class, which has repeatedly blocked reforms that would allow an orderly and safe flow of workers and their families across the border,” reads a lengthy review by Hector Tobar in the New York Review of Books.

• Hector Tobar, “The Truths of Our American Empire” (The New York Review of Books, March 28, 2024).

Jacobin published an adapted excerpt of Petra Molnar’s book The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. The deployment of military-grade surveillance technologies along the border, Molnar argues, treats a humanitarian issue like a security crisis and ends up diverting migrants to more remote and dangerous areas, inflating an already high death toll.

• Petra Molnar, “The Grim High-Tech Dystopia on the Us-Mexico Border” (York University, Jacobin, March 28, 2024).

On the Right

• Parker Miller, “Biden Needs to Pressure Mexico Into Helping to Stop Illegal Immigration” (The Washington Examiner, March 28, 2024).
• Carl Campanile, “Us Foreign-Born Population Shatters Record as Border Crisis Escalates” (The New York Post, March 28, 2024).

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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.

• Colleen Putzel-Kavanaugh, Muzaffar Chishti, “The Limits of the Go-It-Alone Approach: U.S. Migration Management Increasingly Requires Other Countries’ Cooperation” (Migration Policy Institute, March 27, 2024).

On the Right

• Jennie Taer, Josh Christenson, “Border Patrol Union Prez’s Warning: Biden Deflating Border Numbers, Mass Amnesty Coming” (The New York Post, March 27, 2024).
• Maura Zurick, “Terrorists May Be Smuggling Chemical Weapons Across Border: John Bolton” (Newsweek, March 27, 2024).

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Developments

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, revealed some U.S. data from March about migrants arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) probably won’t share March data until the second half of April.)

Slides posted at López Obrador’s March 26 morning press conference indicated that CBP encountered 6,307 migrants per day during the first 21 days of March. Removing the approximately 1,450 per day who get CBP One appointments at ports of entry shows Border Patrol apprehending less than 5,000 people per day during the month’s first 3 weeks.

Though migration usually increases in springtime, these revealed numbers show that is not happening this year. In February, CBP averaged 6,549 migrant encounters per day (4,890 per day in Border Patrol custody). In other words, it appears that slightly more migrants per day came to the border in February than so far in March. If the trend continues, this would be only the second time that March migration is less than February migration in the 25 years for which we have data (since 2000).

• “#ConferenciaPresidente Martes 26 de marzo de 2024.” (Presidencia de México, March 26, 2024).

The March data show that U.S. encounters with migrants from Venezuela continue to be far fewer than the past two years’ average. The United States’ encounters with Venezuelan migrants dropped sharply in January and have not recovered: they totaled 20,364 in January and February. On March 25 Mexico updated its own migrant encounter numbers, which show 56,312 encounters with Venezuelan citizens in January and February—almost 3 times more than the U.S. figure. That points to a strong likelihood that the Venezuelan population in Mexico is increasing sharply right now.

• “Adam Isacson @adam_wola on Twitter” (Twitter, March 26, 2024).

Mexico’s data show that its migration authorities encountered almost exactly 120,000 migrants in February, for the second straight month. Before January, Mexico’s monthly record for migrant encounters was about 98,000. This is evidence that Mexico’s government has stepped up efforts to interdict migrants in its territory so far in 2024.

• “2024 Boletín estadístico mensual” (Unidad de Política Migratoria, Secretaría de Gobernación de México, 2024).

At his press conference, López Obrador added that he is seeking to expand to citizens of Colombia and Ecuador a program that would pay US$110-per-month stipends to citizens of Venezuela who agree to return to their home countries. The program would depend on the cooperation of Mexican corporations with a presence in South America.

• “Version Estenografica. Conferencia de Prensa del Presidente Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador del 26 de Marzo de 2024” (Presidencia de Mexico (Mexico), March 26, 2024).
• Gaspar Vela, “Amlo Dice Que Tambien Dara Dinero a Migrantes de Colombia y Ecuador” (Milenio (Mexico), March 26, 2024).
• “Jose Diaz Briseno @Diazbriseno on Twitter” (Twitter, March 26, 2024).

Mexico’s National Guard has increased patrols in an area of Tijuana, not far from the Pacific, where smugglers frequently help migrants climb the border wall to turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents.

• Salvador Rivera, “Mexico Adds More Troops to Hot Spot for Unlawful Migrant Crossings” (Border Report, March 26, 2024).

An annual Easter week march of migrants near Mexico’s southern border—not exactly a “caravan,” but an organized “Migrant Via Crucis”—has walked over 10 miles through Chiapas, the country’s southernmost state, and plans to cover a similar distance today. Its numbers have reportedly dwindled to about half of the approximately 3,000 participants with which it began.

