MCALLEN, Texas — President Donald Trump’s multiculturalism crackdown has successfully stopped illegal immigration at the southern border, especially in a region that has previously been the country’s busiest crossing point.
The Washington Examiner has visited the borders numerous times since 2018, but for the first time, its reporters have never witnessed a second immigrant trying to cross the Rio Grande while prepping for a ride-along with Border Patrol.
Instead of thousands of immigrants weaving through the muddy waters of the valley and traversing stretches of land to get agents and retreat, those mud roads were without footprints.
Texas National Guard troops were merely compelled to stand by the perimeter of the boundary wall as they stood at walls. In search of adventure and relaxation, a number of joy boats cruised up or down the Rio Grande. Roads were bare of travel coach buses and Border Patrol vehicles that usually take immigrants back and forth to arrest sites.
Almost one quarter into Trump’s returning to office, and not long after that, he signed more than a dozen executive orders to restore the border to attempt. Border Patrol agents were in a beneficial position guarding the global boundary.
A” catch and release” policy suspension, a declaration of emergency at the border, troop deployment, a stop on refugee admissions, a return to holding asylum-seekers in Mexico rather than admitting them, and a stop to” catch and release” policies were just a few of those policy changes from those week.
But Trump did not stop at the border. He has launched the “largest-ever” deportation operation inside the United States, fought illegally importing Mexican fentanyl into the country, established a camp for migrants in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and seized numerous mug shots of criminal illegal immigrants who had been detained since Jan. 20.
The preliminary findings on the southern border, according to the White House, demonstrate the immediate actions that Trump took on Day One, which are having a significant impact on border security.
” Less than a month into his second term and President Trump has already delivered on the resounding mandate that the American people gave him in November to put an end to the Biden administration’s malfeasant handling of our southern border”, White House spokesman Kush Desai said in an email to the Washington Examiner. The Trump administration is” committed to a whole-of-government approach to protect our borders, mass deport illegal immigrants, and enforcing our immigration laws in order to put Americans and America first.”
The public campaign against illegal immigration has translated into definable results in the stretch of the border that runs along 320 miles of the Rio Grande.
Just 47 illegal immigrants were apprehended on Tuesday in this stretch for a full 24-hour period, just one day before the Washington Examiner’s visit. It is a far cry from the 1,500 people who visited the country each day in September 2022.
” On average nowadays, we’re looking at between 100 to 150 sector-wide, depending on the days”, said Andres Garcia, a Border Patrol agent and public affairs official in the Rio Grande Valley who led the Washington Examiner on a five-hour tour of the region Wednesday. ” The number’s decreased in a big percentage, down here, for us.”
The Rio Grande sat silent even in the shadow of the dark, which has historically been a busy time of day for Mexican cartels trying to cross the river.
Ladders were on the ground not far from the border wall, where smugglers had attempted to use them to get over the levy, albeit unsuccessfully. In other places, bracelets in various colors were left behind in trampled pathways leading up from the water. The bracelets, which are distributed in the same way as those at concerts, represent how much money each immigrant owes the smuggler who brought them into the United States.
Rep. Monica De La Cruz (R-TX ), who represents a portion of the Rio Grande Valley, claimed that, in accordance with state data released to her office, border arrests had decreased significantly.
De La Cruz stated in a statement that” U.S. Border Patrol agents are finally permitted to fulfill their duties and protect our communities with President Trump in office.” ” While Democrats continue to fearmonger and spread misinformation, it is clear that our communities are now safer, our border is more secure, and less illegal immigrants are making the dangerous trek across our border”.
On the U.S. side of the river, where smugglers used to regularly transport immigrants across the river, hundreds of green multiperson inflatable rafts line the bank.
The long-term effects of border walls
The region is composed of 55 miles of border wall that was erected by the Trump administration, plus an additional 54 miles installed by Gov. since 2021, Greg Abbott (R-TX ).
By the time Trump took office in 2021, the Biden administration had completed more than 300 miles of pre-funded border wall construction. In the interim, the administration relinquished and filled in 10 gaps between the Rio Grande Valley of Texas’s construction projects.
The wall has helped to deter some immigrants from crossing, and it has also helped to direct those who choose to attempt to cross through unfenced areas, according to Garcia.
