With President Donald Trump's mass deportations of illegal immigrants in full swing, Mexico is feeling the pressure of migrants pushing against its northern and southern borders, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
Mexico's government has had to construct tent cities to hold the vast amounts of illegal migrants being deported from the U.S. coupled with the thousands of migrants from other Latin American countries who are stranded.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum is attempting to work with the new Trump administration while at the same time aiding Mexico citizens who are facing expulsion in the U.S.
Sheinbaum's government created the "Mexico Embraces You" program, which implemented a call center, developed a mobile phone app that works as a panic button in case of detention, and prepped thousands of diplomats at its network of 53 consulates across the U.S. to provide legal advice to Mexicans facing expulsion, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Since Trump's inauguration, Mexico has taken in more than 4,000 people, mostly deported Mexican migrants. Concurrently, Mexico agreed to continue to host hundreds of thousands of non-Mexican migrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
Yet, last week the Trump administration began shutting down processing offices in Latin America that the Biden administration had crated to give migrants legal immigration options to dissuade them from crossing the U.S. southern border illegally.
Now, with migrants stranded in Mexico, frustration is percolating over the growing number of encampments in cities far away from the U.S. border. While some continue to try to secure American asylum appointments through the CMP One mobile app run by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, patience is wearing thin among the residents.
Many of the non-Mexican migrants are in high-risk areas in the country, making them vulnerable to extortion and sexual assault. Even before Trump's deportations, protests broke out in three neighborhoods in Mexico City where migrants had set up tent camps.
Residents blocked major avenues, holding signs reading, "The street is not a shelter," the Los Angeles Times reported. With the flux of migrants expected to surge as the U.S. proceeds with their mass deportations, tensions in the area will likely increase.
Carolina López, who coordinates the operations of international aid group Doctors Without Borders in the northeastern Mexican cities of Reynosa and Matamoros, told the Journal: "We are now providing psychological care to many migrants who are deeply affected because they don't know what their immediate future will be."