The banks of the river that marks the border between Mexico and Guatemala are half-deserted. This panorama contrasts with the days when thousands of migrants crossed the river, even in large caravans, seeking to reach the northern border and then the United States.
Six months after the arrival of Donald Trump to the presidency of that country, his policies have impacted the entire region. Migrants are no longer seen; every now and then one or two pass through, said Ofelia Perez, a soft drink vendor in the few shops that remain along the banks of the Suchiate River, many of which have closed for lack of buyers.
The rafts, made of boards and tire tubes, which transport people and merchandise between Mexico and Guatemala, are also empty. They have even had to reduce their number and the number of rafters to adjust to the new normal.
All business is down. Only those who want to buy merchandise or those who come to work right here on the border pass through,” said Pedro López, 58, who manages these boats.
The man, of Guatemalan origin, has been working in this area for two decades and says that he has never seen such a desolate landscape.
That Trump came to fuck everything up,” he says, with resignation, before leaning on a cement bench under an almond tree waiting for someone to arrive who wants to cross into Guatemala.
The National Migration Institute and the National Guard maintain an inspection point on the Suchiate riverbank, and agents patrol from time to time.
Heyman Vázquez Medina, of the Ministry of Human Migration of the Catholic Church, explained that because there are no migrants, in May the dining room maintained by the parish of Santiago Apóstol, where up to 500 plates of food were served daily at peak times, was closed.
Now very few pass through, sometimes about four, sometimes about eight a month, said the religious, who added that they have even attended to people who are returning to their countries, some of whom managed to reach the border with the United States, but when they saw the extreme surveillance they abandoned their dream of entering.
Vázquez Medina said that the few undocumented people who continue going north do so with human traffickers, through more strategic routes, such as the sea route, at a higher cost and at greater risk.
According to testimonies of migrants and alleged coyotes, the fee for attempting to cross into the United States has risen from 10,000 to 15,000 dollars in recent months.
The parish priest considers that in the next few years the influxes of people in search of a better life could return, since the conditions of poverty and violence will continue in their countries of origin, probably when Donald Trump’s administration ends.
Migration will be reactivated, I don’t think Trump will win another election, once he leaves, everything will return to normal in this area, he said.
Original text by Edgar H. Clemente published in La Jornada on July 19th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.
Without Migrants or Tourism, the Southern Border of the Country Suffers Economic Decline
Tapachula, Chiapas. The economy of Mexico’s southern border resents Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant policies in the United States, because due to the lower flow of moving workers, in this Chiapas city there is less income from remittances, businessmen and service providers agreed.
According to data from the Bank of Mexico, in the third quarter of 2018, when the first caravans from Central and South America began to enter Mexico, Tapachula -the main city in the region- received remittances for 19.7 million dollars.
By the third quarter of 2023, remittances amounted to US$96.5 million, i.e., they grew 500 percent in five years.
However, with the closure of the northern border and massive deportations, in the first quarter of 2025 – when Trump took office – the city suffered a plunge to $54.3 million in remittances.
Hotels are currently empty, restaurants have fewer diners, shopping malls are less crowded and, in general, there is less transient population in this border city with Guatemala.
In addition, property owners built apartments that they rented to migrants at high prices -between 1,000 and 1,500 pesos per person- in which there were sometimes 10 guests crammed into a small space. Today, these places are without tenants.
The economy of human mobility flows fed the transportation, lodging and food services; even the pandemic crisis did not much affect bthe wave of foreigners.
The cab fleet in the city grew almost 60 percent, from 1,400 units to almost 2,200.
Currently, dozens of units circulate without passengers, even during rush hours.
When there were migrants we earned up to 1,000 pesos a day, now we barely make enough for the bill and we have 200 pesos left over, said Enrique López, a cab driver for almost a decade.
The president of the Chamber of Commerce, Services and Tourism of the Southern Border, Jorge Zúñiga, admitted that the private sector made important investments to attend the high demand of products and services caused by migration; now, faced with the reduction of these groups, they are looking for a way to offset the loss.
Insecurity, another blow
The business leader estimated that the additional income of service providers, such as hotels, restaurants, transportation and commerce has experienced a decrease of close to 20 percent.
The increase we had in human mobility, with remittances and foreigners living in Tapachula was noticeable. The most difficult thing is that the businessman gets used to generating this surplus money.
He added that the only way to compensate it is to propose a natural and organic opening of our border for the return of people from Guatemala who came to trade, who came to consume and to do tourism, because there was a moment when they also stopped coming because of the insecurity we had in the state.
He trusted that the security strategy promoted in the state will once again gain the confidence of national and foreign tourism to reverse the economic impact caused by the absence of migrants.
Original text by Edgar H. Clemente published in La Jornada on July 20th, 2025.
Translation by Schools for Chiapas.