February 15, 2024

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Developments

Numerous news analyses yesterday, and a memo to colleagues from Senate Democratic “border deal” negotiator Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut), argue that a Democratic House candidate’s victory in a February 13 New York special election offers a “roadmap,” “playbook,” or “blueprint” for the Democratic Party to address border security and migration during the 2024 campaign cycle.

Candidate Tom Suozzi, they argue, neutralized Republican attacks and won by leaning into some of the asylum and migration restrictions and increased border policing foreseen in budget legislation that fell to Republican opposition on February 7. At the same time, Suozzi called for more legal migration pathways.

• Benjy Sarlin, David Weigel, Joseph Zeballos-Roig, “Democrats Think They’ve Found a Winning Border Message” (Semafor, February 15, 2024).
• Carl Hulse, “How Senate Democrats Flipped the Border Issue on Republicans” (The New York Times, February 14, 2024).
• Colby Itkowitz, Hannah Knowles, Michael Scherer, “Democrats See 2024 Blueprint in n.Y. Election That Centered on Immigration” (The Washington Post, February 14, 2024).
• Billy House, “Suozzi’s New York Win Gives Democrats Playbook for Border Battle“ (Bloomberg, February 14, 2024).
• Shane Goldmacher, “In New York Win, Democrats Sense a Pivot on Immigration and Border Politics” (The New York Times, February 14, 2024).
• “Joseph Zeballos-Roig @Josephzeballos on Twitter” (Twitter, February 14, 2024).

“Roses are red, violets are blue, the border deal was crushed because of you,” read an official White House tweet in the design of a Valentine’s Day message.

• “The White House @WhiteHouse on Twitter“ (Twitter, February 14, 2024).

Advocates for human rights and immigration reform worry that the Democrats’ strategic shift may normalize the “border deal” text’s provisions denying people a chance to ask for protection on U.S. soil, as laid out in U.S. law and the Refugee Convention, and expelling them into Mexico instead.

• Ally Mutnick, Madison Fernandez, Nicholas Wu, “Some Democrats See an Immigration Blueprint in Ny Win. Progressives Are Worried.” (Politico, February 14, 2024).

On February 12, after the “border deal’s” failure, the Senate passed a measure to fund Ukraine, Israel, and other foreign priorities with no border or migration content included. In the House, the thin Republican majority’s leadership is refusing to bring the measure up for consideration because it now has no border language in it. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has called for a meeting with President Biden to discuss adding border and migration measures to the bill. The White House flatly refused.

• Alexandra Hutzler, Justin Gomez, Lauren Peller, “White House Rejects Johnson’s Requests to Meet With Biden: ‘What Is There to Negotiate?’” (ABC News, February 14, 2024).
• Brett Samuels, “White House Rebuffs Johnson Request for Meeting With Biden: ‘What Is There to Negotiate?’” (The Hill, February 14, 2024).
• “Mica Soellner @Micasoellnerdc on Twitter” (Twitter, February 14, 2024).

The Huffington Post revealed internal Border Patrol emails and text messages showing agents’ continued widespread use of the slur “tonk” to refer to migrants. The agency’s management failed to curb agents’ use of a word that reportedly refers to the sound that their heavy utility flashlights make when hitting a migrant’s head.

• Roque Planas, “Uncovered Emails Show Widespread Use of Racial Slur by Government Agency” (The Huffington Post, February 14, 2024).

In Mexico’s organized crime-heavy border state of Tamaulipas, Doctors Without Borders documented a 70 percent increase, from October to January, in consultations for sexual assault among the migrants the organization has treated in Matamoros and Reynosa.

• Carlos Manuel Juarez, “Consultas por Agresiones Sexuales Contra Migrantes Aumentan 70% en Matamoros y Reynosa, Revela Medicos Sin Fronteras” (Elefante Blanco (Mexico), February 14, 2024).

At least four people died along the Caribbean coast of Panama’s Darién Gap region after a boat carrying about 25 migrants shipwrecked in rough seas.

• “Naufragio en Zona del Darien Deja Migrantes Muertos y Desaparecidos” (Agence France Presse, Primicias (Ecuador), February 14, 2024).

A federal court in Austin will hear arguments today in the Biden administration’s lawsuit against Texas’s state law empowering local law enforcement to arrest and imprison migrants for improperly crossing the border. S.B. 4 will go into effect on March 5. The district judge in the case is David Ezra, a Reagan appointee who ruled months ago that Texas’s “buoy wall” in the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass was not legal.

• J. David Goodman, “A Legal Showdown on the Border Between the U.S. and Texas: What to Know” (The New York Times, February 15, 2024).

As House Republicans’ impeachment of Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas heads to the Senate, the New York Times reported that the Democratic-majority chamber, which is certain to acquit Mayorkas, will pursue a fast, truncated, low-profile process. At Just Security four legal scholars offered a roadmap for how the Senate could quickly dismiss the Mayoras case.

• Karoun Demirjian, “Senate Looks to Quickly Reject Mayorkas Impeachment Charges in Speedy Trial” (The New York Times, February 14, 2024).
• Amit Jain, Joshua Matz, Laurence H. Tribe, Michael J. Gerhardt, “Why and How the Senate Should Swiftly Dismiss the Impeachment Charges Against Mayorkas” (Harvard University, Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP, University of North Carolina School of Law, Just Security, February 14, 2024).
• Philip Bump, “The Contrived Mayorkas Impeachment Checked Three Gop Boxes” (The Washington Post, February 14, 2024).
• Al Weaver, Rebecca Beitsch, “Mayorkas Impeachment Headed Toward Senate Graveyard” (The Hill, February 14, 2024).

Rep. Mark Green (R-Tennessee), who as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee managed the Mayorkas impeachment, announced that he will not seek re-election this year.

• Catie Edmondson, “Republican Who Oversaw Mayorkas Impeachment Will Not Seek Re-Election” (The New York Times, February 14, 2024).

The migration authority director of Guatemala, which inaugurated a new government last month, is paying a visit to the United States. The Guatemalan Migration Institute’s (IGM) Stuard Rodríguez met with Assistant Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner for International Affairs James Collins and will visit a CBP detention facility and operations center in Tucson, Arizona.

• Cristobal Veliz, “Comisionado de Aduanas y Proteccion de Fronteras de Ee. Uu. Se Reune Con Director de Migracion” (La Hora (Guatemala), February 15, 2024).

Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-Texas), whose district encompasses hundreds of miles of rural west Texas border, alleged in Newsweek that migration declined in January because “the cartels are trying to carry the Biden administration” and Mexico’s government for “a couple rounds” as elections approach in both countries.

• Alex J. Rouhandeh, Nick Mordowanec, “Mexican Cartels Are Helping Biden With Border: Texas Republican” (Newsweek, February 14, 2024).