Head of Government of Mexico City, Clara Brugada, called on other cities around the world, especially those hosting Mexicans in the United States, to become protectors of migrants' rights and to build a great global alliance of sister cities.
“We are calling for a great global alliance of sister cities and sanctuaries. Today more than ever, we need to coordinate internationally from people to people, from city to city,” stressed the head of the capital government on International Migrants Day.
“I call on the cities of the world, especially those that host our Mexican brothers in the United States, to become sanctuary cities that care for, protect, and guarantee the rights of migrant people,” she stated.
Brugada mentioned that globally “old ghosts” such as racism, discrimination, and xenophobia are resurfacing with force, pointing to migrants as minorities.
“From Mexico City, we say loud and clear, no person is illegal in the world; against the walls of hate, we build community; against the violence and terror against the most vulnerable, our city will continue to implement public policies that are welcoming, anti-racist, anti-classist, and rights-based,” she added.
She recalled that the city was built by migrants from all peoples to become a great multicultural city, a territory with the most indigenous groups, where the most languages are spoken, and is considered a multicultural city, so it will remain the capital of solidarity and fraternity; a city open to cultures.
Brugada highlighted the construction of a new shelter with hotel-type spaces where entire families can live without being separated, which includes special areas for the LGBTQ+ population or people with disabilities, as well as a new digital guest registry that recognizes migrants as rights-bearing individuals and through a platform they can access the city's services.
Mexico has gone from being a transit country in the flow of migration to the United States to becoming a destination due to the tightening of restrictions decreed by President Donald Trump since his return to the White House in January of this year.
This Thursday, the President of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, lamented “the criminalization of migrants” and emphasized that “people do not migrate by choice,” in response to recent accusations against these communities by leaders such as U.S. President Donald Trump and the President-elect of Chile, José Antonio Kast.
On International Migrants Day, Sheinbaum reiterated that “people do not migrate by choice” and insisted that the majority do so “out of necessity,” and therefore, the Government of Mexico “will never agree with actions that criminalize migrants.”
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Mexico has accumulated 145,537 repatriations of Mexicans from the United States from January 20—when Trump returned to the White House and toughened the anti-migration policy— to December 17.
