August 23, 2024

Adam Isacson

Director for Defense Oversight

Adam Isacson has worked on defense, security, and peacebuilding in Latin America since 1994. He now directs WOLA’s Defense Oversight...

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Developments

In her convention speech accepting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, Vice President Kamala Harris called for more border security—including passage of a bill that would cement asylum restrictions in place—along with increased legal pathways for migrants. Here is the relevant text:

let me be clear, after decades in law enforcement, I know the importance of safety and security, especially at our border. Last year, Joe and I brought together Democrats and conservative Republicans to write the strongest border bill in decades. The Border Patrol endorsed it. But Donald Trump believes a border deal would hurt his campaign, so he ordered his allies in Congress to kill the deal.

Well, I refuse to play politics with our security, and here is my pledge to you. As president, I will bring back the bipartisan border security bill that he killed, and I will sign it into law. I know — I know we can live up to our proud heritage as a nation of immigrants and reform our broken immigration system. We can create an earned pathway to citizenship and secure our border.

“Full Transcript of Kamala Harris’s Democratic Convention Speech” (The New York Times, August 23, 2024).

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump visited the border in Cochise County, southeastern Arizona, where he met with local law enforcement and representatives of the Border Patrol agents’ union. At an hour-long press conference, the ex-president drew attention to crimes committed by migrants, featuring some victims’ relatives. Trump falsely portrayed Kamala Harris as being a “border czar” who favored open borders, and inaccurately accused the Biden administration of allowing 20 million migrants to enter the United States.

(CBP’s migrant encounters at the border totaled about 8.2 million during the Biden administration, and about 4.1 or 4.2 million releases into the U.S. interior. Another 520,000 Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan citizens entered—at airports, not the border—after applying for humanitarian parole.)

Standing between a tall stretch of border wall and a pile of unused steel beams, the new president of the Border Patrol agents’ union, Paul Perez, said, “To my right is what we call Trump wall. This was wall that was built under President Trump. To my left, we have what we call Kamala wall. It’s just sitting there doing nothing, lying down.”

Adriana Gomez Licon, Jonathan J. Cooper, “Trump Uses a Stretch of Border Wall and a Pile of Steel Beams in Arizona to Contrast With Democrats” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 22, 2024).
Rebecca Picciotto, “Trump’s Arizona Trip Keeps Immigration Front-and-Center, as Democrats Sharpen Border Messaging” (CNBC, NBC 5 Chicago, August 23, 2024).
Kelsey Walsh, Lalee Ibssa, Soo Rin Kim, “Trump Slams Harris on Immigration During Border Visit in Battleground Arizona” (ABC News, August 22, 2024).
Peter Valencia, “Fact-Checking Donald Trump’s Visit to the Arizona-Mexico Border” (Arizona’s Family, August 22, 2024).
Anna Giaritelli, “Crime Victim Families Endorse Trump at Border: ‘He Needs to Be in Office’” (The Washington Examiner, August 22, 2024).
“Trump Visits Border Wall in Arizona, Trades Accusations With Democrats on Immigration Policy” (CBS News, August 22, 2024).
“Trump Drags Harris Over Border Policy as She Readies Acceptance Speech” (Politico, August 22, 2024).
Shelby Slade, Stephanie Murray, “Where Is Donald Trump Today? Here’s What to Know About His Visit to Border, Arizona Rally” (The Arizona Republic, August 22, 2024).

Roll Call noted that the former president’s remarks often wandered away from the border and migration issue. While on site, Trump abruptly ended an interview with NewsNation reporter Ali Bradley, who had just asked him about the July assassination attempt in Pennsylvania: “We’re in danger standing here talking. So let’s not talk any longer.”

John T. Bennett, “Trump Jumps Off Script Right From the Start of Event at Border Wall” (Roll Call, August 22, 2024).
Ali Bradley, Jeff Arnold, “‘We’re in danger here’: Trump whisked away from NewsNation interview“ (NewsNation, August 22, 2024).

An expansion of the CBP One smartphone app’s geographic coverage goes into effect today, allowing asylum seekers to make appointments at U.S.-Mexico border ports of entry while in Mexico’s southern-border states of Chiapas and Tabasco. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has not expanded daily appointments beyond the current 1,450 per day, even as new asylum access restrictions have made the app most migrants’ only path to the U.S. asylum system at the border.

Edgar H. Clemente, Maria Verza, “Us Expands Area in Mexico to Apply for Border Asylum Appointments, Hoping to Slow Push North” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 23, 2024).

A letter from numerous U.S. and Mexican civil society organizations, organized by the Mexico-based Institute for Women in Migration (IMUMI), called on Mexico’s government to do far more to protect and accommodate people awaiting CBP One appointments. “People await appointments in Mexico’s territory for up to 7 months,” the letter observed. “The extended stay has generated overcrowding in shelters…which, together with authorities’ failure to provide decent and safe spaces for waiting, has forced many people to settle in informal camps.”

“Civil Society Organizations and Human Rights Defenders Demand Security and Protection for People Awaiting Cbp One Appointments in Mexico” (Numerous organizations, IMUMI (Mexico), August 22, 2024).

Following a U.S.-backed deportation flight carrying 28 migrants to Colombia on August 20, Panama’s government announced that it will soon carry out removal flights to Ecuador (August 29), India (August 30), and China (September 3), along with additional flights to Colombia. All of those aboard the planes are migrants captured after walking for days through the treacherous Darién Gap jungle route.

Elida Moreno, “Panama Announces More Migrant Deportation Flights to Ecuador, India and China” (Reuters, Reuters, August 22, 2024).
“Los Migrantes Ecuatorianos Que Crucen el Darien Seran los Siguientes Deportados de Panama” (El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), August 22, 2024).

Four men and two women from Colombia were taken to a hospital “for varying levels of injury” after falling from the border wall near Otay Mesa, southeast of San Diego, local television news reported.

Danielle Dawson, “Six Migrants Taken to Hospital After Fall From Border Wall” (Fox 5 San Diego, August 22, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

In an article at the Texas Observer, Brian Elmore, an El Paso emergency medical physician who co-founded the Hope Border Institute’s Clínica Hope facility in Ciudad Juárez, vividly described what it is like trying to save lives in a sector of the border that has seen Border Patrol’s count of migrant deaths—mostly from heat exhaustion and dehydration—more than quadruple since 2021. “El Paso is witnessing the convergence of two deadly trends: climate change and border militarization,” Elmore wrote.

Brian Elmore, “In el Paso, a Migrant Death Crisis Emerges Amid Extreme Heat” (The Texas Observer, August 22, 2024).

Venezuelan migrants and Mexican shelter operators in Mexico’s northern border cities, especially Ciudad Juárez, told EFE that they fear an intensified exodus of Venezuelans following the Maduro regime’s illegitimate claim to have won July 28th presidential elections and subsequent political repression.

“Venezolanos en Frontera de Mexico Temen una Ola Migratoria” (EFE, Milenio (Mexico), August 22, 2024).

A UNHCR document reports that 63,672 citizens of Ecuador sought asylum in the United States between 2021 and 2023. Of 339 Ecuadorians the UN agency interviewed in countries along the U.S.-bound migration route, 63 percent said they were fleeing “generalized violence” and 56 percent said they were victims of violence.