8 killed, businesses burned near Mexico’s border with U.S. in violence blamed partly on El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel

08/12/2022

Source: CBS News

The Mexican border city of Juarez saw a rash of violence on Thursday that left businesses burned and at least eight people dead, including a local radio presenter, authorities and witnesses said. In the first incident, two inmates died and four others were wounded in a riot at a prison, according to a statement from the prosecutor for the state of Chihuahua, which includes Ciudad Juarez.

Local media attributed the riot to the Sinaloa cartel, whose former leader, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is currently serving a life sentence in the United States.

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Migrant caravan sets out in southern Mexico

06/06/2022

Source: Los Angeles Times

TAPACHULA, Mexico — Several thousand migrants set out walking in the rain early Monday in southern Mexico, tired of waiting to normalize their status in a region with little work and still far from their ultimate goal of reaching the United States.

Their advocates said they wanted to call attention to their plight, timing it with this week’s Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles. It was estimated to include 4,000 to 5,000 migrants, mostly from Central America, Venezuela and Haiti.

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Customs agents have been dismissed for corruption but none has been charged

12/08/2021

Source: Mexico News Daily

More than 2,700 customs agents have been dismissed for corruption since the current government took office in late 2018, but none has been formally charged or taken into custody.

Customs chief Horacio Duarte told a press conference at Mexico City airport on Tuesday that 2,712 customs agents have been fired during the past three years and 39 formal criminal complaints have been filed with the federal Attorney General’s Office (FGR).

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Mexico moves migrants from southern state; asylum seekers awaited at U.S. border

Source: Reuters

Mexican officials have sped up the transfer of thousands of migrants from southern Mexico to other regions as northern border states prepare to receive asylum seekers sent back to Mexico from the United States.

Dozens of buses full of migrants, mostly from Central America as well as some from Cuba and Venezuela, have the city of Tapachula in Chiapas state in recent days to head to other states, a Reuters witness and an activist said on Monday.

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Biden administration to restart Trump-era ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy

Source: NBC News

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will restart the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” policy as early as Monday following a deal with the Mexican government, according to senior administration officials.

The policy, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, requires migrants seeking asylum to wait outside the United States for their immigration court hearings.

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Sunset Heights, the house where Pancho Villa and Gen. Hugh Scott met in 1915

Source: Mexico Daily Post

As Beto O’Rourke gave interviews in 2019 from his Sunset Heights home announcing his run for president, there were several mentions of his home having been the meeting place for Pancho Villa and Gen. Hugh Scott.

The El Paso Times reported, “O’Rourke proudly showed his file of old newspaper photos of Mexican revolutionary leader Pancho Villa leaving the house in 1915 after he met U.S. Army Gen. Hugh Scott to discuss stopping Mexico’s civil war along the border.”

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Biden Says Payments to Families Separated at the Mexico Border Are ‘Not Gonna Happen’

11/04/2021

Source: Wall Street Journal

WASHINGTON—President Biden said the U.S. wasn’t going to pay immigrant families who were separated at the Mexico border during the Trump administration, throwing into doubt settlements the Justice Department has been negotiating to resolve legal claims by the families.

“That’s not going to happen,” Mr. Biden told reporters at the White House on Wednesday.

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Will the US reinstate the ‘Remain in Mexico’ policy?

Source: Al Jazeera

Washington, DC – The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on October 15 that it was making plans to bring back a Trump-era asylum policy along the US-Mexico border starting in mid-November in compliance with a court order.

A Texas court in August ordered the US government to restart the programme, called the Migration Protection Protocols (MPP), saying it had been ended improperly by the Biden administration.

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Trump’s Pentagon Chief Quashed Idea to Send 250,000 Troops to the Border

10/20/2021

Source: The New York Times

President Trump’s defense secretary thought the idea was outrageous.

In the spring of 2020, Mark T. Esper, the defense secretary, was alarmed to learn of an idea under discussion at a top military command and at the Department of Homeland Security to send as many as 250,000 troops — more than half the active U.S. Army, and a sixth of all American forces — to the southern border in what would have been the largest use of the military inside the United States since the Civil War.

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US-Mexico border prepares as vaccinated travelers can enter US starting Nov. 8.

Source: CBS8

The U.S. will lift travel restrictions on Nov. 8 making it possible for travelers outside the country to enter for the first time since the start of the pandemic. This new travel system will require vaccinated foreign air travelers to show proof of full vaccination and test for COVID-19. Also starting on Nov. 8th fully vaccinated people can cross the Mexico and Canada border for nonessential travel. In early January, those traveling for essential purposes will be required to show proof of full vaccination. 

The opening of the Mexico border for nonessential tourism is a huge win for San Ysidro where 86% of their customers come from Mexico. 

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