September 2, 2024

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Developments

Border Patrol apprehended about 58,000 people between the U.S.-Mexico border’s ports of entry during August, the Associated Press revealed. After five consecutive months of declines, this is a slight increase over 56,408 in July. This likely indicates a bottoming-out of the drop in migration that followed the Biden administration’s early June rule restricting asylum access.

• Elliot Spagat, “Border Arrests Are Expected to Rise Slightly in August but Are Hovering Near 4-Year Lows” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 31, 2024).

Reporting from Nogales, CBS News’ Camilo Montoya-Galvez noted that, three months after the Biden administration began implementing a rule restricting most access to asylum between the border’s ports of entry, deportations into Mexico have accelerated.

• Camilo Montoya-Galvez, ““Deportations Are 24/7”: Migrants Are Quickly Returned to Mexico Under Biden’s Asylum Crackdown” (CBS News, September 1, 2024).

Mexico’s National Migration Institute (INM) announced that it will provide bus transportation from Mexico’s southern-border states of Chiapas and Tabasco to the U.S. border for asylum seekers who have pending CBP One appointments at U.S. border ports of entry. WOLA and other organizations have received numerous reports of people being kidnapped by organized crime while trying to travel across Mexico to attend appointments made using CBP’s smartphone app. INM calls the route an “Emergent Secure Mobility Corridor;” those being transported will receive a document granting 20 days’ permission to be in Mexico.

• “Gobierno de Mexico y el Inm Articulan Corredor Emergente de Movilidad Segura para el Traslado de Personas Extranjeras Con Cita Cbp One” (Instituto Nacional de Migración (Mexico), August 31, 2024).
• “Mexico Offers Escorted Rides North From Southern Mexico for Migrants With Us Asylum Appointments” (Associated Press, Associated Press, August 31, 2024).
• “Mexico Transportara a Migrantes Que Tengan una Cita de ‘Cbp One’ en Estados Unidos” (EFE, Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), August 31, 2024).

The University of Texas Strauss Center’s latest quarterly report on border asylum processing found that waits for CBP One appointments—which have held steady at 1,450 per day since June 2023—now reach 8 or 9 months in some cases.

• Caitlyn Yates, Stephanie Leutert, “Asylum Processing at the U.S.-Mexico Border: August 2024” (University of Texas Strauss Center, August 30, 2024).

The Associated Press reported that the growth of asylum seekers awaiting CBP One appointments has led to a proliferation of rustic migrant encampments throughout Mexico City.

• Caterina Morbiato, Mariana Martinez Barba, “Us Border Policy Spurred Migrant Camps Hundreds of Miles Away in Mexico’s Capital” (Associated Press, Associated Press, September 1, 2024).

The Washington Post published a profile of a Biden administration official who has been a driving force behind restrictive policies that have caused recent declines in arrivals at the border. “Data-driven technocrat” Blas Nuñez-Neto, who served as Assistant Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary for Border and Immigration Policy before a recent move to the White House, “was laser-focused on border crossings, checking enforcement data daily.”

• Nick Miroff, “The Quiet Technocrat Who Steered Biden’s Effort to Tighten the Border” (The Washington Post, August 31, 2024).

Venezuelan media outlets Efecto Cocuyo and La Nación reported on slight but notable increases in the number of people migrating away from Venezuela, as repression and uncertainty increase following the Nicolás Maduro regime’s false claim to have won July 28 presidential elections. The Cúcuta, Colombia-based Fundación Nueva Ilusión told Efecto Cocuyo that many of those fleeing are young people who say “they were marked by the authorities due to the political persecution.” In the border town of Pacaraima, Brazil, the overall cross-border flow is similar to before, but the number of Venezuelan crossers requesting protection has increased.

• Jefferson Diaz, “Aumento el Ingreso de Migrantes Venezolanos Hacia Colombia y Brasil” (Efecto Cocuyo (Venezuela), August 31, 2024).
• Jonathan Maldonado, “La Frontera Experimenta Mayor Flujo Migratorio” (La Nacion, Tal Cual (Venezuela), September 2, 2024).

