Mexico To Tear Down Massive Migrant Shelters At Border Town As Crossings Plummet Under Trump Crackdown

The mayor of Nogales, a town bordering the United States, has begun taking down migrant shelters erected at the beginning of the Trump administration as crossings plummet due to the administration's crackdown.

According to Border Report, Juan Francisco Gim said this week that tents set up at municipal sports fields are being taken down as the situation on the ground changes.

"I had promised the athletes I would lobby for this, and based on the numbers (of migrants), we could recover at least one of the fields," Gim said in a press conference. "I received authorization, and we will begin to take down the tent over the football field today."

He went on to say that the remaining tents will be taken down during the next days, noting that President Claudia Sheinbaum instructed the town to keep 200 beds. "We have that capacity and more," he added during a passage of the press conference.

The development comes as unlawful crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border have fallen to their lowest level in more than 50 years, according to the most recent internal federal data obtained by CBS News.

The outlet noted last week that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recorded roughly 238,000 apprehensions of migrants crossing the southern border illegally during fiscal year 2025, which ended on September 30 — the smallest annual total since 1970, when Border Patrol reported approximately 202,000 apprehensions.

The figure represents a sharp drop from the 2.2 million apprehensions recorded in 2022 under the Biden administration.

The data obtained by the outlet also shows that over 60% of this year's total apprehensions occurred in the final three months of the Biden presidency, with crossings declining dramatically after Trump's return to office in January. In recent months, Border Patrol has averaged fewer than 9,000 apprehensions per month — a level not seen in decades.

Analysts say the decline is the result of a combination of deterrence measures and the near-total closure of the U.S. asylum system. Ariel Ruiz Soto, a researcher at the Migration Policy Institute, told the news site that Trump's policies "have had a significant effect on people being deterred from coming illegally," noting that even before his inauguration, crossings had begun to drop as asylum restrictions took hold.

Under Trump's second term, the administration has militarized the border, deployed thousands of troops, and expanded detention capacity while shutting down humanitarian programs introduced under the Biden administration. Migrants who enter illegally are now either detained or deported swiftly, with few exceptions.