From Us Climate at the Border May 21, 2025

Border Crossings Drop, Climate Pressures Persist

While fewer people are crossing the border, droughts, floods, and climate stress continue to pressure people in the region and their countries

By CCNow

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What You Need to Know

  • Globally: In 2023, disasters triggered 26.4 million internal displacements worldwide — 56% of all displacements that year. Floods and storms were the primary drivers. Most climate migration is inside borders, but climate shocks are also pushing people across national lines. In West Africa’s Sahel region, worsening droughts and desertification have contributed to displacement into coastal countries like Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire. In South Asia, rising seas and floods are pressuring rural communities in Bangladesh to migrate to India. And in the Pacific, entire island nations, like Tuvalu and Kiribati, are planning for possible relocation as sea levels rise. These climate-linked movements often intersect with poverty, conflict, and weak infrastructure. The World Bank projects that over 216 million people could be internally displaced by climate impacts by 2050.
  • At the Border: Migrant crossings at the border have recently declined to historically low levels. In April 2025, US Border Patrol recorded 8,383 apprehensions — a 93.5% drop from the 128,895 apprehensions in April 2024. This decrease follows the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies, including a near-total asylum ban and the suspension of programs like CBP One. Yet, even as the crossings slow, the climate-driven pressures in both Central and South America persist. In Central America’s Dry Corridor — which stretches across Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador — recurrent droughts, floods, and erratic rainfall have devastated staple crops like corn and beans, pushing rural families into food insecurity and economic desperation. In South America, communities from Bolivia and northeastern Brazil to the Peruvian Andes are contending with extreme heat, water scarcity, and shifting agricultural seasons. In Venezuela, where millions have already fled due to political and economic instability, climate impacts like flooding, landslides, and increasingly erratic weather compound existing vulnerabilities, especially in rural and coastal areas.
  • Migration: Migrants rarely cite climate change as the reason they left home. More often, they’ll talk about lost income, rising debt, or a failed harvest. As journalists, we should make the climate connection, digging deeper with our questions. Economic migration is often climate migration. Years of drought, shifting rainfall patterns, and a degraded soil don’t always make the headlines, but they quietly destroy livelihoods and push people to leave. Climate isn’t just about sudden disasters; slow-moving pressures can be just as devastating. Migration itself is often a form of adaptation, a strategy people use to survive and support those who stay behind. And migrants aren’t only victims of climate change, they’re also essential to recovery. After storms, floods, and wildfires, migrant workers are often hired to help rebuild homes, infrastructure, and communities. Asking the climate question and understanding these connections leads to deeper, more honest reporting.

Localize: Migrants Along the Border

Key Reporting Angles 

  • What climate impacts are people in Mexico, Central and South America, and the border region still facing, even as fewer are arriving at the US-Mexico border?
  • How have border communities changed since the slowdown in crossings? Are climate-related displacement risks being addressed in local or regional migration policies?
  • Are more people taking cartel-controlled “VIP” routes — crammed in trailers where extreme heat can be fatal or forced through deadly desert and sea paths?

Stories to Inspire Your Coverage

Ask an Expert & Find Resources

  • Fernando Riosmena, Professor, Sociology and Demography, The University of Texas in San Antonio

Humanize: Who Is Most Affected?

Talk to the Communities on the Frontlines 

  • Can you profile someone who wanted to migrate for climate-related reasons but stayed due to the new immigration policies?
  • How are deported migrants coping with returning to the very places they fled due to climate pressures?
  • What’s the emotional and economic toll on families separated by changing border dynamics?
  • Who qualifies as a climate refugee or climate deportee, and how are legal tools like the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) being used or falling short in recognizing climate-related displacement?

Stories & Studies to Inspire Your Coverage 

Ask an Expert & Find Resources 

  • Julia Neusner, Climate Research and Operations at the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)

Solutions: What Can Be Done?

Highlight What’s Working & What’s Not

  • What programs in Central and South America aim to increase climate adaptation and build climate resilience, and reduce the need to migrate?
  • Is there US-Mexico cooperation at the local level to support communities hit hardest by climate impacts?
  • How can migration be recognized as a form of climate adaptation rather than treating it only as a crisis to be contained?

Stories & Studies to Inspire Your Coverage 

Ask an Expert & Find Resources

What’s Next?

Nos vemos pronto, see you in soon!

– CCNow’s Climate at the Border team

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