Welcome to LAWG’s Migration News Brief, a compilation of recent top articles and reports related to issues of U.S. immigration and enforcement policy and migration from Central America and Mexico.
SPOTLIGHT
JOB ANNOUNCEMENT: Program Assistant/ Financial Associate, Defend the Defenders and Promote Peace Campaigns
Latin America Working Group (LAWG), February 20, 2024
“The Latin America Working Group (LAWG) seeks a full-time Program Assistant/ Financial Associate to start in mid-March. Join our small, hard-working, and collaborative team in advocating for just U.S. policies toward Latin America! Apply here.”
US ENFORCEMENT
Biden reportedly considers bypassing Congress to crackdown on migration at US-Mexico border – live
Gloria Oladipo, The Guardian, February 22, 2024
“Joe Biden and his White House team are considering using various aspects of federal immigration law – that were repeatedly utilized by Donald Trump during his hardline, anti-immigrant presidency – to unilaterally initiate a sweeping crackdown on migrants crossing into the US across the Mexico border uninvited, according to multiple reports.”
New Visa Restriction Policy for Transportation Operators Facilitating Irregular Migration to the United States
Matthew Miller, US Department of State, February 21, 2024
“The State Department is today implementing a new visa restriction policy under Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) Section 212(a)(3)(C) that targets owners, executives, and senior officials of charter flight, ground, and maritime transportation companies providing transportation services designed for use primarily by persons intending to migrate irregularly to the United States.”
Trump and allies plotting militarized mass deportations, detention camps
Isaac Arnsdorf, Nick Miroff and Josh Dawsey, The Washington Post, February 21, 2024
“Trump pledges that as president he would immediately launch “the largest domestic deportation operation in American history.” As a model, he points to an Eisenhower-era program known as “Operation Wetback,” using a derogatory slur for Mexican migrants. The operation used military tactics to round up and remove migrant workers, sometimes transporting them in dangerous conditions that led to some deaths.
Texas AG Paxton moves to shut down El Paso’s Annunciation House, alleging migrant aid is ‘human smuggling’
Robert Moore, El Paso Matters, February 20, 2024
“Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking to shut down Annunciation House, an El Paso Catholic nonprofit organization that has provided shelter and other services to migrants and immigrants for decades.”
Greg Abbott’s approval rising amid border confrontation with Biden
Jasper Scherer, Houston Chronicle, February 19, 2024
“Gov. Greg Abbott’s approval rating has rebounded to its highest point in nearly four years as he clashes with the Biden administration over the southern border, according to a recent poll from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. The poll, conducted earlier this month, found that 53% of Texas registered voters approve of Abbott’s performance as governor. That’s up from 48% in December.”
Texas to build 80-acre base in Eagle Pass for National Guard troops
Uriel Garcia, The Texas Tribune, February 16, 2024
“Gov. Greg Abbott on Friday announced that the state is building an 80-acre base camp in Eagle Pass for Texas National Guard soldiers who are deployed for Operation Lone Star, the $10 billion state effort to deter people from immigrating into Texas illegally.”
U.S. Border And Asylum Policies Harm Black Asylum Seekers.
Human Rights First, February 15, 2024
”Black asylum seekers face significant discrimination and barriers within the U.S. asylum system and encounter targeted violence and mistreatment. The asylum ban and related restrictions deny most African asylum seekers equal access to asylum at ports of entry and punish those who cross between ports of entry to seek safety.”
Texas and Biden administration lawyers face off in court over new law making illegal border crossing a state crime
Uriel J. Garcia, & Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune, February 15, 2024
”Lawyers for the Biden administration and Texas faced off in a federal court in Austin on Thursday to argue whether a new state law that would allow police to arrest people suspected of crossing the Texas-Mexico border illegally should go into effect next month.”
After border bill failure, ICE considers mass releases to close budget gap
Nick Miroff, The Washington Post, February 14, 2024
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has drafted plans to release thousands of immigrants and slash its capacity to hold detainees after the failure of a Senate border bill that would have erased a $700 million budget shortfall, according to four officials at ICE and the Department of Homeland Security.”
