September 4, 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

Border Report, Arizona Public Media, and Spain’s El País covered the Mexican government’s announcement last week that it would escort buses, from the southernmost states of Chiapas and Tabasco, to protect asylum seekers with “CBP One” appointments at U.S. border ports of entry. The mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Cruz Perez Cuellar, welcomed the announcement and said the city’s migrant shelters currently have ample space to receive those with appointments. (Customs and Border Protection (CBP) currently accepts about 200 appointments daily at the Paso del Norte bridge in El Paso, across from Ciudad Juárez.)

Julian Resendiz, “Mexico Busing Asylum-Seekers to Border Appointments” (Border Report, September 3, 2024).
Alonso Martinez, “Mexico Pledges to Safely Transport Migrants to the Us Border” (El Pais (Spain), September 4, 2024).
Alisa Reznick, “Mexico Will Now Offer Security-Escorted Bus Service for Cbp One Asylum Appointments” (KJZZ Arizona, September 3, 2024).

Border district Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is discussing with the Department of Defense the possible transfer of up to a dozen new, upgraded surveillance blimps that would be tethered along the border. NewsNation reported over the weekend that CBP’s blimp program was shutting down after being reduced to four aircraft last year. However, Cuellar told Border Report, “The Department of Defense has some newer aerostats that they’re willing to transfer,” though this might not happen until after 2025. “The monthly operational cost for one unit can cost $400,000,” Border Report noted.

Sandra Sanchez, “Surveillance Blimps on Southwest Border Could Be Upgraded, Lawmaker Says” (Border Report, September 3, 2024).

Mexico’s Army and National Guard captured the boss of the organized crime group that dominates criminality in the dangerous border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across from Laredo, Texas. Carlos Alberto Monsiváis Treviño, alias “El Comandante Bola,” has been the maximum leader of the Northeast Cartel, an offshoot of the once-powerful Zetas, since the 2022 capture of his cousin, Juan Gerardo Treviño. Monsiváis Treviño is a nephew of founding Zetas members Miguel Ángel and Omar Treviño Morales, who are currently imprisoned in Mexico.

As often occurs when a top organized crime leader is brought down, the already tense security situation in Nuevo Laredo may complicate further in coming weeks.

Carlos Alvarez Acevedo, “Detienen al ‘Comandante Bola’, Lider del Cartel del Noreste; Sobrino del ‘Z-40’ y el ‘Z-42’” (Revista Zeta (Tijuana Mexico), September 3, 2024).

Residents of an apartment complex in the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, held a press conference to deny reports—spread by local Republican officials and amplified by conservative U.S. media—that their buildings had been “taken over” by members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua organized crime group who had crossed the border in recent years. The residents blamed security issues on a neglectful absentee landlord.

“Chase Woodruff @Dcwoodruff on Twitter” (Twitter, September 3, 2024).
Collin Pruett, “The Cartel Takeover in Colorado Is a Dispatch From the Future” (The American Conservative, September 4, 2024).

Analyses and Feature Stories

From Witness at the Border, Thomas Cartwright’s latest monthly report on August’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deportation flights documented the second consecutive monthly drop in the planes’ operational tempo, from 7.2 removal flights per weekday in June to 6.3 in July and 6.1 in August.

Of 135 removal flights last month, 64 percent—similar to previous months—went to Mexico (13), El Salvador (8), Guatemala (37) and Honduras (29).

Cartwright also noted Panama’s U.S.-backed acceleration of removal flights, which began on August 20. The first four flights, between August 20 and 29, carried 117 people, 30 to Ecuador and 87 to Colombia. No announcement or other indication confirms Panama carried out an announced September 3 deportation flight to India. Cartwright pointed out that such a flight would be costly: “A charter to India would be extremely expensive with a large jet typical expense of around $20,000/flight hour and a small jet (16 passenger) at around $8,000/flight hour. It’s over 18 hours to Amritsar, India from Panama, each way.”

“Ice Air Flights 9/3/24” (Witness at the Border, September 3, 2024).

At Texas Monthly, Forrest Wilder authored an unflattering profile of Steve McCraw, the director of Texas’s Department of Public Safety, who is leaving his position after about 20 years of serving Republican state administrations. McCraw, Wilder wrote, amassed much power, making him “the J. Edgar Hoover of Texas” as he nurtured an “obsession with ‘spillover violence’ from Mexico.”