As part of the Border Hawk team, I traveled from northern Michigan to the southern border of the US of A shortly after Donald J. Trump got re-elected. Specifically, we went to San Diego and Jacumba, California. The latter is unfettered, rough terrain. The landscape looks like something out of a Mad Max film. Spectacular!
Compared to our past border visits, however, it was eerily quiet – few vehicles, less Border Patrol, some trash. Part of the reason for the inactivity is that unlawful crossings, nationwide, are down – from 2 million in FY 2023 to 1.5 million in FY 2024.
Another reason is that Mexico is cracking down on crossings into the United States.
Border Hawk inspecting an area where the border wall abruptly ends in Jacumba, CA
Cartel smugglers routinely drop loads of illegals here and they simply run around the wall into the US
The incoming administration needs to close these gaps immediately! https://t.co/nHMGRB0Sj7
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) November 16, 2024
In fact, all we encountered on the Jacumba border, were a stout pig who has been featured on the Instagram account of a Fox News reporter and several youthful Mexican soldiers who were stationed by the wall. The soldados were near the same place where the Chinese nationals with smart luggage crossed over.
📍Jacumba, CA
Mexican army is positioned at popular crossing sites, and they tell us that they are stopping crossings at these locations. They report migrants are still crossing at separate locations in the area.
We found travel passports from Thailand and Chinese cigarettes… pic.twitter.com/auhxIYECyt
— Wid Lyman (@Wid_Lyman) November 7, 2024
I spoke, through the slats in the wall, to one of the Mexican soldiers who told me there were no migrants where he was, and I had to go elsewhere in Jacumba to encounter them. We went. None there, either. But there was plenty of evidence that Mexican soldiers had also set up camp, and the opening/slab was now impassable.
📍Jacumba, CA
Border Hawk team converses with Mexican soldiers at international barrier
We asked them if ‘migrants’ have been passing through the area – they said no
Once an illegal crossing hotspot, this area is eerily calm right now pic.twitter.com/j1xEJYpfRm
— Border Hawk (@BorderHawkNews) November 17, 2024
Frankly, for those concerned with the goings-on (the invasion of criminals, drugs, cartels, dystopian scenes) of the past four years, the stillness, which may not make for interesting coverage, is very good news. Couple that with the fact that President-elect Donald Trump can be extremely pro-active on ‘Day One,’ if he chooses to do so — as Border Hawk Editor-in-Chief Dan Lyman recently told talk show host Jesse Kelly — and there’s much for seasoned border hawks to be cautiously optimistic about.
Great to join @JesseKellyDC to discuss my vision for how the Trump admin can
– End the invasion
– Secure the border with overwhelming show of force
– Demand our neighbors cooperate
– MAGA by protecting American workers & treating our nation as a HOMELAND, not an economic zone pic.twitter.com/VfB42KPTsL— Dan Lyman (@realdanlyman) November 14, 2024
“We need to be signing a raft of executive orders to right the ship. We need to restart the border wall. We need to reinstate Remain in Mexico. We need a task force to find the missing children. We need a task force to tackle criminal networks,” Lyman asserted.
Admittedly, there are loads of hard work and opportunities ahead for the newly-minted Trump Administration. Its principals, particularly Border Czar Tom Homan, need to be in constant communication with Mexico, so hotspots along the world’s most photographed border remain eerily quiet.
