Trump's Border Policy Cuts Crossings but Fuels Migrant Kidnappings and Extortion in Mexico: Report

Migrant crossings at the U.S.–Mexico border have fallen to their lowest level in more than four decades — but the sharp decline has left thousands of migrants stranded in Mexico, where they are increasingly targeted by organized crime groups, according to a new report by InSight Crime.

U.S. Border Patrol recorded just under 238,000 migrant apprehensions during the 2025 fiscal year, an 85% drop from 2024 and the smallest annual total since the 1970s, based on data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

While the drop reflects the success of President Donald Trump's aggressive immigration enforcement campaign, InSight Crime says the fallout has been devastating for migrants now trapped in Mexico without legal status or protection.

The study shows that criminal organizations once profiting from migrant smuggling have turned to kidnapping, extortion, and robbery to compensate for lost income. In Ciudad Juárez and other border cities, where cartels previously earned millions moving migrants across the border, gangs have shifted to targeting the people left behind. More than half of migrants interviewed in northern Mexico reported being victims of crime, primarily kidnapping.

"Organized crime groups evolve, adapt, and respond to market dynamics," said Stephanie Brewer, director for Mexico at the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). "Even if there are fewer migrants trying to cross the border, migrants in Mexico have gone from being extremely vulnerable to absolutely vulnerable."

The InSight Crime report adds that 73% of migrants surveyed by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said they lacked any immigration or asylum documents, leaving them unable to find legal work or report crimes. "It's very rare that crimes committed against them are investigated and prosecuted," Brewer told the publication.

"People went to chase the American dream, and they are coming back crushed," said Abril Staples, a field coordinator for the Panamanian Red Cross, to the investigation site, describing the growing number of migrants turning back south after being shut out of the U.S.

In cities like Ciudad Juárez, kidnappings have surged to their highest level in ten years. Authorities in Chihuahua state estimate that organized crime groups once earned as much as $100 million a month from human smuggling between 2022 and 2024, according to the report.

Now, local residents and stranded migrants alike are being extorted. Victims have included business owners, merchants, drivers, and tourists, with some kidnappers demanding ransoms as low as $1,000.

Security Secretary Gilberto Loya said many of these newer criminal cells are small, violent, and short-lived. "We are catching the perpetrators very quickly. These gangs are not lasting long," he told InSight Crime, but acknowledged that the shift has deepened insecurity across northern Mexico.

While smuggling operations continue at a lower profile, officials say the market has consolidated into fewer, more organized networks offering costly "all-inclusive" routes to the U.S. border. A previous report from InSight Crime in August found that Ciudad Juárez, authorities recorded 36 kidnappings in the first half of 2025. Security Secretary Gilberto Loya told the outlet back then that many of these groups are young, fragmented, and increasingly violent.