Aid effort offers deportees softer re-entry to Mexico

By Analilia Esparza
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Photo by Greg Bryan / Arizona Daily Star

Editors note: This article appeared previously in La Estrella, the Star's Spanish-language edition.

NOGALES, Sonora — A federally funded program is helping Mexicans deported from the United States through the Nogales Port of Entry with jobs, room and board, and cash assistance.

The $234,000 pilot program, Deportees at Work, was developed by Sonora's Secretariat of Economy and is funded by the National Employment Service in Sonora. Thus far, it has helped about 50 deportees since it began in late April and is part of a borderwide effort to assist repatriated Mexican citizens. Other programs operate in the border cities of Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas; Piedras Negras, Coahuila; and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua.

The program also helps some to raise money to go back home, said Sergio González Machi, coordinator of the National Employment Service's northern zone.

The program offers individuals $173 in cash, employment training with a company that hires the person and a link to the National Employment Service office in their hometown. González Machi said deportees are placed in maquiladoras — border factories where there is a high demand for workers.

He said the program also works closely with Grupo Beta, Mexico's national migrant protection program.