EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – It was a little over two years ago that the U.S. government reached a deal with Mexico to turn back at the border up to 30,000 third-country migrants per month.
The agreement with the Biden and Lopez Obrador administrations came after U.S. officials encountered 251,487 migrants at the Southwestern border in December 2022.
Processing centers were overwhelmed and only 1 in 5 newly arrived migrants were tagged for mandatory expulsion under the now-defunct Title 42 public health rule. Others were walking out of processing centers with a future date in U.S. immigration court.
Fast-forward 28 months. Migrant encounters have plummeted during President Donald Trump’s first 99 days in office. And despite anticipation over the president’s campaign pledge of mass deportations, the administration has sent fewer than 6,000 third-country migrants to Mexico in those three months and change.
The overwhelming majority of the 38,757 migrants removed to Mexico by the U.S. since Trump took office have been Mexican citizens, that country’s President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Tuesday.
Mexico has taken in 5,446 foreign nationals since Jan. 20 for “humanitarian reasons,” Sheinbaum said. That’s an average of 55 a day.
“Fewer are coming because the United States is sending airplanes directly to (the migrants’) countries,” the Mexican president said. “Most who are coming are Mexicans.”
Most of the foreign nationals opt for returning to their countries, Sheinbaum said.
The nine welcome centers Mexico built on its northern border in anticipation of Trump’s mass deportations remain empty. The tent complex in Juarez has hosted fewer than 1,000 deportees during its two months-plus in operation.
The 33,311 Mexican migrants whom Sheinbaum says have been returned to their country by Trump represent 336 removals per day – from Tijuana to Matamoros, Mexico.
ICE: 100 days of record-breaking immigration enforcement
On Tuesday, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it has arrested 66,463 undocumented immigrants while removing 65,682 since Trump took office. Three in four arrests “were criminal aliens,” the agency said in a statement.
That includes 2,288 gang members, 1,329 accused or convicted sex offenders and 498 convicted or accused murderers.
“We removed over 65,000 illegal aliens to countries across the world,” said said ICE acting Director Todd M. Lyons. “We’re just 100 days into this administration and thanks to President Trump and Secretary Noem, ICE is using every tool at its disposal to enforce our country’s immigration laws and protect our communities.”
That’s an average of 671 arrests per day and 663 daily removals.
ICE has increased its 287(g) partnership programs with state and local law enforcement across the country. They now total 579 standing and pending agreements, with 444 of those coming after Jan. 20, the agency said on Tuesday.
ICE said it has arrested 1,000 unauthorized workers since Trump took office and proposed $1 million in fines against their employers.
Read: Read More