Border Residents Describe Dramatic Change in Trump’s First 100 Days

U.S.

7 hours ago

Originally posted by: The Epoch Times

In Starr County, Texas, Marcus Canales said the past 100 days under President Donald Trump have made him wonder if he’s living in the “Matrix,” the computer-generated virtual world made famous in the 1999 Hollywood science fiction movie by the same name.

That’s because of the night-and-day difference when it comes to the number of illegal immigrants he’s seen since Trump took back the White House, scoring historic gains in this heavily Hispanic county that went red for the first time in 130 years.

“Oh, the man gets an A+,” said Canales, a retired teacher. “I mean, compared to where we were—at an F-,” he said.

He no longer sees illegal immigrants sitting along the side of the road waiting to be picked up by Border Patrol agents, who now seem less busy.

In the past, he’d see agents speed past him, but now they drive through town a lot slower.

“I would go from now till doomsday voting for the man,” said Canales, a local GOP chairman. “Sometimes you just need these hard-hitting individuals who don’t play cutesy.”

Canales said the country needed someone tough like Trump to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants. Some 11 million came into the United States unlawfully under the Biden administration, with most crossing along the Southwest border.

“We, the voters, wanted this,” he said. “Trump is just following our mandate.”

Closing the U.S. southern border and deporting those who are in the country unlawfully was a top campaign promise that helped Trump win the White House for a second term.

Arrests of illegal immigrants by Customs and Border Protection have plummeted since Trump took office. February and March totals were each under 30,000. In 2024, during those same months, illegal immigrant arrests hovered close to 250,000 apiece.

In an AtlasIntel poll released in March, Trump received his highest marks on immigration, with 52 percent of 2,550 respondents saying his performance was excellent or good. The poll’s error of margin was 2 percent.

In an Epoch Times online survey conducted Jan. 29–30 with 54,144 respondents, more than 81 percent approved of deporting illegal immigrants.

Trump’s whole-of-government approach to securing the border involves executive orders, the military, and enforcing existing immigration laws, some of which have been seldom used since the founding days of the Republic.

Trump supporters Pat Saenz, Marcus Canales, Roel Reyes, and Ross Barrera wave Trump flags as motorists honk while driving on U.S. 83 in Rio Grande City, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2024. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times) — Trump supporters Pat Saenz, Marcus Canales, Roel Reyes, and Ross Barrera wave Trump flags as motorists honk while driving on U.S. 83 in Rio Grande City, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2024. Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times

Executive Action

On Day One, Trump signed 10 border-related executive actions, setting the stage for deportation operations and a focus on illegal immigration, crime, and fentanyl.

“All illegal entry will immediately be halted, and we will begin the process of returning millions and millions of criminal aliens back to the places from which they came,” Trump said during his inaugural address.

Just after Trump was sworn in, his administration ended the use of the CBP One phone app that allowed nearly a million people who would otherwise be considered illegal immigrants to make appointments with federal border agents to enter the country.

The administration rebranded the app as CBP Home, which allows illegal immigrants to self-deport.

Besides declaring a national emergency and directing troops to the border, Trump signed orders to reinstate the Remain in Mexico policy, end “catch-and-release,” build a border wall, designate criminal cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, end refugee resettlement and birthright citizenship, and enhance immigrant vetting. Several of these initiatives have since been challenged in court.

Terrorists and Tariffs

Trump took aim at Mexican cartels by designating them as terrorist organizations while pressuring the governments of Mexico and Canada with tariffs for their role in exacerbating America’s fentanyl crisis. China was also a tariff target for its role in fentanyl trafficking.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, making it one of the most deadly drugs available. Other analogs of fentanyl, such as carfentanil—often used by cartels as cheap way to increase the potency of other illicit drugs—can be 100 times more potent again, with even even a microgram being fatal to humans.

The designations of Mexico-based cartels include the Sinaloa Cartel, the Gulf Cartel, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, the United Cartels, the La Nueva Familia Michoacana organization, and the Northeast Cartel.

