Emir Olivares and Alma E. Muñoz
La Jornada Newspaper
Friday, December 19, 2025, p. 13
President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo responded to the message of intimidation against migrants launched the day before by her American counterpart, Donald Trump. “We do not agree,” he stressed, while explaining the contributions of his compatriots to the United States economy.
In the morning, he also denied that the common border is insecure. On the contrary, he pointed out that it has great economic and social activity, with one million crossings on foot per day and 460 thousand in vehicles, in addition to thousands of merchandise, due to the trade agreement; everything to both sides.
For her part, the head of the Ministry of the Interior (SG), Rosa Icela Rodríguez, reported that so far in the magnate’s period at the head of the White House – from January 20 to December 17 – Washington has deported 145,537 Mexicans (a figure lower than the 173,397 registered between January and October 2024, according to data from the Migration Policy Unit).
Questioned about the message that Trump gave to his country, where he used a narrative of intimidation against migrants, whom he blamed for the alleged loss of well-being, security and future of the American people, Sheimbaum responded: “we do not agree. Mexicans are what belongs to us, but they come to the United States from many other places in the world looking for a better life and a better income to be able to send to their families.”
He recalled that the neighboring nation was built as a result of migration, and that its economic development cannot be understood without the contribution of people from different parts of the world, including millions of Mexicans.
He ratified that the best way to reduce the flow of people is through development cooperation. In that sense, he said that the policies promoted by the 4T governments to increase the minimum wage and Welfare programs contributed to reducing the departure of countrymen, which has occurred since the six-year term of former president Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
The increase in human mobility reported in recent years, he said, corresponded mainly to people from other nations, not just Central America, who used Mexico as a transit territory.
Meanwhile, the commissioner of the National Migration Institute, Sergio Salomón Céspedes, reported that given the risks of insecurity, abuse and extortion that countrymen face on their return to the country, an operation was carried out to accompany and escort the migrant caravan, made up of more than 5 thousand vehicles – about 20 thousand nationals – which entered Mexico on Tuesday through Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas.
The accompaniment, he indicated, occurred in the context of the Winter Operation of the Héroes Paisanos 2025 program, which seeks to safeguard the integrity and human rights of Mexicans who return during the holiday season.
On International Migrant Day, which was commemorated yesterday, the head of the SG maintained that of the more than 145,000 countrymen deported by the United States during this Trump period, 116,000 entered by land through the border states and 29,381 by air to the terminals in Villahermosa, Tabasco; Tapachula, Chiapas, and Mexico City.
He noted that October was the month with the highest number of deportations, with 16,734.
For his part, Roberto Velasco, office manager of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and undersecretary for North America, stated that of the more than 145 thousand expelled compatriots, 130,364 received consular attention.
