Mexican border towns ready shelters ahead of Trump's promised mass deportations

Yahoo

29-01-2025

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While Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said there has been no "significant increase" in deportations from the United States to Mexico since Donald Trump took office last week, her government is readying border towns to meet the needs of immigrants, both nationals and non-nationals, being deported from the U.S.
In the first week of Trump's second term alone, Mexico received 4,094 deportees, "the vast majority of them Mexican men and women," Sheinbaum said Monday. Trump's hard stance on immigration is not something new, she said, with a long history of similar actions being taken by different administrations.
According to figures from the Mexican Government's Migration Policy Unit, in 2024, during Joe Biden's last year in office, 190,491 Mexican nationals were deported from the United States to Mexico, an average of 3,663 people per week. Deportation hit a peak during his term in 2022, with an average of 4,961 Mexicans deported per week.
'This is not new for Mexico. Mexico has a very important history of repatriation in relation to the United States. Past presidents had it and President (Andrés Manuel) López Obrador had it... first with the Trump administration and then with the Biden administration,' she said.
In order to meet this administration's demands, she directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to increase efforts at the northern border to assist deportees.
On Tuesday morning, Interior Secretary Rosa Icela Rodríguez detailed the plan for the "Mexico embraces you" program, which includes opening 10 support centers in border cities.
"We are ready and we are coordinated with the conviction of serving our countrymen with warmth and humanism. The care centers are already operating to provide them with a warm, orderly and safe reception," said Rodríguez.
Centers will be located in the following northern cities:
Tijuana and Mexicali, in Baja California
Nogales and San Luis Río Colorado, in Sonora
Ciudad Juárez, in Chihuahua
Nueva Rosita, in Coahuila
El Carmen, in Nuevo León
Matamoros, Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo, in Tamaulipas
When Trump took office on Jan. 20, Sheinbaum asked Mexicans living in the U.S. to stay calm and promised them her government would support them, both in the U.S. and when they should be forced to head back to their homeland.
"To our countrymen and women, I say, first of all, that they are not alone, and second, that they must remain calm, we must see how the process develops in the coming weeks," she said during a press conference just before Trump took oath as president.
Rodríguez announced the launch of the "Mexico embraces you" program that same morning, stating that its sole purpose was to help repatriated Mexicans navigate returning home, especially when many hadn't set foot in the country since they were children.
"We have been working for months since President Donald Trump announced that the deportation of Mexicans would take place. Of course, we do not agree, but, if it is done, they will be received with access to the welfare programs of the Mexican government, access to health services for them and their families, transportation to their places of origin, access to telephone communications,' Rodríguez said.
With more than 1,250 staff available to run them, free services like transportation, meals and hygiene care will be offered, as well as other services like repatriation letters and identification processes.
The mayor of Nogales, Sonora, Juan Francisco Gim, said that the town bordering Arizona is ready to meet the needs of immigrants. 'We are prepared to receive deported migrants, although we do not know how many there will be. We have three spaces ready to house them temporarily,' he said, signaling to local gymnasiums, warehouses and community centers that will serve as temporary shelters.
In Hermosillo, Sonora, a gymnasium located south of the city, has also been adapted as a temporary shelter to receive 1,500 people.
The governor of Baja California, Marina del Pilar Ávila, said that a shelter has been opened in a shopping center just 3 miles south of the San Ysidro port of entry in California. The site can receive 2,600 people and is equipped with bunk beds and individual showers, as well as modules of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), the Ministry of Welfare and other government agencies.
Cruz Pérez Cuéllar, mayor of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua — bordering El Paso, Texas — said that the General Directorate of Civil Protection reviewed the facilities of El Punto, where tents were being set up as a temporary shelter. The site can receive 2,500 people, who will receive meals, medical attention if necessary and support to travel to the home of their relatives anywhere in Mexico.
Cuellar said that the three levels of government are ready to support those who are stranded at the border since it is unknown what non-Mexican nationals will do since the suspension of the CBP One app.
'It is something that can affect them, there are surely people who are on their way for their appointments and others who were already here — who are hoping that the program will be reactivated. On the other hand, there are always people who want to cross into the United States, that is not going to change,' he said.
Diana García is La Voz's Mexico City correspondent.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Nogales prepares ahead of Trump's promised mass deportations