Migrants gathered by the hundreds in camps in Ciudad Juárez, on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande River, waiting for a chance to cross into the United States. But as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to take office Monday, few people could be found on the once-crowded levees last week.

Only extinguished campfires, discarded shoes, shirts and toothbrushes remained.

One Mexican city after another has reported a similar situation along the border with the United States, where the number of migrants has been steadily declining in recent months. The decline is largely attributed to tighter restrictions imposed by the Biden administration and Mexican and Panamanian officials aimed at deterring migration.

As President Biden came under increasing pressure during his re-election campaign to curb migration flows, in June he issued executive order effectively blocking undocumented migrants from obtaining asylum. That month, US border officials recorded 83,532 illegal crossings, a significant drop from 117,905 the previous month.

Despite the decline, the number of illegal crossings remains higher than during much of Mr. Trump’s first term, prompting calls from the new Trump administration and even some Democrats in Congress, for more heavy restrictions on migration to the United States.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security, told senators on Friday that she plans to roll back Trump-era policies that force asylum seekers to stay in Mexico for the duration of their U.S. cases and cut temporary immigration relief for people from in which unrest reigns.

“Border security must remain a top priority,” Ms. Noem said.

Some officials in Latin America are fighting back, arguing that tighter restrictions on both sides of the border have succeeded in stemming the crisis.

“The flow of migration from the south of Mexico towards the border has decreased in the last few months,” said Enrique Serrano Escobar, who heads the Chihuahua state office responsible for receiving migrants. “There is no crisis,” he said of Ciudad Juárez. “No problem.”

The quieter border these days contrasts with frequent tragedies along the border in recent years, including family separations and 2023 fire in a migrant prison in Ciudad Juárez that killed dozens.

Thousands of migrants are still trying to make their way north even as authorities on both sides of the border tighten restrictions. But in general, movement through the Darién Gap, the inhospitable land bridge connecting North and South America, and shelter capacity in US-Mexico border cities like Ciudad Juárez and Matamoros have become indicators that migration flows are slowing.

“Normally we would have about 150,” said Lucio Torres, who has been overseeing the shelter in Nuevo Laredo, across the Rio Grande, for three years. The shelter has a capacity for 300 people. This week, only seven are accommodated in the facility.

Mr. Serrano Escobar said that migrant shelters run by the government and civil organizations in Ciudad Juárez, with capacity for about 3,000 migrants, are currently only about 40 percent full. “The city is peaceful,” he added.

In November more than 46,000 people crossed the border illegally, the lowest number during the Biden administration. More than 47,000 illegal crossings were recorded in December. By comparison, in December 2023, illegal crossings exceeded a record of approximately 250,000.

Mexican security forces said they detained more than 475,000 migrants in the last quarter of 2024. That’s a nearly 68 percent increase compared to the same period last year, according to government data.

Solsiree Petit, 44, a Venezuelan teacher in Ciudad Juárez, said she has breast tumors that require surgery. She said her sons, 10 and 17, turned themselves in to U.S. authorities seeking asylum about a week ago. She said she has an appointment with US Customs and Border Protection in El Paso to submit her own asylum application on January 29.

She said she hopes her appointment will be honored under the Trump administration. “I’d rather not think about it any other way,” she said, “because it depresses you even more.”

CBP One, the phone app Ms. Petit used to schedule appointments, allowed U.S. immigration officials to process nearly 44,000 migrants at ports of entry in December.

While the Biden administration created the app to encourage migrants to avoid entering the country illegally, Ms. Noem, the homeland security nominee, said she would end use of the app, reflecting concerns among Republicans that it was being used to allow migrants into the country. a country to be banned from entering.

Similar to the tense silence seen in Ciudad Juárez, the Pumarejo shelter in Matamoros, which can hold 1,500 people, currently has only 260, according to shelter officials. In Tijuana, three major shelters indicated that they were only 50 percent full.

Shelters in Guatemala City are also nearly empty of migrants heading north, said Karina López, a social worker at the city’s Casa del Migrante shelter. A few years ago, the shelter struggled to care for more than 3,000 weary migrants with just over 100 beds. These numbers are unheard of today, said Mrs. López. That’s partly because people only stay a few hours in a rush to get to the border before the inauguration, she said.

Fears of violent crime and extortion are also thought to keep some migrants away from shelters targeted by organized crime in Mexico. Instead of seeking refuge there, some choose to stay with acquaintances, in rented rooms or with their smugglers while they try to make their way to the border, legally or illegally.

“I don’t care if the devil himself gets in my way, I’m going forward,” said Juan Hernández, a craftsman from Honduras. Mr. Hernández, 45, said he had lived in the United States for 23 years and had been deported five times. He arrived six months ago in Monterrey, a large industrial center in northeastern Mexico, after being deported to Honduras following a drunken driving conviction in North Carolina.

He said he plans to cross the border again soon in an attempt to reunite with his two children, who live in Raleigh, N.C.

For now, migrants like Mr. Hernández appear to be in the minority. Not so long ago in the historic center of Guatemala City, the sidewalks were full of people begging for change or a meal for their children, many of them draped in the Venezuelan flag. They were mostly absent this week.

In the Darién Gap, the number of migrants dropped sharply after the Panamanian government imposed tighter restrictions to complement the Biden administration’s new asylum policy.

Two years ago, boats of people trying to reach the jungle left every day from Necoclí, a Colombian beach town at the southern end of the jungle. Migrants would often photograph the boat journeys and share the images on social media, where they arrived to symbolize the final end of the migrants moments of safety before entering the dangerous Darién Gap jungle.

Gone are the days when there are not enough migrants to fill one boat. Instead, the boats depart every two or three days and are not always full.

In August 2023, a record 80,000 migrants passed through Darién in one month. In December, according to Panamanian officials, slightly less than 5,000 people passed through.

Still, as Trump’s inauguration approaches, smugglers continue to push migrants to reach the border and avoid potential action. Fearing it could be their last chance to make it to the United States, some have resorted to begging friends to lend them money or surrendering deeds to their homes to smugglers as collateral, shelter operators say.

One option offered by smugglers, called the “VIP route” by migrants, transports migrants from Guatemala to Cancún, Mexico, by land and from Cancún to Ciudad Juárez by air using fake Mexican passports, according to Ms. López, a social worker. The price of a one-way flight on this route peaked this week at around $450.

After the inauguration, the price drops to around $100.

They contributed to the report Annie Correal from Guatemala City; Julie Turkewitz from Bogotá, Colombia; Chantal Flores from Monterrey, Mexico; Edyra Espriello from Matamoros, Mexico; Aline Corpus from Tijuana, Mexico; and Emiliano Rodríguez Mega and Rocio Gallegos from Mexico City.