U.S. Repatriated 359,455 Mexicans in 2009
The Latin American Herald Tribune (Caracas), January 6, 2010
http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=349773&CategoryId=14091
Mexico City — During the first 11 months of 2009 a total of 359,455 Mexicans were repatriated to Mexico by U.S. immigration authorities, the National Migration Institute, or INM, said on Monday.
Of those, 167,799 benefited from the Humane Repatriation Program, by means of which Mexican authorities help the expelled undocumented migrants return more easily to their places of origin and have an economically successful reinsertion into Mexican society, the INM said in a communique.
The program currently has offices in the border towns of Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez, Nogales, Ciudad Acua and Piedras Negras, where the U.S. immigration institutions leave most of the repatriated illegal aliens.
At those centers, which operate with the support of civic and charitable organizations, the government provides food and shelter for expelled Mexicans, and, through agreements with transport companies, offers discounts to help migrants can get back to where they came from.
In November, the International Organization for Migration and the INM signed an accord by means of which the U.N. agency will provide economic support for the programs of migrant reinsertion operated by the Mexican government.
In its first stage, IOM aid will go to Tijuana located near San Diego, California and later to Ciudad Juarez, which lies across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, and afterwards will be extended to other cities where the Humane Repatriation Program functions.
According to official estimates, some 12 million Mexicans live in the United States, half of them undocumented, as well as at least another 9 million Americans of Mexican descent.
