MEXICO CITY, March 17 (Xinhua) -- The Mexican government is mulling the possibility of reducing the number of centers it operates to cater to deported migrants as fewer migrants head north and deportations from the United States decline, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday.
"We are going to assess at the end of this month how many reception centers should remain, whether we should keep them all or make them smaller," she told a daily press conference.
The centers were designed to temporarily house migrants who "wanted to stay for a few days and then move on to their places of origin," but several centers have received no migrants at all, she said.
Official data show that since U.S. President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, only 24,413 deported migrants have utilized the centers, including 19,846 Mexican nationals and 4,567 foreigners.
As part of a program called Mexico Embraces You, the Mexican government in January opened 10 centers across the country, each with a capacity to serve some 2,500 people. ■