• Julio Navarro Cardenas, “En Chiapas, Caravana Migrante Reanuda Caminata; Se Dirige a Huixtla” (Milenio (Mexico), March 26, 2024).
• Edgar H. Clemente, “Parten de Tapachula 2 Mil Personas en Caravana Viacrucis Migrante” (La Jornada (Mexico), March 26, 2024).

Texas’s state government deployed about 200 members of its National Guard’s “Texas Tactical Border Force” to El Paso. El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser said, “It’s something that we didn’t request, and we won’t request from the state of Texas.”

• Tirza Ortiz, “Texas Deploys Hundreds of Specially Trained Troops to el Paso Border” (Border Report, March 26, 2024).

The head of Guatemala’s migration agency, who worked in the government that left power in January, resigned yesterday. While the reason for Stuard Rodríguez’s departure is not known, it is notable that it takes place while the new president, Bernardo Arévalo, is in Washington and discussing migration with U.S. officials.

“Rodriguez made several reports during his administration of the increase of migrant expulsions, especially of Cubans and Venezuelans,” noted the Guatemalan daily Prensa Libre.

• William Oliva, “Renuncia Stuard Rodriguez, Director General de Migracion” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), March 26, 2024).

In Tucson, Arizona, local authorities now believe that federal funds—made possible by Congress passing a budget over the weekend—will arrive in time to prevent closure of shelters that receive migrants released from CBP custody. The prospect of “street releases” in Tucson and other Arizona border towns is now unlikely.

• Jan Lesher, “Update on Federal Funding for Temporary Sheltering and Transportation Assistance for Legally Processed Asylum Seekers” (Pima County Board of Supervisors, March 26, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Conservative politicians and media outlets are going after the non-profit shelters that receive migrants released from CBP custody in U.S. border cities, along with other humanitarian groups, noted Miriam Davidson at The Progressive. Tucson’s Casa Alitas and El Paso’s Annunciation House have been subject to aggressive misinformation and legal attacks so far this year.

• Miriam Davidson, “Republicans’ New Border Target: Migrant Aid Groups” (The Progressive, March 26, 2024).

On the Right

• Neil Munro, “Mexico Wants More Rewards for Guarding Joe Biden’s Border in 2024 Election” (Breitbart, March 26, 2024).

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Developments

Guatemala’s reformist new president, Bernardo Arévalo, visited the White House yesterday, where he met separately with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. Migration was a central topic in both of Arévalo’s conversations.

Arévalo and Harris reportedly discussed “providing lawful pathways to migrants, increasing cooperation on border enforcement, and… U.S. support for Guatemala’s migration management efforts.” A White House release stated that the Biden administration plans to provide Guatemala with an additional $170 million in security and development assistance, pending congressional notification.

Vice President Harris touted the administration’s “Root Causes Strategy,” which she claimed has created 70,000 new jobs, helped up to 63,000 farmers, supported 3 million student’ education, and trained more than 18,000 police officers and 27,000 judicial operators in Central America.

The leaders announced no changes to the U.S.-backed “Safe Mobility Office” (SMO) in Guatemala that links some would-be migrants to legal pathways. The prior administration of President Alejandro Giammattei (whose U.S. visa has since been revoked amid corruption allegations) had reduced the SMO’s scope to serve only citizens of Guatemala.

• Fact Sheet: Vice President Harris Announces New Initiatives to Strengthen the U.S.-Guatemala Relationship and Address the Root Causes of Migration From Guatemala (The White House, Monday, March 25, 2024).
• Fact Sheet: Update on the U.S. Strategy for Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Central America (The White House, Monday, March 25, 2024).
• “Remarks by Vice President Harris and President Bernardo Arevalo of the Republic of Guatemala Before Bilateral Meeting” (The White House, March 25, 2024).
• “Readout of Vice President Harris’s Meeting With President Arevalo of Guatemala” (The White House, March 25, 2024).
• “Readout of President Biden’s Meeting With President Bernardo Arevalo of Guatemala” (The White House, March 25, 2024).
• Sergio Morales, “Encuentro Harris-Arevalo se Centra en Oportunidades y Migracion” (La Hora (Guatemala), March 25, 2024).
• Chris Megerian, Colleen Long, “Biden and Harris Discuss Migration in Separate White House Meetings With Guatemalan Leader Arevalo” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 25, 2024).
• Luisa Laguardia, “Migracion e Inversiones en Dialogo de Kamala Harris y Arevalo” (Expediente Publico, March 25, 2024).
• “Ee. Uu. Aumenta en US$170 Millones los Fondos para Frenar la Migracion de Guatemala” (ACAN-EFE, Prensa Libre (Guatemala), March 25, 2024).

