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New data from the Mexican government shows the U.S. deported about 170,000 Mexican citizens back to their homeland in the first year of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign. Many have quickly made their way back to their hometowns, but not all. Some, especially those who lived in the U.S. for a long time, are staying in border cities as they try to figure out what’s next. NPR’s Adrian Florido reports from Tijuana, Mexico.
ADRIAN FLORIDO, BYLINE: In a densely populated Tijuana neighborhood, a short drive from the U.S. border, you find la Casa del Migrante, a migrant shelter run by Catholic missionaries. In recent years, it was almost always packed with migrants waiting to cross the border into the U.S., but since Trump took office, most of the shelter’s 140 beds have been empty. On a recent day, just 50 men are staying here, and they’re not headed north to the U.S. Most are Mexicans who’ve just been kicked out, many after decades living there.
CARLOS HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: Carlos Hernandez (ph) lived in Los Angeles for 25 years until an ICE agent approached him while he was pumping gas on his way to his job as a dishwasher. The agent asked to see his papers.
HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: When Hernandez told him he did not have papers, the agent handcuffed him. At the detention center in downtown Los Angeles, he says, an agent asked if he wanted to be deported or wait two to three months to see a judge. Hernandez chose deportation. The next day, they put him on a bus to Tijuana.
HERNANDEZ: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: “I left my wife in Los Angeles,” he says, “and my 8-year-old daughter.”
At the border, Mexican migration officials drove Hernandez to a large government shelter. Before Trump took office, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum opened 10 government facilities along her country’s northern border as part of a program called Mexico Embraces You to help Mexican deportees reenter Mexican society. She promoted it in this video.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT CLAUDIA SHEINBAUM: (Speaking Spanish).
FLORIDO: “Because here in Mexico, we look out for Mexicans,” the president said.
These shelters along the border, though, are just a quick stop for deportees. They only get about two days there, enough time to get Mexican IDs and sign up for government assistance. After two days, they can either accept a free bus ticket back to their hometowns or just leave the government shelter. Many are accepting the bus rides, but some, like Hernandez, are not. They instead come to private shelters like la Casa del Migrante. Laura Pabon is one of la Casa’s administrators.
LAURA PABON: (Through interpreter) The men showing up here have lived in the U.S. for 20, 30, 40 years. To arrive in Mexico and be given two days to decide what you want to do, it’s not enough.
FLORIDO: She says it’s taking these deportees a couple of weeks just to get over the shock of having been kicked out of the U.S. after decades building lives there.
PABON: (Through interpreter) Many no longer have family or friends in their hometowns in Mexico. So they’re staying near the border so they can be close to their families in the U.S. and figure out their next steps.
FLORIDO: La Casa del Migrante has shifted its focus to help these men apply the skills they learned in the U.S. – construction, landscaping – to jobs in Mexico. Those who speak English are good candidates for jobs at call centers. A was deported after more than three decades in the U.S. He asked that NPR use just his first initial because he fears jeopardizing his effort to challenge his deportation. Despite being undocumented, he built a construction business in Los Angeles, bought a house and had five daughters – graduates of top universities.
A: Imagine I get – when I was 19 years old to Los Angeles. Now I’m 54. Thirty-four years there – my entire life.
FLORIDO: About 15 years ago, he was also convicted on a misdemeanor battery charge, he said, after what he says was an argument with a nightclub parking attendant. ICE tried to deport him. He fought it for more than a decade and recently applied for a family-based green card through his daughter, a U.S. citizen. But at an ICE check-in last month, A says he was handcuffed and told his time in the U.S. was up. He almost fainted.
A: The first thing comes on your mind is family. What’s going to happen with my family?
FLORIDO: In Tijuana, he turned down the Mexican government’s offer of a bus ticket to his hometown in southern Mexico. He says he’d be a stranger there. In Tijuana, his family can drive three hours from LA to see him.
A: I want to continue with my life and see having contact with my daughters, and I see. I think I want to stay here for awhile in Tijuana.
FLORIDO: He’s trying to keep his LA construction business going from Tijuana. His lawyer is challenging his deportation, and he’s considering what it might mean to have to build a new life at age 54 in Mexico.
Adrian Florido, NPR News, Tijuana, Mexico. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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