August 8, 2024

Get daily links in your email

Developments

Panama’s migration authority deported, on a commercial flight, 28 Colombian citizens detained in the Darién Gap region. Eleven of them, the agency said, had criminal records in Colombia. The operation took place “in support of the U.S.-Panama memorandum of understanding,” read a statement, referring to the U.S. government’s recent commitment to help fund Panama’s increased deportations of migrants from the Darién.

• “Migracion Panama @Migracionpanama on Twitter” (Twitter, August 7, 2024).

The commander of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Laura Richardson, was in Panama for a two-day visit. Gen. Richardson met with Panama’s new president, José Raúl Mulino, “to discuss bilateral security cooperation and strategies to contain the unprecedented irregular migration through the Darién jungle.”

• “Jefa del Comando Sur de Eeuu Analiza Crisis de Venezuela Con el Presidente de Panama” (RFI / AFP, Tal Cual (Venezuela), August 7, 2024).

Panama’s border force reported arresting 15 people who allegedly helped smuggle Chinese migrants through the Darién Gap through a so-called “VIP route” that is more costly but involves less walking through the jungle (about two days).

• “Panama Capturo a Organizacion Que Traficaba Migrantes Chinos por la Selva del Darien” (Agence France Presse, El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), August 7, 2024).
• “Panama Arrests 15 People for Smuggling Chinese Migrants Through the Darien Gap” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 7, 2024).

Due to the Biden administration’s new asylum restrictions and Mexico’s crackdown on migrants in transit, Tijuana’s migrant shelters are well below capacity, municipal migration official Enrique Lucero told Border Report.

• Salvador Rivera, “Migrant Shelters in Tijuana Have Lots of Space Available” (Border Report, August 7, 2024).

Police in Mexico’s border state of Chihuahua encountered 10 migrants from Sudan and Morocco who had just been released by their criminal kidnappers after ransom was paid. They said they endured torture, and were taken to a shelter.

• Julian Resendiz, “Police Rescue Victims After 911 Call Alerting to Group Walking About ‘Erratically and in Deplorable Conditions’ Along a Highway” (Border Report, August 7, 2024).

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) installed a third layer of concertina wire barrier along the Rio Grande in El Paso, EFE reported. Pastor Francisco González of the Somos Uno por Juárez Shelter Network said that the additional barrier, by making crossing more complicated, “opens the door for the people who are dedicated to human trafficking, the so-called coyotes, to make a killing.”

• “Extienden Alambre de Puas por la Frontera Entre Estados Unidos y Mexico” (EFE, Milenio (Mexico), August 7, 2024).

As Venezuela’s regime deepens a crackdown following false claims of victory in July 28 elections, a leader of the country’s political opposition told the Miami Herald that a new wave of migrants fleeing the country is imminent.

• Antonio MarÍa Delgado, “Crisis About to Trigger Regional Flood of Refugees Out of Venezuela, Opposition Says” (The Miami Herald, August 8, 2024).

A “caravan” that departed Mexico’s southern border about three weeks ago is now in Mexico’s southern state of Oaxaca. Exhausted, many are receiving medical attention in the town of San Pedro Tapanatepec.

• Ramon Bragana, “Migrantes De “Caravana de Jesucristo” Reciben Atencion Medica Oaxaca” (Milenio (Mexico), August 7, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

Six national and border-region organizations released a new report on the human rights impact of the Biden administration’s June 5 rule restricting access to asylum at the border. The main finding is that U.S. border agents are frequently deporting people who express fear of return, even though the rule states that they are still entitled to credible fear interviews (though they now have to prove a much higher standard of fear).

Often, the report states, agents who refuse to honor fear claims are doing so with false and insulting statements. Examples include “there is no asylum anymore; we don’t care”; “there is no asylum and whatever happened to you is not our problem”; or “what if I went to your house and entered without permission? You’re entering my country without permission.”

• “‘Don’t Tell Me About Your Fear’” (Hope Border Institute, Human Rights First, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Kino Border Initiative, Raices, Refugees International, Human Rights First, August 7, 2024).

A New Yorker feature by Jack Herrera profiled Father Brian Strassburger, a Jesuit priest dedicated to assisting migrants in the violence-plagued border city of Reynosa, Mexico, across from McAllen. The area has seen a spike in already-high levels of migrant kidnappings since mid-2023. “As the country turns against migrants, Strassburger’s work has become more fraught.”

• Jack Herrera, “The Betrayal of American Border Policy” (The New Yorker, August 8, 2024).

The University of New Mexico radio station interviewed Erin Siegal McIntyre, author of an August 7 Mother Jones investigation of sexual violence within Border Patrol, including a 2019 rape at the agency’s academy in Artesia, New Mexico. (The investigation was part of a package of reported pieces about the state of Border Patrol that Mother Jones ran on August 7.)

McIntyre said she obtained a CBP dataset of 186 sexual misconduct allegations over 20 years, but it has glaring omissions, including high profile cases: “So it’s clear you can’t trust the government’s numbers.”

• Alice Fordham, “Report Raises Questions of Misconduct at New Mexico’s Border Patrol Academy” (KUNM (University of New Mexico), August 7, 2024).

Reuters reported on the Harris campaign’s “tough talk” on border security, as they launch attacks on Donald Trump for his February push to kill a “border deal” bill that failed in the Senate. That bill included a few immigration reform priorities, but also included Republican-friendly provisions like blocking asylum access at busy times (something President Biden later did by executive order in early June) and increasing ICE detention capacity by about 47 percent.

“Harris has made the border security bill a centerpiece of her platform,” Reuters noted, “and a digital campaign ad has cast the election as a choice between ‘the one who will fix our broken immigration system. And the one who’s trying to stop her.’”

• Kristina Cooke, Ted Hesson, Trevor Hunnicutt, “Kamala Harris Talks Tough on Border Security to Take on Donald Trump” (Reuters, Reuters, August 7, 2024).
• Rafael Carranza, “Tim Walz Pushed for Progressive Immigration Policies as Gov; Supports Biden Border Moves” (The Arizona Republic, August 7, 2024).

On the Right

• Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida), “Congressman Matt Gaetz Demands Dhs Turn Over All Correspondence Referring to Vice President Kamala Harris as ‘Border Czar’” (U.S. House of Representatives, August 7, 2024).
• Ryan King, “Matt Gaetz Presses Dhs for Docs About ‘Border Czar’ Kamala Harris” (The New York Post, August 7, 2024).