James Berry (L) with his mother Maquita Berry (C) and brother Trinity Stafford (R). (Courtesy of Lillie Allmon, Monumental Photography}

In addition, the La Mara Salvatrucha transnational gang, commonly known as MS-13, and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua were designated as foreign terrorist organizations.

In February, Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada in response to illegal immigration and fentanyl flowing into the United States via those countries.

China was also slapped with a 10 percent tariff for its role in supplying precursor chemicals to criminal cartels needed for fentanyl production. This was later increased to 20 percent.

Since then, tariffs on Mexico and Canada, which went into effect in April, have been modified for some products. Still, they prompted Mexico and Canada to bolster efforts at their borders with the United States to stop fentanyl trafficking.

In a White House statement, the administration said contraband drugs like fentanyl coming into the country through illicit distribution networks had created a national emergency and a public health crisis.

Overdoses from fentanyl have become a national crisis as traffickers smuggle the drug mainly over the U.S. southern border with Mexico, killing some 75,000 Americans in 2023 alone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Marquita Berry’s son was one of those killed in 2023.

James Stafford, 30, had been struggling with an addiction to pain pills when Berry found him in his bedroom, dead from fentanyl poisoning.

She believes that her son went looking for pain relief in the small town of Richburg, South Carolina, only to find death in a fentanyl-laced pill.

So far, she approves of Trump’s efforts to secure the border and stop fentanyl from killing more Americans.

“By putting the tariffs on—that shows he’s trying even harder,” she said, adding that Trump appears to be doing everything in his power to stop the drug trafficking, she said, noting the military deployment.

“I think it’s working,” she said, “I think it’s going to take him a little while.”

U.S. Army soldiers patrol the U.S.–Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 24, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered 1,500 more military personnel to the border with Mexico as part of a flurry of steps to tackle illegal immigration, his spokeswoman said on Jan. 22. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images) — U.S. Army soldiers patrol the U.S.–Mexico border at Eagle Pass, Texas, on Jan. 24, 2025. President Donald Trump ordered 1,500 more military personnel to the border with Mexico as part of a flurry of steps to tackle illegal immigration, his spokeswoman said on Jan. 22. Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images

Military Mission

The military’s role at the border includes allowing troops and National Guardsmen to build barriers and finish the wall along the U.S.–Mexico border, a major campaign promise of the president since entered politics.

Trump’s order directs the military to “prioritize the protection of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the United States along our national borders.”

It includes sealing national borders by directing the military to repel “forms of invasion, including unlawful mass migration, narcotics trafficking, human smuggling, and other criminal activities.”

While the president’s efforts can’t bring back her son, Berry said they could save the children and grandchildren of countless others across the country.

Berry said she hasn’t hearing about as many fentanyl deaths in the community as she used to.

“I’ve got four grandkids,” she said. “I don’t want them to be able to get their hands on it.”

Force Multiplier

During his first 100 days, the Trump administration has prioritized deporting dangerous illegal immigrants and the 1.4 million foreign nationals with final deportation orders—a tall task even for the federal government.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement doesn’t have the manpower to round up and deport millions of illegal immigrants, so the agreements are critical in carrying out Trump’s agenda.

Kinney County Sheriffs deputies, along with Texas state troopers, arrest a U.S. citizen transporting four illegal aliens to San Antonio ,in Kinney County, Texas, on Oct. 20, 2021. (Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times) — Kinney County Sheriffs deputies, along with Texas state troopers, arrest a U.S. citizen transporting four illegal aliens to San Antonio ,in Kinney County, Texas, on Oct. 20, 2021. Charlotte Cuthbertson/The Epoch Times

To help solve that problem, Trump signed an order directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to maximize state law enforcement assistance in enforcing immigration law through what’s known as 287(g) agreements.

The agreements allow state law enforcement, such as sheriff departments, “to perform the functions of immigration officers in relation to the investigation, apprehension, or detention of aliens in the United States under the direction and the supervision of the Secretary of Homeland Security.”

