Mexico Call Centers Could Benefit From Donald Trump’s Deportation Pledge

In February 2017, The Guardian published a report examining how Tijuana's growing call center industry was creating employment opportunities for Mexican citizens who had been deported or returned from the United States.

• A Growing Bilingual Workforce in Tijuana
• Employment Opportunities for Returning Mexicans
• A Nearshore Advantage for U.S. Companies
• The Political Context in 2017

A Growing Bilingual Workforce in Tijuana

The Guardian report described a rapidly growing call center industry in Tijuana that required English-speaking professionals to support customers in the United States.

At the time, many contact centers in the region were recruiting people who had spent significant portions of their lives in the United States and had returned to Mexico through deportation or other circumstances.

Their English-language fluency and familiarity with U.S. culture made them particularly well suited for customer-facing positions serving North American companies.

The article reported that Tijuana had developed more than 50 call centers employing more than 10,000 people at that time, illustrating how quickly the industry had expanded along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Cross-Border Experience as a Professional Advantage

One of the central themes of the report was that people who had lived for many years in the United States often possessed a combination of language skills and cultural knowledge that could be difficult to replicate in more distant offshore locations.

For contact centers serving U.S. customers, this experience could translate into advantages such as:

• Fluent and idiomatic English
• Familiarity with U.S. customer expectations
• Understanding of American culture and consumer behavior
• Experience communicating naturally with U.S. customers
• Knowledge of both U.S. and Mexican culture

This bilingual and bicultural workforce became an important part of Tijuana's competitive position within the global contact center industry.

That same combination of language ability and cultural alignment remains central to CCSI's bilingual and bicultural agent workforce.

Employment Opportunities for Returning Mexicans

The Guardian also documented the difficult circumstances faced by many people arriving in Tijuana after deportation.

Some had spent most of their lives in the United States, had family members still living there, and arrived in Mexico with limited personal or professional connections.

For these individuals, the contact center industry could provide an immediate opportunity to use the skills they had developed while living in the United States.

For many returning Mexicans, English proficiency and familiarity with U.S. culture became professional skills that could help them establish a new career in Mexico.

Contact Centers as a Career Opportunity

The report described contact centers recruiting through migrant shelters and other organizations helping newly returned Mexicans transition into life in Tijuana.

For some returning citizens, contact center positions provided a path into formal employment while allowing them to use the English-language skills and cultural familiarity developed during their years in the United States.

CCSI has documented similar stories throughout its history, including employees who developed careers in customer service, supervision, training, and operations after returning to Mexico.

A Nearshore Advantage for U.S. Companies

The workforce described in the Guardian article also reflected a broader advantage of operating a contact center in Tijuana.

Compared with more distant offshore destinations, Baja California combines bilingual talent with immediate proximity to the United States.

Why Tijuana Offers a Cross-Border Advantage

For U.S. companies, the region can provide several operational advantages:

• Access to bilingual and bicultural agents
• Cultural alignment with North American customers
• Compatible U.S. business hours
• Proximity to San Diego, California
• Convenient access for management and training teams
• Professional contact center infrastructure
• Reduced operating costs compared with U.S.-based operations

CCSI's Tijuana operations continue to emphasize many of these same advantages, including workforce availability, cultural alignment, infrastructure, and proximity to Southern California.

Learn More About CCSI's Nearshore Contact Center Operations in Tijuana

The Political Context in 2017

The Guardian article was published shortly after Donald Trump began his first term as President of the United States. At the time, immigration enforcement and proposed large-scale deportations were receiving significant national and international attention.

The original report explored the unusual economic relationship between U.S. immigration policy and Tijuana's contact center labor market, suggesting that an increase in deportations could expand the available pool of English-speaking workers in northern Mexico.

That observation reflected the political and economic environment of early 2017 and should be understood within that historical context rather than as a current forecast or CCSI policy position.

Turning Cross-Border Experience Into Professional Skills

Beyond the political discussion of the time, the report illustrated how people returning to Mexico could transform their experience living in the United States into valuable professional skills.

The larger story was not simply about immigration policy. It was about how cross-border experience could become a professional asset for people rebuilding their lives in Mexico.

Explore CCSI's Bilingual & Bicultural Workforce

Historical note: This article summarizes reporting published by The Guardian in February 2017 regarding immigration, deportation, and the growth of Tijuana's contact center workforce. Employment figures, wage references, political statements, deportation projections, and industry estimates reflect the circumstances and reporting available at that time and should not be interpreted as current statistics or forecasts.

Original source published: February 17, 2017
Last reviewed and updated: July 25, 2026