By Blanca Carmona / La Verdad Juárez
Translation: El Paso Matters
Ciudad Juárez– In addition to receiving Mexican migrants deported by the United States, the Mexican government will also temporarily receive migrants from other countries at its northern border.
Federal, state and local authorities met Thursday in Juárez to coordinate the implementation of the Mexico Embraces You program, an initiative by President Claudia Sheinbaum established to accept Mexicans deported under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.
Mexican nationals who are deported will be received at a tent camp being set up at El Punto at Parque Chamizal; while those of other nationalities will be referred to the Leona Vicario shelter, a federally run migrant shelter in Juárez erected at a former maquiladora.
Workers construct a housing structure in El Punto near the Bridge of the Americas in Ciudad Juárez. The structure is being built to temporarily house Mexicans repatriated by U.S. President Donald Trump. (Blanca Carmona / La Verdad Juárez)
Ariadna Montiel Reyes, Mexico’s secretary of welfare, said during a Thursday news conference that the country’s priority is to provide humanitarian assistance to migrants and that the conditions for their return to their countries of origin will be discussed at a later date.
She was accompanied by the Chihuahua Gov. María Eugenia Campos Galván and Juárez Mayor Cruz Pérez Cuéllar.
Mexico’s migrant shelters, which have been operating in different cities throughout the country for six years, are home to people from 12 different countries, Montiel said.
Sheinbaum has indicated that Mexico can receive deportees who are not Mexican, and then will return them “voluntarily” to their countries of origin.
More than 70,000 non-Mexican migrants were transferred to the northern border of Mexico under Trump’s previous Migrant Protection Protocol, or Remain in Mexico program, from January 2019 to June 2021. The program forced asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases were heard in immigration courts.
Most of these migrants remained in shelters run by civil and religious organizations, which for now are not included in the current Mexican government’s plan.
The Mexico Embraces You strategy was deployed in the six states bordering the United States – Baja California, Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León and Tamaulipas – where nine service points will be set up.
The camp or care center being set up in El Punto will have a capacity of 2,500 people or up to double that, if necessary.
Mexican deportees will be received at an international bridge by personnel from the National Institute of Migration and taken by bus to the camp. There, they will be processed, registered and assigned a camp area based on their status – single women, women with children and/or adolescents, single men, men with children and/or adolescents, families, etc.
Aside from shelter, the migrants will receive food and welfare cards of about 2,000 pesos (just under $100), and some social services.
Mexican migrants will be offered transportation to the capitals of their states of origin, and the governors of the central and southern states are ready to receive them and transport them to their communities.
While the migrants will be able to stay in the camp as long as they need, the objective is for them to be able to rest for a few hours, have hot food, recover and continue their journey to their communities, Montiel said.
In all, 19 municipal, state and federal government agencies will be involved to provide various services, officials said, including health, electricity, water and sanitation, security and more. Some 30,000 jobs are available nationwide, officials said.
