OAXACA DE JUÁREZ — The Mexican state of Oaxaca is next to Chiapas, which makes up most of Mexico's southern border with Guatemala. While it's nothing new for illegal immigrants from Central and South America to pass through the region to reach the United States, the volume of people has reached record highs with Joe Biden as president.

All of that is starting to change as Donald Trump is set to enter the White House again next year. Blaze Media went to the Isthmus of Tehuantepec to see the impact already made by Trump's promises to seal the border and his tariff threats against Mexico unless officials there work to prevent immigrants from reaching the U.S. border.

By all accounts, Trump's rhetoric and Mexican enforcement are bringing the number of migrants passing through the area down to low levels.

"These roads used to have a lot of migrants walking through," one of our drivers told us as we went south through the mountains. Now, the only traffic is vehicular traffic.

A different driver told us as recently as three months ago, before the election, that another large wave of migrants left the port city of Salina Cruz. That was the last time the locals saw a significant movement of people.

'We are not thinking about deportations because we are thinking about entering' the US.

Talking with the migrants, Blaze Media heard that since Trump won last month's election, the journey north is not as easy as it once was. Many of the migrants did not want their names to be published because they do not intend to go home. The majority of migrants whom the team observed were from Venezuela.

"Yes, it's become more difficult. The moment they named Trump as president, it's become horrible. Since he's been named, we now live in uncertainty. We live with fear, with angst," one Venezuelan man in a makeshift camp said in an interview. "We get desperate to be able to cross" the border.

"We are asking God for [Trump] to put his hand on his heart to open a path for us. What we really want is work and move our family forward," the man added.

On Mexican Federal Highway 190, groups of migrants walk alongside the road toward Mexico City, but they are not moving as one large caravan.

One small group stopped under an overpass told Blaze Media they are trying to reach the U.S.-Mexico border by December 18, which is designated by the United Nations as International Migrants Day, because there is a rumor going around that the U.S. border will be open for people to pass through.

"When we get to the border, we are going to do a hunger strike, a strike of every kind," one of the men said.

Despite the increasing odds that the migrants in southern Mexico will not reach the U.S. southern border before Trump is inaugurated, all of those interviewed said they are determined to get there eventually.

"We are all going with the same goal, and in this moment, we are not thinking about deportations because we are thinking about entering" the U.S., one woman said in an interview.

According to a Telemundo reporter, after Blaze Media left the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Mexican immigration authorities put migrants who were along Federal Highway 190 on buses to a shelter but then issued a document ordering them to leave the country within 10 days.

It remains to be seen how long Mexico will continue to put in serious efforts to deter migrants from arriving at its northern border, as it is known that under the Biden administration, authorities who broke up caravans did not deport the migrants from Mexico. They simply spread the migrants throughout Mexico to avoid the optics of a thousand-large group arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border at a single time.

The message being put out by the incoming Trump administration is getting through to the migrants in southern Mexico, but for now, many are planning to stay the course.

Hear more on the subject from the "Blaze News Tonight" team in the video below:

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