Daily Border Links: May 30, 2024
Adam Isacson
Daily Border Links are following a sporadic publication schedule between May 3 and July 19. Regular daily updates will return on July 22.
Developments
Three San Diego-area House Democrats, along with Texas Rep. Joaquín Castro, sent a letter to leadership of DHS and CBP with questions about oversight of Border Patrol in human rights cases. Castro and Reps. Juan Vargas, Sara Jacobs, and Scott Peters called on the border agencies to follow recommendations in a May 13 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, which found that Border Patrol’s Office of Professional Responsibility needed to improve the independence and impartiality of personnel investigating critical use-of-force incidents. The Southern Border Communities Coalition had raised the issue at a May 28 event in San Diego.
- Alex Riggins, “San Diego Congress Members Seek More Answers About Border Patrol Units That Operated Without Oversight” (The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 29, 2024).
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) visited the border in El Paso, Ciudad Juárez, and New Mexico. The centrist member of the Senate Intelligence Committee warned, “The threat of terrorism associated with unlawful entry to the United States is real.”
- Adam Van Brimmer, Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy, Tia Mitchell, “Ossoff Becomes Rare Democrat to Visit Us-Mexico Border” (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, May 30, 2024).
Upon searching a mobile phone at a vehicle stop of a car smuggling migrants in Arizona, Border Patrol agents claim to have discovered a Telegram group chat involving 1,000 people sharing information about plans to pick up and transport undocumented people.
- Julian Resendiz, “Agents Search Woman’s Phone, Find Telegram Chat Used by 1,000 Smugglers” (Border Report, May 29, 2024).
About a quarter of people in Venezuela are considering migrating, but of those, 47 percent would stay if the opposition were somehow allowed to win the country’s July 28 presidential elections, according to a Delphos poll reported by the Associated Press.
- Regina Garcia Cano, “As Maduro Shifts From Migration Denier to Defender, Venezuelans Consider Leaving if He Is Reelected” (Associated Press, Associated Press, May 30, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
In a Time excerpt from a new book about immigration, Stanford University Professor Ana Raquel Minian provided a rapid overview of the history of U.S. detention of apprehended migrants. It concluded: “Rather than caging migrants and refugees, the government should simply release them and allow them to reside with friends, family, or community members in the U.S. while it examines their cases.”
- Ana Raquel Minian, “America Turned Against Migrant Detention Before” (Stanford University, Time, May 30, 2024).