Mexico tries to build a tent to control mass deportations from the US.
The Mexican government is building large settlements in Ciudad Juarez to accommodate the influx of Mexicans who will return to their homeland amid the mass deportations promised by President Donald Trump.
Tent shelters in Ciudad Juarez have been set up to temporarily house thousands of people and will be set up in a few days, city official Enrique Licon told Reuters.
“It’s unprecedented,” Licon said Tuesday of Mexico’s plan to build shelters and reception centers in nine cities south of the US-Mexico border.
Local officials are said to be providing food, temporary housing, medical care and assistance for the deported Mexicans to obtain identification documents, Reuters reported.
Trump’s snowball has netted hundreds of prisoners, including illegal immigrants convicted of heinous crimes.
A member of the Mexican Navy walks through the tent structure of an industrial warehouse, which is being used by Mexican authorities as a temporary shelter for refugees deported from the United States, in Mexico City, Mexico on January 22, 2025. (Reuters/Victor Medina)
The government also provides transportation services for Mexican citizens to return to their hometowns.
Trump has launched the largest crackdown on illegal immigration in US history and began his efforts after taking office on Monday. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made more than 460 arrests targeting illegal immigrants with criminal records, including violent crimes.
According to data obtained by Fox News Digital, between January 21 and 9 a.m. to midnight on January 22, ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) detained more than 460 illegal immigrants with criminal histories including sexual assault, robbery, theft, aggravated assault, drug and weapons offenses, arrests and Resisting domestic violence.
Agents arrested nationals from various countries including Afghanistan, Angola, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Senegal and Venezuela.
‘Removal time’: Trump says DHS will expand expedited deportation powers
A drone view shows workers erecting a tent in an industrial warehouse, which Mexican authorities have used as a temporary shelter for migrants deported from the United States, in Mexico City, Mexico on January 22, 2025. (Reuters/Victor Medina)
Arrests have been made in states including Illinois, Utah, California, Minnesota, New York, Florida and Maryland.
According to an analysis by Mexican think tank El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (COLEF) based on recent US Census data, nearly five million Mexicans live in the United States without permission.
President Donald Trump has launched his mass deportation policy to fight criminals and illegal aliens. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Many are from the violence and poverty-stricken parts of central and southern Mexico. About 800,000 Mexicans in the U.S. come from Michoacán, Guerrero and Chiapas, according to a COLEF study.Fierce battles between organized crime groups have forced thousands to flee, sometimes entire cities, in recent years.
Trump has quickly restarted the policies that former President Biden ended to stem the flow of immigrants to the United States. On Monday, the Trump administration suspended the CBP One application, which allows immigrants waiting in Mexico to make an appointment to enter the United States legally. Then on Tuesday, Trump reinstated the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), a requirement that Mexican asylum seekers wait in Mexico until their cases are resolved.
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While immigration activists worry that Trump’s tougher immigration policies will overwhelm Mexico with migrants, the government insists it is ready.
Mexican Interior Minister Rosa Isela Rodriguez said in a press conference on Monday that “Mexico will do everything necessary to take care of its citizens, and will allocate everything necessary to welcome those who have returned to their country.”
Fox News Digital’s Adam Shaw and Reuters contributed to this report.