Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country has received 4,094 migrants, most of whom are Mexican nationals, deported from the U.S. since Jan. 20.
That number also includes citizens from other countries, though Sheinbaum specified that the majority were Mexican.
“Mexico has a very important history of repatriation with the United States. First with the Trump administration and then with the Biden administration. There are coordination mechanisms,” Sheinbaum said.
“We ask for respect for human rights,” she added.
Sheinbaum said four planes with deportees arrived this past weekend. But she noted it has happened in the past and that there has not been “a sustained increase” of deportations.
Sheinbaum’s statement on Monday, Jan. 27, arrives at a delicate time for diplomacy in Latin America, as the region braces for changes under Trump’s second term as US president.
Trump had campaigned on the promise of leading a “mass deportation” effort, and he has also pledged to push forward an aggressive “America First” foreign policy platform.
In the past, Sheinbaum and her administration have expressed disapproval over what they called “unilateral deportations” from the US.
In December 2024, Sheinbaum also emphasised that her priority would be to receive Mexicans, not citizens from other countries.
“Our main function is to receive Mexicans,” she said. “We hope to have an agreement with the Trump administration in case deportations occur so that they also send people who come from other countries back to their countries of origin.”
But on Monday, Jan. 27, Sheinbaum emphasised that there was precedent for Mexico accepting non-citizen deportees from the US.
She pointed to her predecessor and political mentor, former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who agreed to accept up to 30,000 migrants and asylum seekers from Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Haiti per month.