EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Ten “welcome centers” in northern border states have served 14,300 Mexicans expelled from the United States since Jan. 20, Mexico’s interior minister said on Friday.
That’s a little more than a third of the 38,065 Mexican nationals deported during President Donald Trump’s second term in office, Rosa Icela Rodriguez said.
“Some persons arrive at the border, at the port (of entry) and they say, ‘I don’t want to go to the center.’ We cannot force them,” the interior minister said in a news conference broadcast on social media. “Sometimes they just want the (personal hygiene) kit and they leave right away. […] Not all of those who arrive accept (free services) and they are free to do so.”
The centers, including a tent facility in Juarez that can accommodate 2,500 people, are part of the “Mexico Embraces You” program set up by President Claudia Sheinbaum when speculation about mass deportations by Trump was running rampant.
The welcome centers offer free lodging, meals, medical screenings and a 2,000-peso ($102) Bienestar, or welfare program debit card.
At least 1,000 deportees have passed through the center in Juarez, but not all of them stayed overnight. The same holds true in other Mexican border cities. The 10 centers report a total of 12,200 overnight stays and 9,300 debit cards issued.
Only a fraction (2,000) accepted offers of free rides back to their home states. The ones who did primarily chose Mexico City, Durango, Zacatecas, Jalisco, Oaxaca, Michoacan and Guerrero as destinations.
Though opposition politicians in Mexico have criticized the expense of keeping the centers open given the underwhelming demand, the government has no plans to close them. One of the reasons is no one south of the border is willing to chance a sudden ramp-up in deportations by the Trump administration.
Also, federal officials said the Trump administration is repatriating some Mexicans to the southern states of Chiapas and Tabasco and to Mexico City by airplane. That also explains the low numbers at border centers.
“These (countrymen and women) have contributed to the U.S. economy and to that of their homeland,” Rodriguez said. “Those who return are hard-working and caring people who found the need to migrate. Repatriation is an opportunity to return to their families and also to rediscover a different Mexico than the one they left.”
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