Tijuana, Mexico – Just five kilometers from the American-Mexican border in San Diego, Tijuana’s deportees are starting a new life. Among them, Juan Carlos, an immigrant from Mexico who had been living in the United States for 19 years. On June 24, his construction team stopped in a home depot in the city of industry, in California – near Los Angeles – to collect supplies when he was cornered by federal immigration agents.
“As soon as I saw them, I tried to run,” said Juan Carlos, who lived in the United States for 19 years. And whose arrest has been captured on a mobile phone video.
He said he spent two weeks in the American immigration and customs application before agreeing to sign expulsion documents.
“Los Angeles gave me a lot,” Juan Carlos told CBS News. “It gave me opportunities. It gave me another kind of life … I felt like I was at home. But everything happens for a reason.”
A video of the arrest of Juan Carlos was recorded and published online by a young woman named Audree. She told CBS News that she was shocked by the incident, but hoped that publishing the video would help her family.
“What really happened to me is that I am sure they had an intestinal feeling, perhaps not to go out that day, but they needed money,” she said.
CBS News spoke to several undocumented immigrants who were arrested by ice agents, then after being expelled, found themselves in a country that they are not familiar.
In January, the Mexican government announced that they had installed shelters along the border with the United States preparing for a huge wave of deportees. One of the facilities, Flamingo, was an event space. Pricila Rivas is an expelled binational coordinator for Al Otro Lado, the only non -profit organization authorized in Flamanto facilities.
Rivas claims that the installation has a capacity of 3,000, but only kept around 100 people at a time.
“It is like a processing station where people are able to obtain a copy of their birth certificate and their basic identity documents,” said Rivas.
Rivas helps the newly spent integrating into their new life in Mexico – offering advice on labor demand, the search for a shelter and infected with dear beings.
But she says that all deportees are not sent to sites where there are resources.
“There are flights go to Tapachula, to the southern border of Mexico,” said Rivas. “So I mean that people are expelled to other places.”
Even if ice agents become more aggressive with their tactics, the mass deportations that President Trump promised I have not fully materialized.
According to to the numbers obtained by CBS News This week, Ice is on the right track to record more than 300,000 moves during the first year of President Trump, which would be the greatest total since the Obama administration. However, this number is still much lower than the million annual deportations that the Trump administration has targeted. The Ministry of Internal Security has followed more than 13,000 self-carrying since the start of Mr. Trump’s second term.
One of those who have chosen to self-repart is Ulisier, an immigrant from Cuba. At the age of 15, he fatally killed someone and spent the following 19 years in an American prison before being released in 2024. He received an expulsion order shortly after and had regularly attended immigration checks. But as the application of the Immigration Act increased in the United States, he feared that he was held. And since Cuba does not accept deportees, there was a risk that it would be sent elsewhere.
“It was a high risk on my part, that the United States send me Salvador or South Sudan,” he said, “it was an easy choice … By letting them send to a country where I had, no, I had no choice to go or decide simply, to come here to Mexico where I will have better opportunities in life.”
Out of the 100,000 people who were expelled between January 1 and June 24 by immigration and customs, 70,583 were sentenced criminals, According to an ice document obtained by CBS News earlier this month. However, data also shows that most documented offenses were traffic or immigration offenses. Less than 1% had murder convictions, documents showed.
Use says that he feels remorse when stories like to urge immigrants.
“”When I was in prison, I did a lot of thinking, “said CBS News.” They use this excuse just to target people who actually work and try to have a better life. “”
Use was able to train for a new career as a sales development representative during the months that followed. And he hopes to be a support system for others that start again in Mexico.
“There are a lot of people who come,” he added. “They will get out of prison, even expelled here in Mexico. And if I can be useful in any way, I will continue to do the same thing in honor of my victim and his family.”
Other people who have been expelled told CBS News that they would like to return to the United States, but with close restrictions, they fear that the only side road would be illegal and costly.
Margaret Brennan And
contributed to this report.