Long-form information produced by WOLA
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.
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.
Published by WOLA on March 29, 2023.
A response to the March 27, 2023 tragedy in a migrant detention facility in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
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.
Published by WOLA on February 17, 2023.
Should Title 42 end, the Biden administration may reject asylum seekers using a “transit ban” and expedited removal procedures, if Mexico takes deportees. The blow would be softened by two currently flawed programs, humanitarian parole and use of the “CBP One” app.
Published by WOLA on January 5, 2023.
A reaction to the Biden administration’s expansion of the scope of Title 42 expulsions into Mexico.
Published by WOLA on December 20, 2022.
As an expected end date for Title 42 looms amid high-court actions, WOLA briefly lays out five reasons why prolonging the pandemic policy would do harm.
Published by WOLA on December 15, 2022.
A field research update, with embedded video, based on conversations with asylum-seeking migrants, many of them Venezuelan, stranded in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.
Published by WOLA on December 6, 2022.
A report back from a mid-November visit to the border, from El Paso to Yuma. Focused on the challenges faced by protection-seeking migrants and the possible termination of Title 42.
Published by WOLA on November 18, 2022.
What to expect following a U.S. district judge’s November 15 decision overturning the Title 42 pandemic expulsions policy.
Published by WOLA on October 19, 2022.
WOLA staff discuss the latest trends in migration to the United States and the consequences of the U.S. focus on reducing the number of migrants arriving at the border.
Published by World Politics Review on October 12, 2022.
The drastically changed profile of migration requires a much different response at the U.S.-Mexico border, argues WOLA’s Adam Isacson.
Published by WOLA on June 23, 2022.
A discussion of Latin America’s historic current levels of migration, commitments made at the Summit of the Americas, and what WOLA staff have seen during recent fieldwork at the U.S.-Mexico and Mexico-Guatemala borders.
Published by WOLA on June 2, 2022.
Report on a March 2022 research visit to Tapachula, near Mexico’s border with Guatemala, where large numbers of asylum-seeking migrants are stranded by U.S. and Mexican policies.
Published by WOLA on May 23, 2022.
A look at what might happen next, now that a Louisiana judge has kept the Title 42 expulsions policy in place past its expected termination date.
Published by the Washington Office on Latin America on May 18, 2022.
Notes from an early May visit to San Diego and Tijuana as the border prepares for a possible lifting of the Title 42 pandemic restriction on asylum.
Published by WOLA on April 5, 2022.
A brief report from fieldwork at the Texas-Mexico border finds that Title 42 has been a boon to the cartels that control much of daily life on the Mexican side of the border.
Published by WOLA on March 31, 2022.
A look at what might happen after the Title 42 expulsion policy’s scheduled late-May end, and how to put together an orderly asylum process.
Published by WOLA on February 17, 2022.
Aboard the Biden administration’s 198th flight deporting or expelling people to Haiti was the 20,000th migrant sent back to the Caribbean nation since Inauguration Day 2021.
Published by WOLA on September 9, 2021.
A reaction to Mexican security and immigration forces’ harsh response to asylum-seeking migrants’ efforts to leave the country’s southern border zone.
Published by WOLA on August 5, 2021.
Details the impact of Title 42 expulsions and other asylum-denial policies, and presents the outlines of a new approach to persistently high levels of protection-seeking migration at the border.
Published by WOLA on July 9, 2021.
Following fieldwork at the border, an interview with former WOLA director Joy Olson about the Biden administration’s policy trajectory.
Published by WOLA on March 23, 2021.
An explanation of Mexico’s growing asylum system, obstacles to protection in Mexico, and how the United States can help.
Published by WOLA on March 17, 2021.
Amid increasing arrivals of migrants at the border, an explanation of trends and recommendations for next steps.
Published by WOLA on February 18, 2021.
Recommendations for a bilateral approach to the controversial Trump-era program’s end.
