Morelia, in the province of Michoacán, Mexico
Trump’s anti-immigration policies could permanently expel Mexicans from the country. And this is worrying a small village where people only live because of emigrants.
Over the past 30 years, the small village of Francisco Villain central Mexico, where the main activity is corn cultivation, has emptied out. About half of the 3,000 inhabitants moved to the United States, says .
As migrants headed north, dollars flowed south. The jobs they do in the US, mainly in the states of Illinois, California and Oregon, range from construction to gardening, cooking or babysitting.
In the village, even the School computers, as well as public works, are financed by donations of these emigrants. Some were only able to send their children to study at university or even build a house due to the remittances they send to their country.
Now, their lives are disrupted by an imminent threat: the newly elected Donald Trump, who will carry out “the largest deportation operation in American history”.
One of the village’s emigrants, Ruben Chavezthrew the question into the air at a meeting in the town hall: “Trump is coming in full force”, how can we react as a community?”
The Mexican government is already creating 25 Great Border Shelters to receive deportees. He hired hundreds of American lawyers to help people contesting his expulsion.
It’s even launching a mobile app with a “alert button” that migrants can press — alerting the nearest Mexican consulate — when they are caught up in deportations.
But in this village the problem gets worse: there are emigrants who have been in the USA for 30 years, and support the families that remain. “If we can’t turn to them,” she said, “life here can be very cruel,” it says Laura Alegriaresident of Francisco Villa.
And the problem is common to other Mexican cities. Mexico received around 63 billion dollars (around 61 billion euros) in remittances in 2023, more than tourism or oil exports. The country overtook China and became the second largest remittance receiver in the worldbehind India.
Also in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua, remittances represented between 20 and 30% of national income in 2023, according to the
“We hope this is just a bunch of words coming from Donald Trump,” who will be inaugurated on January 20, he said. Andrea Lopez Contrerassecretary of migration for the Mexican state of Michoacanwhere Francisco Villa is located.
Trump even said that he will not even spare the children of immigrants to the USA who were already born in the country. Gustavo Almanzaa 78-year-old resident of Francisco Villa, fears for his grandson, who is studying in Illinois to be a math teacher.
The boy entered the United States 19 years ago, when he was a baby. “What will happen to you if you are deported?” Almanza said. “He never came back here.”
What changes does the new Republican mandate bring to these communities, not just in Mexico, but throughout South America?
