A growing number of migrants are choosing to return home rather than face the consequences of President-elect Trump’s planned border policies, according to a new report.
Mexican officials say between 50 and 100 migrants are now requesting “voluntary returns” to their home countries, with migrants either covering their own costs or relying on state funds. Some migrants attribute their concerns to Trump’s plans to a US government app used to request asylum from border agents.
“I trust that I will be there before Trump takes office,” one migrant, Johana, told Reuters. “If it is not by appointment, there is always a solution.”
President Biden’s administration has used the application to allow hundreds of thousands of migrants to plan border crossings and apply for asylum with US authorities. incoming Trump administration have said they will abolish the program and reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy.
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Many migrants are trying to return home in anticipation of Trump’s border policies. (Fox News)
Migrants waiting for an appointment in Mexico will be stranded there if they are not given a scheduled date at the start of Trump’s term, forcing them to either attempt to cross illegally, remain in Mexico during their asylum process, or return home.
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Thanks to the dangerous cartel environment in Mexico, many say they would rather return home.
“I cry every day and ask God to take me back. I don’t want to be here anymore… this is terrible,” said Yuleidi Moreno, a migrant who has not yet received an appointment.
President-elect Donald Trump has promised an immigration overhaul once he takes office. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Nidia Montenegro, another migrant in the same position, said she would choose to return home if she could.
“I am traumatized. If I don’t get the appointment, I will go back,” she told Reuters.
Officials in Trump’s first administration emphasized that his policies were aimed at deterring migrants from making the dangerous journey through Mexico to the U.S. border. Migrants are often kidnapped and faced with violence by cartels.
Tom Homan refutes claims from ABC’s “The View” that Trump will deport legal American citizens as part of his mass deportation plan. (Fox News)
Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, has said the new administration will both stop illegal immigration and “wipe the cartels off the face of the earth.”
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“They have killed more Americans than any terrorist organization in the world, and Trump is determined to call them terrorist organizations and use the full might of U.S. special operations to take them down,” Homan said on Fox News last month.
Reuters contributed to this report.
