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Todd Bensman

From Journalism to Counterterrorism Intelligence - and Back.

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Reports from America's Other Southern Border: the Guatemala-Mexico One

From January 8-18, 2020, CIS Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman traveled to Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. A primary purpose was to assess the impacts of President Donald Trump's policies to slow the 2018-2019 mass illegal immigration from Central American countries through that key chokepoint to the American southern border.

In the White House's diplomatic and policy responses, Mexico's southern border came to be seen as an extension of the American one due to unique regional geographies, push-pull factors, and geopolitical circumstances that have channeled large flows of people over it, initially, into the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Bensman traveled to Tapachula, Chiapas, into Guatemala's northern highlands, three border crossings, and throughout the interior of Chiapas where he interviewed migrants, government officials, and military personnel.

The Trump-Defeat-Gamble: U.S.-Bound Migrants in Mexico Calculating a Trump Electoral Defeat

January 19, 2020 by Todd Bensman

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

Filed Under: Securing America's Borders, Foreign Correspondence

Dispatches from America’s Other Southern Border: Guatemala-Mexico

January 21, 2020 by Todd Bensman

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

Filed Under: Featured, Foreign Correspondence

Video: Why the 2020 Caravans Threaten the Fragile Success of Trump’s Border Policies

January 25, 2020 by Todd Bensman

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

Filed Under: Securing America's Borders, Foreign Correspondence

Video Report: Immigration Disconnect: U.S. Woos Middle Easterners and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them

January 30, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By Todd Bensman as published January 29, 2020 by the Center for Immigration Studies Officials high and low say that extra-continental migrants from the Middle East and everywhere else are exempt from the stew of new policies President Donald Trump has implemented mainly to deter Central Americans. Senior and lower-ranking DHS officials confirm that President Trump’s much-credited “Wait in … [Read more...] about Video Report: Immigration Disconnect: U.S. Woos Middle Easterners and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them

Filed Under: Foreign Correspondence, Securing America's Borders

Why 40,000 Migrants a Month Still Reach the U.S. Border: ‘Polleros’ Bypassing Mexican National Guard

January 30, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By many measures, the Mexican deployment of National Guard to roadblocks throughout the country's south has worked something like a miracle. But officials on the ground admit smugglers are figuring out ways around them. Indigenous Tzetzol natives called "polleros" are helping up to 40,000 migrants a month make it to the U.S. southern border. By Todd Bensman as originally published January 31, … [Read more...] about Why 40,000 Migrants a Month Still Reach the U.S. Border: ‘Polleros’ Bypassing Mexican National Guard

Filed Under: Securing America's Borders, Foreign Correspondence

U.S. Lays Out Welcome Mat for Middle Eastern and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them: An Immigration Policy Disconnect

February 6, 2020 by Todd Bensman

By Todd Bensman as originally published February 5, 2020 by Creative Destruction Media TAPACHULA, Mexico – The matronly Mexican entrepreneur bustling to and fro in her seedy downtown restaurant is proud of the legacy embossed on the walls of her first eatery next door, but especially of the nickname – “Mama Africa” – that still has customers along a global underground railroad seeking her out … [Read more...] about U.S. Lays Out Welcome Mat for Middle Eastern and “Extra-Continental” Migrants While Mexico Blocks Them: An Immigration Policy Disconnect

Filed Under: Securing America's Borders, Foreign Correspondence

House Envy: The Unacknowledged Real Motivation Behind Guatemala’s Mass Migration to the American Border

February 21, 2020 by Todd Bensman

Human rights activists, migrant advocates, and the news media consistently cite extreme widespread violence and rampant government persecution of indigenous populations for Guatemala emigration to claim asylum at the U.S. border. Not in emblematic Yalambojoch. What drove people to evacuate this typical highland village was desire to send enough money home to build big houses like their neighbor's, … [Read more...] about House Envy: The Unacknowledged Real Motivation Behind Guatemala’s Mass Migration to the American Border

Filed Under: Securing America's Borders

On The Green Line, U.S. Border Patrol union’s radio podcast

March 3, 2020 by Todd Bensman

Published March 2, 20202 The Center for Immigration Studies Senior National Security Fellow Todd Bensman visits the show to talk about his traveling with a caravan and shares insight into how the Mexican government responded to the caravan and the people making the trek towards the United States. We learn what the mission of CIS is and how they were able to put this story together.Connect with … [Read more...] about On The Green Line, U.S. Border Patrol union’s radio podcast

Filed Under: Bensman in the News

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