Should even one of these testing, probing caravans be allowed to find and exploit a breach in the Mexican defense, or should President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) falter for a moment, many more will no doubt rise follow their predecessors through the breach. That's why the outcome of these battles between migrants and Mexican police and troops matter greatly to immediate future border … [Read more...] about Video: Why the 2020 Caravans Threaten the Fragile Success of Trump’s Border Policies
Permanent Collections
Dispatches from America’s Other Southern Border: Guatemala-Mexico
Implementation of President Donald Trump's cocktail of policies took time, with U.S. court challenges, trial and error, and planning necessities. But by the fall of 2019, the historic numbers of Central Americans crossing the U.S. border, to the tune of 100,000 a month — 144,000 in May 2019 alone — had plummeted to (still-high) pre-crisis levels. Understanding why is key to blunting future … [Read more...] about Dispatches from America’s Other Southern Border: Guatemala-Mexico
The Trump-Defeat-Gamble: U.S.-Bound Migrants in Mexico Calculating a Trump Electoral Defeat
Dozens of politically woke migrants say their decisions to stay in Mexico are predicated on a Trump-defeat calculus. As Mexico has recently required of them, migrants will apply for Mexican asylum and wait for a long process of approval, then live for awhile in that country, in a gambit that Trump will be defeated in the November 2020 national U.S. election. Then, the calculus goes, the Democrats … [Read more...] about The Trump-Defeat-Gamble: U.S.-Bound Migrants in Mexico Calculating a Trump Electoral Defeat
8-Part Series: CIS Investigates Terror Travel Threat in Panama and Costa Rica
LINK TO THE SERIES HERE President Donald Trump's claims that Middle Eastern migrants were traveling Central American routes to the U.S. border, among them some Islamic terrorists, spawned a confused national debate that never quite moved past disputes over just the basic facts. Such as: Can, have, and do migrants from countries of terrorism concern, where Islamic terrorist groups operate, … [Read more...] about 8-Part Series: CIS Investigates Terror Travel Threat in Panama and Costa Rica
Massive Stanford Ponzi Scheme Decimates Mexico City’s Jews
In the late 2000s, Houston fraudster Robert Allen Stanford operated a massive Ponzi scheme that laid financial waste to Jewish organizations and individuals of every income level in Mexico and Latin America. A lawyer representing Latin American victims estimates that half of the one billion dollars lost in Mexico came from the capital’s 40,000-strong Jewish population. The smaller Jewish community … [Read more...] about Massive Stanford Ponzi Scheme Decimates Mexico City’s Jews
Divine Retreat
A mysterious ranch east of San Antonio, home to a Noah’s Ark of exotic animal species, serves as an opulent family haven for the iconoclastic leader of Light of the World Church, a controversial Mexico-based denomination followed by allegations of child sexual abuse and intimidation. Leader Samuel Juaquin Flores claims he and his family are deities with a direct link to Jesus. By TODD BENSMAN … [Read more...] about Divine Retreat
What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security
The Center for Immigration Studies published the results of a yearlong study of migrants who crossed Europe’s external borders and conducted attacks or who were arrested and killed committing terrorism crimes. This paper quantifies for the first time how many border-crossing migrants attacked in Europe and analyzes consequences for U.S. border security, among them: a moderate, high-consequence … [Read more...] about What Terrorist Migration Over European Borders Can Teach About American Border Security
On the Ground in Mexico: Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” Policy, Returned Migrants Crashing the Border
Whereas almost all Central Americans who illegally entered the United States prior to the new policy actively and immediately sought out U.S. Border Patrol agents so they could make their asylum claims and be quickly released legally, these migrants were planning to run, hide, and evade the Border Patrol at all costs to reach the American interior undetected. By Todd Bensman as published … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Mexico: Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” Policy, Returned Migrants Crashing the Border
On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
In Juarez, confirmation that Trump's Remain in Mexico policy is driving asylum claimant decisions to return home. In two Juarez city shelters, a Honduran mother of two children, a young single Honduran woman, and a young single man from Guatemalan say they're going home rather than to lose the prospect of living illegally in the United States. CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – The New York Times … [Read more...] about On the Ground in Juarez, Mexico: Trump “Remain in Mexico” policy working as UN buses load up Central Americans for rides home. But for how long?
Gunrunning to Mexico Part IV: Bingeing on bullets
So loosely regulated and available is American ammunition that Mexican smugglers are simply dropping over on day shopping visas to cruise a bounty of stores within the 25-mile deep commercial zone where they can legally wander. Judging by prosecutions and seizures, the day-trippers are doing their part to bring home huge quantities of bullets. The one law that applies to ammunition purchases … [Read more...] about Gunrunning to Mexico Part IV: Bingeing on bullets