Human smugglers are taking advantage of Donald Trumps election victory and urging migrants to cross over the southern US border before he takes office on January 20, it has emerged.
Smugglers are using WhatsApp and social media groups to tell migrants they need to make the journey to America now or never, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Migrant advocates claim that as soon as Trumps victory became clear, messages spreading fear began to appear in the social media groups.
Smugglers are telling asylum-seekers to hurry up in case of a possible change in immigration policies. They warned of an imminent shutdown of the US border and of increased deportations under the incoming administration.
The smugglers, who are praying on asylum-seekers fears, have also sent messages sarcastically wishing them luck at crossing the border without getting caught.
While US immigration authorities say there is evidence that a migration surge is actually materializing, shelters reportedly started emptying out ahead of the election and some 4,000 migrants formed three US-bound caravans last week, though many of them have since dispersed.
Trump is expected to take a slew of executive actions on his first day as president to ramp up immigration enforcement, including deploying National Guard troops to the southern border and declaring a national emergency to unlock funds to resume construction of a border wall.
The president-elect has said he would restore his 2019 remain in Mexico program, which forced asylum-seekers of certain nationalities attempting to enter the US at the southern border to wait in Mexico for the resolution of their cases. The program was terminated by the Biden Administration.
He also plans to reinstate the COVID-19-era Title 42 policy, which allowed US border authorities to quickly expel migrants back to Mexico without the chance to claim asylum.
Donald Trump, pictured Thursday night, has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in American history and is expected to take a slew of executive actions on his first day as president to ramp up immigration enforcement
Migrants queue at migration stations in the municipality of Tapachula, in the state of Chiapas, Mexico on November 11. They fear that after Donald Trumps victory in the US presidential election, they will be stranded at Mexicos southern border
An exterior view shows a camp of migrants stranded in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 11, 2024, after they attempt to complete a procedure at the facilities of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance. This procedure would allow them to stay longer in Mexico due to the difficulties their compatriots face in entering the United States
Mexican migrant advocate Luis Villagrán, who organizes caravans in Tapachula, said that there were at least four WhatsApp groups in which hundreds of migrants coordinated their departure on US election day.
While it is safer for migrants to travel in caravans, they are easy targets for immigration authorities. Smugglers will lure migrants travelling in caravans and offer them faster routes to the US.
Smugglers, whose business often slows down after new policy changes are implemented, are now using fear tactics to spark business.
Trumps victory has generated a lot of nervousness, and the smugglers are taking advantage of that, José Luis Pérez Canchola, who heads a migrant support unit in Tijuana, told the newspaper.
He says the smugglers are sowing doubts through various online channels, especially raising fears amongst migrants aiming to legally apply for asylum.
Gilbert Álvarez, 19, of Venezuela, is one of the asylum-seekers seemingly targeted by the smugglers and admits he wants to get to the US before Trump takes office.
The student recently arrived in Mexico and plans apply for asylum in Texas, where he has relatives, but told the Journal if he does not get a legal appointment to enter the US within a few weeks that I will just go to the northern border instead.
Migrants seeking asylum in the United States through the CBP One digital application carry flags and an image of Jesus Christ during a binational mass to remember migrants who have died attempting to reach the US on the banks of the Rio Grande in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, Mexico, on November 9, 2024
US activists wave flags on November 9, 2024 during a binational mass to remember migrants who have died attempting to reach America
Trump has pledged to launch the largest deportation effort in American history, focusing on criminals but aiming to send millions back to their home countries, an effort that is expected to tap resources across the US government but also face obstacles.
As part of his Day One executive actions, he is expected to scrap Bidens immigration enforcement priorities, which focused on arresting serious criminals and limited enforcement against people with no criminal records.
During a rally in Wisconsin in September, Trump said deporting migrants would be a bloody story, rhetoric that sparked criticism from immigrant advocates.
Trump told Time Magazine he did not rule out building new migrant detention camps but there wouldnt be that much of a need for them because migrants would be rapidly removed.
He says he would rely on the National Guard, if needed, to arrest and deport immigrants in the US illegally.
When questioned, he also said he would be willing to consider using federal troops if necessary, a step likely to be challenged in the courts.
Trump has vowed to take aggressive new steps to deport immigrants with criminal records and suspected gang members by using the Alien Enemies Act, a 226-year-old statute last utilized for interning people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two.
Stephen Miller, the architect of Trumps first-term immigration agenda, said in an interview last year with a right-wing podcast that National Guard troops from cooperative states could potentially be deployed to what he characterized as unfriendly states to assist with deportations, which could trigger legal battles.
Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a New York Times interview published in October that deporting 1 million immigrants per year would be reasonable.
