Neither illegal nor undocumented

The College of the Northern Border helps us understand the seriousness of mass deportations

Migrating to our northern neighbor is no longer a dream. Sooner or later the scenario will be drawn as a nightmare. The crisis that has arisen due to the beginning of deportations in the United States is terrible, and has been sharply analyzed by “El Colegio de la Frontera Norte” in its recent report “Neither illegal nor undocumented.” The information it contains is more than eloquent: 332 million people live in the United States, of which just over 39 million are of Mexican origin. Of these, 4.9 million are at risk of deportation.

According to the International Organization for Migration, migration is not a crime. Furthermore, it is incorrect to speak of “illegals,” since in the strictest sense no person is “illegal.” Any self-respecting State of law recognizes that a person, as a person, is protected, since dignity and fundamental rights are, always and in all cases, legally protected assets and are above the lack or possession of “citizenship.”

It is also not necessary to categorize migrants as “undocumented,” because when they have identity documents, they are subject to consular registration, a resource accepted and recognized by the banking system in the United States. Currently, rather, the term “unauthorized persons” is favored, which currently amounts to 13.5 million. Of these, 36.4% are Mexican; 17.9% are Central American; 16.9% are Asian; 11.7% are South American; 7.8% are Caribbean; 4% African; 3.6% European; and 1.7% are from other places.


The deportation of the population at risk could affect 3.4 million households. Among the possible consequences of this, the following stand out: the separation of families, many of whom have American children; the negative impact on key economic sectors, such as construction and services, where 72% of unauthorized migrants currently work; the uprooting of people who have resided in the United States for years, since 7 out of 10 unauthorized Mexicans have lived in the country for more than a decade.

Pope Francis said this bluntly in a recent television interview when questioned about the deportation program that the new American government is starting: “If it is true, it will be a disgrace, because it makes the poor wretches, who have nothing, pay the bill for the imbalance. It is not possible! This is not how things are resolved!” (January 19, 2025).

Indeed, the poorest and most marginalized are often the ones who bear the brunt. Their anguish and suffering are irrelevant to those who, adhering to an ideological understanding of faith and/or of the human being, cancel empathy and choose to look from a certain “superiority” at the many tears. The renewal of society – North American, Latin American and world – will not spring from this eclipse of reason and heart. The imposition by force of measures contrary to the truth about the equal dignity of every human person is not the seed of a good tree.