Juarez Chamber To Help Deported Migrants Find Jobs Through Business Survey

Juarez Chamber President Elizabeth Villalobos said the city's business leaders want to help deported migrants from the United States by providing them with jobs in Mexico.

To support this, the Juarez Chamber of Commerce plans to survey its 3,000 members to find job openings. They will also encourage businesses to hire deported migrants, even if only for a short time.

"We are developing a simple questionnaire. What are their labor needs and what jobs are available. This will give us a clear picture of how many jobs we can offer to those who lose everything and suddenly find themselves here," Villalobos said, the Border Report mentioned.

Business leaders previously said that hiring non-Mexican residents was difficult because many do not have the proper documents for a work permit. Some, who are offered jobs, leave Juarez quickly, either to return home or try to enter the United States again.

Villalobos urged businesses and citizens to understand and support people, who suddenly lost their jobs, families, and everything they had. She said her office will work with Mexican tax and immigration authorities to make it easier for businesses to hire workers, even for temporary jobs.

These jobs will also be available to Mexican nationals who have been deported. Chamber officials do not know how many deported migrants will arrive in Juarez, but they want to be prepared to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

In September last year, the authorities in Juarez decided to convert the Kiki Romero gym, which was repurposed into a migrant shelter in 2019, into a facility to keep young people away from drugs, idleness, and crime, as the city has been witnessing a fall in asylum-seekers coming to the border.

The migrant shelter, originally converted in 2019, has accommodated over 30,000 people. However, Mayor Cruz Perez Cuellar confirmed that the shelter will be repurposed for use by the whole community, not just migrants.

In July, the U.S. Border Patrol caught 11,615 migrants between entry points in the El Paso area. Most were Mexican nationals looking for temporary jobs in the U.S. and not asylum. This was a big drop compared to 23,478 migrants in May and 30,397 in April.