Biden in the 2023 federal fiscal year outpaced Trump deportation totals for any single year - with a total 468,000 migrants being deported to their home countries or returned to Mexico by US immigration authorities - and is on pace for even more this year, a tally that includes migrants returned to Mexico.
Stephen Miller, pictured at Mar-a-Lago Thursday night, was the architect of Trumps first-term immigration agenda. He said in an interview last year that National Guard troops from cooperative states could potentially be deployed to what he characterized as unfriendly states to assist with deportations, which could trigger legal battles
Vice President-elect JD Vance, pictured Wednesday on Capitol Hill, said in a New York Times interview published in October that deporting 1 million immigrants per year would be reasonable
Trump has said he will seek to detain all migrants caught crossing the border illegally or violating other immigration laws, ending what he calls catch and release.
At an October campaign event, Trump said he would call on Congress to fund an additional 10,000 Border Patrol agents, a substantial increase over the existing force.
The president-elect has said he would implement travel bans on people from certain countries or with certain ideologies, expanding on a policy upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Trump previewed some parts of the world that could be subjected to a renewed travel ban in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and anywhere else that threatens our security.
During the speech, Trump focused on the conflict in Gaza, saying he would bar the entry of immigrants who support the Islamist militant group Hamas and send deportation officers to pro-Hamas protests.
Trump said last June he would seek to block communists, Marxists and socialists from entering the US
He plans to end Bidens humanitarian parole programs, including one that allowed hundreds of thousands of migrants with US sponsors to enter America and obtain work permits. He has called Bidens programs an outrageous abuse of parole authority.
Trump said last year that he would seek to end automatic citizenship for children born in the US to immigrants living in the country illegally, an idea he flirted with as president.
Such an action would run against the long-running interpretation of an amendment to the US Constitution and would likely trigger legal challenges.
Inside a camp of migrants stranded in Mexico City, Mexico, on November 11, 2024, they try to complete a procedure at the facilities of the Mexican Commission for Refugee Assistance that allows them to stay longer in Mexico due to the difficulties their compatriots have in entering the United States
Migrants are stranded in Mexico City while they wait for a permit or Visitor Card for Humanitarian Reasons that allows them to access health services and employment opportunities in Mexico while they are being treated and to continue their journey to the US
During his first term, Trump greatly reduced the number of refugees allowed into the US and has criticized Bidens decision to increase admissions. He plans to again suspend the resettlement program, the New York Times reported in November 2023.
Trump has said he would push for a merit-based immigration system that protects American labor and promotes American values.
In his first term, he took steps to tighten access to some visa programs, including a suspension of many work visas during the COVID pandemic.
The Trump campaign criticized a Biden program - currently blocked by a federal judge - that offered a path to citizenship to immigrants in the US illegally who are married to an American citizen and have lived in the U.S for at least a decade.
Trump said on a podcast in June that he backed giving green cards to foreign students who graduate from US colleges or junior colleges, but Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt later said the proposal would only apply to the most thoroughly vetted college graduates who would never undercut American wages or workers.
He would seek to roll back Temporary Protected Status designations, the New York Times reported, targeting a humanitarian program that offers deportation relief and work permits to hundreds of thousands.
Trump tried to phase out most Temporary Protected Status enrollment during his first term, but was slowed by legal challenges.
A federal appeals court in September 2020 allowed him to proceed with the wind-down, but Biden reversed that and expanded the program after taking office.
A caravan of approximately 3,000 migrants set off from Tapachula, Mexico, headed toward the United States, on November 5, 2024
Migrants traveling in a caravan take a break while they attempt to reach Mexicos northern border during US Election Day, in Alvaro Obregon, Mexico on November 5, 2024
Hundreds of migrants, mostly Venezuelans, walk in a caravan on U.S. presidential election day in an attempt to reach Mexicos northern border, on November 5, 2024, in Tapachula, Mexico
In a town hall with CNN last year, Trump declined to rule out resuming his contentious zero tolerance policy that led thousands of migrant children and parents to be separated at the US-Mexico border in 2018.
He defended the separations again in November 2023, telling Spanish-language news outlet Univision that it stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands.
While Trump has refused to rule out reinstating a family separation policy, Trumps incoming border czar Tom Homan told Reuters last year that the separations caused an uproar and that it would be better to detain families together.
The Biden administration last year reached a settlement agreement with separated families that would offer them temporary legal status and other benefits while barring similar separations for at least eight years.
Trump tried to end a program that grants deportation relief and work permits to Dreamer immigrants brought to the US illegally as children, but the termination was rebuffed by the Supreme Court in June 2020.
Following the Supreme Court ruling, the Trump administration said it would not accept any new applications to the program, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, and would explore whether it could again attempt to end it.
Trump plans to try to end DACA again, the New York Times previously reported.