Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration is planning to announce a “panic button” — an emergency cellphone application that will enable Mexican citizens fearing detention and deportation in the U.S. to alert diplomats and relatives of their plight. Sheinbaum says her government has bolstered staff at Mexico’s more than 50 consulates in the U.S., adding advisors to provide legal counsel to those facing potential deportation, reports the Los Angeles Times. Trump's pronouncements have generated profound uncertainty among Mexican officials, business leaders on both side of the border and millions of Mexican immigrants in the United States. Sheinbaum, who calls Mexican migrants “heroes,” opposes Trump's mass-deportation plan but has been muted in her criticisms of Trump himself.
Mexican nationals who could face deportation “are not alone and will not be alone,” said Mexico’s foreign minister, Juan Ramón de la Fuentes. The Mexican government estimates that 4.8 million Mexicans reside in the U.S. illegally, by far the largest number among any nationality. Some have resided in the north for decades and have U.S.-born children, own homes and run businesses. Trump and his representatives have offered no comprehensive details on how his deportation plan will take shape. Some aides have spoken of prioritizing roundups of undocumented immigrants with criminal records and pending deportation orders — longtime targets of U.S. immigration enforcement. The U.S. House on Tuesday passed a bill that would target for deportation immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally and have been charged with nonviolent crimes. Mexican officials would like to convince Trump of the importance of Mexican workers to key U.S. industries, including agriculture, meatpacking and the hospitality sector. Trump and his allies have shown little sympathy for that argument. “The panic button, the stuff with the consulates — it’s all a smokescreen to give the impression of doing something in response to Trump,” said Irineo Mujica, who heads the Pueblo Sin Fronteras rights group. “Basically, they are going to give in to whatever Trump wants.”
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