Cancún Airport Receives First Deported Mexicans From the United States

Cancún, Quintana Roo — Cancún International Airport has started receiving Mexicans deported from the United States, joining Tulum as a repatriation gateway in Quintana Roo.

A first group of six nationals arrived at Terminal 3 on a flight from Dallas. Staff from the National Migration Institute (INM) at the airport said they would help the repatriated Mexicans obtain provisional identification and arrange air travel to the destination of their choice.

“It is not worth going to live over there. I lived 18 years in the United States. There is a psychosis over the actions of ICE,” said José Cantera, a native of Jalisco, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This time it was my turn, and now I have to start my life from zero, with my family that stayed there, but we will try to reunite in Tijuana.”

Cantera described conditions for migrants in the United States bluntly: “Life over there is extremely hard right now.”

Quintana Roo has become one of the main arrival points for Mexicans deported from the United States, with a heavy concentration at Tulum International Airport, a situation that has driven up demand for guidance and assistance for returnees. Eight states account for 95 percent of those repatriated: Chiapas, Guanajuato, Guerrero, Veracruz, Oaxaca, Michoacán, Puebla and the State of Mexico. Some returned without belongings, documents or money.

Marilyn Torres, president of CISVAC Fundación A.C., said that according to information the organization had received, about 70 percent of the repatriated people arriving by air were routed to Quintana Roo, mainly through Tulum.

She said the returnees received documentation and a card loaded with 2,000 pesos to cover travel to their places of origin. But she pointed to a recurring problem with the availability of those funds: roughly 80 percent of the cases handled recently arrived with no balance on the cards.