Published by WOLA on October 3, 2024.
A brief set of principles and guidelines for the next U.S. administration’s border and migration policies.
Migration: Five Policies that Protect Human Rights and Human Dignity
96 Reports from WOLA
Long-form information produced by WOLA
Testimony of WOLA’s Adam Isacson Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Accountability Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs Hearing: “The Border Crisis: The Cost of Chaos”
Published by the U.S. House of Representatives on September 25, 2024.
Testimony delivered in a House hearing, centered on recent migration trends and reforms needed to the U.S. immigration and asylum systems. (Link at oversight.house.gov)
Soldiers Confronting Migrants: Texas’s Dangerous Precedent
Published by WOLA on September 13, 2024.
Calls for federal investigation into Texas National Guard use of force against migrants on the borderline.
Fewer Migrants, Greater Danger: The Impact of 2024’s Crackdowns
Published by WOLA on August 29, 2024.
Explains twelve trends marking U.S.-bound migration and the U.S.-Mexico border during the summer of 2024.
Migrants in Colombia: Between government absence and criminal control
Published by WOLA on June 20, 2024.
A report on migration, security, U.S. policy, and protection needs, based on fieldwork along Colombia’s borders with Ecuador and Panama.
The Futility of “Shutting Down Asylum” by Executive Action at the U.S.-Mexico Border
Published by WOLA on June 4, 2024.
Explains and contextualizes the Biden administration’s June 2024 executive actions curtailing asylum access at the border, in a Q&A format.
Why Is Migration Declining at the U.S.-Mexico Border in Early 2024?
Published by WOLA on April 18, 2024.
Seeks to explain the very atypical springtime lull in migration at the border in 2024. A crackdown in Mexico seems to be the main cause.
Kidnapping of Migrants and Asylum Seekers at the Texas-Tamaulipas Border Reaches Intolerable Levels
Published by WOLA on April 4, 2024.
An epidemic of migrant kidnappings and rapes in Tamaulipas, Mexico demands that CBP dramatically improve protection-seeking migrants’ access to ports of entry.
Five Questions and Answers About the Senate Border Deal
Published by WOLA on January 31, 2024.
A bill under negotiation in the Senate continues the tradition of attempting deterrence policies, even though the numbers show that this has failed
Podcast: Understanding Regional Migration in an Election Year
Published by WOLA on January 23, 2024.
A podcast about current migration trends at the U.S.-Mexico border and in the Americas.
The U.S. Needs Better, Not Less, Access To Asylum
Published by WOLA on December 18, 2023.
Report-back from a field visit to the Arizona-Sonora border, notes a humanitarian crisis and people having great difficulty accessing the U.S. asylum system.
Testimony of WOLA’s Adam Isacson Before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs Hearing: “The U.S. Border Crisis and the American Solution to an International Problem”
Published by the U.S. House of Representatives on November 30, 2023.
Testimony delivered in a House hearing, centered on recent migration trends and reforms needed to the U.S. immigration and asylum systems.
U.S. Congress Must Not Gut the Right to Asylum at a Time of Historic Need
Published by WOLA on November 14, 2023.
Warns that congressional Republicans’ border and migration demands, a condition for 2024 supplemental budget funds, could spell a historic end to the right to seek asylum in the United States.
Migration Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Blocked. But it Can be Managed.
Published by WOLA on October 12, 2023.
A statement recalling and highlighting some of the basic principles underlying WOLA’s border and migration work.
Podcast: Advocacy for Migrants at a Challenging Time: The View from Mexico
Published by WOLA on August 30, 2023.
Gretchen Kuhner directs the Mexico City-based Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI). She explains the challenges and complexities—and occasional advocacy successes—of the current moment of record migration and changing policies, viewed from Mexico.
Impunity in the Borderlands: A Conversation with WOLA’s Adam Isacson
Published by the Border Chronicle on August 24, 2023.
A interview covers WOLA’s August 2023 joint report on border law enforcement accountability with the Kino Border Initiative.
Abuses at the U.S.- Mexico Border: How To Address Failures and Protect Rights
Published by WOLA and the Kino Border Initiative on August 2, 2023.
Drawing heavily on this site’s database and the accountability work of the Nogales-based Kino Border Initiative, this in-depth report looks at the chronic nature of human rights abuse at the U.S.-Mexico border, how DHS’s accountability system is meant to work, and where it often fails. It offers more than 40 policy recommendations.
Texas’ plan to make crossing the Rio Grande more dangerous is inhumane
Published by MSNBC on July 19, 2023.
A column notes that Texas state authorities’ abuse of migrants happens in a context of larger national border policies that inflict suffering in order to “deter” migrants.
Halfway to the U.S.: A Report from Honduras on Migration
Published by WOLA on June 2, 2023.
A report back from a 10-day research trip in Honduras in late April and early May 2023. Discusses migrants transiting Honduras, Honduran migrants, assistance, and policies. (Resumen en español)
Here’s why the end of Title 42 wasn’t the nightmare Republicans said it would be
Published by MSNBC on May 17, 2023.
Explains that following the end of the Title 42 policy, migrants went into “wait and see mode” and numbers or arrivals at the border fell, contrary to many predictions.
10 Things to Know About the End of Title 42
Published by WOLA on May 9, 2023. (Español)
What might happen when the pandemic expulsions policy ends, how Title 42 changed migration, and what a better policy might look like.
Podcast: “We can’t deter our way out of this”: a view from the Honduras-Nicaragua border
Published by WOLA on May 1, 2023.
A podcast recorded by WOLA staff from Tegucigalpa, shortly after returning from two days at the Honduras-Nicaragua border at a time of very heavy migration in transit.
U.S. And Mexico Must End Policies That Expose Migrants to Death and Danger
Published by WOLA on March 29, 2023.
A response to the March 27, 2023 tragedy in a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Proposed Asylum “Transit Ban” Rule Violates Law, Endangers the Vulnerable, and Undermines U.S. Interests
Published by WOLA on March 22, 2023.
WOLA’s comment submitted on the Biden administration’s draft rule that would deny opportunities to apply for asylum to most migrants who passed through third countries en route to the U.S.-Mexico border.
CBP and Border Patrol Deadly Force Incidents Since 2020
Published by WOLA on March 8, 2023.
Raises 10 fatal cases since 2020, from this database, for which a reasonable doubt exists about whether deadly force was warranted.