A lawyer tells ’14ymedio’ that migrants are afraid of being deported and are hiding.
14ymedio, Mexico City, April 14, 2026 / Merchants in Tapachula, in the Mexican state of Chiapas, are up in arms against a group of migrants deported from the United States, including Cubans, who, in a legal limbo and without access to job opportunities, are surviving as best they can in the vicinity of Miguel Hidalgo Plaza. Specifically, they propose housing them in the tents located at the Olympic Stadium, which are part of the “Mexico Embraces You” program, originally created last year for Mexicans expelled from the United States by the Donald Trump administration.
The deportees, lamented José Elmer Aquiahualt Herrera, president of the Association of Established Merchants and Property Owners of Tapachula (Acepitap), in statements to the Diario del Sur, wander about and relieve themselves everywhere.
In addition, he claims they generate conflicts. According to the shopkeeper, the tents at the Olympic Stadium are the ideal place for deportees. “The place is set up for that purpose, and this way we avoid having migrants relieving themselves in parks,” he insisted.
In early April, the Tapachula city council filed a complaint against Cuban national Eduardo Tosco for allegedly assaulting employee Teresa Estrada. However, the man remains at the plaza. “The authorities searched for him for a few days. They probably realized upon seeing him that they wouldn’t get anywhere by arresting him,” lawyer Roger Ernesto Goitia told 14ymedio .
The lawyer believes that for the transfer to the stadium to take place, “the migrants must first be convinced that they will not be detained and deported.” Goitia states that these people communicate via WhatsApp messages, and “when they see immigration workers or vans, they disperse.”
The lawyer explains that the federal program is for Mexican nationals and is designed to provide minimal support.
The lawyer also clarified that the federal program is for Mexican nationals and is designed to “provide minimal support from Tapachula for the return of Mexicans to their places of origin.” Unfortunately, he acknowledged, there is no data on the program’s results in Tapachula. Furthermore, the facility offers assistance three times a week and is “a transit point.”
The most recent precedent is the assistance offered to 121 Mexican nationals—91 men, 17 women, and 13 minors—who were returned to the southern border last January. According to official data, 11,089 Mexicans were received in Tapachula between January 2025 and 2026. The National Migration Institute confirmed to this newspaper that 142,706 people have benefited from the Dignified Repatriation program, which is activated upon arrival in the country through the “Mexico Embraces You” initiative.
Last March, Boston District Judge William Young denounced an “unwritten” agreement with Mexico through which the US has deported 6,000 Cubans. According to Luis Rey García Villagrán, director of the Center for Human Dignity, at least 500 people from the island were expelled in March and abandoned “without papers or money” in the border state with Guatemala.
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