Fwd: Daily Border Links: August 1, 2024
Molly Molloy
From: Adam Isacson <aisa...@wola.org>
Date: Thu, Aug 1, 2024 at 7:18 AM
Subject: Daily Border Links: August 1, 2024
Developments
As July 2024 came to a close, the New York Times, Associated Press, and CBS News reported that Border Patrol apprehended “around 57,000” or “under 60,000” migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border during the month. While we may not know the exact count until mid-August, it appears to be by far the lowest monthly migration total of the Biden administration’s 42 months in office: the second-lowest month, June 2024, saw 83,536 Border Patrol apprehensions. July was the month of fewest migrant apprehensions since September 2020.
- Hamed Aleaziz, “Border Arrests in July Drop to Low Under Biden” (The New York Times, July 31, 2024).
- Elliot Spagat, “Us Arrests at Mexico Border Are Expected to Drop 30% in July to a New Low for Biden’s Presidency” (Associated Press, Associated Press, July 31, 2024).
- Camilo Montoya-Galvez, “Unlawful Border Crossings Drop for 5th Straight Month, Reaching Lowest Level Since September 2020” (CBS News, August 1, 2024).
The drop—down from a high of 249,739 in December—owes to a Mexican government crackdown on migration that began in January, and on the Biden administration’s implementation of a June 5 rule severely limiting access to the U.S. asylum system for people who cross the border between ports of entry.
- Dan Gooding, “Officers Tell Migrants They ‘Don’t Care’ While Enforcing Biden’s Asylum Ban”(Newsweek, July 31, 2024).
WOLA mourns the passing of Eduardo (Eddie) Canales (1948-2024) of the South Texas Human Rights Center in Falfurrias, Texas. Falfurrias is in Brooks County, where dozens of migrants perish each year trying to walk around a longstanding Border Patrol highway checkpoint. Canales pioneered the placement of humanitarian water stations in ranch land, and had been instrumental to efforts to help families locate the remains of missing loved ones. He was featured in the award-winning 2021 documentary Missing in Brooks County.
At GoFundMe, one can make a donation to support Eddie’s family and his memorial services.
- “Adam Isacson @adam_wola on Twitter” (Twitter, July 31, 2024).
Venezuelan migrants in Mexico City told the Associated Press that, as instability and repression worsen following a fraudulent July 28 election result in their home country, they fear for their relatives left behind.
- Mariana Martinez Barba, “Venezuelan Migrants in Mexico Worry for Their Loved Ones as Political Unrest Roils Their Homeland” (Associated Press, Associated Press, July 31, 2024).
CBP reported seizing 453 kilograms of fentanyl pills hidden in the frame of a utility trailer at the Lukeville port of entry in southwestern Arizona.
- Marco A. Flores, “Decomiso Mas Grande de Fentanilo en la Historia del Cbp Cae en la Frontera Entre Sonora y Arizona” (Milenio (Mexico), July 31, 2024).
Hours after he gave television interviews about organized crime extortion—including the closure of 191 Oxxo convenience stores in the border city of Nuevo Laredo—gunmen shot to death Julio Almanza, the head of the business chambers federation of the border state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. The shooting happened on July 29 in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas.
- Alfredo Pena, “Extortion and Gang Violence Are Hitting Even Big Corporations and Business Leaders in Mexico” (Associated Press, Associated Press, July 31, 2024).
Colombia’s army reported rescuing three in-transit migrants from India who were kidnapped for ransom and held for four days in the southwestern department of Nariño, after crossing from Ecuador.
- “Rescatan en Colombia a Tres Ciudadanos de India Que Fueron Secuestrados Cerca de Frontera Con Ecuador” (El Universo (Guayaquil Ecuador), July 31, 2024).
Of 959 citizens of Ecuador interviewed by UNHCR along the US-bound migration route in 2023, 59% said they were fleeing “generalized violence” and 28% said they themselves had been victims of violence.
- “Ecuador: Mapeo de Desplazamiento de Personas Ecuatorianas en la Region 2022 – 2023” (UN Refugee Agency, July 31, 2024).
Meeting with DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Honduras’s foreign minister, Enrique Reina, “agreed to further streamline its coordination with the United States on removals of Honduran noncitizens.” Between January and June, ICE deported Hondurans aboard 180 removal flights.
- “Readout of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’s Meeting With Foreign Minister Enrique Reina of Honduras” (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, July 31, 2024).
Analyses and Feature Stories
Analyses at MSNBC noted Democrats’ tactic of seeking to attack Donald Trump from the right on border security, citing Trump’s February push to scuttle passage of a Senate “border deal” bill that would have hired more Border Patrol agents and placed limits on asylum access similar to those in the Biden administration’s June 5 rule. Roll Callnoted how the Trump campaign has pivoted from attacking Joe Biden for being “soft” on border security to attacking Kamala Harris for the same.
- Steve Benen, “Time to Update the Talking Points: Border Conditions Keep Improving” (MSNBC, July 31, 2024).
- Steve Benen, “Why It Matters That Mark Kelly Is Slamming Trump for Killing a Border Deal” (MSNBC, July 31, 2024).
- Chris Johnson, “Trump and Gop Turn Border Policy Blame Toward Harris” (Roll Call, July 31, 2024).
Analyses of the Fifth Circuit’s July 30 ruling allowing the state of Texas, for now, to keep its “wall of buoys” in the Rio Grande near Eagle Pass note that judges’ arguments focused on the river’s navigability in that part of Texas. Only one conservative judge on the eighteen-judge panel seemed to share the Republican state government’s view that increased migration constitutes an “invasion.”
- Ilya Somin, “En Banc Fifth Circuit Rules for Texas in Water Buoy Case, but Doesn’t Resolve Issue of Whether Illegal Migration Qualifies As “Invasion”” (George Mason University, Reason, July 31, 2024).
- Sarah Asch, “Fifth Circuit Rules Texas Border Buoys Can Stay Until Trial Decides Lawsuit by the Feds”(Texas Standard, July 31, 2024).