Trump border crackdown: San Luis calm but uneasy

The San Luis, Arizona, border area is much quieter before the November 3 midterm elections, but residents and businesses say the calm has come with new economic unease.

In the sector around San Luis, US Border Patrol now apprehends fewer than 10 people a day, down from as many as 2,000 a day under the previous administration. The decline began in the final months of Joe Biden's presidency and accelerated under President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

Retired Border Patrol agent Jason Mercado said the area near the US-Mexico border wall is now peaceful and that former colleagues describe patrols as very quiet.

Asylum claims at the border have become extremely difficult, migrants apprehended near the wall are almost never released while awaiting hearings, and immigration operations across the United States have added to the deterrent effect.

Some residents said the reduction in migrant arrivals had relieved pressure on local services. Georgina Escamilla, who runs a Mexican restaurant, said local tax money had gone toward helping people arriving from other countries while residents received no help.

But farmers, warehouse operators and workers also described higher costs and unstable trade conditions. Farmworker Ricardo Vasquez said he was paying more than 20 percent more for diesel and blamed the increase on the conflict in Iran.

Mike Pasquinelli, a farmer and president of the Yuma Fresh Vegetables Association, said higher diesel and fertilizer costs were reducing profits and that tensions tied to the trade war with Canada had lowered orders.

Mario Jauregui, a conservative business owner with refrigerated warehouses near the border wall, said tariffs that were repeatedly imposed and lifted had cut the volume of fruit his clients ship between Mexico and the United States by a fifth. He also said uncertainty had made it harder to plan.

Jauregui said he had always voted Republican but hoped Trump's party would lose its congressional majority in the midterms.