MEXICAN ENFORCEMENT
Comunidad migrante en Tijuana es violentada por la GN y Policía Municipal
Uriel Saucedo, Newsweek, February 21, 2024
“Tijuana, B.C.- Integrantes de diversas organizaciones civiles que bridan atención a comunidad migrante en Tijuana, denunciaron que la Guardia Nacional, Ejército y Policía Municipal siguen violentando a este sector de la población. En febrero registraron dos agresiones por parte de la Guardia Nacional en conjunto con el Instituto Nacional de Migración (INM)”.
Mexico’s President Mocks Greg Abbott Using Military Against Migrants
Nick Mordowanee, Newsweek, February 20, 2024
“Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador mocked Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Tuesday, saying the state’s newly announced military base camp “is not serious” and won’t derail illegal immigration.”
Shelters for migrants on Mexico’s border tighten security
Jorge Neito, and Yolanda Morales, Global Sisters Report, February 19, 2024
“Sr. Albertina María Paoletti, director of the Instituto Madre Asunta shelter in the city of Tijuana, looks out a window and sees how violence has forced a change in the appearance of what before was a blue house with white roofs, to a kind of fortress with metal bars and surveillance cameras, where women and their children feel safe.”
Migrant encounters at the U.S.-Mexico border hit a record high at the end of 2023
John Gramlich, Pew Research Center, February 15, 2024
“The U.S. Border Patrol had nearly 250,000 encounters with migrants crossing into the United States from Mexico in December 2023, according to government statistics. That was the highest monthly total on record, easily eclipsing the previous peak of about 224,000 encounters in May 2022.”
Consultas por agresiones sexuales contra migrantes aumentan 70% en Matamoros y Reynosa, revela Médicos sin Fronteras
Carlos Manuel Juarez, February 14, 2024
“Las consultas por agresiones sexuales a migrantes aumentó 70% en Matamoros y Reynosa entre octubre de 2023 y enero de 2024, reveló la organización internacional Médicos Sin Fronteras (MSF).”
Migrant crossings at the US-Mexico border are down. What’s behind the drop?
Valerie Gonazalez, AP News, February 14, 2024
“A recent decline in arrests for illegal crossings on the U.S. border with Mexico may prove only temporary. The drop in January reflects how the numbers ebb and flow, and the reason usually goes beyond any single factor.”
ROOT CAUSES
MEXICO
El caso Ayotzinapa no se concluirá en mi gestión: AMLO
Emir Olivares Alonso, La Jornada, 16 de febrero de 2024
“Para el presidente Andrés Manuel López Obrador, los abogados de las familias de los 43 normalistas de Ayotzinapa son corruptos como los (políticos) que se fueron, pues consideró que han enmarañado y politizado el caso”.
Mexico says it’s addressing the high number of asylum requests to Canada
Reuters, February 20, 2024
“Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said on Tuesday that his government is addressing a complaint from Canada over the high number of asylum requests from Mexicans. According to data from the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Commission, between January and September 2023, Mexicans made the most asylum requests, with 17,500, well above Haitians, who made the second-highest number of requests with just over 8,500.24.”
Ataque armado contra migrantes en Sáric, Sonora, dejó 3 muertos y 3 lesionados; hay un menor entre los fallecidos, confirma FGJE
Proyecto Puente, 19 de febrero de 2024
“Un ataque armado contra migrantes en Sáric, Sonora, dejó al menos tres muertos y tres lesionados, confirmó el titular de la Fiscalía General de Justicia del Estado (FGJE). Gustavo Rómulo Salas informó que las víctimas son un menor de edad, originario de Ecuador, y dos mujeres, presuntamente de Perú y Honduras”.
Catholic bishops in Mexico say they negotiated for possible peace accord with drug cartel leaders
Fabiola Sanchez, AP News, February 16, 2024
”Four Roman Catholic bishops met with Mexican drug cartel bosses in a bid to negotiate a possible peace accord, one of the bishops said, and President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Thursday he approves of such talks.”
