Migrants line up to leave the United States for Mexico after being deported across the Paso del Norte international border bridge, after US President Donald Trump promised mass deportation operation, as seen from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico January 23, 2025. REUTERS/Jose Luis Gonzalez
Although monthly migrant crossings along the US-Mexico border have dropped by about half to two-thirds in the past six months, US President Donald Trump declared a "national emergency" on the border on his first day back in office.
On Monday, Inauguration Day, Trump vowed to deploy the military and National Guard to seal the border and deport millions of undocumented migrants already in the US.
Trump also reactivated the "Remain in Mexico" program to keep asylum seekers outside of US territory. He suspended former president Joe Biden's asylum program for migrants fleeing Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and Haiti, canceling all scheduled appointments and flights for approved refugees.
While Trump was issuing the orders, more than 2,000 migrants from various countries began marching from southern Mexico hoping to enter the US, despite Trump's deportation order.
On Tuesday, Mexico began setting up a large tent complex near the border in Juarez, a border city across from El Paso, Texas, in preparation to shelter those who seek to cross the border despite Trump's order.
The center should be operational in the next five days and will provide food, medical checkups, temporary lodging and a $98 debit card that deported Mexicans can use to return to their home states if desired, Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said Tuesday in Mexico City. Other shelter centers also are being planned along a few other Mexico border cities.
Mexico officials said they can handle the expulsion of migrants because migration flows have been slow in recent months.
"We are at the lowest crossing levels — 78 percent less (than last January) — and this means the conditions prevalent on our border don't represent unmanageable levels," Mexico Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente said.
According to data from the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), illegal crossings along the US-Mexico border have been hovering around 100,000 a month since July 2024 which is about one-third to one-half of the flows in the same month in the previous year.
Also on Tuesday, a group of CBP officers in riot gear were seen marching near the temporarily closed border bridge in Brownsville, Texas.
Brownville resident Jaylee Cadriel told Border Report that he was waiting in a car for his pregnant wife to cross the border when the CBP officers screamed at him: "Get out of here! Get out of here!"
"I cross often," he told Border Report. "I have never seen anything like this."
Texas was once part of Mexico, and Cadriel said that almost everyone in Brownsville has Mexican ancestry. With or without US citizenship, "they're still Mexican, but the way they act toward us is messed up", he said.
On Wednesday, the Trump administration said it would send 1,500 active-duty troops by month's end.
According to a statement by Acting Secretary of Defense Robert Salesses, the Pentagon is also sending helicopters with associated crews and intelligence analysts to support increased detection and monitoring efforts.
The military tasks include providing airlift to "support DHS deportation flights of more than five thousand illegal aliens" in detention and "assisting in the construction of temporary and permanent physical barriers".
The Department of Justice (DOJ) ordered US attorneys around the country to investigate and prosecute law enforcement officials in states and cities if they refuse to enforce the new immigration policies
The House of Representatives approved a bill that requires the detainment of unauthorized immigrants accused of theft and violent crimes on Wednesday. The Senate approved the legislation, called the Laken Riley Act, earlier this week, so the bill will now head to Trump for his signings. The legislation is named after a University of Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan migrant.
