Deported to Mexico: How the US Is Shifting a Humanitarian Crisis
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — It was 2 a.m. When a bus carrying dozens of U.S. Deportees heaved into this sweltering city in southern Mexico.
The Mexican immigration agents who had guarded the group on their three-day trip from the border said their charges, still dressed in the prison garb of detainees, were now free to go.
Alberto Rodríguez, 73, limped with a cane down a deserted industrial street. A stroke had left him perpetually foggy, unable to recall many details about his life beyond the fact that he had been born in Cuba and had spent nearly 50 years in the United States.
“Where am I?” he called out.
“Villahermosa,” someone answered.
Like most of the others, Rodríguez had never set foot in Mexico and had never heard of this city of a million people surrounded by dense jungle. The deportees wandered in the dark until they found a park, where Rodríguez spent the first of what would be many nights curled up on the ground, trying to sleep.
Alberto Rodríguez, second from left, and other Cuban deportees from the United States wait for medical attention at a park in Villahermosa, Mexico.
The situation in Villahermosa highlights a growing trend: President Trump is deporting thousands of Cubans and other migrants to Mexico, a practice that has left many stranded in dangerous conditions with limited resources. Mexico accepted nearly 13,000 non-Mexicans deported during the first 11 months of Trump’s second term, including people from Venezuela, Haiti and Nicaragua, according to data from the Mexican government. The largest group was made up of immigrants from Cuba.
Many of these deportees are longtime U.S. Residents who entered the country years ago, and some had previously been granted protection from deportation due to potential persecution in their home countries. Banished from the U.S., undocumented in Mexico and unable to return home, they identify themselves in a precarious “quasi-stateless limbo,” according to a recent report by Refugees International.
Miguel Martínez Cruz, a Cuban deportee from the United States, opens the door for customers at a convenience store in Villahermosa.
Villahermosa, where many deportees are sent, lacks adequate services, with only one migrant shelter and no office of the federal agency that processes refugee applications. The city is also engulfed in a violent conflict between drug gangs, with nine out of 10 residents reporting that It’s unsafe, according to census data.
The U.S. Government has also cut aid to Mexico, reducing the country’s capacity to care for migrants. Last year, the Trump administration slashed $2 billion in annual aid destined for Latin America and the Caribbean. This reduction in funding has forced nonprofit shelters and legal aid providers to lay off staff or suspend operations.
