President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been sworn in yet, but the promise of tougher border policies is already convincing many would-be illegal immigrants to turn around and head back to their home countries.
Between 50 to 100 Venezuelan nationals in Mexico are now requesting what is known as “voluntary return” every week, according to a Venezuelan official that spoke with Reuters, who added that many of these migrants have faced perilous situations in Mexico, such as kidnappings and sexual exploitation. A dozen migrants in Mexico told the news outlet that they would prefer to go back to their home countries, despite whatever issues that drove them to leave in the first place.
A major point of contention is Trump’s promise to scrap the CBP One app, which has been used by hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals to schedule asylum appointments after the Biden administration greatly expanded the program. More migrants feel Trump’s upcoming border crackdown make it no longer worth waiting in Mexico, where many of them have been subjected extortion, sexual assault, kidnappings and a slate of other violence from cartels and others taking advantage of the migration crisis.
“I am traumatized. If I don’t get the appointment, I will go back,” Nidia Montenegro, a 52-year-old Venezuelan national, said to Reuters.
Under the Biden administration, Mexico had become the ultimate transit point for millions of U.S.-bound migrants — as many of them believed they could enter the country by simply claiming asylum or sneaking past Border Patrol. There were roughly 8.5 million southern border encounters during President Joe Biden’s time in office, with fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024 being the worst years for migrant crossings in history.
Biden took 296 executive actions on immigration in the first year of his presidency, according to an analysis by the Migration Policy Institute. Of these executive actions, 89 specifically reversed or began the process of unwinding policies undertaken by the Trump administration.
Trump — who already established himself as an immigration hardliner during his first term in office — has vowed to return with a number of hawkish measures for his second presidency, such as executing the largest deportation initiative in U.S. history, resuming wall construction, restarting the Remain in Mexico program and a number of other proposals.
“As President I will immediately end the migrant invasion of America. We will stop all migrant flights, end all illegal entries, terminate the Kamala phone app for smuggling illegals (CBP One App), revoke deportation immunity, suspend refugee resettlement, and return Kamala’s illegal migrants to their home countries (also known as remigration),” Trump posted on X in September.
First launched in October 2020 by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) primarily for cargo inspections, the CBP One app was expanded incredibly in January 2023 to include migrants waiting in Mexico hoping to schedule asylum appointments. More than 800,000 foreign nationals have scheduled appointments to present at ports of entry since the app’s expansion in January 2023, according to CBP.
While there have been reports of human smugglers urging migrants to rush to the southern border before Trump takes office and immigration officials have braced for such a possibility, border crossing numbers and on-the-ground interviews have largely suggested that most migrants feel defeated after Trump’s election victory. Todd Bensman, a national security fellow for the Center for Immigration Studies, reported Tuesday that “most everyone” he interviewed at a migrant camp in Mexico City said that they’re giving up and going home after Trump is inaugurated and cancels the CBP One app program.
Nevertheless, there are some that are still holding on to hope that they will land an appointment before the Republican re-enters the White House.
“I trust I will arrive before Mr. Trump takes office,” Johana, a young Venezuelan national hoping to cross from Guatemala to Mexico, said to Reuters. “If it’s not by appointment, there’s always a way.”
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