We're still more than a month away from Inauguration Day, yet, in a lot of ways, it feels like Donald Trump is already president. Let's face it, Joe Biden hasn't convinced anyone that he's in charge, and they aren't even trying the whole Kamala-as-co-president shtick anymore. Joe Biden appears to be completely indifferent about everything now. His presidential legacy seems to be so much of an afterthought at this point that he didn't even wait until the final days of his presidency to pardon his son, Hunter.
While Biden has earned the distinction of being the lamest lame-duck president in history, Donald Trump is firing on all cylinders, getting ready to clean up the mess that Biden and Kamala Harris have left him. It appears that Trump has taken more steps to secure the release of the hostages in Gaza than Joe Biden has in more than a year.
Now, according to a report from Fox News, a growing number of illegal immigrants are considering returning to their home countries rather than confronting the impact of President-elect Trump’s proposed border policies.
Mexican officials report that 50 to 100 migrants per day are now requesting “voluntary return,” either financing their journeys themselves or using government assistance. Many migrants cite concerns over Trump’s plan to dismantle a U.S. government app that allows asylum claims to be processed by border agents as a key factor in their decision.
The Biden administration has used an app to facilitate border crossings and asylum claims for hundreds of thousands of migrants, but the incoming Trump administration plans to eliminate the program and reinstate the “remain in Mexico” policy.
"I trust I will arrive before Mr. Trump takes office," one migrant named Johana said. "If it's not by appointment, there's always a way."
Migrants still waiting for appointments in Mexico could find themselves stranded once Trump takes office, forcing them to choose between crossing illegally, staying in Mexico during their asylum process, or returning to their home countries.
Related: WATCH: Sleepy Joe Biden Strikes Again During African Summit Meeting
According to a separate report, Mexico appears to be taking Trump’s threat of tariffs seriously and is taking steps to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
"Mexican soldiers and marines have seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in two raids in the north, with officials calling it the biggest catch of the synthetic opioid in the country’s history," reports the Associated Press. "The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border."
Experts don't think the timing is a coincidence.
“It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures,” security analyst David Saucedo told the AP. “But under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum’s administration is willing to [undertake] the increase [in] the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.”
The world knows a new sheriff is coming to town. Change is coming, and in many ways, it's already here. And Joe Biden is practically irrelevant.
