Mexico seeks deal with Trump to avoid deported migrants from other countries

Mexico’s president wants the US to deport non-Mexican migrants directly to their home countries as mass crackdown looms

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Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a group of undocumented immigrants detained in Kansas. File photo: The Wichita Eagle/TNS

Published: 6:10am, 6 Dec 2024Updated: 10:12am, 6 Dec 2024

Mexico is seeking an agreement with US President-elect Donald Trump to ensure it does not receive deportees from third countries in case of large-scale deportations of migrants from the United States, President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Thursday.

The Bahamas rejected taking third-country deportees if Trump carries out his promised vast crackdown on immigrants in the US illegally after he comes to office on January 20. Trump’s incoming vice-president, J.D. Vance, has floated the possibility of deporting 1 million people a year.

The Trump transition team has discussed deporting migrants to places other than their home country if those nations will not accept them, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.

The possible destinations could include Panama, Turks and Caicos, the Bahamas and Grenada, one of the sources said, confirming an NBC News report. In late October, Trump’s border tsar Tom Homan told Reuters that Mexico could be an option.

Donald Trump at the US-Mexico border in Arizona in August. File photo: TNS

The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a request for comment.