An activist who searched for her disappeared brother killed in Mexican border city
AP News, February 9, 2024
”A gunman has killed an activist who led a group of volunteers searching for some of Mexico’s over 100,000 missing people, prosecutors said.”
GUATEMALA
José Rubén Zamora asegura que fue torturado en prisión durante el gobierno de Giammattei
Prensa Libre, 21 de febrero de 2024
“El periodista guatemalteco José Rubén Zamora Marroquín, encarcelado desde julio de 2022, aseguró este miércoles que estuvo “sometido a tortura” en prisión durante la Administración de Alejandro Giammattei (2020-2024) y agregó que desde el cambio de Gobierno el pasado enero sus condiciones han mejorado”.
Canadá sanciona a fiscal Consuelo Porras y a otros 3 funcionarios guatemaltecos por “socavar la democracia y el estado de derecho”
Voz de América, 20 de febrero de 2024
“Canadá anunció el martes sanciones para cuatro funcionarios guatemaltecos “implicados en socavar la democracia y el estado de derecho” en la nación centroamericana, entre ellos la fiscal general y titular del Ministerio Público, María Consuelo Porras. Además de la fiscal Porras, fueron sancionados por Canadá la fiscal Cinthia Monterroso; el fiscal especial contra la impunidad del Ministerio Público, José Rafael Curruchiche y el juez Jimi Rodolfo Bremer Ramírez”.
Mayorkas meets with Guatemalan leader Arévalo following House impeachment over immigration
AP News, February 17, 2024
“U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas met Saturday with newly elected Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo and discussed regional migration, security and the economy in the Central American nation, they said. The meeting at the Munich Security Conference came days after the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Mayorkas for the administration’s handling of migrants at the U.S. southern border.”
This Centuries-Old Border Dispute Pits an Army Against Unarmed Volunteers
Simon Romero, The New York Times, February 15, 2024
“The boat edged its way past the mangrove swamps, a tangled maze of thorn-covered branches sheltering jaguars and shrieking howler monkeys. We were in Belize, our GPS signals showed, the English-speaking Central American country where British pirates put down stakes centuries ago.”
Asedio a la vida cotidiana, terror para el control del territorio y graves violaciones a los derechos humanos
MTMG y Red TDT, 14 de febrero de 2024
“This report, compiled by various civil society organizations, documents, denounces, and highlights the ongoing situation, emphasizing eight chapters covering the conflict’s context, territorial control strategies, economic activities, daily life control, terror strategies, control of social institutions, state omissions and collusion, and human rights violations. Recommendations are directed towards the Mexican state, urging recognition of the acute violence and implementation of strategies through intimate dialogues with the local population for potential reconstruction of fractured communal senses and the dismantling of pervasive social violence.”
EL SALVADOR
Deported back to El Salvador – 8 years of data
El Salvador Perspectives, February 21, 2024
“It has been a long time since I’ve shared numbers on deportations back to El Salvador on El Salvador Perspectives, so it is time for an update. The International Office of Migration for the UN (IOM) has a valuable website with statistics for migration flows from the Northern Triangle of Central America through Mexico to the United States.”
3,363 salvadoreños detenidos en enero en frontera sur de EUA
Denni Portillo, La Prensa, 22 de febrero de 2024
“Las autoridades migratorias estadounidenses detuvieron a 3,363 salvadoreños en su frontera sur durante el mes de enero, según la última actualización de datos de la patrulla fronteriza, correspondiente a dicho mes, el cuarto del año fiscal 2024”.
El Salvador confirms Bukele’s supermajority after opposition calls to void election results
Reuters, February 19, 2024
“El Salvador’s election authority on Monday announced that President Nayib Bukele’s ruling New Ideas party would control a super majority in the next legislature with 54 out of 60 seats, following a hand count of votes. Opposition parties earlier on Monday had asked the body to void the results of the Feb. 4 Congress elections and re-do the vote after the hand count of ballots revealed several irregularities.”
Groups Demand Freedom for Water Defenders in El Salvador
Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams, February 16, 2024
“‘Rather than investigate or prosecute those responsible for the dozens of cases of human rights violations and crimes against humanity that members of the Salvadoran military committed against the Santa Marta community (including the murders of the Lempa River massacre in 1980, where 30 people were assassinated and 189 were disappeared), the government is now re-victimizing the community by targeting their leaders, who have been outspoken against the policies of the current government,’ the groups said.”
