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Content warning: This briefing may contain references and links to descriptions of abuse, torture, and racial and gendered violence at borders. 

AT A GLANCE

• US: After what looked like an attempt at de-escalation following the killings of anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters in winter, ICE aggression is again ramping up. Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot dead by agents in Houston in early July, with witness accounts significantly diverging from those in authority. At least 22 are now dead in ICE custody this year, a rate of one death every eight days. Mexico is seeking criminal investigations into these deaths, which are a backdrop to a general increase in the operational tempo of enforcement. Whilst some receive removal orders with no chance to defend themselves (10,000 such orders have been given to children), others are being shuttled into so-called “mega masters”, mass court hearings with little time for due process. A secretive and never-used court process has also been activated to deport “alien terrorists” and their families (a term which the administration has a habit of using rather loosely). Nationally, ICE’s detained population has risen to 66,000 (just shy of its January 2026 peak). In unrelated news, there’s midterm elections in November.

• Mediterranean: Italian media has leaked EU border agency Frontex’s aerial footage of a rescue operation in May, claiming the images show collusion between civil rescuers and smugglers. This rescue is also the subject of a criminal investigation (those with memories longer than two years will recall similar cases in Italy, which didn’t prove collusion but did consume several years’ of everyone involved’s time and money.) Far from hiding the existence of cases where smugglers are present during rescues, NGOs have talked publicly about them and offered solutions. All this is a neat distraction from another “small” matter which took place during the contested rescue - a shooting attack by EU-backed Libyan forces on rescuers and survivors, forces with which the EU is extending cooperation. Arbitrary detention and abuse continues along the Libya-Tunisia border.  Eastern Libya claims to have deported 117,000 people, and registered a further 100,000 for a “voluntary” (a flexibly-used word) return programme; Statewatch has more. At least 1570 people have died at sea this year, a grim number alone but also higher as a proportion of arrivals, indicating the route becoming more deadly.

BORDER EXTERNALISATION

• US/ World:  In July the US deported a third country national to Palau, the first such flight to the island under a $7.5 million deal. AFP has tracked such coercive diplomacy; which also recently includes deportation flights to Equatorial Guinea for people who had previously been protected under anti-torture rules. In Jamaica, protests have emerged against the US using the country for its deportees. 

• Europe: Without iron-clad legal safeguards, argues Council of Europe human rights chief Michael O’Flaherty, the EU’s new offshore deportation camps will only repeat the “worst mistakes” of the past. The Council has been a flashpoint for government attempts to water down human rights protections to make deportations easier. 

• Italy/ Albania: Italian MEP Cristina Guarda has accused Italian officials of refusing to give MEPs accurate information from the Italian-run deportation camp in Albania, or grant access to facilities. 

DETENTION, DEPORTATION AND BORDER VIOLENCE

• US: A court-appointed doctor has hit out at the standard of healthcare in California’s largest ICE detention centre, opening the way to further investigations. It comes as Human Rights Watch also issues a damning report on detention conditions, and the Atlantic questions if successful drives to remove ICE from major cities simply mean detention with less scrutiny.

• A lawsuit claims US immigration agencies illegally shared confidential information on Iranian asylum seekers with the Iranian state. Yes, that would be the same one it’s currently at war with. 

• A US military veteran has alleged mistreatment, delayed medical care, and sexual assault in nearly a year of ICE detention.

• EU: As European capitals welcome in the Taliban to cut deportation deals, EU border agency Frontex has apparently deported some 50 people to Afghanistan with the help of an organisation headed by British veterans. 

• The New Humanitarian has a feature on the legacy of a decade of European deterrence architecture on the Greek island of Lesvos.

• Latvia: Security forces have used tear gas and firearms to prevent border crossings from Belarus amid what Riga says is an increasing number of crossing attempts. This phenomenon is explored in an Oxford Border Criminologies blog looking at what it calls “militarigration”, the fusion of national military defence and border control. 

• Germany: Munich Airport is pushing ahead with plans to build a specialised deportation terminal, despite protests from trade unions, migrant organizations, and the city mayor.

• India/Myanmar: Around 500 people are believed to be dead in shipwrecks as Rohingya refugees risk dangerous sea journeys to Bangladesh. Meanwhile India may exchange territory with Myanmar in order to speed up the building of an expansive - and expensive - border wall project. 

• Britain: A new report from government-appointed prison inspectors has provided further evidence that British immigration detention is harming women and failing to safeguard those who are most vulnerable.

SURVEILLANCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND INDUSTRY

• Mediterranean: Frontex has hired a US military surveillance firm to help the EU and Libya intercepting people crossing the Mediterranean. The firm is also involved in spy flights over Gaza. The move represents both the heavy influence of the US military-industrial complex in EU border control, and - as US military algorithms are deployed to track border crossings from Mexico - the fusion of border security and warfare. Frontex is also shopping for a new large-scale intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform, as even an establishment Swiss thinktank warns of the risks involved in privatised, militarised border surveillance.

• US: The US’ $46 billion 'smart wall' project is storming ahead at the US-Mexico border (regardless of what anyone who lives there thinks), as the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) plans to nearly triple the number of surveillance towers at borders.