Despite a crushing backlog of cases, the number of U.S. immigration judges actually declined in the first quarter of fiscal 2024, from 734 to 725. That means “each judge has 3,836 cases on average,” pointed out Kathleen Bush-Joseph of the Migration Policy Institute. (That number is greater if one uses TRAC Immigration’s higher estimate of the immigration court backlog.)

• “Kathleen Bush-Joseph @kathleenbushjo2 on Twitter” (Twitter, March 25, 2024).

In less than three years, Texas state law enforcement has arrested 13,000 migrants under the framework of Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R) so-called “Operation Lone Star.” About three quarters of the arrests are for misdemeanor trespassing. Texas has carried out these arrests and imprisonments even without S.B. 4, a pending law that—if courts allow it to proceed—would empower Texas law enforcement to arrest, jail, and deport people on suspicion of crossing the border improperly.

• “Amrutha Jindal @Amruthajindal on Twitter” (Twitter, March 25, 2024).

Now that Congress has approved a 2024 federal budget, Arizona community leaders are wondering when funds will arrive to help non-profits receiving migrants released from CBP custody at the border. Those funds are about to run out, which could lead to CBP leaving released migrants on the streets of Tucson and other Arizona border-zone cities.

• Megan Spector, “What Comes Next After Funding Was Approved for Border Communities?” (KVOA Tucson Arizona, March 25, 2024).

As Easter week begins, about 2,000 migrants participated in a “Migrant Via Crucis” march, what has become an annual event in Mexico’s southern border-zone city of Tapachula.

• Edgar H. Clemente, “About 2,000 Migrants Begin a Holy Week Walk in Southern Mexico to Raise Awareness of Their Plight” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 25, 2024).
• Jhonatan Gonzalez, “En Chiapas, Realizan Anuncio de ‘Viacrucis del Migrante’” (Milenio (Mexico), March 25, 2024).

In a Twitter response to comments that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador made in a 60 Minutes interview, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) accused Mexico’s president of “coddling cartels and demanding the United States bankroll even more mass migration into our country.” Johnson called for a revival of the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy.

• “Speaker Mike Johnson @Speakerjohnson on Twitter” (Twitter, March 25, 2024).
• Jose Diaz Briseno, “Mima Amlo a Carteles, Acusa Lider Republicano” (Reforma (Mexico), March 25, 2024).
• Thomas Kika, “Marjorie Taylor Greene Rages Over Mexico’s Migrant Plan: “This Is a War”” (Newsweek, March 25, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Mexico’s government’s ability and willingness to help control migration flows make it a key player on an issue with the potential to sway the election,” a New York Times analysis found. However, “behind closed doors, some senior Biden officials have come to see [Mexican President Andrés Manuel] López Obrador as an unpredictable partner, who they say isn’t doing enough to consistently control his own southern border or police routes being used by smugglers.”

• Natalie Kitroeff, Paulina Villegas, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, “Who Could Sway the Outcome of the U.S. Election? Mexico’s President” (The New York Times, March 26, 2024).

At Lawfare, Ilya Somin of the Cato Institute dismantled an argument that has become increasingly mainstream among Republican politicians: that asylum seekers and other migrants crossing the border constitute an “invasion” and that states have a constitutional right to confront them with their own security forces. Somin warns that the “invasion” idea, if upheld, could allow border states “to initiate war anytime they want,” and permit the federal government to suspend habeas corpus rights.

• Ilya Somin, “Immigration Is Not Invasion” (Cato Institute, Lawfare, March 25, 2024).

On the Right

• Conn Carroll, “Remain in Mexico Is Perfectly Legal” (The Washington Examiner, March 25, 2024).

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Developments

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) provided updated data late on Friday about migration through February at the U.S.-Mexico border. (Search this data at cbpdata.adamisacson.com.)

Some key points:

• Border Patrol apprehended 140,644 migrants in February, up 13 percent from January but still the 7th-fewest apprehensions of the Biden administration’s 37 full months.
• 49,278 migrants came to ports of entry, 42,100 of them (1,452 per day) with CBP One appointments. This is similar to every month since July 2023.
• Combining Border Patrol and port-of-entry encounters, CBP encountered 189,922 migrants at the border in February. The top nationalities were Mexico (33 percent), Guatemala (13 percent), Cuba (7 percent), Colombia (6 percent), and Ecuador (6 percent).
• Migration from Venezuela continues to drop, despite elevated numbers of Venezuelan migrant encounters measured in Mexico, Honduras, and Panama’s Darién Gap. U.S. authorities encountered 8,769 Venezuelan citizens in February, the fewest since March 2023. Of that total, 64 percent (5,585) reported to ports of entry; Border Patrol apprehended only 3,184.
• Border-zone seizures of fentanyl totaled 1,186 pounds in February, the fewest fentanyl seizures at the border of any of fiscal year 2024’s five months. After five months, fiscal year 2024 fentanyl seizures total 8,021 pounds, 27 percent fewer than the same point in fiscal year 2023. This is the first time fentanyl seizures have declined since the drug began to appear in the mid-2010s. Ports of entry account for 85 percent of this year’s fentanyl seizures.

