Mexico’s Aspirational Plan Prepares to Welcome Its Deported Citizens to the US

Mexico’s plan to welcome thousands of its citizens expelled from the United States is ambitious. Plans are underway to build nine reception centers near the border – large tents set up in car parks, stadiums and warehouses – with mobile kitchens for military use.

Details of the program – called “Mexico Welcomes” – were revealed only this week, although Mexican officials said they had been planning it for the past few months, since Donald J. Trump promised to deport undocumented immigrants from the US. history.

Almost all branches of government – 34 federal agencies and 16 state governments – are expected to be involved in some way: busing people to their cities, organizing things, providing medical care, enrolling the newly returned in social programs such as pensions and paid tuition. , and offering cash cards worth about $100 each.

Officials say they are also negotiating deals with Mexican companies to connect people and jobs.

“We are ready to welcome you across the border,” said Mexico’s interior minister, Rosa Icela Rodríguez, at a press conference this week. “Homecoming is an opportunity to come home and be reunited with family.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum called the expected mass deportations “one step” and said she did not support them. But as the country with the largest number of unauthorized citizens living in the United States — an estimated four million people as of 2022 — Mexico has found itself obligated to prepare.

The government’s program focuses on Mexicans deported from the United States, although the president has indicated that the country may temporarily receive deportees from other countries.

Mexico is not alone in preparing: Guatemala, its neighbor to the south that also has the largest undocumented population in the United States, recently launched a program to absorb those deported.

While Mexico’s foreign minister spoke by phone with the new US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, this week about immigration and security issues, Mexico and other countries in the region said they had not been told by the Trump administration about their deportation plans, leaving them scrambling without clarification.

“The return of Donald Trump also finds Mexico unprepared to deal with these situations,” said Sergio Luna, who works with the Migrant Defense Organizations’ Monitoring Network, a Mexican coalition of 23 shelters, migrant houses and organizations spread throughout the country.

“We cannot continue to respond to emergencies with programs that may have good intentions but are too small,” said Mr. Luna. “What this shows is that for decades Mexico has been taking advantage of Mexican immigrants through remittances, but it has withdrawn this figure.”

In addition, although the government has a network of 100 buses to return the deportees to their countries, many of them had fled to those places to escape the violence and lack of opportunities in the first place.

Some experts question whether the Mexican government is really willing to deal with the long-term trauma that deportations and family separations can cause.

“These people will return and their return will have an impact on 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 — could be strained to serve the influx of new arrivals and the usual number of migrants from the south hoping to cross the U.S. border, shelter workers say. the number of migrants has decreased significantly in recent months.

“We can’t prepare because we don’t have financial resources,” said Gabriela Hernández, director of the Casa Tochán shelter in Mexico City, adding that her group relies heavily on donations from everyday residents. “Therefore, we consider this as an urgent matter. It’s like an earthquake.”

Some shelter workers in Mexico City say they have never been given more support from the government.

Mexico City, the capital, may end up receiving many returnees. Studies show that, when they are evicted, people usually do not stay in their places, but move to big cities.

“It’s a good thing that the Mexican government is planning to welcome them for the first time,” said Claudia Masferrer, a migration researcher who has studied the return of the United States to Mexico and its consequences. Still, he added, “it’s important to think about what will happen after that, in the next months.”

Temístocles Villanueva, Mexico City’s immigration chief, said in an interview that officials plan to build new shelters and nearly triple the capital’s capacity to accommodate migrants and refugees – more than 3,000 from 1,300.

Those who work with migrants and deportees also worry that Mexico and other countries in the region could falter in their efforts to welcome more people if the Trump administration freezes foreign aid payments, as Mr. Rubio said on Tuesday that he was starting to act, after the executive order signed on Monday by Mr.

“That could turn into a problem, or at least temporarily weaken these support networks,” Mr. Luna.

The United States is a major donor to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, or IOM, for example, which currently provides many services to migrants and displaced persons, starting with the hygiene kits that people receive when they leave exile. airplanes.

The organization, which is partnering with the Mexican government in the “Mexico Welcomes” program, declined to comment.

In a cable sent to State Department staff on Tuesday, Mr. Rubio specifically talked about immigration in relation to foreign aid. In the past, such aid has also gone to programs aimed at ending hunger, disease and wartime suffering.

In his cable, Mr. Rubio said “mass immigration is the most important issue of our time” and the department will no longer take steps that will “facilitate or encourage.”

Diplomacy, especially in the Western Hemisphere, will “prioritize protecting America’s borders,” he added.

Ms. Sheinbaum has indicated that Mexico may receive deportees other than Mexicans. He said, however, that his government plans to “voluntarily” return any non-Mexicans – including those awaiting asylum hearings in the United States – to their countries of origin.

The question of who will pay to get them back, he said is on the list of topics he plans to discuss with American government officials.