Mexico is preparing to welcome back migrants from the US after Trump’s return order

In the shadow of the great crucifixion, laborers and construction workers in the Mexican border town of Ciudad Juareez are building a small town. A tent city.

In the old square, under the altar built with the mass of Pope Francis in 2016, the Mexican government is preparing thousands of deportees who expect to arrive in the United States in the coming weeks.

Juarez is one of the 8 border points and 3,000 km-long (1,900 miles) where Mexico is ready for the expected entry.

Men in Boots and baseball CAPS climbing over a large metal structure to pull over a white tarpaulin, creating a circular shelter for men and women temporarily.

Casual workers, domestic workers, kitchen workers and farm workers are likely to be among those sent south soon, in what President Donald Trump calls “the largest deportation in American history”.

Along with protection from the elements, the deportees will receive food, medical care, and assistance in obtaining a Mexican identity card, under the program sponsored by President Claudia Sheinbaum’s Administration Calts “Mexico unites”.

“Mexico will do everything necessary to take care of our fellow citizens and will be allocated whatever it takes to find those who are sent back,” said Mexico’s Interior Minister, Rosa Icela Rodriguez, on the day of Trump’s inauguration.

For his part, President Sheinbaum emphasized that his Government will begin to attend to the needs of the returnees, saying that they will be eligible for government programs and pensions, and will be eligible to work.

He urged Mexicans to “remain calm and keep a cool head” on relations with President Trump and his administration more broadly – from firings to threats of fines.

“With Mexico, I think we’re doing very well,” President Trump said in a video address to the world economic forum in Davos this week. Both neighbors may find a workable solution to immigration that is acceptable to both – President Sheinbaum said the key is dialogue and keeping channels of communication open.

Undoubtedly, however, he sees the possible declaration by President Trump of a state of emergency on the US border would put Mexico.

There are an estimated 5 million Mexicans living in the United States and the prospect of a large return could quickly overwhelm border cities like Juarez and Tijuana.

It’s a problem that worries Jose Maria Garcia Lara, director of the Juventud 2000 Strigrant Shelter in Tijuana. As he shows around the center, already approaching its position, he says that there are very few places that can fit many families.

“If we have to, we can put some people in the kitchen or the library,” she said.

There comes a point, however, where there isn’t any space left – and donations of food, medical supplies, bedding and hygiene products will stretch too far.

“We were hit on two planes. First, the arrival of Mexicans and other migrants fleeing violence,” said Mr. Garcia.

“But then again, we will have a lot of deportations. We don’t know how many people will find the border and need our help. Together, these two things can create a big problem.”

In addition, another important part of Mr. Trump’s executive order includes a policy called “Stay in Mexico” under any dates in the court of the warming will have to stay in Mexico before those decisions.

When he “lived in Mexico” before, during Trump’s first presidency and under the presidency of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico, the towns along the Mexican border struggled to endure.

Human Rights groups have also repeatedly blamed the dangers migrants are exposed to by being forced to wait in dangerous cities where drug-related cartel-related crimes are rampant.

In this case, Sheinbaum made it clear that Mexico does not agree with the plan and will not accept any asylum seeker in the US as they await their asylum hearing. Apparently, “Stay in Mexico” only works if Mexico agrees to go along with it. So far, it has drawn the line.

President Trump has been visited by approximately 2,500 troops on the Southern border where they will be assigned to carry out some of his crimes.

In Tijuana, at the same time, Mexican soldiers helped prepare their results. The authorities have studied the center of events called Flamingos with 1,800 beds for recovery and forces that bring things, put in the kitchen and shows.

As President Trump signed executive orders on Monday, a minibus rolled through the chaparral border gates between San Diego and Tijuana carrying several deportees.

Several reporters had gathered to try to talk to, apparently, the first deportees of the Trump organization. It was just a routine request, however, that might have been in the pipeline for weeks and I couldn’t do anything about the documents Trump was signing in front of a cheering crowd in Washington DC.

Still, figuratively speaking, just as the minibuses passed through the waiting fountains on their way to the government shelter, those were the first of many.

Mexico will have its work cut out to welcome them, set them aside and find them a place in the nation that others have not seen since they left as children.