a day ago
In a Mexico Border Town Famed for Crossings, ‘There Are No Migrants'
Tijuana had migrants sleeping in its parks, shelters packed with families, and claimed to be the busiest border crossing by land in the Western Hemisphere.
Now, the migrants trying to pass through Tijuana's gateway to Southern California have all but disappeared from sight.
The street where people lined up, waiting for asylum appointments to try to enter the United States legally, lies deserted. At the border wall, which some migrants climbed in desperate attempts at illegal crossings, the only ruckus nearby is road construction. On Thursday morning, five people waited on the Mexico side of the border crossing where crowds had once gathered.
'People aren't coming here,' said Lenis Mojica, 49, a Venezuelan migrant who has been living in a shelter here since January. 'Everyone has left. No one else has arrived.'
Mexican cities along the border have reported similar drop-offs in migrant numbers in recent months, a fall that began before President Trump was inaugurated but that has grown more dramatic since he took office, promising a crackdown on immigration. In April, U.S. border agents apprehended 8,383 people along the U.S.-Mexico border, down from 129,000 apprehensions in April 2024, and far below the record of nearly 250,000 apprehensions in December 2023.
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