• “Cbp Releases February 2024 Monthly Update” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 22, 2024).
• Rebecca Santana, “Arrests for Illegal Border Crossings Nudge Up in February but Still Among Lowest of Biden Presidency” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 22, 2024).
• Ivan Reyes, “Migrantes de Venezuela, Colombia y Ecuador Predominan Entre los Que Cruzan la Frontera Hacia ee.uu.” (Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 24, 2024).

In late February, press reported that the Biden administration was considering new executive actions at the border, like limits on access to asylum or a ban on crossings between ports of entry. But then nothing happened: Politico reported that the White House has stood down “in part, to the downtick in migration numbers” so far this year.

• Myah Ward, “What Happened to Biden’s Executive Actions on the Border?” (Politico, March 25, 2024).

Executive actions are not off the table, however. Axios reported that “President Biden is still considering harsh executive actions at the border before November’s election.” These actions, which may involve expelling migrants regardless of asylum needs, would stand on shaky legal foundations and be difficult to apply to migrants of many nationalities.

• Stef W. Kight, “Scoop: Biden’s Border Nuclear Option Is Still on the Table” (Axios, March 24, 2024).

Officials in Panama reported that the number of migrants crossing the Darién Gap so far in 2024 has now exceeded 101,000. At the end of February, the number stood at 73,167; this means that the March pace remains, as in January and February, at a bit over 1,200 people per day. Of this year’s migrants, nearly two thirds (64,307) are citizens of Venezuela.

• “Mas de 100.000 Migrantes Han Cruzado el Darien en Lo Que Va de 2024, Segun Panama” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), March 24, 2024).
• “Migracion Panama @Migracionpanama on Twitter” (Twitter, March 24, 2024).

Texas police have begun firing rubber bullets at migrants, a Ciudad Juárez human rights activist told EFE. Texas authorities fired tear gas canisters at migrants camped on the El Paso bank of the Rio Grande, after they began pulling on the concertina wire that Texas has laid between the river and the border wall.

• “Denuncian Que Policia de Texas Agrede a Migrantes Con Balas de Goma” (EFE, Tal Cual (Venezuela), March 24, 2024).
• Heriberto Perez, “Migrant Advocates React to Migrants Camping Along Rio Grande on the U.S. Side of the Border” (KVIA (El Paso Texas), March 23, 2024).

The Houston Chronicle reported that Texas state National Guardsmen threatened migrants on the Eagle Pass riverbank with deportation under Texas’s controversial S.B. 4 law—even though the law is not in effect while judicial challenges continue.

• Benjamin Wermund, Jhair Romero, Raquel Natalicchio, “The Courts Blocked sb4. Texas Soldiers Threatened to Deport Migrants Under It Anyway.” (The Houston Chronicle, March 22, 2024).

Authorities in El Paso say they will not prosecute migrants arrested under S.B. 4 if their arrests are found to have resulted from profiling. In the Rio Grande Valley, sheriffs say they do not expect to arrest many people under S.B. 4 because they don’t expect to witness many illegal border crossings.

• Diego Mendoza-Moyers, “El Paso DA Says Office Won’t Prosecute sb4 Cases Where Suspect Is Profiled” (El Paso Matters, March 22, 2024).
• Mark Reagan, Xavier Alvarez, “Texas’ Sb 4 May Not Result in Many Arrests in the Rio Grande Valley” (The Brownsville Herald, March 22, 2024).

Guatemala’s government added its voice to international opposition to Texas’s S.B. 4 law.

• “Minex Informa Sobre la Ley sb4 de Texas y Sus Implicaciones para los Guatemaltecos” (Ministry of Foreign Relations of Guatemala, March 22, 2024).

“I think the migrants that we encounter, that are turning themselves in, yes, I think they absolutely are, by and large, good people,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens told CBS News’s Face the Nation. But “what’s keeping me up at night is the 140,000 known got-aways” so far this fiscal year.

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “U.S. Border Patrol Chief Calls Southern Border A “National Security Threat,” Citing 140,000 Migrants Who Evaded Capture” (CBS News, March 24, 2024).
• Sarah Fortinsky, “Us Border Patrol Chief Says Migrant Smugglers Are ‘Exploiting’ the Southern Border’s ‘Vulnerability’” (The Hill, March 24, 2024).

