Migrants are weighing whether to make the trek to the U.S. now that Donald Trump, who during his campaign promised the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, has won the presidential election, reports The New York Times.
The report comes a day after Trump told NBC News that there was "no price tag" for his mass deportation plan.
"It's not a question of a price tag. It's not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they're going to go back to those countries because they're not staying here. There is no price tag."
Illegal border crossings were up under President Joe Biden, with U.S. Customs and Border Protection reporting about 10.1 million nationwide encounters with removable noncitizens from fiscal year 2021, which began in October 2020, to June 2024.
The Biden administration is planning for a possible migrant surge before Trump takes office, though Homeland Security has not seen a surge in the number of people heading to the U.S.
"The vast majority of those in Mexico are going to try to get to the border," Irineo Mujica, the Mexico director of People Without Borders, a transnational advocacy group, told the Times. "The door definitely closes now, and a lot of them are going to try to make a run for it."
According to the Times, smugglers are using Trump's election to urge people to use their services now.
"There's still time," said one smuggler in a WhatsApp group for potential migrants that has more than 400 members.
Some people who spoke with the news outlet, though, said they will not make the trek with a Trump presidency looming.