The agreements include three models: the Jail Enforcement model, which identifies and processes removable aliens in jails; the Task Force model, which allows local officers limited immigration authority with oversight from Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE); and the Warrant Service Officer model, which allows ICE to train and certify local law enforcement officers to serve and execute administrative warrants on aliens in their jails.

All but a dozen states already have at least one 287(g) agreement in place, according to ICE. As of mid-April, ICE had another 64 applications pending for the program.

Law enforcement in red states such as Florida and Texas are leading the way.

The Florida Sheriffs Association announced that all 67 county jails in the state had signed agreements to work with ICE on immigration enforcement.

In Texas, some 26 county sheriff’s departments have 287(g) agreements. The state has 254 counties.

Packets of fentanyl mostly in powder form and methamphetamine, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized from a truck crossing into Arizona from Mexico, is on display during a news conference at the Port of Nogales, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2019. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Reuters) — Packets of fentanyl mostly in powder form and methamphetamine, which U.S. Customs and Border Protection say they seized from a truck crossing into Arizona from Mexico, is on display during a news conference at the Port of Nogales, Ariz., on Jan. 31, 2019. U.S. Customs and Border Protection/Reuters

Deportations

To speed up deportations, the president invoked the Alien Enemies Act. This 1798 law that has been seldom used allows the government to detain and expel foreign nationals without a hearing during an “any invasion or predatory incursion … by any foreign nation or government.”

In his proclamation invoking the law, Trump said that Tren de Aragua is perpetrating such an invasion “at the direction, clandestine or otherwise,” of Venezuela’s socialist regime.

Trump’s deportation efforts, including his invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, have been met with a raft of legal challenges. Among other arguments, nonprofits bringing the lawsuits have contended that the government has overstepped its authority and denied deportees due process.

Some of the deportation cases have made it to the Supreme Court via emergency motions.

In early April, the Court allowed the administration to continue deportations under the law to proceed but required the Trump administration to provide notice to deportees before their removal flights.

In a separate case, the Supreme Court on April 19 temporarily blocked the administration from using the law to deport a group of Venezuelan men in Texas alleged to be part of a criminal gang.

Felix Cano, a retired veteran who was part of the red wave along the Texas border that voted Trump in for a second term, gave Trump high marks for his handling of the border so far.

In his town of Weslaco, which is about seven miles from the Texas–Mexico border, he has noticed fewer migrant tents set up on the Mexico side of the nearby international bridge.

Cano said Trump has demonstrated that new laws pushed by the Biden administration weren’t needed to control the border.

Instead, Trump used existing laws and executive orders to turn things around, he said.

“Boom, it just went down,” he said. “It’s unbelievable—with a stroke of a pen.”

Army veteran Felix Cano, 42, of Weslaco speaks during a rally in McAllen, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2024. (Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times) — Army veteran Felix Cano, 42, of Weslaco speaks during a rally in McAllen, Texas, on Nov. 9, 2024. Bobby Sanchez/The Epoch Times

Cano’s all for deporting criminal illegal immigrants to El Salvador and doesn’t understand why Democrats and activists are trying to keep them in the country.

Tren de Aragua, a violent gang tied to drug and human trafficking, was taking over hotels in Texas and apartments in Colorado, he noted.

“We don’t need need that type of crime here,” he said.

Democrats have used the issue as a way to push back against the Trump administration’s aggressive deportation efforts. They contend that illegal immigrants are entitled to due process.

They pointed to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 gang member and illegal immigrant living in Maryland who was deported back to his native El Salvador as an example of what could go wrong.

The Trump administration said in early court filings that Abrego Garcia, was deported to El Salvador in error. A judge issued a deportation order for Abrego Garcia in 2019 based on an immigration court’s finding that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, but another judge shielded him from being removed to El Salvador, agreeing he might be in danger there from a rival gang.

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on April 10 that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

However, Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele said during a visit to the White House days later that he would not release him. The administration has said that it cannot force the Salvadoran government to release Abrego Garcia.

The case is ongoing in the court system.