Deported to Mexico: What Happens After an ICE Arrest

You are driving to work in Los Angeles when ICE agents pull you over, put you in handcuffs, and take you to a detention center. Weeks later, you land in a country you left as a child — without your wife, without your kids, and without your ID. That is exactly what happened to Christopher Gil Ortíz in June 2026.

Ortíz had lived in the US for more than 30 years. He had a wife and two young children in LA. ICE stopped him on his way to work, detained him, and deported him to Mexico — a place he had not seen since childhood. He was dropped off in the resort town of Tulum. His belongings were stolen from his hotel room. He eventually made his way to Mexico City, where he had family. "Even though I was born here, I have very vague memories of the city itself," he said. Since January 2025, the Trump administration has deported roughly 145,500 Mexican nationals, and that number is expected to keep rising.

A neighborhood built by deportees

In Mexico City's Tabacalera neighborhood — now nicknamed "Little LA" for its palm-lined streets and mix of English and Spanish — Ortíz found an organization called New Comienzos (New Beginnings). Founded by Israel Concha, himself deported in 2014 after 30 years in the US, New Comienzos offers legal support, free English certification, and mentorship for people who have just lost everything. Concha was blunt about what is coming: "The atmosphere right now is one of humanitarian crisis and panic. People no longer even want to take their children to school. You'll probably start seeing mass deportations in a few months." Sergio Aaron Pérez, 36, deported in 2011 after more than 30 years in California, found work at a bilingual call center in Little LA. "If you speak English there's a lot of money," he said. "I love my city. There's a lot of community."

Ortíz is not looking for a call center job. He has applied to work at a glass-making factory — the same trade he had in the US. His next goal is to bring his wife and children to Mexico. His daughter, he said, is already practicing drinking soda out of a plastic bag, a common local custom. "There's a lot of people that are going through what I'm going through," Ortíz said, "and I'm pretty sure there's going to be more."

What to do if you are undocumented and afraid of deportation

• Know your rights during an ICE stop: you have the right to remain silent and the right to refuse to open your door without a signed judicial warrant. Do not sign any documents before speaking with an immigration lawyer.
• Prepare a family safety plan now — designate a trusted person to care for your children, and make sure your family knows the name and number of an immigration attorney.
• Gather and store copies of key documents (birth certificates, tax returns, school records, lease agreements) in a safe place outside your home — these can support your case in removal proceedings (the formal legal process to deport someone).
• If you are already in removal proceedings, contact an immigration lawyer immediately. Missing a single court hearing can result in an automatic deportation order issued in your absence.

Related: our step-by-step guide — “Bond Hearing: How to Get Released”.