Dozens of mattresses wait unused in a shelter for deported Mexicans that is still largely deserted a month after US President Donald Trump returned to office vowing to expel millions of migrants.
It is a similar situation in several of the other 12 reception centers set up by Mexico in its northern border states to receive its nationals and foreign deportees, according to AFP reporters.
Despite Trump's pledge, so far there has been no jump in expulsions into Mexico, official figures show. And those Mexicans who are sent back often make their own way home rather than stay at the government refuges.
In Tijuana, authorities declared an "emergency" in January in anticipation of a possible wave of deportees -- a move aimed at freeing up funds to hire personnel and pay for shelters and legal services.
But for now, mass expulsions remain more of a threat than a reality, according to Monica Vega, coordinator of the Flamingos shelter in the city just south of California.
"So far, there is no indication that it's happening, simply based on the numbers," she said.
Flamingos, one of nine reception centers opened by the government especially for returning Mexicans, has capacity for 2,600 people but has attended to an average of 55 deportees per day, Vega said.
Since Trump took office on January 20, around 12,255 Mexicans and 3,344 foreigners have been deported to Mexico, according to the Latin American country's immigration authority.
In 2024, when Joe Biden was president, an average of 17,200 Mexicans and 3,091 foreigners were sent back across the border each month.
Between October 2023 and September 2024, the Biden administration deported 271,484 migrants -- the highest number in the past decade.
Along with the drop in expulsions, arrivals at Mexico's borders with the United States and Guatemala have fallen dramatically under Trump, according to official figures.
At the southern Mexican border, the decline is 90 percent, according to the Mexican immigration authority.
- 'Mexico embraces you' -
The Mexican government has deployed 10,000 soldiers along the 3,100-kilometer (1,900-mile) border with the United States in exchange for Trump delaying threatened 25-percent tariffs.
Along a stretch of the frontier south of El Paso, Texas, Rodolfo Rubio, an expert at the Colegio de Chihuahua in Ciudad Juarez, has observed a 60-percent drop in the flow of migrants.
The government has assigned 1,250 officials to assist deportees under the "Mexico embraces you" program.
But the absence of new arrivals means that in the Flamingos shelter, the helpers pass time chatting among themselves.
In Matamoros, further east along the border, the most deportees that a shelter has seen in one day was 150, when its capacity is for 3,000.
In Nuevo Laredo, another border city, a shelter with a capacity for 1,200 migrants has welcomed no more than 50 each day.
With little to do, a member of the National Guard deployed to protect the facility was seen dozing at the site.
Although there has been no surge in expulsions, the Mexican government has given no sign of wanting to scale down "Mexico embraces you" as long as Trump's threat remains.
It is estimated that at least 11 million unauthorized immigrants live in the United States, including several million Mexicans.
Many of those who have been deported were left shocked and confused.
"They pointed guns at me as if I were a criminal," said Jose de Jesus Enriquez, 45, who had lived without papers in California for almost half his life, doing various jobs, including cleaning and construction.
"They dragged me out, handcuffed me and treated me badly. I demanded a call with my lawyer, with the Mexican consulate or to go to an immigration judge. They refused it all," he told AFP in Tijuana.
Source: AFP
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