Immigration and the Southern Border in the U.S.

[Gregory Matthews]

Immigration is a hot political topic today.  The following is a 2020 Pew Research study on immigration in the United States.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/20/key-findings-about-u-s-immigrants/

 

 

[phkrause]

US border cities strained ahead of expected migrant surge

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Along the U.S. southern border, two cities — El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico — prepared Sunday for a surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day as pandemic-era immigration restrictions expire this week, setting in motion plans for emergency housing, food and other essentials.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-pandemics-public-health-el-paso-150179513b09e15b79f15f34eea24f50?

[phkrause]

Suspense builds at border over future of US asylum rules

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Suspense mounted at the U.S. border with Mexico on Tuesday about the future of restrictions on asylum-seekers as the Supreme Court issued a temporary order to keep pandemic-era limits on migrants in place.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-health-el-paso-john-roberts-border-security-811299927348837ae86f0f08a06526f1?

[phkrause]

Migrants at US-Mexico border await ruling on asylum limits

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Thousands of migrants gathered along the Mexican side of the southern border Wednesday, camping outside or packing into shelters as they waited for the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether and when to lift pandemic-era restrictions that have prevented many from seeking asylum.

https://apnews.com/article/health-mexico-el-paso-shelters-eaee4b47b8f12e078f60aa7c188ecbb3?

[phkrause]

Migrants near US border face cold wait for key asylum ruling

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — Hairdresser Grisel Garcés survived a harrowing, four-month journey from her native Venezuela through tropical jungles, migrant detention centers in southern Mexico and then jolting railcar rides north toward the U.S. border.

https://apnews.com/article/migrants-awaiting-asylum-ruling-6d5bd897655194e249c127c40b8c28eb?

[phkrause]

Title 42 border rules confound Washington, migrants alike

WASHINGTON (AP) — The drawn-out saga of Title 42, the set of emergency powers that allows border officials to quickly turn away migrants, has been chaotic at the U.S.-Mexico border. In Washington, it hasn’t unfolded much better.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-mexico-immigration-covid-93d735b9b55c15121c8fc7763fba7e78?

[phkrause]

Migrants dropped near VP Harris home on frigid Christmas Eve

WASHINGTON (AP) — Three buses of recent migrant families arrived from Texas near the home of Vice President Kamala Harris in record-setting cold on Christmas Eve.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-kamala-harris-a0de34dd3b26941c0ae4fac2114586d0?

[phkrause]

Supreme Court keeps immigration limits in place indefinitely

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is keeping pandemic-era limits on immigration in place indefinitely, dashing hopes of immigration advocates who had been anticipating their end this week.

https://apnews.com/article/title-42-immigration-limits-supreme-court-updates-0494c30834fad66ce9c6057ea1605d89?

[phkrause]

Thriving network of fixers preys on migrants crossing Mexico

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — When migrants arrive to the main crossing point into southern Mexico -- a steamy city with no job opportunities, a place packed with foreigners eager to keep moving north -- they soon learn the only way to cut through the red tape and expedite what can be a monthslong process is to pay someone.

https://apnews.com/article/politics-mexico-corruption-corporate-crime-latin-america-d0b28d7fa15da49373ffcc4bb25d6ddc?

[phkrause]

Migrant shelters try to help traumatized assault survivors

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (AP) — Since he began volunteering two months ago for weekend shifts at a clinic in one of this border city’s largest shelters, Dr. Brian Elmore has treated about 100 migrants for respiratory viruses and a handful of more serious emergencies.

https://apnews.com/article/health-crime-el-paso-violence-emergency-care-2a13027c2112c4a9a67c28bdd5d470fc

[phkrause]

Facing migration flood, US resumes services at Cuba embassy

HAVANA (AP) — Grappling with the biggest flood of Cuban migrants in decades, the United States reopened their long-closed legal pathway on Wednesday by resuming all visa services at its embassy in Havana.

https://apnews.com/article/politics-united-states-government-cuba-havana-4d6d2e4b6aa719cee40de4cba960cf0f?

[phkrause]

Cuban migrants flow into Florida Keys, overwhelm officials

MARATHON, Fla. (AP) — More than 500 Cuban immigrants have come ashore in the Florida Keys since the weekend, the latest in a large and increasing number who are fleeing the communist island and stretching thin U.S. border agencies both on land and at sea.

https://apnews.com/article/united-states-government-cuba-florida-875b5ffd18563c479543ed77fffe77dd?

