illegal immigration
TODD BENSMAN: What I discovered inside teeming Mexican migrant camps that proves Trump’s hardline policy is already working
From ToddBensman.com
I’m thinking right now of returning to Venezuela,’ said a man, who has been living in a makeshift tent of streets of Mexico City for eight months. ‘I’m just staying here until January 20 to see if I get [a CBP One appointment] and, if not, go back home.’
MEXICO CITY — President-elect Donald Trump won’t take office for another five weeks, but his election is already causing a sea change in America’s illegal immigration crisis.
In sprawling migrant camps across Mexico City, people are giving up their plans to cross into the United States and are instead planning to settle in Mexico or begin the long trek back home.
‘I’m just going to give up and go back to Venezuela,’ said a woman in one of the squalid encampments, where thousands of migrants have constructed tents with tarps and scrap material.
‘I have children to take care of,’ she added. ‘I’ll just go back because, with Donald Trump, it’s going to be too hard.’
This is a cruel reality for millions of people drawn to Mexico by the Biden administration’s indulgent border policies – only to find that Americans overwhelmingly rejected the misguided approach in the 2024 election.
The young mother of two had hoped to have already entered the US through President Joe Biden‘s ‘humanitarian parole’ program known as CBP One.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has reported that, since January 2023, the federal initiative has allowed entry into the US for 771,000 migrants, at a rate of about 1,600 people a day. But that program was also quickly overwhelmed by the volume of requests resulting in a massive backlog.
Now, the Trump transition team says the program will end on Day One of the new administration.
In sprawling migrant camps across Mexico City, people are giving up their plans to cross into the United States and are instead planning to settle in Mexico or begin the long trek back home.
‘I think they’re eliminating CBP One, so I’m thinking right now of returning to Venezuela,’ said a man, who has been living in a makeshift tent of streets of Mexico City for eight months. ‘I’m just staying here until January 20 to see if I get [a CBP One appointment] and, if not, go back home.’
To the Trump team, these prospective ‘self-deportation’ cases offer some proof that the President-elect’s border security plan may already be working as intended.
Now, they hope word of this deterrent effect will spread to the home cities, towns and villages of potential future migrants and dissuade them from making the dangerous trip.
Others interviewed said they plan to find work and live inside Mexico rather than return to their even more impoverished home countries.
‘I’m going to stay here,’ said a young Colombian man wearing a red, yellow and white shirt who’d travelled with his wife through the perilous jungle between Colombia and Panama.
He says he is loath to give up now after spending thousands of dollars to smugglers to get him this far. His wife agrees.
‘We went through the trouble and expense of traveling through the Darien Gap. I’ll look for asylum here in Mexico,’ she said. ‘As soon as I have a job with work to do, it’ll be fine.’
A migrant from Angola in central Africa said there’s no turning back for him either; the journey home would be too difficult and expensive.
‘I’m going to stay here,’ said a young Colombian man wearing a red, yellow and white shirt who’d travelled with his wife through the perilous jungle between Colombia and Panama.
A migrant from Angola (above) in Central Africa said there’s no turning back for him either; the journey home would be too difficult and expensive.
‘It is not my main goal to stay here in Mexico,’ he said in broken Spanish. ‘But if it just happens, you know, I’m going to stay here.’
Trump has also threatened Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum, that the U.S. will impose debilitating 25 percent trade tariffs on her country if she does not dispatch Mexican military and immigration services to end the flow of migrants north.
The Mexicans now routinely capture migrants and transport them south to the Mexican cities of Tapachula and Villahermosa along the Guatemalan border.
The US currently estimates about 1,600 illegal border crossings daily. That’s down from the peak of 14,000 in a single day just one year ago.
Indeed, Mexico began this program earlier in 2024 at the urging of the Biden administration, but the Trump tariff threat has reenergized the operation in some regions.
‘The Mexicans don’t want us to go farther. They want us to go back. That’s why I’m staying in Mexico City,’ a migrant named Josmer told me.
A third anticipated Trump policy also appears to be having a deterrent effect – the President-elect’s promise to begin the ‘greatest mass deportation in American history.’
Trump reiterated those plans in an interview with NBC News this weekend.
‘We’re starting with the criminals and we’ve got to do it,’ Trump told NBC’s Kristen Welker. ‘And then we’re starting with the others and we’re going to see how it goes.’
‘The Mexicans don’t want us to go farther. They want us to go back. That’s why I’m staying in Mexico City,’ a migrant named Josmer told me.
That message is apparently being received loud and clear in Mexico City.
‘He says he’s going to kick all the illegal people out of the country,’ another young mother said, as she prepared a pot of pulled chicken for dinner. She conceded, there’s ‘no point’ in trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
Not all of the migrants that I spoke to said they’d leave immediately.
At least one young Venezuelan told me that he’ll never stop trying to sneak into the US after working for six months as a barber in one of the camps.
‘We’re going to keep trying, you know, just climb the walls,’ he said. ‘[Trump] says that we’re going to get deported, but we’re going to try it again.’
