The Latin American Report # 172

As far as I know, I have three friends in México City, trying to obtain one of the limited slots offered daily by the CBP One ™ application to present themselves—in a scheduled manner—at a point of entry in the United States, an option with known guarantees of flexibility in the processing of migrants. My friend and more than that brother Guillermo was never much of a follower of politics, but now lives pending the deliberations in the U.S. Congress on immigration issues, which have the White House support for Ukraine in check. Incidentally, he does not have the best opinion of Greg Abbott, the eccentric and controversial governor of Texas who is also measuring forces—practically, beyond rhetoric—with the owner of the Resolute Desk. El Guille fears that the available alternatives, both legal—which he wisely intends to hold on to—and illegal, to embrace the "American dream", will be completely shut down or considerably reduced. And no wonder, given the winds that are blowing.

The razor wire

"Texas has a constitutional right to defend itself", Abbott said last week, alluding to the existence of an "invasion" of "criminals"—a very Trump narrative—which, from his legal interpretation, empowers him to bypass the Supreme Court itself and continue to deploy his macabre razor-wire barrier. On the other hand, the powerful shadow of Donald Trump is looming over the cautious Republican caucus on Capitol Hill, which is forced to accommodate the former president's strategy, strategically reluctant to give Biden breathing room in an area where he is vulnerable right now. The authority to issue paroles, to expel migrants under certain conditions, or the rules for handling asylum cases, are at the center of the debate, the resulting balance of which will have direct and imminent consequences for hundreds of thousands of desperate Latin American migrants like my friend Guillermo, who travels with his wife and two minors. Trump added fuel to the fire last Saturday by urging "all willing States to deploy their guards to Texas to prevent the entry of Illegals, and to remove them back across the Border".

_{Trump's strong grip on the Republican party has stuck an immigration deal with an anyway uncertain future in the House (source of the image).}

The Border Patrol recorded close to a quarter of a million apprehensions at the border with México last December, an all-time high that had previously been set a year earlier (the dynamic appeared to have eased somewhat in January, following certain enforcement actions on the Mexican side in response to demands from its northern neighbor). More than 56,200 Mexicans were detained, while nearly 47,000 Venezuelans were processed for attempting to cross illegally into Washington land. Guatemala, Honduras, and Colombia closed the Top 5 nations with the most arrests in December, each facing a dystopian future. Despite Abbott's dragging the spotlight for his humiliating actions, Tucson (Arizona) was the route most used by migrants to reach U.S. soil, with around 80,200 arrests, followed by Del Río (Texas) with more than 71,000. Through the CBP One application—which throughout the year has facilitated the orderly processing of more than 413,000 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, Mexicans, and Haitians—, immigration authorities managed the entry of 45,770 people, a figure that added to illegal encounters also set a record in encounters with migrants for a month.

"They're all leaving"

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported that some 153,600 Cubans entered the United States irregularly during 2023. These were in addition to 67,000 beneficiaries of a controversial but useful and safe humanitarian parole program that also supported tens of thousands of Venezuelan, Nicaraguan, and Haitian nationals. In the 2022-2023 biennium, a whopping 533,000 Cubans left the country for the United States, representing nearly 5% of the island's population. The balance of emigrants of all the migratory crises in the history of the Cuban Revolution does not surpass the experience of the last two years, in a sample of the multi-causal exhaustion of the empathy of the people concerning the current political regime. The main cause of the problems that have overshadowed the life of Cubans during all these years lies in an extremely restrictive and suffocating policy applied by the United States, added to serious mistakes—also decisive—of a domestic nature. This Cuban emigration has an essentially economic root, which is politicized in the destination, either by an uncritical contagion or by convenience. Last week I commented in two posts on this subject, so I refer to my blog to elaborate on it.

Then, the sense of urgency is magnified, and most of the time manufactured, as long as it does not have other components that threaten the very physical integrity of many Latin American migrants from other nations, such as the scourge of organized crime or internal armed conflicts, which translates into drug trafficking, overflowing violence, and onerous extortions. Going back to the data, also from the last biennium, more than 22,000 Cubans entered Uruguay—among them was my friend Guillermo, and recently a sister-in-law—, while hundreds arrived in Chile, countries where an interesting Cuban community has been forming, replacing tense Ecuador as the preferred nation to settle in the last decade. "Here there is everything. One, working with dignity, lives well", a still undocumented Cuban carpenter who is trying to make his way in Chile told AFP. In any case, even though these numbers force us to re-examine several issues related to the clumsy and capricious internal economic management, note how from South American north and Central America—still without having the heavy U.S. boot on top—people are also "fleeing".

Back to Washington

Today, January 30, The House Committee on Homeland Security will mark up a resolution introduced last Sunday, seeking to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "for high crimes and misdemeanors". It is reportedly a rare proceeding against a cabinet member. The first article singles him out for his alleged "willful and systemic refusal to comply with the law", holding him responsible for the illegal entry of millions of aliens "on an annual basis(,) with many unlawfully remaining in the United States". Among the points outlined in the resolution is the humanitarian parole program oriented to Venezuelans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Cubans. The second article accuses him of breaching public trust after allegedly misleading Congress by testifying about border security. In the meantime, Biden is trying to pass the red hot ball to the Republican camp, now betting on a hard-line speech, where he declares that he is willing to "close the border". "A bipartisan bill would be good for America and help fix our broken immigration system and allow speedy access for those who deserve to be here, and Congress needs to get it done", he said in South Carolina. "It'll also give me as president, the emergency authority to shut down the border until it could get back under control. If that bill were the law today, I'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly". We will keep an eye on this critical issue.

And this is all for our report today. I have referenced the sources dynamically in the text, and remember you can learn how and where to follow the LATAM trail news by reading my work here. Have a nice day.