There are signs all over town that the troops have arrived.
The two hotels closest to the Border Patrol headquarters are sold out. A local gym and a barbershop are advertising discounts for men and women in uniform. And every Thursday, diners can use their military IDs to save on food and drinks at Molcajetes Mexican restaurant.
Several hundred active-duty soldiers arrived in the Texas city of Del Rio in late January after President Donald Trump declared an invasion and ordered troops to deploy to the southern border. The U.S. Defense Department says 3,600 servicemen and servicewomen, mostly from the U.S. Army and Marines, have been sent to help patrol the nation’s land border with Mexico.
But their arrival comes at one of the quietest moments at the border in the past decade. Agents with the Border Patrol sector that includes Del Rio and the neighboring city of Eagle Pass have been apprehending fewer than 50 people a day since late January. That’s a stark decline from 2023, when as many as 5,000 migrants surrendered to agents daily after crossing the Rio Grande.
Locals say they welcome the tax revenue and extra boots on the ground. But it’s not clear to them why they are needed now.
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“We’re glad they’re here enjoying our city,” said Alvaro Arreola, the mayor of Del Rio. “Even if we haven’t gotten any information about their actual mission.”
Across the 2,100 miles of land that divides the United States and Mexico, the number of illegal migrant crossings has been plummeting. The decline began last year, when Mexico stepped up enforcement by stopping migrants from reaching the border. Then the Biden administration barred migrants who crossed illegally from claiming asylum and directed people to apply for entry through an app instead.
Border apprehensions had dropped to near 2019 levels by the time Trump was sworn in. He swiftly canceled CBP One app appointments for thousands of migrants, declared an emergency and effectively sealed the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 2 million encounters with migrants attempting to cross the border in 2022 and 2023. If the current trends hold for this year, 2025 border apprehensions could drop to fewer than 300,000 — a level unseen since 2017.
The two hotels closest to the Border Patrol headquarters are sold out. A local gym and a barbershop are advertising discounts for men and women in uniform. And every Thursday, diners can use their military IDs to save on food and drinks at Molcajetes Mexican restaurant.
Several hundred active-duty soldiers arrived in the Texas city of Del Rio in late January after President Donald Trump declared an invasion and ordered troops to deploy to the southern border. The U.S. Defense Department says 3,600 servicemen and servicewomen, mostly from the U.S. Army and Marines, have been sent to help patrol the nation’s land border with Mexico.
But their arrival comes at one of the quietest moments at the border in the past decade. Agents with the Border Patrol sector that includes Del Rio and the neighboring city of Eagle Pass have been apprehending fewer than 50 people a day since late January. That’s a stark decline from 2023, when as many as 5,000 migrants surrendered to agents daily after crossing the Rio Grande.
Locals say they welcome the tax revenue and extra boots on the ground. But it’s not clear to them why they are needed now.
🌎
Follow World news
“We’re glad they’re here enjoying our city,” said Alvaro Arreola, the mayor of Del Rio. “Even if we haven’t gotten any information about their actual mission.”
Across the 2,100 miles of land that divides the United States and Mexico, the number of illegal migrant crossings has been plummeting. The decline began last year, when Mexico stepped up enforcement by stopping migrants from reaching the border. Then the Biden administration barred migrants who crossed illegally from claiming asylum and directed people to apply for entry through an app instead.
Border apprehensions had dropped to near 2019 levels by the time Trump was sworn in. He swiftly canceled CBP One app appointments for thousands of migrants, declared an emergency and effectively sealed the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded more than 2 million encounters with migrants attempting to cross the border in 2022 and 2023. If the current trends hold for this year, 2025 border apprehensions could drop to fewer than 300,000 — a level unseen since 2017.
