US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency at the US-Mexico border, and he plans to send his troops to help support immigration agents and restrict access to refugees and asylum seekers.

The message seemed designed to reach Washington as one administration prepares to hand the baton to the next: If the United States keeps messing with Venezuela, then Caracas will retaliate by “liberating” the US territory of Puerto Rico,

U.S. President Donald Trump's envoy for special missions, Richard Grenell, on Monday said he spoke with multiple officials in Venezuela and would begin meetings early Tuesday, days after the outgoing Biden administration imposed new sanctions on the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

Nidia Montenegro fled violence and poverty at home in Venezuela, survived a kidnapping as she traveled north into Mexico, and made it to the border city of Tijuana on Sunday for a U.S. asylum appointment that would finally reunite her with her son living in New York.

Groups of migrants began to be deported to Mexico on Tuesday night as border shelters and authorities brace themselves for President Donald Trump's promised campaign of mass deportations.

The US-Mexico border is effectively closed off to migrants seeking asylum in the United States within hours of President Donald Trump taking office, an extraordinary departure from previous protocols that has left many concerned migrants in limbo.