The Mexican government has launched an initiative called “Mexico Embraces You,” seeking to welcome migrants deported from the United States and integrate them into the labor market.
Newsweek contacted the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on Saturday via email.
Why It Matters
U.S. President Donald Trump made immigration a key plank of his 2024 campaign, promising mass deportations and other hard-line policies.
A New York Times/Ipsos poll conducted between January 2 and 10 found that 55 percent of voters strongly or somewhat supported such policies. Eighty-eight percent supported “deporting immigrants who are here illegally and have criminal records.” Large majorities of both Democrats and Republicans agreed that the country’s immigration system was broken.
Earlier this month, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum indicated her country could accept non-Mexican migrants deported by the Trump administration. Integrating large numbers of deported migrants will be a major challenge for Mexico—which, in 2023, had 43.9 percent of its population living in poverty, according to the World Bank Group.
Migrants on their way to the U.S. outside the regional office of the National Migration Institute in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on January 13. Migrants on their way to the U.S. outside the regional office of the National Migration Institute in Tapachula, Chiapas state, Mexico, on January 13. ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/GETTY
What To Know
The Mexican government launched the Mexico Embraces You program this week following months of planning in the aftermath of Trump’s presidential election victory.
According to The New York Times, the program will include the construction of nine migrant reception centers along the U.S.-Mexican border, with tent encampments to be created in parking lots, warehouses and stadiums and emergency kitchens to be operated by the armed forces.
Medical facilities will be made available for returning migrants, who will also be eligible for transportation to their hometowns, help applying for welfare and cash cards valued at up to $100.
Earlier this week, Mexican Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez said at a news conference, “Repatriation is an opportunity to return home and be reunited with family.”
In 2022, there were an estimated 4 million Mexican migrants living illegally in the U.S., according to the Pew Research Center, the highest figure from any one country.
The Guatemalan government has also announced a program to help its deported nationals reintegrate into their home country. Pew Research Center estimated that in 2022, there were more than 675,000 Guatemalans in the U.S. without legal status.
On Friday, NBC News reported that Mexico had refused permission for a U.S. Air Force deportation flight to land in the country. The Trump administration authorized the use of military aircraft for deportation shortly after it took office on Monday.
The administration announced on Friday that it was expanding the use of fast-track deportation across the country, allowing immigration officers to deport people before they appeared before a judge.
What People Are Saying
Sergio Luna, from the Migrant Defense Organizations’ Monitoring Network, told The New York Times: “We can’t keep responding to emergencies with programs that may have the best intentions but fall absolutely short. What this shows is that for decades Mexico has benefited from Mexican migrants through remittances, but it has resigned this population to oblivion.”
Camelia Tigau, a migration researcher at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, told the outlet: “These people are going to come back and their return is going to have an impact on their mental health.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday: “Deportation flights have begun. President Trump is sending a strong and clear message to the entire world: if you illegally enter the United States of America, you will face severe consequences.”
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, told NewsNation on Thursday: “Like I said from day one, no one is off the table, if you’re in the United States illegally you’ve got a problem.”
What Happens Next
The Trump administration’s targeting of suspected illegal migrants is likely to ramp up in the coming months. On Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents made 538 arrests in a series of raids in New York, Colorado and Minnesota.
The return of large numbers of migrants is likely to put major pressure on Mexican state resources, with Trump also threatening to impose tariffs on the country if it doesn’t stem the flow of migrants and narcotics across the U.S.’s southern border.
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