President-elect Donald Trump hasn’t been sworn into office yet but he’s already managed to keep some migrants from illegally crossing into the U.S.
All his talk on the campaign trail about building a wall across the U.S.-Mexico border, enforcing our immigration laws, and deporting millions of illegal aliens has made would-be border crossers think twice now that he’ll be sworn in as the 45th president of the United States in just a few short months.
When would-be immigrants Bernardino and Samuel got word in Mexico of the election of Donald Trump, they immediately gave up their plans to cross illegally into the United States. […]
Now, with the New York Republican's stunning victory Tuesday, fear and uncertainty are surging among undocumented immigrants. Will their workplaces be raided? Will there be mass expulsions? Greater obstacles to gaining legal status? What will happen?
No one knows. […]
Bernardino, a 34-year-old Honduran who declined to give his last name, was looking for a "coyote" to help him slip into the United States near the border city of Tijuana when he abandoned his plan. So did 18-year-old Samuel, a Salvadoran.
Both men said they feared that if they are caught, their family members living north of the border might suffer.
"Imagine if they stop me, after a while my family living over there would have problems. The truth I never imagined is that the blond man might win," Samuel said at Padre Chava's breakfast hall, a soup kitchen in downtown Tijuana that provides food and clothing for more than 1,000 immigrants every day.
Ahead of the presidential election the surge of illegal immigrants crossing the border into the U.S. was the worst Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have ever seen—surpassing even the 2014 influx. If some would-be border crossers are now giving second thought to coming because Trump was elected, here’s to hoping the problem will finally be reined in once he takes office.
