This was his first time in Mexico since childhood when Alberto Salagan was deported from the United States.

His parents were born in a coastal resort in Acapulco, and he brought him to the United States when he was only six months old.

He grew up in California and was attracted by the false charm of gang life.

When President Trump took office, Alberto was sent back to Mexico after being arrested for gang activities in San Diego and found himself homeless and alone in his country of birth.

"It's really shocking. Still so," he admitted. "I really felt lost when I got here in Mexico. No family, no food, no clothes, nothing."

Alberto said he almost forgot how to speak and read Spanish. He reflected: "Good thing, I didn't completely lose it because it helped me (it was bilingual).

In fact, his language skills saved the 30-year-old from poverty. He heard through an expelled support organization that a local company, EZ Call Center, was looking for people speaking in English.

As a telesales agent, the job is not paid much, but employees can earn commissions, and regular salary checks make Alberto crave stability.

"I had to do something to get back on my feet. Thanks to the call center, now I have it," he told me during the break between the phones.

Almost every agent at EZ Call Center is deported, including Daniel Ruiz, the company's owner.

He was also born in Mexico, raised in the United States, and was deported in his 20s for low-level drug crimes. Daniel said he could connect with the initial disorientation of employees in Mexico.

“We are all dealing with cultural shocks,” he said.

"We all spent our lives there, went to school there, grew up in American culture, had family there. We got up from here, but we also came from there."

In their booths, agents go through a long list of U.S. phone numbers, some conduct promotional calls or sales, and some call for debt collection and refinancing.

All agents speak fluent English, and the customers on the other end of the line are not the ones they speak in Mexico rather than the United States.

Daniel said agents like Alberto - who was caught in gangs and crime at a fragile age in the United States, but willing to turn a new leaf in Mexico - are one of his most trusted employees.

"Their criminal record is almost no other marker, and they have the right discipline to stop their work," he explained.

Daniel Ruiz's experience after being deported has been informed of his business decision.

In addition to Telesales, he co-founded a humanitarian organization called the Center for Fringe Crisis, which provided food, shelter and support for deported people upon arrival in Mexico.

Following the inauguration, President Trump said he would execute what he called "the biggest deportation in American history."

He talked about the evacuation of millions of undocumented people from the soil in the United States, and in the early days of his presidency of immigration and customs enforcement (ICE), he conducted a workplace raid from Chicago to California.

Mexican humanitarian organizations, including the Center for Fringe Crisis, have prepared a large number of returnees.

So far, it has not been implemented. There are no major immigration bottlenecks at the border and the immigration shelters in Tijuana are not currently overflowing.

The latest data from the Mexican government actually shows that in the first three months of Trump's second administration, the number of deportations to Mexico was less than that of the same period last year.

Mexico received nearly 39,000 deportations from February to April, including 33,000 of which were Mexico, said Claudia Sheinbaum. This is a comparison of 52,000 for the same three months in 2024.

However, part of the fall was due to the decrease in the number of people trying to enter the United States. Immigrant "encounter" on the southern U.S. border has dropped to its lowest level in years.

The threat of mass deportation combined with other factors - from military deployment at the border to high-profile deportation of immigration to El Salvador - could be an effective deterrent.

The Trump administration has also pushed forward ideas that it is difficult to prolong itself through blunt warnings.

Despite this, they are sent back to Tijuana almost every day. Many attempted to resettle hostility in dusty and dangerous border cities.

Companies that provide beneficial employment to a few companies that avoid slipping into criminal behavior have become even more important.

In addition to smaller joint ventures like EZ Call Center, a larger company called American Survey Company or ASC also relies on the expelled labor force.

ASC has about 550 call center stations in Tijuana with its sister company Voxcentrix, where agents will call for everything from election polls to customer satisfaction surveys.

"What happened in the United States stayed in the United States," said Nora Diaz, chief happiness officer of ASC, with a smile. "We did not conduct a background check on this."

Nora said her work focuses on the well-being of employees to help them reintegrate.

"We know everyone has a past and we don't judge based on that. We don't ask about that during the interview process. We just need someone who speaks good English and good Spanish and is willing to do a job," she explained.

"Don't ask, don't say" ASC's policy is priceless for Louis Luna's new beginning.

He grew up in the orange country of California, only a few months old.

"Unfortunately, as a kid, I made some bad choices: join a gang and run with the wrong crowd. It cost me a lot of money, I spent a certain sentence. I was a California State Prison for my life."

While in California prison, he participated in every available educational program and worked hard on rehabilitation. After his release, he was also sent back to Mexico in January, just as Trump was preparing for his inaugural speech.

Louis, now 50, is covered with gang-related tattoos, and he knows he won't have many second chances.

"I don't have family here. My family is ASC, people I meet at work, they are my family and my friends."

For Louis, the outwardly boring telephone work provided the anchor he needed to avoid crime, which he said was the former king member he knew in the United States.

He added: "From the first day, I had no judgment at all. I felt like they were just spreading their arms and taking me in. I think if it weren't for ASC, I would be on the street right now."

While the Trump administration’s massive deportation program has not yet reached the level many people expect in Mexico, some believe it may reach pace in the coming months.

If so, no matter the crime, the past deportation with gangs like Alberto and Louis would need some help.

In Tijuana, many of them will find it at the end of the phone line.