[Guadalajara, Jal. October 24, 2022] The Rhizome Center for Migrants is a U.S. nonprofit based in Guadalajara, Mexico, where we serve the needs of people impacted by return or deportation. Through intervention, we transform the lives of Mexican migrants and their families to build a better North America for everyone. Among those we serve here in Mexico are the U.S. family members of Mexican migrants.

On April 30, 2022, in collaboration with the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce, The Rhizome Center for Migrants celebrated Día del Niño by hosting a writing contest in which we invited young Americans, ages 15-17, now living in Western Central Mexico due to forced return or deportation to reflect on what U.S. citizenship means to them.

In October, we invited our contest participants to join us in Guadalajara for an awards ceremony and special event with the U.S. Consul General of Guadalajara, Eliza Al-Laham, and two contest judges, Mtra. Helga Garcia Ocampo of PROBEM-Jalisco and José María Salguero Recio, president of the U.S.-Mexico Chamber of Commerce Jalisco. More than 30 participants and their family members joined us from Jalisco, Guanajuato, and Michoacan, from Texas, Tennessee, California, Missouri, Minnesota, Florida, and Washington.

U.S. minors and their families who attended the event were greeted by staff of the American Citizen Services team, who provided in-person information on passport services, voter registration, and Selective Service requirements, and were able to take advantage of a special workshop led by EducationUSA and the American School Foundation of Guadalajara, on college educational opportunities in Mexico and the United States.

We recognize that without policies that make it possible for U.S. citizens to remain with their family members, as American children come of age in Mexico and make their way back home to the United States, their return will entail another great migration and possible future family separation.

To learn more about the urgent situation of co-deported U.S. citizens in Mexico and the resources they desperately need, read our report, U.S. Citizens in Mexico: Displaced Without Protection, published in August 2022 by the Baker Institute of Public Policy’s Center for the United States and Mexico.