Many migrants have lost hope of illegally crossing into the United States and have decided to turn around after hearing that Republican nominee Donald Trump won the presidential election, according to multiple reports.
A migrant caravan heading for the U.S.-Mexico border has shrunk to roughly half its size as members accepted the fact that Trump would be re-taking the reins at the White House, according to a report from Reuters. An official from Mexico’s National Migration Institute told the outlet that the caravan dwindled to under 1,600 migrants, a sharp drop from its original size of 3,000 when it embarked on its northward journey on Tuesday in the southern Mexican city of Tapachula.
The official added that more than 100 individuals had asked for assistance from authorities on returning to Tapachula, but it’s not entirely clear where the rest of the caravan deserters are headed.
“I had hoped [Vice President Kamala Harris] would win, but that didn’t happen,” said Venezuelan migrant Valerie Andrade, according to Reuters.
Other migrants expressed hopelessness at Trump’s election victory, and even disdain at the historic levels of Latino support the Republican amassed in his landslide win.
“This is the end of my dream of getting out of Cuba,” said Felipe, a Cuban migrant, according to Newsweek.
“They forgot about when they were on the other side,” Mahily Paz, another Venezuelan migrant, said about Latinos who voted for Trump, according to Newsweek. The statement erroneously suggests that most or all Latino Americans are a product of illegal immigration.
Trump emerged victorious early Wednesday morning in the U.S. presidential election, securing more than the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House. As of Thursday, the president-elect has also remained ahead in the popular vote count, making him the first Republican candidate to win the popular vote since former President George W. Bush was reelected in 2004.
Trump, who made border enforcement a hallmark of his first presidential term, has promised a return to a hawkish immigration policy. The president-elect has vowed to conduct the “largest deportation operation in American history,” a completion of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and a slate of other crackdowns.
While Harris attempted to rebrand herself as more of a hawk on border security on the campaign trail, she could not shake off the perception from voters and would-be illegal migrants that she was the weaker candidate when it came to immigration enforcement.
Trump’s landslide victory on Election Day was driven in large part by growing Latino support, exit polls revealed.
The president-elect won roughly 45% of the Latino vote, marking a dramatic increase from the 32% Latino support he garnered in the 2020 presidential election, according to USA Today. He also won Latino men outright, making him the first Republican presidential candidate to do so in U.S. history.
As of Thursday afternoon, Trump had so far amassed 295 electoral votes and nearly 73 million votes from American citizens.
While many migrants expressed their dismay at the election outcome and chose to turn around, others have chosen to keep gunning for the U.S. border.
“With God’s favor, I’ll get that appointment,” a Venezuelan migrant named Jeilimar said to Reuters, speaking about her appointment to request asylum with U.S. immigration officials via the CBP One app.
Biden administration officials and other immigration workers are bracing for the possibility that Trump’s election victory will spark a rush at the border before he takes office in January, with migrants hoping to make it into the U.S. before an expected border crackdown begins.
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