Report: Mexican government already preparing for large number of deportations under Trump

Mexico is already making preparations for a large number of deportations under President-elect Donald Trump, a Mexican government spokesman said earlier this week.

"We will have to see how many of those deportations, usually done by the United States government to the countries where the illegal immigrants are from, are for Mexico,” Eduardo Sánchez, spokesman for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, said, according to CNN. "Of course this and other matters will be part of the agenda that Mexico brings to the table during the bilateral meetings that will take place with the government-elect of President[-elect] Donald Trump."

He added that Mexican Foreign Minister Claudia Ruiz is already coordinating efforts to brace for a large number of immediate deportations, should Trump follow through with his promises.

Trump said in an interview with CBS' “60 Minutes” over the weekend that as president he will immediately deport all illegal immigrants who have committed crimes, a number Trump estimated to between 2 million and 3 million:

What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we're going to incarcerate.

But we're getting them out of our country, they're here illegally.

Still, Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Carlos Sada said in an interview with Univision Monday that he is working to "strengthen mechanisms" that protect Mexican immigrants residing in the U.S.

"We already have a series of meetings scheduled for the next few days to discuss this new platform, these new proposals he is making,” Sada said, according to translation. “It doesn’t mean that these 2 or 3 million Mexicans will be processed for deportation. The majority are not Mexican and those who are, well, we have protection mechanisms in place."