Mexico Embraces You

Plus: Sovereign children, Angela McArdle interview, botox fraud, and more...

Mexico's preparations for a border shutdown: Following President Donald Trump's campaign trail announcement that he would launch the largest deportation effort in American history, the Mexican government under President Claudia Sheinbaum started readying itself to serve as an oppositional force to Trump. The program that resulted—"Mexico Embraces You"—aims to shelter deported Mexicans, some 5 million of whom are estimated to be living in the United States illegally and thus at risk of being sent back.

With the shutdown of the CBP One app, which helped asylum seekers schedule appointments with American immigration officials, and the mass canceling of appointments, many migrants have become mired in what must feel like purgatory; a sense that their future plans are indefinitely put on hold, contingent on the whims of the Trump administration. But for those already in the country without papers, rumors have also begun to circulate that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) roundups will begin. Accordingly, Mexico has started constructing giant tent shelters in nine border towns across the country's north, which will "provide deported Mexicans with food, temporary housing, medical care, and assistance in obtaining identity documents" (per Reuters), as well as the opportunity to board buses to be sent back to their hometowns, free of charge. The program also seeks to provide citizens with cash cards worth about $100 each.

A little under 4 percent of Mexico's population is living undocumented in the U.S.; if sent back, this could present major problems for the Mexican government. "Basically, with the cancellation of CBP One and deportations, the government isn't coordinated to receive them," Jose Luis Perez, the director of migration issues for Tijuana, told reporters (before being fired from his position seemingly for casting doubt).

"Sheinbaum has signaled that Mexico could receive deportees other than Mexicans," per The New York Times. "She said, however, that her government planned to 'voluntarily' return any non-Mexican nationals—including those waiting for asylum hearings in the United States—to their countries of origin." But it's far from clear what that looks like ("voluntary"?) or how the logistics work or who pays for that.

The raids that haven't happened: So far, the promised ICE raids have not commenced. "After weeks of preparation by Chicago's immigrant communities—and a weekend of fear spurred by multiple reports that the city would be the site of the first major deportation raids of the new Trump administration—there were no reports of immigration enforcement on Tuesday," reports WBEZ Chicago. "The Trump administration initially said it planned to deploy immigration enforcement agents in Chicago on Trump's first full day in office, saying they'd target immigrants with deportation orders and criminal records."

"The Department of Homeland Security said Tuesday it was ending a policy that restricted Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents' ability to arrest undocumented people at or near so-called sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools and hospitals," reports NBC News. Some former sanctuary cities, like Philadelphia, now have their public officials saying that they'll cooperate with federal authorities and the Trump administration.

"Sanctuary city can mean a lot of things, and so that whole discussion can get confusing and maybe generate more heat than light," said District Attorney Larry Krasner, calling Philly a "city of brotherhood, of love, of sisterly affection, where we respect and support our immigrant neighbors who are hardworking and are law-abiding and are contributing to our society" but also adding that he would "follow the law."

"To the extent that ICE has the legal right to do things, obviously we will not interfere," Krasner added, departing from the standard sanctuary city line.

One thing that might be affecting Krasner's thinking: a just-issued Justice Department memo in which Trump promises to rain down consequences for state and local officials who resist federal immigration-related law enforcement efforts.

"Sanctuary cities are going to get exactly what they don't want," Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, told Fox News yesterday. "More agents in the communities, more people arrested, collateral arrests. If that's the game they want to play? Game on."

"Most Americans support both a meaningful number of deportations and meaningful limits to them," writes David Leonhardt in The New York Times. "Trump and his aides will risk a public backlash if they wrongly believe that Americans will support almost any deportations. Many Americans will find it hard to accept the expulsion of undocumented immigrants who have lived here for many years and built stable lives." The Obama deportation strategy, notes Leonhardt, involved prioritizing those with criminal records (contra Biden!) as well as those who had come here more recently, as opposed to those who are more established; if Trump were shrewd about ensuring public support, he might take a similar approach.

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Scenes from New York: "A Manhattan aesthetician was arrested and charged with injecting patients at his medical spa with counterfeit Botox, prosecutors said, sending some to the hospital," reports The New York Times. The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said the aesthetician, who offered injections to reduce wrinkles in women and increase penis size in men "knowingly purchased counterfeit Botox from China, injected it into his clients and represented that the counterfeit Botox that he was peddling was genuine." At least one patient developed botulism following injections. (This—as well as an enduring belief that Mrs. Robinson from The Graduate is the most beautiful woman to ever exist and that aging gracefully is the proper path—is why I don't get Botox!)

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QUICK HITS

• Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht was freed on Tuesday by President Donald Trump, following pressure exerted by several groups and individuals, including Libertarian National Committee chair Angela McArdle, who personally met with Trump and made the case for the pardon. Reason producer and my frequent co-conspirator, Zach Weissmueller, interviewed her last month. Given the news that Ross is free at last, Weissmueller and I decided to release his (excellent!) interview detailing McArdle's thinking on our Just Asking Questions YouTube channel:

• Speaking of that channel, we are working hard to reach 5,000 subscribers. If you would subscribe on YouTube, and send our show's page to someone who might enjoy it, we would be so very grateful. (Also, we're looking to do an immigration episode; suggestions for guests?)
• A Roundup reader sent this my way, disagreeing with my recent characterization of Elon Musk as a free speech supporter: "Last week, the Indian government imposed an internet blackout across the northern state of Punjab, home to 30 million people, as it conducted a manhunt for a local Sikh nationalist leader, Amritpal Singh," reported The Intercept in March 2023. "While Punjab police detained hundreds of suspected followers of Singh, Twitter accounts from over 100 prominent politicians, activists, and journalists in India and abroad have been blocked in India at the request of the government." Musk, for his part, says he wants "to hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates."
• "People who don't homeschool? Their lives suck," delightfully contrarian investor Naval Ravikant tells Tim Ferriss. (The full episode is "How to Raise a Sovereign Child.")
• "In states without a digital identification program like Louisiana's, porn sites must pay third-party age-verification providers to use software to compare a user's face with their ID photo, held up to the camera, or to use AI to determine if their face looks obviously older than 18," reports The Atlantic. "According to a report from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the average margin of error for these commercial face-estimation services is about three years, meaning that those older than 21 are unlikely to ever need to show ID."
• Truly insane, a must-read from Reason's Christian Britschgi:

Since Gavin Newsom has been talking to Hawaii Gov. Josh Green about wildfire recovery, I decided to look into how Maui's rebuild efforts have been going.

In the 18 months since the fires, a total of 3 out of some 2,000 destroyed/damaged homes have been rebuilt. Three. pic.twitter.com/ft7iSyHhXU

— Christian Britschgi (@christianbrits) January 22, 2025

• This:

Better idea: Call balls and strikes. https://t.co/CQSjien48j

— Nancy Rommelmann (@NancyRomm) January 22, 2025