At her final press conference of the week, President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke about a new United States government anti-immigration advertisement and her administration’s plan to ban the paid broadcast of such messages in Mexico.
Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez was also on hand at the National Palace, where she provided an update on the number of deportees Mexico has received from the United States in recent months.
Here is a recap of Sheinbaum’s May 9 mañanera.
New US anti-immigration ad appears online in Mexico
A reporter noted that a new U.S. anti-immigration ad has been airing in Mexico in which United States Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem warns would-be migrants to not undertake the “dangerous” journey to the United States and declares that people will be caught and deported if they enter the U.S. illegally.
In the ad, which is dubbed into Spanish, Noem also encourages undocumented people in the United States to self-deport using the CBP Home app.
The airing of the ad on YouTube in Mexico this week — seen on several occasions by Mexico News Daily — comes after a similar anti-immigration ad featuring Noem was broadcast on Mexican television last month.
Sheinbaum subsequently submitted a telecommunications reform bill to Congress that seeks, among other objectives, to ban advertising or propaganda financed by a foreign government, except for cultural or touristic purposes. The Senate paused the legislative process related to the bill late last month so that an “open parliament” process can take place amid claims that the proposed legislation promotes censorship.
On Friday, Sheinbaum said that she understood that the new ad featuring Noem is only airing on online “platforms,” and not on television as was the case last month.
“The law is not approved yet,” she noted before reminding reporters that the “proposal” is that foreign governments be prohibited from paying to have ads disseminated in Mexico.
“They have the right to record a message and if someone wants to see it on their social media they can access it,” Sheinbaum said.
However, paying so that an ad is “disseminated more” in Mexico — as the U.S. government has evidently done to reach a wider audience this week — will be prohibited (if and when the new law is approved), she said.
The ban will apply to foreign government ads focused on “politics” and “ideological matters,” but not “cultural, touristic and sporting issues,” Sheinbaum said.
More than 38,000 Mexicans deported from US since Trump took office
Interior Minister Rosa Icela Rodríguez reported that 38,065 Mexicans have been deported from the United States since United States President Donald Trump commenced his second term on Jan. 20.
She also reported that 14,305 people — almost 40% of the total number of Mexican deportees — have been received at 10 “attention centers” set up in northern border cities as part of the government program México te abraza (Mexico embraces you) for people expelled from the United States.
Rodríguez said that those people have been received “with warmth and humanism,” highlighting that they were given meals, medical care, legal advice, financial support and help to enroll in government programs, among other assistance. The interior minister said that no problems had been reported at the 10 reception centers for deportees.
She pointed out that the National Immigration Institute has provided transport that allowed more than 2,000 deportees to travel to their states of origin. Rodríguez said that the “main destinations” for returnees have been Coahuila, Durango, Zacatecas, Querétaro, Aguascalientes, Mexico City, Michoacán, Jalisco, Guerrero, Oaxaca, Chiapas and Puebla.
She said that Sheinbaum has ordered the continued operation of the reception centers “to attend to repatriated Mexicans — honest people who have worked far from their nation to help their families get ahead.”
“They have contributed to the economy not just of the United States but also to that of the country of their birth,” Rodríguez said, referring to the remittances immigrants in the U.S. send to their families in Mexico.
While the federal government has expressed opposition to the Trump administration’s plan to expel large numbers of undocumented people, the interior minister put a positive spin on the deportation of Mexicans, saying that it gives them the “opportunity to return home” and reunite with their families.
“It is also the opportunity to rediscover a Mexico that is different to that they left when they set off in pursuit of the American dream,” Rodríguez said.
“The Mexico of today is in full transformation and has a humanist government led by the President Claudia Sheinbaum, who favors above all the well-being of those who most need it,” she said.
The Mexican Files
Filmmakers Sergio Arau and Yareli Arizmendi, who made the 2004 satirical film “A Day Without a Mexican,” appeared at the mañanera in a pre-recorded video to present their new “emergency documentary” called “The Mexican Files.”
Like “A Day Without a Mexican,” the film shows “what would happen” if Mexicans weren’t in the United States, Arizmendi said.
The trailer, which was played at the morning press conference, appears below.
By Mexico News Daily chief staff writer Peter Davies ([email protected])
