On the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration, migrants waiting in Mexico saw their windows to enter the US closed.
Monday marks the end of Democrat Joe Biden's presidency, with a record 10.5 million migrants flooding into the country, according to federal statistics.
The incoming Republican administration plans to close the border and carry out mass immigration raids as a priority in the first days of Trump's second term.
Trump is expected to sign 200 executive orders within hours of taking the oath of office, including some that would end many of Biden's policies that have enabled the historic influx at the border.
As the clock ran for Trump's return, the estimated thousands of migrants waiting in Mexican border towns had to make a decision: make a last-minute attempt to enter before Trump took office, or wait until they got to Mexico .
“We ask God to give President (Trump) clarity and to have mercy on us and to understand that we are here to work hard, to give us a chance,” 28-year-old Venezuelan Jorge David Pena told DailyMail. com while washing car windows of coins on the streets of Juarez on Sunday.
The Mexican government (under pressure from the US) has visibly increased its efforts to prevent migrants from ever reaching the border.
Migrants including David Alexandro Primero, 24, told Daily Mail they hoped Trump would give them a chance
David Alexandro Primero, 24, from Venezuela, washes car windows in Juarez, Mexico, to earn enough money to pay for a motel room every night
A Venezuelan migrant who spoke to DailyMail.com washes car windows to raise money on January 19, 2025, the eve of President Donald Trump's inauguration, in Juarez, Mexico
The Mexican National Guard patrolled a popular spot where migrants in Ciudad Juarez — just across the border from El Paso, Texas — have routinely turned themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol during the Biden years.
There was no surrender on Sunday, as Guard members carrying assault rifles moved back and forth along the banks of the river dividing the two nations, stopping and detaining anyone who tried.
“It was quiet, there is hardly anyone here today,” a security guard explained to DailyMail.com.
Throughout the weekend, Mexican law enforcement swept through northern cities, targeting migrant camps.
In the city of Chihuahua, about five hours south of the international border, about 80 immigration officers on Saturday raided a migrant camp, where families have built makeshift homes and have been living there for almost a year, El Diario de Chihuahua reported.
When law enforcement officers entered, some migrants, armed with machetes, resisted, fearing being deported to their home countries.
The Mexican National Guard patrols the border on the eve of Donald Trump's inauguration, in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, Texas
Mexican authorities have detained migrants in that country's northern cities ahead of Trump's return to the White House
Migrants respond during a deportation operation carried out by Mexican authorities, as the makeshift camp where they were living catches fire, in Chihuahua, Chihuahua state, Mexico, January 18
A migrant family watches in horror as their encampment burns down after a migrant sets the fire to prevent Mexican immigration officials from rounding up migrants
Desperate migrants started a fire to give them a chance to escape.
Of the 150 migrants, including children, living there, only 39 were detained, while the rest escaped.
For many migrants in Juarez, their decision about the cross was made based on personal circumstances.
A family of Hondurans who begged for money at a busy intersection told DailyMail.com that they had previously been kidnapped by Mexican cartels for 15 days.
While they desperately tried to escape the freezing temperatures they endured while sleeping on the streets at night, they also did not want to risk a failed attempt to enter the US.
'With three children it is riskier. If it had been just me and my wife, we would have certainly already tried to cross illegally, but we have to think about them,” said the father, pointing to his three little ones.
Others said they had waited patiently in Juarez for nearly a year for a CBP One App appointment, the Biden administration's legal way to seek asylum at the border.
“We want to do things right, come in legally, so that tomorrow we can have a future in America,” David Alexandro Primero, 24, from Venezuela.
When asked about Trump's plans to end CBP One, he said he would enter the US illegally to go to New York City, but he wanted to give the Trump administration a few days to see what enforcement action will be taken taken.
For others, the choice was simple: come over while you still can.
Pena's girlfriend paid smugglers in Juarez on Sunday to sneak her into the US, just west of El Paso, in an area near Sunland Park, New Mexico.
“Most of us don't have the money to be smuggled in,” Pena added. “We're talking dollars, $4,000. That's not cheap.
'That prevents many people from crossing. Why do you think this border is filled with waiting migrants? Many of them do not have the money to cross. '
Pena believed she had survived and would be waiting for him in Texas until he could join her.
Meanwhile, Border Patrol spent Sunday evening in Sunland Park filling a bus with illegal immigrants they had detained.
The area west of Texas' sixth-largest city is a popular human trafficking corridor because the no man's land where Texas, New Mexico and Mexico meet offers a mountain range through which migrants can be funneled.
A mother and her child were among those who paid thousands for their chance to enter America just before Trump returned to power, only to be captured and likely deported back to their home country.