Police flood center where legislative ballots are being counted
Committee in Solidarity with the People in El Salvador (CISPES), February 16, 2024
Salvadoran police, including riot police, have filled the vote-counting location, with opposition members reporting threats of arrest for photographing or exposing procedural violations. Concerns include the counting of seemingly new and uncreased ballots, discrepancies in final results, and the disproportionate presence of the ruling party’s representatives, prompting calls for the annulment of the elections. CISPES questions the credibility of results amid widespread irregularities and political interference.
Coming face to face with inmates in El Salvador’s mega-jail
Leire Ventas, BBC News Mundo, February 13, 2024
“A gargantuan complex constructed in the middle of nowhere, it symbolizes President Nayib Bukele’s controversial security policy more than any other project. Critics of the president have called it a ‘black hole of human rights’, where international guidelines on prisoner rights are flouted. Miguel Sarre, a former member of the United Nations Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture, has described it as a ‘concrete and steel pit’. And referring to the fact that no-one has so far been released from the jail, Mr Sarre warned Cecot appeared to be used “to dispose of people without formally applying the death penalty.”
The president jailed 1% of El Salvador’s population. Their children are paying the consequences
Megan Janetsky, AP News, February 9, 2024
“Tears welled in Alex’s eyes and he pressed his head into his hands as he thought about more than a year of birthdays and holidays without his mother, who was swept up by El Salvador’s police as she walked to work in a clothing factory.“
HONDURAS
Ex-Honduran leader praised by Trump faces trial in US for running ‘narco-state’
Jeff Ernst and David Adam, The Guardian, February 20, 224
“Five years after he was lavished with praise by Donald Trump for “stopping drugs at a level that has never happened” – and two years after he was extradited in shackles to the US – the former Honduras president Juan Orlando Hernández is to stand trial in New York on Monday, accused of overseeing a “narco-state” and accepting millions in bribes from drug traffickers. The trial will be arguably the biggest test yet of the DEA’s strategy to bring to account public officials who facilitate drug trafficking to the US.”
Juan Orlando Hernández: 4 claves del juicio al expresidente de Honduras por narcotráfico que empieza en EE.UU. (y por qué es tan especial)
BBC News Mundo, 20 de febrero de 2024
“El proceso es seguido con expectativa en Honduras, donde algunos medios lo han denominado ‘el juicio del siglo’, y su inicio ha sido postergado por diferentes motivos. Hernández gobernó Honduras entre 2014 y 2022, desafiando la prohibición constitucional de reelección presidencial. Acusado de participar en una conspiración de narcotráfico, se espera que el juicio presente pruebas, incluyendo testimonios de testigos protegidos y documentos de contabilidad de drogas, mientras la defensa argumenta una supuesta venganza de narcotraficantes y destaca acciones contra el crimen durante su mandato.”
Honduras – Reporte de Situación de Movimientos Mixtos No.5 – Enero 2024
Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas para los Refugiados (ACNUR), 19 de febrero de 2024
“En Honduras, según las cifras oficiales del Instituto Nacional de Migración durante el 2023 fueron 545,043 personas en movimientos mixtos que ingresaron por la frontera del suroeste de manera irregular. Las 5 nacionalidades con mayor número de ingresos fueron: Venezuela (254,939 personas), Cuba (92,690 personas), Haití (83,807 personas), Ecuador (52,202 personas), y Colombia (13,794 personas). Otras nacionalidades de ingreso alto fueron Senegal, Guinea, China, Mauritania y Uzbekistán. Algunos meses los países de Egipto, Angola, Ghana, Perú y Chile tuvieron ingresos significativos”.
