Mexico’s plan to receive thousands of its deported citizens from the United States is nothing short of ambitious. Plans are underway to build nine reception centers along the border – massive tents set up in parking lots, stadiums and warehouses – with mobile kitchens operated by the armed forces.
Details of the initiative – called “Mexico Welcomes You” – were revealed only this week, although Mexican officials said they had been planning it for months since Donald J. Trump pledged to carry out the largest-ever deportation of undocumented immigrants in the US. in History.
Almost every branch of government – 34 federal agencies and 16 state governments – is expected to participate in one way or another: driving people to their hometowns, arranging logistics, providing medical assistance, enrolling recently returned people in welfare programs such as pensions and paid apprenticeships. along with handing out about $100 worth of money cards.
Officials say they are also negotiating agreements with Mexican companies to connect people with jobs.
“We are ready to receive you on this side of the border,” Mexican Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said at a news conference this week. “Repatriation is an opportunity to return home and reunite with family.”
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico called the expected large-scale deportations a “unilateral move” and said she disagreed with them. But as the country with the largest number of unauthorized citizens living in the United States – estimated by four million people From 2022 – Mexico was considered obliged to prepare.
The government’s plan is aimed at Mexicans deported from the United States, although the president has indicated that the country could temporarily accept foreign deportees as well.
Mexico is not alone in the preparations: Guatemala, its neighbor to the south, which also has a large undocumented population in the United States, took out a plan to absorb his own sports.
As Mexico’s foreign minister spoke to the new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, on the phone this week about immigration and security issues, Mexico and other countries in the region said they not met by the Trump administration In their deportation plans, leaving them to argue in the absence of any specifics.
“The return of Donald Trump again sees Mexico as unprepared to face these scenarios,” said Sergio Luna, who works with the Migrant Defense Organizations Oversight Network, a Mexican coalition of 23 shelters, migrant houses and organizations spread across the country.
“We cannot continue to respond to emergencies with programs that may have the best intentions but fall absolutely short,” Mr. Luna said. “What it shows is that Mexico has benefited from Mexican migrants through remittances for decades, but has resigned that population to oblivion.”
Moreover, while the government has a fleet of 100 buses to take deportees to their home states, many of them have fled those places to escape violence and lack of opportunities.
Other experts questioned whether the Mexican government was really prepared to face the long-term trauma that deportations and family separations could cause.
“These people will return and their return will affect their mental health,” said Camelia Tigau, a migration researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
Even with the new facilities, existing shelters—often small and underfunded—may be hard-pressed to serve the large numbers of recently arrived people, along with the usual migrant populations from the South, hoping to cross the U.S. border, shelter operators said, though the number of migrants there is Drastically dropped In recent months.
“We can’t prepare because we don’t have the financial resources,” said Gabriela Hernández, director of the Casa Tochán shelter in Mexico City, adding that her team relies mostly on donations from everyday citizens. “So we feel it’s urgent. It’s like an earthquake.”
Other shelter operators in Mexico City said they have not been offered additional support from the government.
Mexico City, the capital, is likely to receive many returnees. Studies show that once deported, people often do not settle in their hometowns, but move to bigger cities.
“It’s good that the Mexican government is planning for the initial intake,” said Claudia Masferrer, a migration researcher who has studied the dynamics of returns from the United States to Mexico and their implications. Still, she added: “It’s important to think about what happens after that, in the coming months.”
Temístocles Villanueva, head of human mobility in Mexico City, said in an interview that officials planned to create new shelters and nearly triple the capital’s capacity to house migrants and deportees — to more than 3,000 from about 1,300.
Those who work with migrants and deportees also worry that Mexico and other countries in the region could shut down their efforts to bring in large numbers of people if the Trump administration stops the payment of foreign aidas Mr. Rubio said Tuesday he was starting to do, following an executive order signed by Mr. Trump on Monday.
“It could turn into a crisis or at least a temporary weakening of these humanitarian aid support networks,” Mr Luna said.
The United States is the largest funds For example, the United Nations International Organization for Migration, or IOM, currently offers many services to migrants and deportees, starting with the hygiene kits that people receive when they disembark from deportation flights.
The organization, which is working with the Mexican government on the “Mexico Welcomes You” plan, declined to comment.
In the cable sent To State Department employees on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio specifically mentioned migration in relation to foreign aid. In the past, such aid also went to programs aimed at alleviating hunger, disease and suffering in times of war.
In his cable, Mr. Rubio said that “mass migration is the most serious issue of our time,” and the department would no longer take actions that would “facilitate or encourage.”
Diplomacy, especially in the Western Hemisphere, “would prioritize securing American borders,” he added.
Mrs. Sheinbaum has signaled That Mexico could receive deportations other than Mexicans. However, she said that Her government planned a “voluntary” return All non-Mexican citizens—including those awaiting asylum hearings in the United States—in their countries of origin.
The question of who would pay to bring them back, she said, was on the list of topics she planned to discuss with U.S. government officials.
