The so-called “Trump effect” that has reduced illegal border crossings by 70 percent has prompted migrants from Central America to stop in Mexico where they are finding jobs, making it their “American Dream,” according to reports.
In the northern city of Monterrey, Mexico, 113 miles from the closest legal border crossing in Texas, migrants seeking to enter the U.S. have stopped for work.
Nuevo Len has not only become a transit-receiving state for Central American migrants who aim to cross the border with the United States , but a refuge for many of them who settle here, said a report in El Financiero.
An estimated 3,500 Central American migrants, primarily Hondurans and Guatemalans, are now doing jobs that the local media said “Mexicans won’t do.” Some, however, are begging, prompting calls for local authorities to find them jobs.
The publication El Financiero reported, “This is due to the tightening of immigration policy in the United States that is making the metropolis an almost permanent refuge for about 3,500 Central American migrants.”
Analyst Kausha Luna of the Center for Immigration Studies wrote, “With the tightening of border enforcement under the Trump administration, many Central Americans are choosing to stay in Mexico. Consequently, the Mexican city of Monterrey has become part of the new ‘American dream.'”
She added, “The decision made by Central Americans to stay in Mexico may be attributed, at least in part, to the rhetoric of the Trump administration and its gradual return to immigration enforcement.”
Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected]