Canciller Reina se reúne con Caucus Progresista del Congreso de EEUU
Proceso Digital, 15 de febrero de 2024
“El canciller Enrique Reina informó que se reunió con el Caucus Progresista del Congreso de los Estados Unidos a quienes les presentó los avances del gobierno en varios temas. Entre los temas presentados, el canciller Reina enlistó los derechos humanos, migración, el Estatus de Protección Temporal (TPS), la lucha contra la corrupción y la impunidad, el restablecimiento del Estado de Derecho, las políticas sociales, el medio ambiente, el tren interoceánico y la lucha contra la pobreza en Honduras”.
Honduras – Mixed Movements Protection Monitoring – January 2024
Reliefweb, February 12, 2024
“38,495 refugees and migrants entered, registered and transited through Honduras in January 2024 according to the National Migration Institute. In comparison to December 2023, in January 2024 the number of people from Venezuela increased by 19%, and from Haiti by 11%. However, there was a decrease in the number of people from Cuba, Ecuador, and Guinea.”
REGIONAL
InSight Crime’s 2023 Homicide Round-Up
Juliana Manjarrés and Christopher Newton, InSight Crime, February 21, 2024
“At least 117,492 people were murdered in Latin America and the Caribbean during 2023, putting the median homicide rate around 20 per 100,000 people. But homicide data in many countries is missing or unreliable, so the actual number is likely higher. Here, InSight Crime dives into our yearly round-up, analyzing the organized crime dynamics behind the violence in each country of the region.”
Mixed Movements Official Data Darien Province, Panama-Colombia Border
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), February 15, 2024
“In January 2024, there was a 46% increase in Darien jungle crossings compared to the same period last year, with 36,001 people, mainly from Venezuela (76%), Haiti (8%), China (8%), and Ecuador (6%).”
Crises in Ecuador and Haiti will shape migration in Latin America in 2024: IRC
International Rescue Committee, February 14, 2024
“After Ecuador and Haiti were identified as part of the 20 countries most at risk of intensifying humanitarian crises, according to the 2024 Emergency Watchlist, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) warned during a virtual briefing that their effects will be felt across the Latin America and Caribbean region.”
GENDER AND LBGTQ+
Diva Queen: una reina drag de Morazán.
El Faro, 11 de febrero de 2024
“Ericka Luna se reconoce como una persona queer, negra y de escasos recursos. Es habitante de Jocoaitique, departamento de Morazán. Con 21 años, retomó las características que le han valido críticas y discriminación para crear su personaje drag, Diva Queen. Siendo bailarina y coreógrafa, inició un grupo de baile con jóvenes LGBTIQ+ de Jocoaitique y Meanguera. La municipalidad de Meanguera reconoce la labor de Ericka como imprescindible para disminuir la discriminación en el municipio y en el oriente del país, una de las más letales para la población LGBTIQ+ en El Salvador”.
ACTIONS, ALERTS, RESOURCES
Humane Solutions That Work: 10 Ways The Biden Administration Should Reshape Immigration Policy
Heidi Altman, National Immigrant Justice Center, February 21, 2024
“For too long, extremist lawmakers and commentators have shaped the immigration debate through misinformation and rhetoric that demonizes people seeking safety and a better life. The result is a punitive, enforcement-oriented approach to immigration policy that has caused great harm and worsened humanitarian and operational challenges in the midst of a global increase in forced migration.”
“Endless Nightmare”: Torture and Inhuman Treatment in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Immigration Detention
Physicians for Human Rights, February 6, 2024
“The United States maintains the world’s largest immigration detention system, detaining tens of thousands of people in a network of facilities, including those managed by private prison corporations, county jails, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).”
Mexico: Investigations on the disappearance of students at risk
Amnesty International, February 6, 2024
“The investigation of the 43 students’ disappearance on 26th September, 2014 remains ongoing, Their relatives and the organizations that support them have requested on several occasions the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to ensure that the Armed Forces deliver 800 documents crucial for the investigations. We urge the Mexican state to provide all the documents regarding the disappearance of the 43 students, so that relatives of the victims know the truth and those responsible are prosecuted.”
- The Migration News Brief is a selection of relevant news articles, all of which do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Latin America Working Group.
P.S. Do you know of someone who might be interested in receiving the Migration News Brief? Tell them to email tdelmoral@lawg.org
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