Milenio reported on a criminal group that is kidnapping U.S.-bound migrants for ransom as they cross into Mexico from Guatemala, in Mexico’s southernmost state of Chiapas. One released Venezuelan migrant told of “25 criminals in charge and practically a hundred kidnapped people” being held in a wire cage near Mexico’s southern border. Chiapas’s state attorney-general’s office, which is charged with investigating and documenting kidnappings, “only had just two investigation files registered in 2023, one in 2019 and another in 2020,” the Mexican newspaper found.

• Claudia Solera, “‘Cartel del Ancla’ Hace Secuestros Masivos en Chiapas” (Milenio (Mexico), September 1, 2024).

Panamanian authorities discovered a jungle camp, with more than 55 huts, where what authorities called “transnational crime” sold food, Starlink internet connectivity, and other services to people passing through the Darién Gap migration route.

• “Descubren un Campamento Clandestino Que Vendia Servicios para Migrantes en la Selva del Darien” (EFE, El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), August 31, 2024).

Migrants deported from the Darién Gap, who were aboard Panama’s first repatriation flight to Ecuador—on August 29, funded by the U.S. government—told local media of the dangers of the Darién migration route. “In the middle of the jungle some hooded men appear,” one said. “They ask you for money, they steal everything; they kidnap and rape women.”

• “‘en Medio de la Selva Te Roban y Hasta Violan’, Dicen Ecuatorianos Que Pasaron por el Darien y Llegaron Deportados Desde Panama” (El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), August 30, 2024).

“José,” deported on a different U.S. flight from Texas to Guayaquil, Ecuador with 90 other Ecuadorian citizens, said that he paid a smuggler US$30,000 to transport him, his partner, and his 8-year-old son, flying to El Salvador and crossing Mexico. “Ronald,” who reported paying his smuggler $8,000, said that even though U.S. authorities rejected his asylum request on June 25, he still spent the next two months in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention.

• “‘Pague $ 30.000 para Ir a Ee. Uu., Pero Me Estafaron en el Viaje’, Dice Jose, Quien Llego a Guayaquil Deportado” (El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), August 31, 2024).

Citing a lack of funding, DHS is discontinuing use of tethered blimps to carry out surveillance along the border.

• Ali Bradley, “Dhs Shuts Down Surveillance Blimp Program at Border” (Border Report, September 1, 2024).

In Ciudad Juárez, Mexico’s federal child and family welfare agency (DIF) is reportedly to spend 250 million pesos (about US$12.6 million) on 4 shelters for migrants.

• Teofilo Alvarado, “Invierte Dif Nacional 250 Mdp en Cuatro Espacios para Migrantes” (Norte (Ciudad Juarez Mexico), August 30, 2024).

After a lack of response from Border Patrol and Mexican authorities left a 60-year-old man lying on the ground with a compound leg fracture for more than 24 hours after falling from the Mexican side of the border wall, firefighters from Arivaca, Arizona sawed through the wall to rescue him.

• Paul Ingram, “Mexican Man Who Shattered Leg in Border-Wall Fall Rescued by Arivaca Fire” (The Tucson Sentinel (Tucson Arizona), August 30, 2024).
• John Washington, “Small-Town Firefighters Sawed Through the Arizona Border Wall to Rescue an Injured Man Who Waited 24 Hours for Help” (Arizona Luminaria, August 30, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

At a time of near-record high migrant deaths on the U.S. side of the border, an investigation by Tanvi Misra at High Country News explored the complexities of Border Patrol’s Missing Migrant Program: “some aid workers and border researchers see a conflict of interest between the agency’s primary mandate, which is to detain and deport migrants, and the humanitarian goal of saving lives.” Records show a surprisingly small number of 911 calls from migrants appearing to result in rescue missions.

• Tanvi Misra, “The Fatal Flaw in the Border Patrol’s Rescue Program” (High Country News, September 1, 2024).

On the Right

• “Operation Lone Star Deploys Drone Technology to Secure the Border” (Texas Governor’s Office, August 30, 2024).
• Elizabeth Heckman, Nikolas Lanum, “Texas Residents Affected by Border Security Under Biden-Harris Admin Express Fear of Future Attack” (Fox News, August 30, 2024).
• Lily Lowndes, “Ohio Is Far From Mexico, but Southern Border Crisis Proves to Be Hot Button Local Issue for Some” (ABC 13 Toledo, August 30, 2024).