By Todd Bensman as published by The Daily Mail
illegal immigration
Trump signs executive order cutting off taxpayer-funded benefits for illegal aliens
MxM News
Quick Hit:
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday night barring illegal immigrants from receiving federally funded benefits, a move he says will ensure taxpayer dollars are reserved for American citizens in need.
Key Details:
- The order directs federal agencies to identify and cut off benefits to illegal immigrants.
- Trump argues the Biden administration “undermined” federal law and improperly expanded benefits to non-citizens.
- The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk, is tasked with reviewing all federal funding sources for illegal aliens.
- The order mandates stricter eligibility verification systems and calls for improper payments to be referred to the DOJ and DHS.
Diving Deeper:
President Donald Trump took executive action Wednesday night to block illegal immigrants from receiving taxpayer-funded federal benefits, calling the move necessary to uphold the rule of law and protect resources for American citizens, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.
In signing the order, Trump pointed to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA), which was supposed to bar most illegal immigrants from accessing government benefits. However, he argued that multiple administrations—especially President Joe Biden’s—had worked to “undermine” these restrictions, effectively allowing taxpayer funds to support illegal immigration.
“The Biden administration repeatedly undercut the goals of that law, resulting in the improper expenditure of significant taxpayer resources,” Trump said. He further asserted that these benefits had acted as a “magnet” for illegal immigration, drawing more people across the border unlawfully.
The order directs the heads of all federal agencies to identify programs that currently allow illegal aliens to receive taxpayer-funded benefits and to take “all appropriate actions” to bring them in line with federal law. It also aims to prevent federal funds from subsidizing sanctuary policies, which shield illegal immigrants from deportation.
One of the most significant aspects of the order is the role of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a relatively new federal agency led by billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk. DOGE is tasked with reviewing all sources of federal funding for illegal immigrants and recommending additional measures to align spending with Trump’s directive. Trump has praised Musk and DOGE for cutting through bureaucratic resistance to implement his policies.
Additionally, the order calls for enhanced eligibility verification systems to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining benefits in the first place. Federal agencies are also required to refer any improper payments to the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security for further action.
The move is the latest in Trump’s aggressive crackdown on illegal immigration, a central issue of his presidency and his 2024 re-election campaign. With a focus on border security, ending sanctuary policies, and tightening federal spending, Trump’s executive order represents yet another step in his administration’s effort to reverse the policies of his predecessor and enforce strict immigration laws.
MxM News
Quick Hit:
Cartels are intensifying their threats against U.S. Border Patrol and ICE agents, employing increasingly sophisticated tactics, including drones, wireless tracking devices, and potential explosive attacks. As President Donald Trump strengthens border security measures, agents face growing dangers both at and beyond the southern border. Experts warn that these threats are an effort to counteract the administration’s immigration enforcement policies.
Key Details:
- Cartels are using drones and wireless tracking to monitor and potentially attack Border Patrol and ICE agents.
- The discovery of a security risk tied to body cameras has led CBP to suspend their use to prevent agents from being tracked.
- Leaks of ICE raids pose additional threats, increasing the risk of ambushes against agents conducting enforcement operations.
Diving Deeper:
Cartels along the U.S.-Mexico border are becoming more aggressive as President Trump enforces stricter immigration policies, with reports indicating that border agents are facing an escalating range of security threats. Fox News reports that Mexican cartels are leveraging new technology to track and potentially harm Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Lora Ries, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Border Security and Immigration Center, emphasized that cartels are feeling the pressure from Trump’s border policies and are resorting to dangerous countermeasures. “The cartels are losing business. The encounters at the border are the lowest they’ve been in decades, and the cartels are not just going to give up that business quietly,” Ries told Fox News.
Among the threats agents face are drones used for surveillance, gunfire from across the border, and even the possibility of improvised explosive devices (IEDs). A recent internal memo warned that cartels might be planning to use snipers positioned in Mexico to attack U.S. agents. Additionally, agents are now vulnerable to tracking through wireless technology, prompting CBP to suspend the use of body-worn cameras after a social media post revealed they could be exploited via Bluetooth scanning apps.
The suspension of body cameras has raised concerns about increased false claims against border agents. Ries warned that “the number of claims of abuse are about to jump to exploit this lack of camera use,” underscoring the challenges agents will face without recorded footage of their encounters.
Beyond external threats from cartels, agents must also contend with internal security risks. Leaks about upcoming ICE raids have made enforcement operations more dangerous, potentially exposing agents to ambushes. Ries noted, “That subjects ICE agents to an ambush… Worse would be if aliens stay here and attack ICE agents, that is a risk.”
To counter these threats, border security experts stress the need for increased congressional funding to provide CBP and ICE agents with enhanced technology, equipment, and manpower. Ries urged lawmakers to act swiftly, stating, “Congress needs to hurry up” to ensure agents have the necessary resources to carry out Trump’s mass deportation efforts and secure the southern border.
As cartels escalate their tactics in response to Trump’s immigration policies, the safety of border agents remains a growing concern, highlighting the urgent need for stronger enforcement and security measures.
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