From Fox News: Amid busy streets scattered with pedestrians, stray dogs and the Mexican National Guard lies Nogales, Mexico, where local business owners deliberate on how the second Trump administration has affected crime, border security and more.
“Drug trafficking has been controlled a lot, there’s barely any now. It’s not like it used to be,” Filiberto, a Mexican native who owns a photography business right outside the walkable entry point into Mexico, said.
Juan, an entrepreneur at a local eatery, told Fox News Digital, “We’ve gone through very tough times because, although right now — this past year, these last two years — there’s been some calm in terms of insecurity, in earlier times we had a lot of problems.”
Amid Trump’s second term, business owners in Nogales, Mexico, report a decrease in drug trafficking and a calmer atmosphere compared to previous years. The anticipated wave of migrants seeking to cross the border never materialized, leading to the dismantling of shelters built in preparation.
“Well-equipped shelters were built, and they were practically empty — 10, 15, 30 people a day. So they dismantled them. I think now they don’t exist anymore or they were reduced, because it wasn’t what they threatened it would be,” Filiberto, a Nogales resident, recalled.
The border city’s mayor, Juan Francisco Gim Nogales, agreed, telling Fox News Digital, “We receive 60 migrants on average. So, nothing to do with the number we expected and with all the infrastructure we prepared.”
Residents and business owners express a sense of calm and security, attributing it to the presence of the National Guard and a decrease in migrant caravans.
Filiberto reports relative peace at the border, which he attributes to the implementation of U.S. barriers, including visa requirements and physical obstacles.
“Drug trafficking has been controlled a lot, there’s barely any now. It’s not like it used to be,” Filiberto, who owns a photography business near the entry point into Mexico, said, though he laments the fact that people used to o back and forth into the U.S. in the past.
“There was a lot of camaraderie, a sense of community. We used to cross into the U.S. without a problem, two, three, four, five times a day — without any obstacles,” he said.
“There aren’t as many people wanting to cross the border anymore… There used to be a lot, but things have calmed down a lot,” food vendor Juan said. “The National Guard is watching the Mexico–U.S. border closely… the [number of] people who used to come from the south in caravans have decreased a lot. In fact, we’ve never had as much calm as we do today.”
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