MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico’s president said Thursday she will ask President-elect Donald Trump to deport non-Mexican migrants directly to their home countries, rather than dumping them at the Mexican border.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said she hopes to reach an agreement with Trump so that “they send people who come from other countries to their countries of origin.”
Mexico, like any other country, is not required to accept non-Mexican migrants, but has agreed to do so in the recent past, especially from countries such as Cuba and Venezuela, which often refuse deportation flights from the United States, but may they do accept from Mexico.
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Mexican officials have said they are already preparing if Trump makes good on his promise to carry out large-scale deportations of migrants who do not have the proper documents once he takes power on January 20.
Mexico clearly fears two things: large-scale deportations of Mexican citizens and large numbers of non-Mexicans being deported at border crossings ill-equipped to deal with them.
Experts estimate that there are approximately 4 million Mexicans living in the US without proper documentation. Mexico is already preparing its consular services in the US with additional manpower to handle deportation cases involving its own citizens.
But deported third-country migrants pose a trickier problem, and could include significant numbers of Haitians, Cubans and Venezuelans.
Between 2022 and 2023, Mexico agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants a month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela, countries to which the US would find it difficult to deport for diplomatic or political reasons. That agreement is currently in effect.
In late 2023, Venezuela said Mexico had repatriated about 300 Venezuelan migrants on two flights.
Such returns place a financial burden on the Mexican government. Mexico had offered some of the repatriated Venezuelans a stipend of about $110 a month for six months to help them settle in their home country.
However, the task of finding jobs, shelter and transportation for deported Mexicans would pose an even greater challenge for Mexico.
Migration has long been a sensitive issue between the two countries, and has become even more urgent following Trump’s threat to impose 25% tariffs on Mexican goods unless the country does more to stem the flow of migrants and drugs .
In November, Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had “agreed to stop migration through Mexico” after a phone call between the two leaders. Sheinbaum, meanwhile, suggested that Mexico is already doing its part and has no interest in closing its borders.
“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close its borders, but to build bridges between governments and between peoples,” Sheinbaum said at the time.
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