What official Mexican government statistics exist for migrants returned or deported by Mexico in 2024 (INM/SEGOB reports)?
Executive summary
Mexican government publications specifically from the National Migration Institute (INM) or the Interior Secretariat (SEGOB) producing a clear, consolidated public total for migrants “returned” or “deported” by Mexico during calendar year 2024 are not presented in the documents provided for this review; reporting instead relies on a patchwork of U.S. agency dashboards, NGO compilations, and academic estimates that reference flights, repatriations, and bus relocations [1] [2] [3] [4]. Independent trackers and think tanks put different pieces of the picture on the table—Tom Cartwright’s Witness at the Border tallies 170 deportation flights to Mexico in 2024 (reported by WOLA), and the Migration Policy Institute estimates roughly 319,000 returnees to the region in 2024—but none of these replace a single INM/SEGOB public total in the sources supplied [2] [4].
1. What Mexican official sources publish (and what is missing)
The materials supplied do not include a direct INM or SEGOB report that lists a comprehensive 2024 figure of migrants Mexico returned or deported; instead, sources point to INM operational actions documented in other ways—FOIA responses about internal bus relocations for 2023 and descriptions of INM processing and transport practices—but they do not furnish an INM-published 2024 aggregate for returns/deportations in the set of documents reviewed here [3] [5]. WOLA and other observers describe INM’s operational role—transporting people from border points to bus terminals and even to Mexico City’s Terminal del Norte since mid‑July 2024—but these are descriptive operational notes rather than statistical totals released as a formal SEGOB/INM annual count within the provided reporting [5].
2. Independent tallies and related government data cited by researchers
Non‑Mexican sources assemble partial official signals and their own tallies: U.S. DHS/ICE publish dashboards of removals and deportations through December 31, 2024, which capture removals from the United States including those returned to Mexico, and analysts use those tables to estimate flows [1]. NGOs and trackers reported repatriation flights and transport figures—Witness at the Border’s compilation (cited by WOLA) counted 170 deportation flights to Mexico in 2024, and IMUMI’s report cited an INM FOIA for 2023 bus relocations (3,153 trips) used to infer INM capacity and practices, but again these are not a single INM/SEGOB 2024 totals publication in the supplied sources [2] [3]. The Migration Policy Institute offers a region‑level estimate that Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras together received about 319,000 returnees in 2024, a figure derived from multiple data sources rather than an INM/SEGOB release [4].
3. Why a clear official 2024 INM/SEGOB total is elusive and what agendas shape the numbers
The absence of a single, easily cited INM/SEGOB 2024 aggregate in the provided documents reflects a broader fragmentation of migration data: U.S. agencies report removals and flights, Mexican operational notes focus on transfers and reception logistics, and NGOs compile disparate official and observational data—each actor has different incentives and limitations, with U.S. sources tending to emphasize removal counts while Mexican authorities may emphasize operational control and avoid publicizing totals that could be politicized domestically or used to claim burden‑sharing with the United States [1] [2] [5]. Analysts warn that counting methodologies vary (flights vs. land returns vs. internal relocations vs. voluntary returns), so apparent divergences can reflect definitional choices rather than only arithmetic disagreement [3] [1].
4. How to get the authoritative INM/SEGOB numbers and why they matter
For a definitive answer, the primary route is to consult INM and SEGOB publications and the specific INM FOIA/Access‑to‑Information responses referenced by researchers (the IMUMI document shows that INM does respond to such requests and provided 2023 operational data) and to cross‑check those with DHS/ICE dashboards and NGO flight trackers to reconcile definitions [3] [1] [2]. Absent an INM/SEGOB consolidated 2024 public total in the supplied reporting, any claim about an exact Mexican government number for 2024 would require either locating the official INM/SEGOB release not included here or obtaining an INM access‑to‑information answer for calendar 2024 specifically; the sources used by scholars and NGOs—while valuable—are not substitutes for that missing single official publication [3] [4] [2].