[phkrause]

Biden to get a firsthand look at US-Mexico border situation

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to the U.S.-Mexico border on Sunday, his first trip there as president after two years of hounding by Republicans who have hammered him as soft on border security while the number of migrants crossing spirals.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-mexico-el-paso-2e30ea26bbc55c7af509a6e60ad3d33c?

[phkrause]

Biden inspects US-Mexico border in face of GOP criticism

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — President Joe Biden walked a muddy stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border and inspected a busy port of entry Sunday on his first trip to the region after two years in office, a visit shadowed by the fraught politics of immigration as Republicans blame him for record numbers of migrants crossing into the country.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-mexico-el-paso-2e30ea26bbc55c7af509a6e60ad3d33c?

[phkrause]

Mexico may accept more migrants expelled by US

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador said Monday in the leadup to this week’s summit of North American leaders that he would consider accepting more migrants than previously announced under President Joe Biden’s plan to turn away people from four nations who cross illegally into the United States.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-north-america-summit-mexico-updates-871328ff21fc6a87b698742f6e9ed3d4

[phkrause]

DeSantis tested on immigration as he weighs 2024 candidacy

TAVERNIER, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent dozens of immigrants from Texas to an island off the Massachusetts coast last year in a high-profile effort to highlight illegal immigration on the eve of the midterm elections. But as thousands of Cuban migrants flocked to his own state’s shores in recent weeks, he adopted a more cautious approach.

https://apnews.com/article/ron-desantis-immigration-2024-bid-0d34a0e2ff8b90f4c7f3229c14ad25b6

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How to find newly released Israeli immigration records from 1919 onward

(JTA) — The genealogy website MyHeritage posted 1.7 million Israeli immigration records online this week, making accessible a trove of ship and plane passenger lists stored in bound tomes at the Israel State Archives. 

https://www.jta.org/2023/01/11/israel/how-to-find-newly-released-israeli-immigration-records-from-1919-onward?

[phkrause]

Good morning. The Biden administration’s border policy relies on Mexico for crucial help.

Migrants waiting in line at the border in El Paso in December.Paul Ratje for The New York Times

On the move

The extraordinary surge in migration across the Americas has become the single most dominant issue in the relationship between the United States and Mexico. U.S. authorities stopped migrants 2.8 million times at its southern border in the 12 months ending in September — breaking the previous record set a year earlier.

The two countries, linked by geography, share a common interest: trying to dissuade people from trying to illegally cross an already overwhelmed border. As the numbers have hit new highs, President Biden has leaned more heavily into enforcement designed to drive down unauthorized crossings.

How is Biden able to pursue these increasingly aggressive measures? With help from the Mexican government. Mexico has agreed to take in a growing number of the migrants that the U.S. is swiftly expelling after they enter the country.

This month, Biden announced some of his toughest actions yet: a policy that would deny a specific group of migrants the chance to apply for asylum if they cross the border without authorization, and would instead send them to Mexico.

Progressives laid into the president over the sweeping restrictions, which one immigrant advocate called “a humanitarian disgrace.”

I’ve been covering these issues for almost three years as The Times’s Mexico bureau chief, and I’ve noticed that as desperation on both sides of the border has ratcheted up in recent months, so has cooperation between the two governments.

That dynamic was on display at a summit in Mexico City this week between Biden and his Mexican and Canadian counterparts. I was struck by Biden’s obvious investment in building a rapport with Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, whose help he needs more than ever.

Biden thanked Mexico for helping manage what he called “the greatest migration in human history” and defended his approach as a “middle” way between “extremes” in immigration policy ideas on the left and right.

In today’s newsletter, I’ll look at why so many people are migrating right now and what the U.S. and Mexico are trying to do about it.

Mass migration

So many people are migrating right now because of how bad life has gotten south of the border over the past few years. Latin America was hit with particular force by the pandemic and the economic downturn that followed.

The ranks of the poor in the region would grow by up to 45 million, the United Nations estimated. Hunger — driven by inflation, the war in Ukraine and the effects of climate change — is on the rise.

Unlike most of the rest of the world, when suffering hits Latin America, its hundreds of millions of residents can decide to walk to the United States.