New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who has loudly complained about asylum seekers arriving in his city, canceled a trip to Brownsville and McAllen, Texas, citing unspecified “safety concerns” about the Mexico segment of his visit. Adams was responding to an invitation from Sr. Norma Pimentel of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, which runs a large respite center in McAllen.

• “New York City’s Mayor Cancels a Border Trip, Citing Safety Concerns in Mexico” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 24, 2024).
• Miranda Nazzaro, “New York City Mayor Cancels Trip to Southern Border Due to ‘Safety Concerns’” (The Hill, March 24, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

The New York Times reported on the recent movement of migration away from the Texas border, with more people coming to California, Arizona, and New Mexico. Though the picture is complex, the Texas state government’s crackdown, especially the unknown consequences of the currently on-hold S.B. 4 law, is a factor. (However, migration has also been declining all year, even during the spring, in Border Patrol’s busy Tucson, Arizona sector.)

• Edgar Sandoval, J. David Goodman, “Abbott’s Army on the Border: Is It Working?” (The New York Times, March 24, 2024).

Ransom kidnappings and other attacks on migrants are worsening at the Mexico-Guatemala border, especially the central region where the Pan-American Highway crosses into Chiapas, reported Milenio.

• Jhonatan Gonzalez, “Frontera Sur de Mexico, la Mas Peligrosa Defensores de Derechos” (Milenio (Mexico), March 23, 2024).

At the New York Review of Books, Caroline Tracey documented an abandoned, unpopular plan to construct a massive Border Patrol checkpoint on I-19, the highway between Tucson and the border at Nogales, Arizona. The case highlighted the tension between security concerns and economic and human rights considerations.

• Caroline Tracey, “Checkpoint Dreams” (The New York Review of Books, March 23, 2024).

As Mexican farmworkers migrate to the United States, often on temporary work visas, Mexico is facing its own farm labor shortages and is considering setting up its own guest-worker program for citizens of countries to Mexico’s south, the Washington Post reported.

• Fred Ramos, Mary Beth Sheridan, “As Its Workers Stream to the U.S., Mexico Runs Short of Farmhands” (The Washington Post, March 23, 2024).

On the Right

• Peter Van Buren, “Biden’s Parole Abuse Is Driving the Border Crisis” (The American Conservative, March 25, 2024).
• Joe Earley, “Securing the Border: America’s Priority Number One” (The American Conservative, March 22, 2024).

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Developments

Mexico filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court in support of the ongoing challenge to Texas’s state immigration law, S.B. 4. The brief argues that the law, which would allow state law enforcement to arrest, imprison, or deport people suspected of crossing the border improperly, would do significant harm to Mexican citizens living in Texas.

• “Brief of Amicus Curiae the Government of the United Mexican States in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees and Affirmance of the District Court’s Preliminary Injunction Order” (Government of Mexico, United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit, March 21, 2024).
• Devan Cole, Ivonne Valdes, Sahar Akbarzai, “Mexico Warns Us Court of ‘Substantial Tension’ if Controversial Texas Immigration Law Takes Effect” (CNN, March 21, 2024).

Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena told the Washington Post that her government would place “increased vigilance and controls” along the Texas border to prevent Texas state authorities from carrying out their own deportations without Mexico’s permission.

• Mary Beth Sheridan, “Mexico, a Key U.S. Ally on Migration, Pushes Back Hard on Texas Law” (The Washington Post, March 21, 2024).

Across Texas’s 254 counties, sheriffs are unclear about how they are meant to enforce S.B. 4 if courts give the strict law a green light, the Associated Press reported. “If we start going and talking to everybody and asking for papers, where do we stop?” asked the president of the Texas Sheriff’s Association.

• Erik Verduzco, Sean Murphy, “Law Enforcement Officials in Texas Wonder How They Will Enforce Migrant Arrest Law” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 21, 2024).
• Alejandro Serrano, “Enforcing Texas’ New Immigration Law May Be Challenging, Even for Authorities That Support It” (The Texas Tribune, March 21, 2024).
• Michael Gonzalez, “‘Havoc and Harm’: Prospect of Migrant Law Sows Fear in Texas Border Town” (The Guardian (Uk), March 21, 2024).
• Anna-Catherine Brigida, “A Lot Has Swirled Around Senate Bill 4. Here’s Where It Stands Currently.” (Houston Landing, March 21, 2024).

In El Paso, a group of migrants on the U.S. bank of the Rio Grande pushed their way past Texas state National Guard personnel blocking access to the border wall, where they hoped to turn themselves in to federal Border Patrol agents. Video showed a chaotic scene.