• A renewed $25 million-per-year contract with a data broker subsidiary of Thomson Reuters allows ICE to metabolise ever more data on Americans, as a leaked document provides updates on the agency’s ever-growing arsenal of surveillance tech.

• DHS has directly purchased two privately-run detention facilities in California from prison giant CoreCivic, a move that could reduce the ability of the state of California to scrutinise them. It also hopes to open a 528-bed centre next to a Louisiana airport hub to speed up deportations.

• A group of people seeking asylum are suing the US government in a Washington federal court over being forced to wear tracking monitors while their migration claims are assessed. The population of tagged people in the immigration system has now hit around 50,000.

• Britain: Racialised models that underpin AI-powered age-detection systems to be introduced in migration control will endanger children, children’s charities have warned.

MIGRATION POLICY AND POLITICS

• West Asia/ Europe: As the US’s war on Iran (at the time of writing) resumes and fighting around Sudan’s North Kordofan region escalates, both internal and international displacement is spiking. Meanwhile a European Parliament briefing assesses whether the EU is prepared for the arrival of large numbers of refugees.

• Ethiopia/ Sudan: Despite ongoing fears of Ethiopian involvement in the Sudan conflict and potential escalation of a regional war, Addis Ababa has also been praised for its Sudanese refugee protection policy, which includes improved access to education, healthcare and work. 

• Ukraine/ EU: The renewed EU protection scheme for Ukrainians contains a major caveat - restrictions targeting Ukrainian men of conscription age, pushing them to stay put as anti-draft riots flare in the country.

• South Africa: South Africa is carrying out one of its biggest crackdowns on undocumented people in years, with large-scale deportations following weeks of anti-immigration protests that have seen violence, intimidation and looting. Other states are beginning to evacuate their citizens, including 1000 Ghanaian nationals.

• Sudan/ Britain: London has positioned itself as a leading humanitarian actor in Sudan, but, as a piece in the New Humanitarian argues, harding asylum policies have forced thousands into dangerous journeys. 

• Britain: Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham notably did not make any immigration commitments in his first-week pledges, but the issue can’t be far from his in-tray. Hardliner Shabana Mahmood remains home secretary under Burnham, and her asylum changes are before Parliament currently, with headlines focusing on accelerated deportations and restricted pathways to citizenship - but also, a new community sponsorship route for refugees. A court has also ruled that a key plank of Britain’s beleaguered migration deal with France is unlawful.

• Green councils in London are forging ahead with plans to refuse cooperation with immigration raids.

• An Afghan national has been sentenced to two years in prison for navigating a boat in the English Channel.

• Colombia/ Britain: Colombia’s incoming foreign minister has begun his term by reposting a screed from British far-right leader Tommy Robinson about “migrant invasions”, which raises some…questions about the new government’s approach to the significant number of refugees the country hosts. 

• Guatemala: Guatemala has taken a significant step toward strengthening the labor inclusion of refugees, asylum-seekers, and other foreign nationals through the modernisation of its digital work permits platform.

• Haiti/ US: As Haiti struggles with 1.5 million internally displaced people amid rampant violence, nationals deported from neighboring countries or the US have been unable to return to their homes, found their neighbourhoods destroyed, or been kidnapped and killed. In June, the Supreme Court removed barriers to the US’ bid for mass deportations of Haiti. 

• US: The Supreme Court upheld a broad conception of birthright citizenship, rejecting President Trump’s executive order declaring that children born in the US to non-citizen families are not US citizens. 

• The American Immigration Council reports on how some states are passing policies to protect people in the face of federal hostility to migration.

• Italy/ Vatican/ EU: Thirteen years after Pope Francis’ landmark trip to Lampedusa amid tragic shipwrecks off the island, new Pope Leo has returned to Lampedusa to urge Europe to do more to protect and integrate people migrating. Figures on the European far-right immediately offered to deface the memorial he spoke at. 

• Sweden: A Swedish MEP has filed a police complaint accusing a fellow MEP of racist hate speech after she was targeted on social media over her condemnation of the “send them back” chants started by far-right MEPs following the passing of deportation legislation in June. 

• World: Migration is falling in many countries - with significant economic fallout, The Conversation reports.

CLIMATE, NATURE, AND THE FUTURE OF MIGRATION

• Europe: Nearly 270,000 people have been displaced by evacuation orders as wildfires rip through Europe; centred on France and Spain. As climate impacts deepen, it is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid the reality that richer countries are generating - not just receiving - climate refugees. 

• Colombia: Landmark legislation that formally recognises displacement caused by climate change, environmental degradation, and natural disasters passed into law last month, in a global first. 

• World: A new study examines how climate change beliefs relate to support for admitting immigrants and whether this association varies by the reason for migration. 

• A piece for The Conversation looks at video games that help explore the experience of climate and migration.

• In the journal of Populism Studies, Dr. Oludele Solaja argues that climate-induced displacement should be understood as an emerging battleground over political membership and democratic inclusion. 

• US: The Trump administration’s US$3 billion one-ton border buoys have already caused more than their fair share of environmental risk, including increasing flooding danger. Now, hundreds have gone rogue in a flood, smashing through the Rio Grande river valley and closing down bridges and businesses in the process.