NOGALES, Mexico (CN) — This city in the Mexican state of Sonora sits just feet away from Nogales, Arizona.
It’s the kind of place where in happier days, throngs of American tourists might have crossed the border for a quick trip.
On a sunny afternoon in February, shopkeep Armando Diaz called out to some Americans who were passing by. They slowed their walk for just a second.
“Hey, man! What do you need? What are you looking for?” he beckoned to one of them. The tourists kept moving.
Like many Mexican border towns, Nogales features plenty of knick-knack shops, pharmacies and bars just across la línea, or “the line” as the border is known here. In other words, establishments that cater to gringos looking for a good time or a good deal.
The Arizona sector is the most popular border crossing for migrants. In the final four months of 2024, U.S. Customs and Border Protection recorded 250,000 migrant apprehensions there, the highest of all the border crossings. The number decreased 90% in January 2025 compared to January 2024.
Just feet from the border, Diaz sells artesenias — silver rings, blankets, carved wooden sculptures — mostly to tourists. But the tourists aren’t coming much anymore, and neither is the cash.
Originally from the Sonoran city of Guaymas, Diaz has been living and working in Nogales for five years. His family still lives there, and he sends a portion of his money back home.
“Since Trump, it’s been a lot more difficult. The Americans aren’t coming much at all,” Diaz said in a recent interview in front of his shop. “They go to the dentist or the pharmacy sometimes, but nothing from the artesenia shops. We need them to come.”
Sleeping quarters at Casa De La Misericordia. The amount of overnighters has decreased significantly since the start of President Donald Trump’s presidential term. (William Savinar/Courthouse News)
Instead of throngs of tourists, every day Diaz sees buses cross from the United States full of deportees. They’re taken to a sports complex in Nogales, which has been turned into a shelter as part of the country’s “Mexico Embraces You” program.
The center is one of nine repatriation care centers in Mexico, where officials assist deportees in finding employment and social programs. Courthouse News visited the complex but was not allowed to interview any personnel or access the building, which is patrolled by Mexico National Guard troops.
Farther from the border is Casa De La Misericordia, which houses migrants who still hope to cross into the U.S. despite Trump’s executive orders ending all pathways to asylum for migrants including the complete shutdown of the CBP One app used to make asylum appointments. Kevin Genchi from the state of Guerrero has been in the shelter for two and a half months.
Oscar Ledezma has been here since January with his wife and children. Originally from Jalisco, they fled due to crime and gang violence. “They killed some of my cousins,” he said in an interview in the shelter’s courtyard. “They threatened to kill my parents. So we left, just like that.”
They first went to Mexico City, sharing a small apartment with a family they knew. “But they sell drugs nearby, and one of the dealers said they were going to take my daughter and rape her,” Ledezma said. “I went to the police to file a report. The police said they were going to kill me.”
He said it quickly became clear that they needed to leave immediately. They headed for the border at Nogales, where they tried to make a CBP One appointment. Then Trump canceled the program, and their appointment never came.
Back in the city, Jesus Marcano and Yoselin Machado were begging on a street corner with their two children. They came from the state of Sucre in Venezuela. They’d been in Nogales since Trump took office, bouncing between shelters and the street.
“Some shelters let you stay for 10 days, then you have to leave,” Machado said. They’d spent four days in the Darien Gap, the perilous and jungled land bridge between North and South America. The prospect of facing it again is daunting, so for now they cling to hope that Trump may open up a legal pathway to asylum.
“The goal was the U.S.,” Marcano said. “We are going to wait.”
Jesus Marcano, Yoselin Machado and their two children in Nogales, Sonora, on Feb. 21, 2025. (William Savinar/Courthouse News)
Blocks away, Francisco Zamorano Beltran sells popcorn, soda and other snacks from a cart on a motorbike. He sat in a small square in the city’s center, watching kids laugh and play on a statue outside a seafood restaurant.
“The border doesn’t affect me. Why should it affect me?” Zamorano Beltran said, his mouth partially obscured by a thick black mustache. “We work hard. If people want to work, they’ll work. If they don’t, they won’t.”
In fact, the border affected Zamorano Beltran directly. Deported from Idaho 15 years ago for a DUI, he’s spent the years since bouncing between Sinaloa and Sonora.
“I can try to get my papers in order, try to get back there to see my family,” Zamorano said. “My wife comes and visits, she’s there. I have sons and daughters in Idaho and Oregon.”
For now, though, the vendor had more pressing priorities. “I’m trying to get together money for an operation,” he said. He revealed his left eye, the iris nearly completely clouded due to cataracts.
Back near la línea, Monica Orozco works at Green Valley Pharmacy, a popular stop for Americans seeking cheaper medicines. Recently, she said, a regular client asked her: “Do you hate Americans?”
“It caught me off guard,” Orozco continued. “I said, ‘No, of course not. Why do you ask me that?’” The client referenced Trump and his policies, and Orozco acknowledged he’d not helped business or tourism. “It has not been good,” she said. “But Nogales is a very good city, a very noble city.”
Time seemed to slow down as the day cooled. It was Friday, a good day for some partying tourists to visit.
But not so much today. Armando Diaz pointed to a bus loading deportees at the international crossing. A few tourists milled around, while Mexican troops performed security checks on cars. “We all leave our house just trying to survive,” he said.
Francisco Zamorano Beltran with his motorized snack cart in Nogales, Mexico, on Feb. 21, 2025. (William Savinar/Courthouse News)