• Blanca Carmona, Veronica Martinez, “¡Que Nos Dejen Entrar a Trabajar! Suplican Migrantes Mientras ee.uu Debate Nueva Ley Antimigrante de Texas” (La Verdad (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), March 21, 2024).
• Jesus Estrada, “Con Golpes e Intimidaciones, Texas Impide Cruce Masivo de Migrantes” (La Jornada (Mexico), March 21, 2024).
• Fernie Ortiz, “Hundreds of Migrants Gather at Border Wall as Court Debates sb4” (Border Report, March 21, 2024).
• Julian Resendiz, “Altercation Between Migrants, National Guard Caught on Camera” (Border Report, March 21, 2024).
• Martin Coronado, “Migrants Camp at Mexico Border Amid Chaos Caused by Texas sb4 Law” (EFE, La Prensa Latina, March 21, 2024).
• Jennie Taer, Megan Palin, “Over 100 Migrants Break Through Razor Wire, Knock Down Guards as They Illegally Cross el Paso Border in Wild Scene” (The New York Post, March 21, 2024).

S.B. 4 is “not going to stop us from doing our job,” Border Patrol Chief Jason Owens said in a CBS News interview, adding that there is “no better partner for the Border Patrol than the Texas Department of Public Safety.” Owens called for “jail time” for more migrants who cross the border between ports of entry, and cited a “need to take a look at the asylum laws and make it where only people that have a legitimate claim can claim asylum.”

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Border Patrol Chief Says Tougher Policies Are Needed to Deter Migrants From Entering U.S. Illegally” (CBS News, March 21, 2024).

CBP released body-worn camera footage of the February 17 death, apparently by suicide, of a man in a holding cell at a Laredo, Texas checkpoint. The footage does not show the exact circumstances of how the man died because “the video recording system at the Border Patrol checkpoint was not fully functioning at the time of the incident.”

• “Cbp Releases Body-Worn Camera Footage From Man Found Unresponsive in Laredo, Texas I-35 Checkpoint Detention Cell” (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, March 21, 2024).

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas was in Guatemala. With President Bernardo Arévalo, the Secretary reviewed nine topics including migration. The migration talks focused on information sharing and “coordinated operational plans” against smugglers.

• Oscar Garcia Efe Afp, “Mayorkas y Arevalo se Reunen en Guatemala para Llegar a Acuerdos en Seguridad, Migracion Irregular y Otros Desafios” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), March 21, 2024).

Arévalo will be in Washington Monday, where he will meet Vice President Kamala Harris. Mayorkas noted that the “Safe Mobility Office” established in Guatemala in mid-2023 has “already helped more than 1,500 Guatemalans safely and lawfully enter the United States” via legal pathways.

• “Secretary Mayorkas Delivers Remarks at a Press Conference in Guatemala” (Department of Homeland Security, March 21, 2024).

Speaking to Guatemala’s Prensa Libre, Assistant DHS Secretary for Border Policy and Migration Blas Nunez-Neto said that organized crime has taken over the migrant smuggling business all along the U.S.-bound route: “The cartels that previously had no direct participation in the movement of people in an irregular manner are increasingly controlling these flows.”

• Fatima Najarro, “Departamento de Seguridad: Carteles Estan Ligados al Trafico de Personas” (Prensa Libre (Guatemala), March 21, 2024).

So far in 2024, the U.S. and Mexican governments have deported 20,018 citizens of Guatemala back to their country by air, more than 5,000 above the total at the same time in 2023. The United States has returned 18,437 people on 154 flights, while Mexico has returned 1,632 on 15 flights.

• “EE.UU. Y Mexico Han Deportado Mas de 20.000 Guatemaltecos en Lo Que Va de 2024” (EFE, Yahoo!, March 21, 2024).

Mexico’s government reached an agreement with Venezuela’s government to facilitate aerial deportations of Venezuelan citizens back to Caracas. As part of the deal, some of Mexico’s largest corporations, would employ Venezuelan deportees, paying them a “stipend” of US$110 per month for a six-month period. “We’re sending Venezuelans back to their country because we really cannot handle these quantities,” said Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena.

• Maya Averbuch, “Mexico to Offer Venezuelans Jobs, $660 Stipend to Return Home” (Bloomberg, March 21, 2024).
• “Mexico Agrees With Venezuela to Send Back Migrants” (Agence France Presse, Barron’s, March 21, 2024).
• Ana Isabel Martinez, “Mexico Reaches Agreement With Venezuela to Deport Migrants” (Reuters, Reuters, March 21, 2024).

Criminals have kidnapped a group of 95 Ecuadorian migrants in the Pacific coastal region of Chiapas, Mexico’s southernmost state.

• IsaÍn Mandujano, “Denuncian el Plagio de 95 Migrantes en la Frontera Con Chiapas” (Proceso (Mexico), March 21, 2024).
• Jhonatan Gonzalez, “Despliegan Operativo para Ecuatorianos Secuestrados en Chiapas” (Milenio (Mexico), March 21, 2024).

