Facing New Migration Realities: U.S.-Mexico Relations and Shared Interests

Migration patterns in the Western Hemisphere have changed considerably in just a few years, with large numbers of migrants from dozens of countries across the Americas and around the world traveling through the region. Many hoped to reach the United States, but others have remained within Latin America and the Caribbean. These shifting realities pushed many countries to deepen collaboration on migration management.

No country has been more critical to U.S. border enforcement efforts than Mexico, which at times in 2024 recorded more migrant encounters in its territory than the U.S. Border Patrol did at the southwest border every month. Mexican policies have been central catalysts for sustained reductions in unauthorized migration at the U.S.-Mexico border that began in 2024 and have continued under the countries’ new administrations. Whether and in what form collaboration between the two countries will continue now rests in the hands of the administrations of U.S. President Donald Trump and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum.

This policy brief provides an account of shifts in unauthorized migration and humanitarian protection trends in recent years, and the role the U.S.-Mexico relationship has played—and will continue to play—in responding to critical migration challenges. It examines the shift from burgeoning hemispheric cooperation on migration to a U.S. strategy based on large-scale deportations and threatened tariffs.

The analysis was informed by in-depth interviews and roundtable discussions with U.S. and Mexican policymakers, researchers, and representatives of international and civil-society organizations.