August 13, 2024

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Developments

Mexico’s northern border state of Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juárez, has seen a considerable decrease in migration flows but an increase in the number of migrants whom criminals are kidnapping or otherwise targeting for extortion, said the state government’s public security secretary.

• Mauricio Rodriguez, “Disminuye Flujo Migratorio, Pero Aumentan Secuestros a Personas en Movilidad:Sspe” (Norte (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), August 12, 2024).

On the Texas and New Mexico sides of the border, meanwhile, Border Patrol’s El Paso Sector is on pace to record a record number of migrant deaths despite recent months’ lower migration levels; Border Patrol’s count of recovered remains stood at 140 in July. Reporting from Yuma about humanitarian volunteers’ efforts to prevent deaths, Arizona’s Family noted yesterday that “at least 90 undocumented border crossers have died this year attempting to cross into the Arizona desert.”

• Alexandra Rangel, “At the Us-Mexico Border, Volunteers Leave Water Along Migrant Routes to Save Lives” (Arizona’s Family, August 12, 2024).

The commissioner of Mexico’s migration agency (National Migration Institute, INM), Francisco Garduño, remains on trial, facing criminal charges for the March 27, 2023 fire in a Ciudad Juárez INM detention facility that killed 40 migrants locked inside. Yesterday, a judge in Ciudad Juárez denied Garduño’s lawyers’ request for conditional suspension of the proceedings against him. It was his legal team’s fourth unsuccessful attempt to have the case dismissed. Dozens of protesters had gathered outside the courtroom.

• Jose Estrada, “Reves a Garduno: Declaran Improcedente su Solicitud de Suspension Condicional de Proceso” (Norte (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), August 12, 2024).

Migrant rights defenders in San Diego told Border Report that they have seen a sharp drop in the number of asylum seekers waiting to be processed at the border wall since the Biden administration’s June 5 rule banning asylum access for most migrants between ports of entry. The hot summer weather is also a factor slowing migration at the moment, said Pedro Ríos of American Friends Service Committee.

• Salvador Rivera, “Advocates ‘Definitely Seeing Fewer Migrants’ Crossing Border” (Border Report, August 12, 2024).

More than a dozen Border Patrol agents interviewed by the Washington Examiner said they would “never” vote for Kamala Harris “because they do not view her as supportive of the organization and its congressionally mandated mission.” One told reporter Anna Giaritelli, “We are screwed as a country if she becomes president. The border will never close.”

• Anna Giaritelli, “‘Never’ Harris: Border Patrol Agents Divulge How They Feel About Kamala” (The Washington Examiner, August 12, 2024).

Despite this, the Harris campaign has been promising, including in advertisements, to increase hiring of “thousands” of Border Patrol agents. Asked by a Fox News reporter about this pledge, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre blamed Republicans for blocking the Biden administration from funding the hiring of more agents. (The 2024 Homeland Security budget provides funding for a force of 22,000 agents, which is nearly 3,000 more than Border Patrol’s current staffing.)

• Alex Gangitano, “Harris Campaign Touts Border Record in New Ad” (The Hill, August 12, 2024).
• Greg Wehner, “White House Claims Harris’ Push for Thousands of Border Patrol Agents Not New, Blames Republicans” (Fox News, August 12, 2024).

Repeating his false claim that Venezuela’s authoritarian regime has sent criminals to migrate to the United States, Donald Trump told Elon Musk in a Twitter Spaces interview that Venezuela is now so safe that he might relocate there if he loses the November presidential election.

• Flynn Nicholls, “Donald Trump Says He Will Flee to Venezuela if He Loses Election” (Newsweek, August 12, 2024).

A Pew Research Center poll found 83 percent of U.S. respondents, including 76 percent of those identifying as Democrats, judging that the U.S. government is “doing a bad job dealing with migrants at the border.” Two thirds said that the Mexican government is also doing a bad job. Mexicans held more approving views of both migration policy and the United States in general.

• Jacob Poushter, Jordan Lippert, Sarah Austin, “How Mexicans and Americans View Each Other and Their Governments’ Handling of the Border” (Pew Research Center, August 12, 2024).

A NOTUS investigation raised concerns that those aboard a recent deportation flight to China, most of them likely people apprehended at the border, may have included members of Muslim ethnic groups, like Uyghurs and Kazakhs, facing “genocide.” Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and National Security Council (NSC) officials were repeatedly unresponsive to reporters’ inquiries.

• Haley Byrd Wilt, “Are New Border Policies Deporting People Facing Genocide? The Biden Administration Won’t Say.” (NOTUS, August 12, 2024).

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is about to deploy a tethered surveillance blimp just west of the Santa Teresa, New Mexico port of entry, a short drive from El Paso, local legislators told Border Report.

• Julian Resendiz, “New Aerostat to Watch Over Deadly Migrant Smuggling Corridor” (Border Report, August 12, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

At Voice of San Diego, Kate Morrissey visited Casita de U.T., a Tijuana migrant shelter housing trans women, all of them victims of violence, now waiting for CBP One appointments at the San Ysidro port of entry. The San Diego-Tijuana organization Al Otro Lado has supported a photography workshop to help them tell their stories during their months-long wait.

• Kate Morrissey, “Border Report: Trans Women Seeking Asylum Capture Their Stories in Tijuana” (Voice of San Diego, August 12, 2024).

By exacerbating problems caused by the authoritarian regime’s economic mismanagement, Trump-era sanctions on Venezuela’s oil sector increased migration from the country, some of it to the United States, argued Isabela Dias in Mother Jones, adding to a finding reported in the July 26 Washington Post.

• Isabela Dias, “Trump May Demonize Migration From Venezuela, but He Helped Fuel It” (Mother Jones, August 13, 2024).

Also at Mother Jones, Mark Follman spoke to security experts concerned that Donald Trump’s “migrant invasion at the border” rhetoric could trigger disturbed individuals or white-supremacist groups to commit acts of violence.

• Mark Follman, “How Trump’s Campaign of Hatred Against Migrant “Invaders” Is Fueling Potential Violence” (Mother Jones, August 12, 2024).