Mexico says Trump administration sending back few migrants, but continues to prepare for mass deportations
EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Released from immigration custody last Saturday, “Javier” had but one plan when he stepped back on Mexican soil.
“Going home to Torreon,” the Mexican migrant told reporters at the Stanton Street International Bridge between El Paso and Juarez, Mexico. “I will not try it (cross illegally into the United States) again. It’s too hard. You cannot cross right now.”
Dominic Alfaro, another Mexican released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday, had a take on things.
“We will try again until we cross. The border got difficult, but we will cross,” said Alfaro, a native of Michoacan, Mexico.
The two deportees said they spent several days in ICE custody in El Paso but met others who have been detained far longer. Contrary to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processing facilities, which reportedly had 153 migrants in custody as of Monday, the migrants said they saw several hundred, perhaps 1,000, in custody in the ICE facilities.
The claim could not be immediately verified.
The trickle of removed migrants – not the mass deportation President Trump promised – is not deterring the Mexican government from keeping open nine large welcoming centers part of the Mexico Embraces You program in border cities like Juarez.
“Mexico Embraces You has received very few people,” Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo said on Monday. But “they will remain there to support Mexican citizens as long as repatriations are ongoing. At the end of the month, we will evaluate if it’s necessary to keep all 10.”
The 10th “center” is the Mexico City Felipe Angeles International Airport.
Mexican officials say the Trump administration has removed 19,663 foreign nationals to Mexico since Jan. 20. Of those, 15,611 were Mexicans. On Sunday, only 313 deportations were recorded from Tijuana to Matamoros and at airports in Mexico City, Tabasco and Chiapas, Sheinbaum said.
The Mexican government on Monday emphasized it continues to be on the lookout for the purported Trump mass deportations.
Sheinbaum said she has ordered a performance review in all 53 Mexican consulates in the U.S. to make sure consuls are providing protection, visiting nationals at ICE detention centers and standing up against mischaracterizations of their people.
“This false idea they are criminals,” Sheinbaum reflected Monday at her daily news conference in Mexico City. “They are workers, first-class (workers) that went there out of need to help their families.”
Mexicans working abroad last year sent $64 billion in remittances to their families, according to Banxico. But the monthly flow of money has dropped by 15% since Oct. 31, and fell from $5.2 billion in December to $4.6 billion in January.
Sheinbaum on Monday addressed the decline and said the U.S. economy suffers as well when fewer Mexicans are in the workforce.
“(Remittances) benefit Mexican families, but they only represent 20% of what Mexicans generate in the United States – 80% stays in the U.S. in taxes, savings and (consumer) spending,” she said. “They help their families here, but without them, the U.S. economy will not be what it is.”
In Juarez, Alfaro said the reason he has to cross illegally into the United States is because he could not get a lawful work visa. “I will try again until I get across, if it’s possible,” he said.
ProVideo in Juarez, Mexico, contributed to this report.
