Mexico rushes to prepare dozens of shelters for Trump’s mass evacuation.

Mexico is scrambling to provide additional shelter capacity for the tens of thousands of people on the U.S. border, one of whom has declared a state of emergency ahead of Donald Trump’s plans to turn away a record number of refugees.

People briefed on the plan said at least 60,000 more shelters are being prepared after the US president-elect promised the largest mass deportation in the country’s history, focusing on people in the US illegally and with criminal records.

About half of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the US are Mexican. In the United States, 662,000 noncitizens have been charged or have pending criminal charges. As he says Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This week, the city of Tijuana declared a state of emergency in anticipation of the arrival, while the mayor of nearby Mexico said the city would convert a conference center to welcome people.

The federal government hopes to temporarily open 25 shelters, each with a capacity of 2,500 people, to take in deported Mexicans, but the number is uncertain, making the plan quiet and flexible, two people familiar with the plans said.

The government declined to comment and referred the matter to President Claudia Schinbaum’s public messages, FT.

Trump, who was inaugurated on Monday, threatened Mexico with a 25 percent tariff on all goods exported to the United States; If she doesn’t do more to prevent immigrants and drugs from crossing the border. It has legal options to deport people, including executive orders and public health restrictions.

Sheinbaum has had a stronger public response to Trump than any other world leader, hinting at retaliatory tariffs.

The left-wing leader said her party had a plan to respond to the exodus but would not reveal the details ahead of time. The government will have to deal with the influx while implementing double-digit budget cuts to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Migration Institute.

A “panic button” app intended to alert migrants to nearby consulates if they believe they are about to be detained for immigration has not yet been launched due to technical problems. Additional attorneys are available at 53 U.S. consulates.

The government even released one New national anthem For refugees.

“We have been working for months to better welcome our citizens since President Trump’s announcement,” Sheinbaum said this week. “Of course we don’t agree (with the eviction).”

Trump’s tough stance on the border was one of the drivers of his November election victory, after crossings into the US peaked during Joe Biden’s presidency. But measures taken by Mexico at the behest of Washington, along with broader legal avenues, have reduced informal crossings over the past year.

The US has carried out deportations for most of its history, with a record number removed in fiscal year 2012 when President Barack Obama’s ICE deported more than 409,000 people. In the year In fiscal year 2024, Biden fired more than 271,000 people, according to US government data.

However, the size and profile of deported refugees may now change significantly.

During Trump’s first term in office, Mexico took in migrants from around the world, first those waiting on asylum claims and later those who crossed the border and returned during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sheinbaum indicated this month that she would be open to accepting other nationalities, but it was unclear whether Mexico would take in citizens deported from the interior of the US and those near the border.

Returning refugees to their countries of origin creates additional legal and practical problems for the United States where those countries have repressive regimes or are unfriendly to Washington.

“If a Venezuelan or Nicaraguan is arrested in Chicago after five years in the United States and it is impossible to fly them to Caracas or Managua, does the administration expect Mexico to take them in?” Adam Isakson, director of defense monitoring in the Washington office in Latin America, said.

The numbers may not increase immediately, as Trump faces challenges including a lack of jail space, flights and the cooperation of some police forces.

Chad Wolf, Trump’s former acting Homeland Security secretary, suggested the initial goal might be to surpass Obama-era immigration levels.

“My guess is if you can win that in the first year, that’s a win,” he told the FT. “They’re going to scale it to a place where it hasn’t scaled before. . . All that takes time.

The economic and social ramifications of the program can be beneficial to both parties. U.S. industries like construction and agriculture depend on undocumented workers, and remittances to Mexico could be worth $63 billion by 2023 — more than foreign investment or tourism.

Those who work with migrants in Mexico will be vulnerable to recruitment by gangs if thousands of people are dumped in northern cities where organized crime is rampant, he said.

Historically, Mexico has lacked the infrastructure to reintegrate returned citizens, said Maggie Loredo, an activist who works with deported migrants in Mexico.

“There’s really nothing for people who are incarcerated,” she says. “These people are also in more vulnerable situations.”

Andrew Seeley, director of the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute, said additional deportations would require shelter, transportation, identification documents, job fairs and mental health resources.

“The Government of Mexico (does) . . . It should be ready in the next six months, he said. He said he must find ways to integrate immigrants from other countries who are stuck in Mexico.