Miles of 30-foot-tall barrier stretch along the roughly 320 river miles and 200 coastal miles with 19 counties falling in its jurisdiction.
Although the 450 miles of border wall built during Trump’s first term in office were still having an impact on illegal crossings, White House border czar Tom Homan claimed the Trump administration’s response to the reduction of illegal crossers was in response to Trump’s policies in the first few weeks.
In a text message, Homan wrote to the Washington Examiner,” President Trump and his policies, executive actions, and vision demonstrate once more that he is a game changer and keeps his promises to the American people.” ” I am honored to work for him”.
Immigrants quickly arrived in Mexico.
As was the case with the more than 5 million illegal immigrants who crossed the border into the United States during the Biden administration, the sporadic immigrant is not discovered and deported. Instead, they are being returned south of the border to Mexico at increasing rates.
Due to a long-standing agreement with the Mexican government that guarantees it will accept Mexicans as well as other nationalities of immigrants, the majority of immigrants caught by federal law enforcement here are highly likely to be repatriated to Mexico.
Immigrants who have been detained are booked and then typically repatriated back to Mexico within hours that day, using a method known as expedited removal, which has been around for decades but has become more popular in recent weeks and the past year.
After making an illegal crossing of the southern border, immigrants from this area are escorted back across the nearby international bridge in Hidalgo, Texas.
Rod Kise, public affairs specialist for U. S. Customs and Border Protection, said Mexico will not accept back every nationality of immigrant but does allow “most” to be returned.
Mexico increased security along its northern and southern borders.
Some of the 10,000 Mexican troops that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum agreed to deploy to her country’s northern border to ward off U.S. tariffs that Trump had threatened in early February greet immigrants who cross the bridge.
” That’s always a big help on their side because we actually conduct mirror patrol, which means we patrol on the U. S. side and they patrol on the Mexican side”, said Garcia. If a migrant attempts to enter the United States illegally and then flees to the Mexican side, it’s a great help.
On February 4, Mexican army and National Guard personnel traveled to the Mexican border states of Baja California, Sonora, and Tamaulipas.
Troops were dispatched to the Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, which are across the border from the Rio Grande Valley of southeastern Texas.
On the Texas side of the border, troops deployed by Abbott stood by large piles of metal fencing and wire under the bridge in Hidalgo.
Before dawn, as federal police and military personnel below the bridge waited and watched for anyone who attempted to jump in the river and cross, the traffic overhead of pedestrians who were legitimately undergoing inspection and being admitted into the United States erupted.
ending a years-long crisis
The decline in illegal immigrant arrests began after peaking at 250, 000 arrests nationwide in December 2023. The numbers had been nearly half-sliced in June 2024.
In order to reduce the number of illegal immigrants entering the country, Biden tightened up the asylum process and increased removal flights last summer, making it much more likely that they would not be admitted. This led to fewer attempts to cross the border illegally. The effort to slow down illegal traffic occurred months before the November election when immigration was a top concern for voters.
Since Trump took office on January 20, the number of illegal immigrants who have been detained at the country’s borders has decreased even further.
According to Homan, who spoke with reporters in Washington last week, the more than 2,000 arrests made per day in the majority of the fall months have dropped to less than 500 per day borderwide.
In comparison to last year, Border Patrol Chief Mike Banks reported earlier this month that the number of border apprehensions was down 91 %.
Gary Joiner, director of communications at the Texas Farm Bureau, said farmers in Texas have reported to him that police from local, state, and federal agencies are out in droves not seen before and that the number of immigrants who have crossed and trespassed through farmers property has continued to decline.
In a phone call, Joiner stated,” As far as just the foot traffic, fences being cut, and the crops being trampled on.” They have not seen an increase in that type of activity because it has been declining and having been declining, and that has continued. It continues to be at a much lower level than where it was”.
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The lack of water, as residents have lamented for the past few years, is the biggest issue facing the region, according to Joiner.
” Water is the No. 1 issue. It surpassed border security in my opinion as the No. If you think that’s the one subject of conversation between farmers and ranchers in the Rio Grande Valley, joiner said. ” We are at a crisis point because of the water scarcity and the lack of water that is due to the United States from Mexico, from this 1944 Water Treaty”.