Migrants have become so desperate that they are braving a 66-mile trek across a treacherous stretch of jungle at the Colombia-Panama border known as the Darién Gap. Once considered barely passable, it is now a thoroughfare for record numbers of migrants. Between 2010 and 2020, fewer than 11,000 people crossed on average each year. Last year, more than 248,000 people made the journey.

President Biden with Border Patrol agents in El Paso on Sunday.Doug Mills/The New York Times

Biden’s policy

Biden came to office two years ago vowing to undo the Trump administration’s harsh migration policies in favor of more “humane” treatment of people fleeing their homes because they couldn’t eat, or were trying to escape violence.

Soon after his inauguration, Biden moved to stop immediately expelling unaccompanied children and tried to freeze deportations. (A judge halted the effort.)

But after a surge of migrants followed, the Biden administration eventually embraced stricter enforcement.

The administration had already benefited from what many consider to be a de facto border wall: a pandemic measure known as Title 42 that allows U.S. officials to quickly deport migrants who have crossed into the country illegally.

But Biden had been effectively prevented from applying that measure to Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, Haitians and Cubans — four nationalities that have become a growing source of migration. The governments in those countries were making it difficult to send their citizens back home, so Mexico was generally refusing to accept them.

Earlier this month, Biden announced that he had found a way to swiftly expel those migrants; Mexico had agreed to receive up to 30,000 of them per month.

What Mexico wants

Mexico’s government is seeking the same thing as the U.S.: to reduce the number of migrants coming through its borders.

The influx is hard for Mexico, the government says, because it strains already thin public resources and puts money into the hands of organized criminal groups that are smuggling people through. It’s also bad for migrants, who are forced to take treacherous journeys through Mexico’s violent corridors.

Part of Biden’s new policy addresses that need. The administration will give up to 30,000 people from the four countries the chance to enter the U.S. legally, but only if they don’t pass through Mexico and can meet other requirements.

Since the new policy was announced, a senior Mexican official told me, the government has already noticed a drop in those migrants entering Mexico — and the United States.

[GHansen]

The solution to the border crisis is a simple one, the same one that would solve problems with executions in the States--bullets. When Russia built the Berlin wall, there were not tens of thousands of people entering West Berlin. 

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Illegal border crossings surge to highest of Biden’s term

WASHINGTON (AP) — A surge in Cuban and Nicaraguan arrivals at the U.S. border with Mexico in December led to the highest number of illegal border crossings recorded during any month of Joe Biden’s presidency, authorities said Friday.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-united-states-government-mexico-el-paso-8d307f4d5617e6bf071b10d8e28151d7

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Border crossings have plunged since implementation of policy that Republicans are suing to stop

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced that migrant crossings at the U.S./Mexico border have plummeted since the administration implemented the new parole program that a slate of Republican states have now sued to end.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/3/2150882/-Border-crossings-have-plunged-since-implementation-of-policy-that-Republicans-are-suing-to-stop?

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How Biden asylum rule affects immigration, compares to Trump

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden’s administration prepares for the end of regulations tied to the coronavirus pandemic that have severely limited the ability of asylum seekers to enter the U.S., it has proposed a rule that could dramatically alter who’s allowed to claim asylum at the southern border. This rule comes as Biden is under intense criticism from Republicans intent on making immigration a key issue in the next election. Some of the president’s immigration stances, including this rule, have sparked criticism from immigration advocates and even Democratic allies.

https://apnews.com/article/biden-politics-united-states-government-donald-trump-mobile-phones-1502c6d6125c1dede583002722144488

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Fact check: False claim that those in country illegally can become police officers in California

The claim: Those in the country illegally can be police officers in California

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2023/02/20/fact-check-no-those-california-illegally-cant-police-officers-california/11272933002/?

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Biden administration proposes major new limits on asylum at the border

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is rolling out a proposed rule that for two years would bar migrants from applying for asylum at the Southern border if they have not first asked for protection in a country they traveled through.

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/02/21/biden-administration-proposes-major-new-limits-on-asylum-at-the-border/?

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Gov. DeSantis plans legislative attack on Florida’s undocumented immigrants

Critics say it’s a hate-filled agenda that will lead to fear, division, violence, discrimination, and a weakened FL

https://floridaphoenix.com/2023/02/23/gov-desantis-plans-legislative-attack-on-floridas-undocumented-immigrants/?