Mexico's President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged governors in border states to brace for the possibility of mass deportations as promised by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
In a private meeting with Mexico's 32 governors in Acapulco during a meeting of the National Security Council, Sheinbaum warned the northern states to be ready for potential deportations starting in February. "We haven't discussed a specific deportation strategy, but we need to be prepared," said Samuel García, governor of Nuevo León, to El País.
Esteban Villegas, the governor of Durango, which is not directly on the U.S. border but is a key transit point, echoed this sentiment, saying that northern states should be prepared to assist migrants in returning to their places of origin.
Mexico is also designing a wide-ranging interagency plan in response to potential mass deportation of Mexican nationals from the US, as confirmed by Mexico's Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Juan Ramón de la Fuente, who announced the initiative following a meeting with Sheinbaum.
The U.S.-Mexico border, stretching over 3,000 kilometers, is expected to be the focal point of the tensions. Sheinbaum's warning comes as Trump's administration prepares to push forward with more aggressive immigration measures, including the potential for deportations of millions of undocumented migrants.
In addition to being confronted with the return of its own nationals, Mexico is seeking to reach a deal with the Trump administration to avoid taking deportees from third countries, one of the main challenges of the president-elect to implement his "largest deportation operation in American history."
While some of these policies have yet to be fully detailed, Trump's rhetoric includes threats of a trade war, with recent comments by the president-elect about how Mexico and Canada are "bringing crime and drugs" into the United States have increased tensions among all three North American partners and sparked concern about a looming trade war, as he wants them to curb what he has described as high levels of drug trafficking and migration across their border.
With Trump's inauguration just weeks away, the U.S., Canada, and Mexico are also set to renegotiate the terms of the USMCA trade agreement in 2026, adding further uncertainty. In response to Trump's threats of imposing a 25% tariff, Sheinbaum took a firm stance and warned that Mexico would retaliate with tariffs if necessary, saying Mexico "negotiates as equals, there is no subordination here."
Additionally, she pointed out the shared responsibility in combating the fentanyl crisis, blaming both the U.S. demand and Mexican weapons trafficking. Recently, after Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on the country, Mexican security forces seized over a ton of fentanyl pills in Sinaloa. That was the largest fentanyl bust in the nation's history, valued at $400 million.
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