Border Update

Prospects for an asylum-limits-for-Ukraine-aid deal grow dimmer in Congress. Mayorkas impeachment moves out of committee. Venezuela to halt deportation flights.

Awaiting Senate border language. House hardliners dig in and start the Mayorkas impeachment. Texas continues to defy federal border authority.

The Senate could see a compromise asylum-restrictions-for-Ukraine-aid bill this week, even as Trump and House Republicans prepare to kill it. Record migrant encounters reported for December. House Republicans prepare to impeach DHS Secretary Mayorkas.

Republican divisions continue to generate confusion around a possible migration-restrictions-for-Ukraine-aid deal. Doctors Without Borders counted 676 victims of sexual violence last year in the Darién Gap.

A Senate deal for asylum restrictions and Ukraine aid is on life support. Texas and DHS send letters as the federal-state dispute over border access hardens. Migration continues to be perhaps half of December’s level.

The Senate won’t act this week on asylum-curbs-for-Ukraine-aid, but we might see legislative language. Texas hardliners are urging the state to defy a Supreme Court ruling on concertina wire.

Supreme Court allows Border Patrol to cut through razor wire. Senate may reveal a migration-restrictions-for-Ukraine-aid deal shortly.

U.S. and Mexican officials meet. Eagle Pass federal-state dispute simmers. Caravan dispersed in Guatemala. Migration is mostly down but may be leveling off.

Mexican officials are in Washington today. Migration is declining in January at the U.S.-Mexico border and the Darién Gap. Senate negotiators on the Ukraine adi bill appear to agree on some degree of asylum-seeker expulstions, but their agreement could fail in the Republican-majority House of Representatives.