Federal authorities arrested a historic leader of the MS-13 gang at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego on March 7.

• Richard Winton, “Ms-13 Leader, One of Fbi’s Most Wanted Fugitives, Arrested at California-Mexico Border” (The Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2024).

On the Right

• Joe Earley, “Securing the Border: America’s Priority Number One” (The American Conservative, March 22, 2024).
• Greg Sindelar, Troy Nehls, “Venezuela Won’t Take Its Criminals Back. So Why Does Biden Keep Taking Them?” (The Hill, March 21, 2024).

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Developments

This morning the congressional appropriations committees made public the text of the 2024 Homeland Security appropriations bill, one of six budget bills that Congress needs to pass by Friday to avert a government shutdown.

• “Appropriations Committees Release Second FY24 Package” (U.S. House of Representatives, March 21, 2024).
• “Conference Report on Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2024” (U.S. House of Representatives, March 21, 2024).
• Aidan Quigley, “Final Spending Package Unveiled, Countdown to Recess Begins” (Roll Call, March 21, 2024).

The legislation provides the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with $61.8 billion for fiscal year 2024, which is nearly half over—DHS has been operating at 2023 funding levels. Provisions include:

• A $3.1 billion increase in Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) budget, to $19.6 billion.
• $496 million to sustain 22,000 Border Patrol agents. (As of the 4th quarter of 2022, Border Patrol had 19,359 agents; reaching 22,000 has been more an issue of attrition and recruitment challenges than lack of budget.)
• $19 million to hire 150 new CBP officers at ports of entry.
• Funding for 41,500 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds, which is 7,500 above the 2023 level and the amount in the Republican-majority House of Representatives’ version of the bill.
• $650 million to fund state and local governments’ efforts, usually funding NGOs, to receive recently released asylum seekers and other migrants through FEMA’s Shelter and Services Program (SSP). This is probably similar to 2023 levels, depending on whether CBP would transfer additional money for the SSP’s activities as it did last year.
• “Up to an additional $2.2 billion is available to ensure that asylum seekers are processed quickly, ports and other border facilities are not overcrowded, and Border Patrol has the tools it needs to improve border security,” reads a release from Senate appropriators.
• There is no money in the bill for additional border wall construction. Congress rejected the administration’s $165 million request for a third joint processing center for apprehended migrants.

• “BILL SUMMARY: Homeland Security Fiscal Year 2024 Appropriations Bill” (U.S. Senate, March 21, 2024).
• Aidan Quigley, “Scramble to Finish Spending Bill Text Is on as Details Start Trickling Out” (Roll Call, March 20, 2024).

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held a hearing to consider whether to maintain a stay on Texas’s controversial migration restriction law, S.B. 4, which is currently on hold as appeals of legal challenges continue (see yesterday’s border links). The three judges in yesterday’s proceedings were a Biden nominee, a Trump nominee, and a George W. Bush nominee.

It is unclear how the panel will decide on whether to allow Texas to implement S.B. 4 while appeals proceed, or when that decision might come. Judges’ comments during the hearing indicated clear disagreements.

The law would allow state law enforcement to arrest people suspected of migrating from Mexico into Texas without authorization, and to imprison them if they do not agree to allow Texas authorities to deport them into Mexico. Texas state lawyers said that the state does not plan to carry out its own deportations—Mexico refuses to accept non-federal deportees—but instead to turn captured migrants over to CBP personnel at ports of entry. But the Biden administration’s DHS has declared that it would not cooperate with enforcement of S.B. 4, a law that it is challenging in court.

Texas lawyers sought to argue that S.B. 4 aims to work within the framework of a 2012 Supreme Court decision striking down an Arizona immigration-restriction law. While the hearing was ongoing, though, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) gave remarks arguing that the law instead reflects the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissenting opinion in that 2012 ruling.

The appeals court will hold another hearing on April 3 about S.B. 4’s overall legality (not just the question of whether it can be implemented during appeals).

