MEXICO CITY, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Mexico is "ready" to help defend the rights of undocumented Mexican migrants targeted for deportation by the United States, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said on Monday.
In the wake of a White House campaign to step up deportations, Mexico's network of 50 consulates in the United States have been preparing for "this eventuality," Ebrard told reporters at a press conference.
"There are very distinct rights and legal means to defend each case. There are different kinds of cases, but I can tell you without hesitation that we are ready and prepared to efficiently defend (deportees) throughout the United States," Ebrard said.
"If these deportations begin, we will be reporting on them every day and, if necessary, I will go to the United States ... to lead the defense of our fellow countrymen," said Ebrard.
At the beginning of July, U.S. President Donald Trump warned that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency would begin rounding up migrants who lack the authorization to live in the country, starting July 4.
Some 2,000 Mexican migrant families are believed to be facing deportation in at least 10 U.S. cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, Miami, New York and San Francisco.
As many of these families settled in the United States decades ago, their cases differ from the thousands of newly-arrived Central American migrants, many of whom are being held in controversial detention centers at U.S. entry points.
Others remain on the Mexican side of the border while their asylum applications are reviewed by U.S. authorities, in keeping with a bilateral agreement recently reached between the two countries.
Of those, 327 have been given jobs at assembly plants along the border, said Ebrard.
Mexico's government has reached a deal with area assembly plants to make some 3,700 jobs available to the migrants, many of them fleeing poverty and violent crime in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
Between January and July, 14,000 Central American migrants have registered in Mexico while waiting to hear from U.S. authorities.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez is scheduled to make an official visit to Mexico before the end of the month to discuss the migrant crisis with his Mexican counterpart Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who is spearheading a multinational effort to address the situation.
