Adam Isacson

So good to catch a glimpse of the absolutely massive but lately eclipsed America that’s not boat strikes, detention warehouses, civilizational threats, AI grifts, and legislative cowardice. More, please.

Hey, has anyone visited TRAC Immigration and looked up asylum denial rates in US immigration courts?

- October 2000-January 2025: 56% of cases denied
- February-November 2025: 75% denied
December 2025: 84%
- January 2026: 91%
- February 2026: 95%

https://tracreports.org/phptools/immigration/asylum/

Latin America-Related Events in Washington and Online This Week

10 events about Latin America this week, that I know about, that can be attended in person in Washington or online anywhere.

https://adamisacson.com/latin-america-related-events-in-washington-and-online-this-week-104/

Convinced that supply issues aren't going to get any better (AI bubble, Iran war, fuel prices), I just ordered a new desktop — the best I can afford — even though my current one could probably last another year.

Apple will have it ready for me by… July 7.

RE: @adam@elefanti.co

Here is video of this great discussion with Laura Dib and Francisco Monaldi about why Venezuela's oil sector won't advance without the rule of law, and why the rule of law in turn depends on democracy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSEXjc_qDN4

Amid violent arrests, detention deaths, harm to children…is there any place where victims of ICE and CBP abuses can get redress?

Or, since the Trump administration gutted DHS’s oversight offices last March 21st, are they “denouncing into the void?”

Join us for a report launch next Thursday: https://www.wola.org/events/denouncing-into-the-void-the-dismantling-of-internal-oversight-and-accountability-at-dhs/

New WOLA Podcast:

Expectations are rising in Venezuela, but they will not be met without transparency, accountability, democracy, and the rule of law. Yet the Trump administration appears focused narrowly on oil production.

Here's a great conversation with Francisco Monaldi and Laura Dib: https://www.wola.org/multimedia/oil-and-the-rule-of-law-in-venezuela/

March 21 will be 1 year since this administration fired nearly everyone at DHS’s internal oversight offices handling civil rights complaints, detention violations, and more. A year of rising violations—and victims now have far less recourse.

WOLA and the Kino Border Initiative will release a report and host an event to mark this. Join us next Thursday: https://www.wola.org/events/denouncing-into-the-void-the-dismantling-of-internal-oversight-and-accountability-at-dhs/

- 158 people killed in 188 days. Guilt for a non-capital crime unknown.
- 42 separate attacks.
- 27 in the Eastern Pacific. 13 in the Caribbean. 2 unspecified.
- 17 listed as at Donald Trump's orders. 16 at Pete Hegseth's orders. The last 9 at the orders of Southcom's Gen. Francis Donovan.

4 of the 6 most populous countries in Latin America, 3 of them with groups on the State Department's "terrorist list," were not present for Donald Trump's "counter-cartel" summit in Florida today.

"Business as usual—which means state-sponsored extraction with organized crime."

Listen to our latest podcast with Mark Ungar about the organized crime-tied corruption poisoning the Amazon in Venezuela and beyond. The January 3 US attack changed nothing.

https://www.wola.org/multimedia/its-so-seamlessly-blended-into-the-regular-economy-that-its-hard-to-pull-out-environmental-organized-crime-in-venezuela-and-throughout-the-americas/

In the latest Border Update from WOLA:

Kristi Noem leaves DHS in turmoil. Border walls may be coming to Big Bend National Park. 10 people have died this year in ICE's rapidly expanding detention system. ICE training cut from 72 to 42 days. New reports from Mexico.

Read on: https://www.wola.org/2026/03/u-s-mexico-border-update-turmoil-at-dhs-big-bend-border-wall-ice-detention-deaths-and-expansion/

It cost a combined $53,098,863.70 to detain 708 migrants at Guantánamo in 2025.

That's $74,998.40 per person—for an average stay of 14 days.

Source: Defense Department IG report at https://www.dodig.mil/reports.html/Article/4418859/operation-southern-guard-osg/

Venezuela's Orinoco Mining Arc—like too much of the Amazon basin—is being poisoned by a violent nexus of criminal groups, corrupt military officers, and crooked politicians. Despite the January 3 U.S. raid, nothing has changed.

In a new podcast, Brooklyn College's Mark Ungar explains how environmental organized crime has become so seamlessly blended into the regular economy that it's nearly impossible to root out.

https://www.wola.org/multimedia/its-so-seamlessly-blended-into-the-regular-economy-that-its-hard-to-pull-out-environmental-organized-crime-in-venezuela-and-throughout-the-americas/

Just 2 senators didn't vote with their party on yesterday's Iran war powers resolution:

- Rand Paul (R-KY) voted with the Democrats, as he has on past Venezuela and "boat strikes" resolutions
- John Fetterman (D-PA) voted with the Republicans, as he did on a "boat strikes" resolution

https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1192/vote_119_2_00046.htm

I'm putting together a presentation, and came across this old slide with headlines about Border Patrol human rights allegations from late 2021 and early 2022.

This sort of thing used to be confined to the border zone, but now it's national.

Latin America-Related Events in Washington and Online This Week

7 events about Latin America this week, that I know about, that can be attended in person in Washington or online anywhere.

https://adamisacson.com/latin-america-related-events-in-washington-and-online-this-week-103/

If just 1 or 2 Republican senators had voted to assert congressional war powers on "lethal boat strikes" and Venezuela, this White House wouldn't have taken it as a green light to start a new war today on the president's whim.

(From https://adamisacson.com/tracking-war-powers-resolution-votes-in-congress/)

At a time when so many big institutions and corporations have been caving to authoritarian bullying, I thank Anthropic for not doing that.

Those of us who remember the Cold War recall that it was the _other side_ that would order firms to produce things at their command.