Notices by Adam Isacson (adam@elefanti.co)

Congress's annual appropriations bills are not suggestions that the President may pick and choose like items on a menu.

From WOLA today: “Trump’s Pause of U.S. Foreign Assistance to Latin America: An ‘America Last’ Policy”

https://www.wola.org/analysis/trumps-pause-of-u-s-foreign-assistance-to-latin-america-an-america-last-policy/

Panama reported 4,849 people migrating through the Darién Gap in Dec 2024, the fewest since Mar 2022. A likely sign of people delaying migration plans after Trump's election.

Chart: https://borderoversight.org/2025/01/06/migration-through-panamas-darien-gap/
Table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1GBsADx_ksHL3v8Wo0dN4fXbNBLKKZqX4JFUNvjIVzoU/edit?usp=sharing
Source: https://www.migracion.gob.pa/estadisticas/

Though the number of people transiting the jungle region dropped 42% from record 2023 (520,085 --> 302,203), 2024 was the 2nd heaviest year ever for Darién Gap migration.

Chart: https://borderoversight.org/2025/01/06/2022-monthly-migration-through-panamas-darien-gap/
Table: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ULQHfWXzGA6mR54p_wZyzrX5_X9f1Qwa9K04dNehTUE/edit?usp=sharing
Source: https://www.migracion.gob.pa/estadisticas/

Note that the chart above shows an important increase in Darién Gap migration from 2018 to 2019, when Donald Trump was in the White House. This was curtailed by the pandemic in 2020, but shows that Trump's first-administration policies didn't deter people.

Great talking to Greg Sargent yesterday for this excellent *New Republic* piece, which recalls that #Mexico is _already_ carrying out a historically harsh crackdown on migration—and that Trump's tariff threat may just be a deceptive way to claim credit later for what's already happening.

(The article embeds a graphic that I shared here yesterday.)

https://newrepublic.com/article/188854/mexico-sheinbaum-responds-trump-tariffs

In this week's WOLA US-Mexico #Border Update:

- What we know about the coming Trump crackdown, "mass deportation," and the military role
- The impact on Mexico
- CBP’s October border data shows little change in #migration flows

https://www.wola.org/2024/11/weekly-u-s-mexico-border-update-mass-deportation-the-impact-on-mexico-october-migration-data/

The Democratic Party platform sidesteps the reality that "asylum seeker" often means "person whose life or freedom is in danger if refused refuge."

https://democrats.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/FINAL-MASTER-PLATFORM.pdf

Arrivals of #Venezuela migrants have been down this year at the US-Mexico border. This is because of Mexico's migration crackdown and the Biden admin's asylum ban.

But this number will spike if the Maduro regime persists in going "full Nicaragua" (North Korea?) post-elections.

Daily #Border Links: July 26, 2024

House Republicans pass a resolution condemning VP Harris's border-migration role. The migrant death toll in the El Paso sector now stands at 140.

For a version with working links, go to borderoversight.org/news

Today's executive action shutting down asylum at the border is a reminder: we're living in an era when government is taking away rights granted by past generations. (See also "Dobbs, 2022.")

https://www.wola.org/analysis/futility-of-shutting-down-asylum-by-executive-action-us-mexico-border/

Daily #Border Links: May 20, 2024

Senate Democratic leaders may bring an "asylum shutdown" to the chamber's floor this week. A Honduran man was beaten to death at the El Paso borderline, and accompanying migrants blame Texas National Guardsmen.

For a version with working links, go to borderoversight.org/news

"You have this very strange tableau now of armed National Guard—their patches say 'U.S. Army' on them—telling Border Patrol that they cannot enter an area that is actually within the U.S. border on U.S. territory."

https://theworld.org/media/2024-02-02/whos-control-us-mexico-border