Politics | Tue Mar 1, 2016 2:24pm EST

Now or never: Trump's 'wall' talk sparks migrant rush on U.S.-Mexico border

CIUDAD JUAREZ/WASHINGTON | BY GABRIEL STARGARDTER AND JULIA EDWARDS

Gang violence and poverty have for years pushed Mexicans and Central Americans north to the United States, but recently a new driver has emerged: the anti-immigrant tone of leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

From the slums of Central America to close-knit migrant communities in U.S. cities, Trump's rise to the front of the Republican pack has not gone unnoticed and is partly behind a spike in the numbers of migrants trying to enter the country, including children traveling without guardians.

Interviews with migrants, people smugglers and officials show many migrants are trying to cross now instead of facing tighter policing and new policies to halt illegal immigration if Trump or another Republican wins the Nov. 8 election.

"If Trump wins, we're all screwed and all Latinos are screwed," Isaias Franco, a 46-year-old from El Salvador who was deported from the United States late last year and is now trying to get back, said at a migrant shelter in Ciudad Juarez, just across the border from El Paso, Texas.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data shows 150,304 migrants were detained trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border between October and February, up 24 percent from the same period last year.

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