Nestor Jimenez
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, January 25, 2026, p. 4
During 2025, the migratory flows that passed through Mexico decreased until they reached the rates prior to the pandemic, which began in 2020. According to figures from the National Migration Institute (INM), from the beginning of Donald Trump’s government, detentions in Mexican territory of foreigners with an irregular stay were reduced by 92.2 percent compared to 2024.
From last February to November, already with the Trump administration, the INM reported 81,168 arrests or initiation of immigration processes for foreigners who did not prove their regular stay in Mexico, while in the same period, but in 2024, one million 51,948 arrests of migrants under the same conditions were recorded.
Only in January 2025, even with the Joe Biden administration until the 20th of that month, there were 64,281 arrests of irregular migrants in Mexican territory, but the following month, in February, they dropped to 24,359.
Overall, deportations of irregular travelers from Mexico to other countries also plummeted. In the period February-November 2025, there were 9,595 “returns” to their countries of origin. Meanwhile, the previous year it was double.
Of the rest of the foreigners, for whom an administrative immigration procedure was initiated, but were not returned, the INM indicated that they were granted an exit option other than deportation, assisted return or expulsion.
84 percent were given an exit document, with which they can leave the immigration station or the shelter to which they were sent, but with the condition of leaving the country on their own within a period of no more than 30 days. The Migration Institute does not detail the number of people who complied with that order.
Another 11 percent of those detained began the process for a “protection” process but did not complete it, and only 0.5 percent of the migrants arrested in 2025 met the requirements to request refuge.
Likewise, less than one percent were granted an immigration regularization document, which authorized their departure from the immigration station or the shelter where they were, with the indication to promptly regularize their condition of permanence in Mexico through one of the means offered by the corresponding law.
