“In a week, Mexico received 4,094 deported migrants from the United States, the vast majority being Mexicans and Mexicans,” said Claudia Sheinbaum, the country of the country on Monday, January 27. It didn’t take more for the Trumpist clan to proud of the benefits of the coming to power of his hero. And what does it matter if these figures are not unusual: they do not represent an “exceptional increase” of the number of expelled migrants, has indeed pointed out the Mexican state chief.
The fact remains that since its inauguration on January 20, the 47th President of the United States has multiplied media outings on the struggle it is leading against illegal immigration. Part of its first decrees already made it possible to declare the state of emergency at the southern border of the country and to remove CBP One, the mobile application used to file an asylum application, developed under the mandate of Joe Biden. In addition, Donald Trump regularly communicates on migrant planes in irregular situations returned to the countries of South America, and which are already behind diplomatic incidents: this Sunday, Colombia, which had first refused Welcoming hundreds of migrants deported by the United States, had to back up under the threat of prohibitive customs sanctions.
3 to 4 % of the total American population
The number of illegal immigrants in a country is – by nature – difficult to account for precisely. According to the estimates carried out by American NGOs and groups, there are between 11 and 14 million illegal immigrants in the United States today, or about a quarter of the number of American residents born abroad and 3 to 4 % of the total American population. It is these undocumented migrants that are today directly targeted by Trumpist rhetoric.
Here again, difficult to know precisely the country of origin of these immigrants. After Official figures From the American government, more than 40 % would be Mexican citizens and more than 65 % come from a country in Central America.
Different more or less protective statuses
In the United States, illegal migrants are said to be “without document”, but reality is much more complex. Today, many more or less protective statuses coexist.
First there are those who await the examination of their asylum application. Under the previous mandate, the government had authorized the latter to stay on American territory until their file was studied. But their number was multiplied by two between June 2022 and the end of 2023. According to the Pew Research Center, a prestigious American research center, 870,000 additional migrants would have been trapped in the meanders of the American administration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxrmdbbiyn4
To these pending migrants, more than a million people must be added from “temporary protection” status. These immigrants can live and work in the United States because the US government deems their country dangerous because of the war or natural disasters. Nationals of certain countries such as Nicaragua, Myanmar or Syria have benefited from such status for decades, but under Joe Biden, the administration has extended the number of nationalities eligible for this intermediate status. Ukrainians, Afghans, Cubans, and Haitians benefit today. THE New York Times reported this Wednesday that the Trump administration had canceled the extension of the temporary protection status enjoyed more than 600,000 Venezuelans, and which protects them from an expulsion
Finally, more than 500,000 people still benefit from “DACA” status: they are young people, brought to the United States by their parents before the age of 16, that US law authorizes to stay in the territory, without offering them a status of permanent residents. Donald Trump has already said that he would tackle several of these devices, denouncing the “laxity” of the previous administration. Many appeals before the American courts are expected.