Mexican security forces have detained about 475,000 illegal migrants since October, authorities said. Against this backdrop, US President-elect Donald Trump is threatening Mexico with tariffs if it does not curb migration flows to the common border, Reuters reported.
Nearly half a million migrants were detained between October 1 and December 26, suggesting that border security measures were tightened at the end of the year.
About 900,000 illegal migrants have been apprehended since the beginning of the year, the government said earlier this month.
"We believe that this is a working model that can always be improved and that is giving satisfactory results with regard to this phenomenon (migration)", said Mexican Foreign Minister Juan Ramon de la Fuente.
He stated this in the presence of President Claudia Sheinbaum, during her regular press conference. He said that overall, in mid-December, there was an 81% drop in the number of migrants apprehended at the border compared to the same period last year.
Israel Ibarra, an immigration researcher at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte, said the increase in apprehensions was due in part to the "commitment to reducing the transit flows through Mexico to the United States" made by Sheinbaum in a recent phone call with Trump.
It took place late last month after the Republican threatened to impose 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada if those countries did not stop the flow of drugs, mainly fentanyl, and migrants through their territory to the United States.