In a morning press conference last week, President Claudia Sheinbaum reaffirmed her commitment to the Mexican migrant community in the United States and expressed her disagreement with the mass deportation policies planned by President-elect Donald Trump. The president announced that next week she will meet with the diplomatic and consular corps to instruct them to reinforce their commitment to their fellow countrymen in the neighboring country to the north. “I want to ask for all their time, dedication, and humanism to care for our brothers and sisters living in the United States,” said Sheinbaum.
Regarding the mass deportations that Donald Trump promised to carry out upon his arrival to the White House, the president stressed that the Mexican government “does not agree” with the policy and added that, in the event that these threats of deportations materialize, Mexico will be prepared to receive the Mexican nationals and attend to them with dignity and respect.
In turn, the president expressed her willingness to collaborate with the United States to facilitate the return of migrants of other nationalities to their countries of origin, but emphasized that the incoming Trump administration will be asked to take them directly to their countries. “We are not in favor of these deportations, but if they happen, we will receive Mexicans, and we will ask the United States that migrants who are not from Mexico be taken to their countries of origin, and if not, we can collaborate,” Sheinbaum pointed out.
Furthermore, the President thanked Mexican migrants for their solidarity and highlighted that in the year 2024, the record for receiving remittances from the United States was broken.
Regarding the growing number of deportations from Canada, Sheinbaum informed that both the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior are already aware of the situation and pointed out that since the beginning of the so-called Fourth Transformation, protocols have been established to care for deported migrants, which include orientation services and resources for those who wish to return to their communities of origin.
Finally, the President emphasized that contrary to what conservative sectors insist, “migrants do not bring violence ‘ and that ’migration is a phenomenon that responds to necessity, not criminality.” She affirmed that the migration phenomenon is characterized by the mobilization of people in search of better living conditions for themselves and their families, something they cannot obtain in their places of origin due to the lack of opportunities.
Felipe Ángeles Airport receives majority of deportations in 2024
According to the National Institute of Migration (INM), between January and November 2024, 570 Mexican nationals have been returned from the United States per day. This figure is slightly lower than the 588 daily repatriations during 2023.
The 18,168 Mexican nationals who were deported in 2024 were sent to five airports. 87% of them were returned through Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), which received 15,976 repatriations.
Summit of Latin American and Caribbean ministers on migration proposed
Since the beginning of the so-called Fourth Transformation, the Mexican Government has sought to promote a strategy to address immigration from a humanist perspective, paying attention to the causes that give rise to this phenomenon with the implementation of development cooperation programs, such as Sembrando Vida and Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro, which are currently being implemented in El Salvador, Honduras, Guatemala, Belize and Cuba.
The National Migration Institute has announced a 76% reduction in the flow of migrants that reach the border of the U.S. and Mexico in 2024, based on containment strategies and support for migrant caravans.
In this context, President Claudia Sheinbaum has launched a proposal alongside Honduran President Xiomara Castro, for a meeting of the foreign ministers of Latin American and Caribbean countries in January 2025 to address the issue of migration in light of Donald Trump’s return to the White House. This summit proposes to follow up on the conference on migration issues held in October 2023 in Palenque, Chiapas, which was attended by representatives of more than a dozen countries in the region.
This article first appeared in Spanish on De Raíz.