Mayor Jaime Escobar Jr., would be at his desk, inside his modest city hall office, when something outside his window would catch his eye. An individual, or maybe more than one, making a run for it, through the historic downtown plaza in the small border city of Roma, Texas.

On more than a few occasions, there would be hundreds of people gathered in that same plaza. Many travelled as families, having just crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. There are stairs at the river’s edge to help migrants up a steep rocky cliff, where Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officers would often be waiting. Most people, he says, would surrender and formally start the asylum-seeking process.

“It wouldn’t necessarily happen every single day … I’d come to see it a few times a week at least,” Escobar told CBC News.

It was a steady increase he noticed during the Biden administration, the result of what he sees as a long-broken immigration system.

“We're families of immigrants and we're proud to say that, but we also believe that we have to have law and order,” said Escobar.

“There wasn’t very much accountability … we did have open borders."

Since Donald Trump was re-elected, all of that has changed. Escobar says there have been significantly fewer illegal crossings through his city.

“It’s night and day, it really is,” he said.

WATCH | Trump has improved border, Escobar says: Immigration patterns changed 'dramatically' under Trump, says Texas border town mayor | Duration 1:42 Jaime Escobar Jr., t