Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced that the United States repatriated 5,282 illegal immigrants to Mexico in the first week following President Donald Trump’s inauguration. Speaking from Mexico’s National Palace, Sheinbaum stated that fewer than 4,500 of those returned were Mexican nationals.
On January 28 alone, nearly 500 migrants were repatriated, though she did not specify how many were from countries other than Mexico.
This marks the first time since the Biden administration ended Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that non-Mexican nationals have been returned to Mexico. Following Trump’s return to office, Border Patrol agents along the southwest border resumed repatriating migrants from outside Mexico almost immediately.
Sheinbaum did not clarify the nationalities of the non-Mexican immigrants. Under the Biden-Harris administration, many of these individuals would have been allowed to pursue asylum claims in the U.S. However, stricter enforcement measures have led to a sharp decline in border crossings.
In Texas’ Del Rio Border Patrol Sector, once a major hotspot for illegal crossings, apprehensions dropped nearly 40% in the first full week of Trump’s presidency. The number of suspected gotaways also fell dramatically, from 229 to 82—a 60% decrease. Nationwide, Border Patrol Chief Michael Banks reported a 55% drop in total apprehensions, with numbers falling from over 10,000 the week before Trump’s inauguration to fewer than 5,000 in the week after.
A Customs and Border Protection source attributed the decline to aggressive deportation operations across the country. “Right now, those thinking about entering the United States illegally are rethinking their options,” the source told Breitbart Texas. “It doesn’t make sense to invest the effort to try and elude arrest when you will likely face arrest miles from the border. There’s no free zone anymore.”
