August 27, 2024

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Developments

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas met yesterday in Cartagena, Colombia with the foreign ministers of Colombia and Panama to discuss greater cooperation to manage migration through the Darién Gap, a treacherous jungle region through which about a million people have migrated since 2022.

The three nations committed to more repatriations (like U.S.-funded flights that Panama has begun to operate); greater information sharing; more dialogue and coordination; more development aid for communities along the migration route; more efforts to integrate migrants; and “a plan of action with concrete and realistic steps to strengthen Colombian and Panamanian state presence along their shared border.” The officials did not specify what those concrete steps would be.

• “Joint Statement: Trilateral on Irregular Migration” (Department of Homeland Security, August 26, 2024).
• Alejandro N. Mayorkas, “Secretary Mayorkas Delivers Remarks at the Third Trilateral Meeting” (Department of Homeland Security, August 26, 2024).
• “Colombia Respalda Politica de Deportacion de Migrantes de Panama y Eu” (Agence France Presse, Milenio (Mexico), August 26, 2024).

The Ciudad Juárez-based human rights group Comprehensive Human Rights in Action (DHIA) revealed that for months, officials from Mexico’s migration agency (National Immigration Institute, INM) have been detaining migrants who arrive in the border city’s airport and placing them on buses bound for Villahermosa, Tabasco, in Mexico’s far south. Unaccompanied children were among those placed on the buses, in clear violation of government policy and human rights, DHIA alleged.

• Teofilo Alvarado, “Violento Inm a Ninos Migrantes Que Llegan a Juarez, los Regresa al Sur Mediante Procesos Sumarios: Abogada” (Norte (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), August 26, 2024).

As repression intensifies in Venezuela following the Nicolás Maduro regime’s illegitimate claim to have won July 28 presidential elections, video posted to Twitter appeared to show a long line of Venezuelans leaving the country along the border with Brazil.

• “Alerta Mundial @Alertamundonews on Twitter” (Twitter, August 26, 2024).

Diplomats from Bolivia and Chile met to discuss border cooperation ahead of a possible new post-election wave of people fleeing Venezuela.

• Roberto Martinez, ““Controlar Flujos Migratorios”: La Reunion Entre Chile y Bolivia para Definir Estrategias de Cooperacion Ante Crisis de Venezuela” (La Tercera (Chile), August 26, 2024).

The chief of police of the Mexican border state of Chihuahua said that his department has received reports from U.S. counterparts warning that members of Tren de Aragua, Venezuela’s largest organized crime group, have passed through the state en route to the United States.

• Julian Resendiz, “Chihuahua Police Chief on Alert, Cooperating With U.S. Authorities to Keep Tabs on Gang Members” (Border Report, August 26, 2024).

A Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas has suspended a Biden administration initiative that would offer a pathway to residency and citizenship for up to half a million undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. The temporary restraining order responds to a lawsuit brought by 16 Republican state attorneys-general, led by Texas and America First Legal, the hard-line litigation outfit managed by former Trump immigration advisor Stephen Miller. Similar Republican coalitions have challenged other Biden pro-immigration initiatives before the federal judiciary’s conservative Fifth Circuit, with mixed success.

• Hamed Aleaziz, Miriam Jordan, Serge F. Kovaleski, “Judge Pauses Biden Administration Program That Aids Undocumented Spouses” (The New York Times, August 26, 2024).
• Valerie Gonzalez, “Judge in Texas Orders Pause on Biden Program That Offers Legal Status to Spouses of Us Citizens” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 26, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

A Texas Observer investigation revealed that the state’s Department of Public Safety has entered into a five-year, $5.3 million contract to use “Tangles,” a controversial AI-powered surveillance software platform that the agency first employed along the border for the state government’s “Operation Lone Star” security crackdown. The software essentially allows authorities to track the location of a person’s cellphone without obtaining a judicial warrant, using mobile advertising identification data.

• Francesca D’annunzio, “Texas State Police Gear Up for Massive Expansion of Surveillance Tech” (The Texas Observer, August 26, 2024).

Border Report noted that a bridge that Border Patrol has been constructing over the Tijuana River, which flows out of the Mexican border city into U.S. territory, could cause flooding in downtown Tijuana “if agents fail to open the gates fast enough during a storm or in the event of a malfunction.”

• Salvador Rivera, “Border Patrol Bridge Project Over Tijuana River Criticized as ‘Boondoggle’” (Border Report, August 26, 2024).

“Trump-style immigration restrictions have gone mainstream among 2024 voters,” concluded a grim analysis of public opinion about immigration by Nicole Narea at Vox. “More voters of all stripes now want to see immigration levels decrease than at any point since the early 2000s, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks fueled a rise in nativism.”

• Nicole Narea, “What Immigration Policies Do Americans Actually Want?” (Vox, August 27, 2024).

On the Right

• Thomas Homan, “Democrats Lie Big About Our Border Crisis. Compare Senate and House Bills for Proof” (Fox News, August 26, 2024).
• Conn Carroll, “The Democratic Party’s Secret Border Deal With Mexico” (The Washington Examiner, August 26, 2024).
• Chris Nesi, Jennie Taer, “Exclusive | Brutal Venezuelan Gang Violence Spills Into Quiet Suburb From the Sanctuary City Next Door— Despite Efforts to Keep Migrants Out” (The New York Post, August 26, 2024).