Migrants used to gather in their hundreds at encampments in Ciudad Juárez on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande, waiting for a chance to cross into the United States. But as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to take office on Monday, the once-crowded levee was largely empty last week.
All that remained was an extinguished campfire, discarded shoes, shirt, and toothbrush.
Similar situations have been reported in Mexican cities along the U.S. border, where the number of migrants has steadily declined in recent months. The decline is largely due to strict restrictions put in place by the Biden administration and Mexican and Panamanian authorities aimed at deterring migrants.
President Biden has come under increasing pressure to curb immigration flows during his re-election campaign, and in June he issued an executive order effectively blocking asylum for undocumented immigrants. That month, U.S. border officials recorded 83,532 illegal border crossings, a significant decrease from 117,905 the previous month.
Despite the decline, the number of illegal immigrants remains higher than during most of Trump’s first term, prompting calls from the new Trump administration and even some congressional Democrats for tighter restrictions on immigration into the United States. is increasing.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s nominee to head the Department of Homeland Security, told senators on Friday she would force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico during their U.S. cases and reduce temporary stays. He said he plans to revive the Trump administration-era policy. Immigrant relief for people in countries affected by insecurity.
“Border security must remain our top priority,” Noem said.
Some Latin American officials have pushed back, arguing that tougher restrictive measures on both sides of the border are helping stem the crisis.
“The flow of migrants from southern Mexico to the border has decreased in recent months,” said Enrique Serrano Escobar, head of the Chihuahua state office in charge of migrant reception. “There is no crisis,” he said of Ciudad Juárez. “No problem.”
The recent quiet on the border stands in contrast to recent tragedies along the border, including family separations and a fire at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juárez in 2023 that killed dozens of people.
Thousands of migrants are still trying to make their way north, even as authorities on both sides of the border tighten restrictions. But overall, the flow of migrants is limited by migration through the Darién Gap, a harsh land bridge connecting North and South America, and by the capacity of shelters in U.S.-Mexico border cities like Ciudad Juárez and Matamoros. This is an indicator of how the situation is easing.
“Normally there would be about 150 people,” said Lucio Torres, who has overseen the Nuevo Laredo shelter on the other side of the Rio Grande for three years. The capacity of the evacuation center is 300 people. Just seven people were housed at the facility this week.
Serrano Escobar said the migrant shelter run by the government and civil society in Ciudad Juárez can accommodate about 3,000 migrants, but is currently only about 40% full. “The city is calm,” he added.
More than 46,000 people crossed the border illegally in November, the lowest number under the Biden administration. More than 47,000 illegal crossings occurred in December. In contrast, in December 2023, the number of illegal crossings exceeded approximately 250,000.
Mexican security forces announced they detained more than 475,000 migrants in the last quarter of 2024. This is a nearly 68% increase in detentions compared to the same period last year, according to government data.
Solsily Petit, 44, a Venezuelan teacher from Ciudad Juárez, said she had a tumor in her chest that required surgery. She said her sons, ages 10 and 17, turned themselves in to U.S. authorities about a week ago seeking asylum. She said she was scheduled to meet at U.S. Customs and Border Protection in El Paso on Jan. 29 to file her asylum claim.
She said she hopes her appointment will be respected under the Trump administration. “I don’t want to think about it,” she said. “Because it’s more depressing.”
CBP One, the phone app Petit used to schedule appointments, allowed U.S. immigration authorities to process about 44,000 immigrants at ports of entry in December.
The Biden administration created the app to encourage immigrants to avoid entering the country illegally, but Noem, a nominee for the Department of Homeland Security, said Republicans say the app is being used to allow immigrants into the country. It said it would scale back its use of the app to reflect its concerns. Countries that should be banned from entering.
Similar to the tense calm seen in Ciudad Juárez, the Pumarejo evacuation center in Matamoros can accommodate 1,500 people, but shelter officials say it currently only has 260 people. In Tijuana, three well-known shelters showed they were only 50% full.
Shelters in Guatemala City have also seen fewer migrants heading north, said Karina López, a social worker at the city’s Casa del Migrante shelter. A few years ago, the shelter was struggling to care for more than 3,000 exhausted migrants in just over 100 beds. Lopez said these numbers are unprecedented today. One reason for this is that people are only staying for a few hours as they rush to the border before the inauguration.
Fear of violent crime and extortion is also believed to be keeping some migrants away from shelters that are targeted by organized crime in Mexico. Instead of seeking refuge there, some choose to stay in the homes of acquaintances, rented rooms, or with smugglers before making their way to the border, whether legally or illegally.
“I don’t care if the devil gets in my way, I just move on,” said Juan Hernandez, a handyman from Honduras. Hernandez, 45, said he has lived in the United States for 23 years and has been deported five times. He arrived in Monterrey, a major industrial center in northeastern Mexico, six months ago after being convicted of drunk driving in North Carolina and deported to Honduras.
He said he plans to cross the border again soon to reunite with his two children, who live in Raleigh, North Carolina.
For now, immigrants like Hernández appear to be in the minority. Not long ago, the sidewalks of Guatemala City’s historic center were filled with people begging for change and food for their children, many carrying Venezuelan flags. I was almost absent this week.
In the Darien Gap, the number of migrants dropped sharply after the Panamanian government introduced tougher restrictions to complement the Biden administration’s new asylum policies.
Two years ago, thousands of people seeking access to the jungle set out daily by boat from Necoclí, a Colombian beach town on the southern edge of the jungle. Migrants often take photos of their voyages and share them on social media, and it has come to symbolize their last moments of safety before entering the dangerous Darien Gap jungle.
Now there are days when there are not enough immigrants to fill one ship. Instead, boats depart every few days and are not always full.
In August 2023, a record 80,000 migrants passed through Darien in one month. Just under 5,000 people passed through in December, Panamanian officials said.
But as President Trump’s inauguration approaches, smugglers continue to urge migrants to reach the border and avoid a potential crackdown. Fearing this may be their last chance to reach the U.S., some people beg friends to lend them money or sell their homes to smugglers using the title as collateral, shelter operators said. states.
López, the social worker, said one option offered by smugglers and called the “VIP route” by migrants is to use a fake Mexican passport to travel overland from Guatemala to Cancun, Mexico, and from Cancun to Ciudad. The plan is to transport migrants by air to Juarez. . One-way ticket prices on this route peaked this week at about $450.
After launch, the price will drop to around $100.
Report contributor: Annie Correal Originally from Guatemala City. julie terkewicz Originally from Bogotá, Colombia. Chantal Flores Originally from Monterrey, Mexico. Edira Espriela Originally from Matamoros, Mexico. align corpus Originally from Tijuana, Mexico. Emiliano Rodriguez Mega and Rocio Gallegos Born in Mexico City. and Hamed Areaziz From Washington.