• J. David Goodman, “Appeals Court Considers Reviving Texas Migrant Law, Now on Hold” (The New York Times, March 20, 2024).
• Maria Sacchetti, Nick Miroff, “Texas Officials Ask Appeals Court to Allow State Immigration Crackdown” (The Washington Post, March 20, 2024).
• Lindsay Whitehurst, Valerie Gonzalez, “Court Action on Texas’ Migrant Arrest Law Leads to Confusion at the Us-Mexico Border” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 20, 2024).
• Arelis R. Hernandez, Patrick Svitek, “Texas Immigration Law Is on Hold. But the Confusion Is Still Mounting.” (The Washington Post, March 20, 2024).
• Valerie Gonzalez, “Anticipation and Anger on Texas Border as Strict Immigration Law Again on Hold” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 20, 2024).
• Bernd Debusmann Jr, Brandon Drenon, “Appeals Court Split on Strict Texas Immigration Law” (BBC (UK), March 20, 2024).
• Josh Gerstein, Kierra Frazier, “Texas Urges Appeals Court to Reinstate Immigration Law After Supreme Court Ruling” (Politico, March 20, 2024).
• Mattathias Schwartz, “Appeals Court Shaped by Trump Is at Center of Texas Border Debate” (The New York Times, March 20, 2024).
• Kevin Mcgill, “Texas Immigration Ruling Puts Spotlight on Nation’s Most Conservative Federal Appeals Court” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 20, 2024).
• Colleen Long, “Texas Wants to Arrest Immigrants in the Country Illegally. Why Would That Be Such a Major Shift?” (Associated Press, Associated Press, March 20, 2024).
• Eleanor Dearman, “Border Control or Racial Profiling? What Changes if Tx Immigration Law Goes Into Effect” (The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, March 20, 2024).
• David Gomez Jr., “Laredo Leaders on sb4 Confusion, Mexico’s Response and Racial Profiling” (The Laredo Morning Times (Laredo Texas), March 20, 2024).
• Michael Collins, “Joe Biden Landed in Texas in Middle of a Chaotic Border Mess. Here’s What You Should Know” (USA Today, March 21, 2024).

Immigration judges have thrown out about 200,000 deportation cases during the Biden administration “because the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hadn’t filed the required Notice to Appear (NTA) with the Court by the time of the scheduled hearing,” according to documentary evidence obtained by TRAC Immigration. “In three-quarters of these 200,000 cases the immigrant was effectively left in legal limbo without any way to pursue asylum or other means of relief,” TRAC’s analysis notes.

• “200,000 Immigration Court Cases Dismissed Because Dhs Failed to File Paperwork” (TRAC Immigration, March 20, 2024).

The DHS Inspector-General reported on unannounced July 2023 inspection visits to CBP holding facilities in Texas’s Rio Grande Valley. Though this was a moment of relatively less migration—the post-Title 42 lull—the agency’s investigators found Border Patrol routinely holding migrants at processing centers for more than the 72-hour limit set by policy.

• “Results of July 2023 Unannounced Inspections of Cbp Holding Facilities in the Rio Grande Valley Area” (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, March 20, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

With its migration policies—its cooperation on blocking northbound migrants, its response to Texas’s S.B. 4 law—the government of Mexico has leverage over U.S. election outcomes, argue analyses by Washington Post columnist Eduardo Porter and Los Angeles Times reporter Patrick McDonnell.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned S.B. 4 as “dehumanizing” during his morning press conference yesterday. Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena said that the law could cause “phenomenal chaos.”

• Eduardo Porter, “Will Mexico’s President Change the Course of U.S. Elections?” (The Washington Post, March 21, 2024).
• Patrick J. Mcdonnell, “‘Dehumanizing’: Mexico’s President Lashes Out Over Texas Immigration Law” (The Los Angeles Times, March 20, 2024).
• Angel Hernandez, “Ley sb4 Generaria Caos al Sentar Precedente: Martha Barcena” (Milenio (Mexico), March 20, 2024).

At the Darién Gap, the New York Times covered visits from right-wing social media influencers, who interview migrants at posts on the Panamanian end of the trail, often taking their statements out of context in order to make them appear more threatening. Their videos focus on single male, Muslim, and Chinese migrants.

• Ken Bensinger, “Chasing Clicks in the Jungle: Right-Wing Influencers Descend on the Darien Gap” (The New York Times, March 20, 2024).

At the Los Angeles Times, Andrea Castillo reported on vulnerable Democratic legislators’ recent tendency to vote for harder-line Republican border and migration legislation in order to stave off conservative attacks.

• Andrea Castillo, “Border Security Is Swaying Some California Democrats — and Could Sway Control of Congress” (The Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2024).

The Republican governors of Texas and California were far more moderate on immigration issues twenty years ago, noted an analysis at Time from University of Houston Professor Brandon Rottinghaus, which narrates the party’s rightward lurch.

• Brandon Rottinghaus, “How Republicans Learned to Love Tough Immigration Rhetoric” (University of Houston, Time, March 20, 2024).

On the Right

• Ingrid Jacques, “Trump and Biden Keep Blaming Each Other. But Voters Want Solutions, Not Chaos at Border.” (USA Today, March 21, 2024).
• Nolan Rappaport, “Biden Isn’t Meeting America’s Immigration Needs With His ‘Lawful Pathways’” (The Hill, March 20, 2024).

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