Mexico needs to state the facts by clarifying that a many of the undocumented immigrants who would potentially be removed from the U.S. are not hardened criminals, despite being labeled by the U.S. government as “criminal aliens.”
Many deportees are guilty of minor traffic infractions or violating immigration laws. Stigmatizing them as criminals is about rallying public support for hardline immigration policies in the U.S., but Mexico shouldn’t buy into that hype.
The negative generalizations only reinforce the marginalization of deportees who are trying to restart their lives in their native country. In Mexican border cities like Tijuana and Ciudad Juárez returned immigrants have often been treated like second-class citizens.
The government should work to change that narrative and prepare an environment that is more accepting of repatriated Mexicans. It needs to insist the large majority are hard-working people that have the best of both U.S. and Mexican values.
