‘Chaos is gone’ – quiet Texas border streets after trumpet blast

In Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, the immigration debate has spilled into the streets, turning into almost daily demonstrations as immigration agents make arrests.

But in El Paso – a Texas city on the US-Mexico border – the streets are unusually quiet.

A year after the BBC finally visited the border to understand the impact of the migrant crisis on the border, sites that previously accompanied migrants remained silent.

Just a few years ago, as many as 2,500 migrants were once camped outside the historic Sacred Catholic Church. Many lined the streets sleeping on delivered blankets, squatting as they waited for food and water to be distributed by local staff.

Today, only a few of the parishes can be seen coming inside and outside the Church.

The same is true of a nearby park and of the shelters throughout the city, where migrants once renewed their experiences of quitting the jungles on their long journeys through Latin America to the border.

The influx prompted El Pasa’s government to declare a state of emergency in late 2022 as local shelters ballooned beyond capacity.

Then, with the arrival of US President Donald Trump in January – elected in part because of his promise to fix the border – the regular flow of migrants is a trickle.

This is a trend that repeats itself along the length of the 1,900-mile (3,155km) border, from the Pacific Coast to the California ‘Gulfxas’ Gulf Coast.

The numbers for detentions of border crossers are at a 50-year low.

In September alone – the last month for which complete data is available – 11,647 people were arrested along the US-Mexico border, if second only to 101,000 in September 2024 and 269,700 in the same month in 2023.

A voluntary network, the abandonment of the house, which used to run in 22 shelters throughout the region, which prepares a large part of Migrants in the US to wait for court dates, often years in the future.

Only two more. The relative trickle of migrants — 15 to 20 in each location a night — is made up, in part, of those headed home to the US.

“We have people who come in and are given work authorization, or temporary protected status that Trump took away, and they can’t change his job.

Others, he added, simply need a place to stay while they “work out the logistics” of leaving the country.

For some along the border, the new reality comes as a relief.

Demesio Guerrero, a naturalized US citizen from Mexico who lives in east Texas, described the border as “chaos everywhere” under the Biden administration.

“There are camps everywhere along the border, with women, children and the elderly,” he said. “It’s really out of control.”

Chaos is gone, he says, because Trump had a vision of how to fix the problem and did it. “He did what he had to do, where he had to do it.”

For six straight months, administration officials say, not an undocumented migrant arrested has been released in the US. Many were deported, while others remained on immigration control.

Border Czar Tom Hanan and Homeland Security Kristi Noem have often stated that, for the first time in US history, the government has full “operational control” of the border.

For the White House, the figures represent a victory – fulfilling a campaign promise that the president himself has touted as the one that led him back to the White House for a second term at a time when many Americans were concerned that Joe Biden had lost control.

“So far, this strategy has proven to be atrocious,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the BBC. “We drew on the pro-illegal immigration policies from the biden administration that allowed countless illegals into the country. We got the border.”

The reasons for the low numbers — which began to fall during Biden’s last year in office and accelerated rapidly under Trump — are complex.

Officials and experts point to a variety of reasons, including a crackdown by Mexico on migrant flows north, the end of most Morylum parole restrictions and increased monitoring of US military aid.

Trump’s Drivetion Drive Preding in the US Interior also serves as a deterrent to migrants.

“Not many people are crossing the border, and not that many are trying,” one undocumented immigrant, who asked to remain anonymous, said.

“With BIDEN, people know that sooner or later they will get there and stay. It’s not like now.”

Some of Trump’s supporters who live in El Pasa say they fear for their safety, and accuse the Biden administration of creating a situation that endangers local residents and migrants.

“We don’t feel comfortable going out on our own anymore,” said Lorie Reayazo, a lifelong El Paso resident and the President of the Greater El Paso Republican Women’s Association. “Close to the Biden Hit Office, it’s bad.”

It’s not that we don’t want immigrants to come in, he added, but the best, those who want to work.

Elizabeth Amy Posada, an El Paso Native and former Aide to the local Republican Conressmanman, who used to be “the migrants who died in the desert or in the Rio Grande, and those who fell into the cartels.

“Everyone should be happy about it [border security]regardless of their political persuasion. “

But for others, Trump’s Security Drive brings mixed feelings.

Many local conservatives are sympathetic to the migrants’ plight. Some locals, who oppose Trump, say they understand the need for stronger border protections and recognize the important role played by federal officials.

“We are completely living in the gray area here,” said Marisa Limon Garza, the Executive Director of the Las America Serdocacy Center on immigrants and refugees.

According to MS Garza, the prospect of long-term residents being removed from the country is especially affecting border residents, many of whom have families of generations who arrived in the US generations ago.

While Trump and other officials often say that immigration officials are going after the “worst of the worst”, the data shows that is not the case.

Transactions on access to the clearinghouse – which tracks immigration data – found that more than 70% of nearly 60,000 people held at the end of September did not have a criminal record. Many have been in the country over the years.

“Now what we know is that some people are waking up and realizing they’re being scammed,” Marzza said, referring to locals who voted for Trump.

“They know that their families, their lovers, and their neighbors are being torn apart … and now they have to struggle with that.”

Ross Barrera, a 29-year-old soldier in the US army and a Republican who lives in Rio Grande City, given the majority of people on Border Security and Commerce in Close-Knit US and Mexican cities continues.

But Mr. Barrera added that the images of brutal immigration enforcement in the US attack “have angered a lot of people” and caused confusion.

“I agree too,” he said. “People are people. It bothers people that the woman who has been here for 20 years has been distorted, or the father who has been there for 40 years has been kicked out.”

Some are more blunt.

“There are a lot of people who have second thoughts about their choice,” said Jesse Fuentes, an eagle activist who was found in the middle of Bulungon’s Eagle’s Nest in mid-2023.

“But people are afraid to say or do anything.”