The Mexican government announced Friday that it is working to develop a “panic button” for migrants in the United States who believe they could soon be arrested by U.S. immigration authorities.

It is a mobile app developed in response to US President-elect Donald Trump’s warnings that he will carry out mass deportations after taking office on January 20, 2025.

#deportations Botón de panico para migrantes en EEUU anuncia Juan Ramón de la Fuente SRE pic.twitter.com/8GnLbugqVk

— Odilón García (@odilon_garcia) December 27, 2024

At President Sheinbaum’s daily press conference on Friday, Foreign Minister Juan Ramón de la Fuente said the app will allow users to press a button that will immediately send a notification to pre-selected relatives and the nearest Mexican consulate.

De la Fuente described the device as a kind of “panic button” for Mexicans in the United States and said small tests showed the app “seems to work very well.”

“The most important thing is that the consulate is informed when someone is detained – regardless of migration status – and is thus able to give that person the necessary attention and protect their rights,” De la Fuente said, according to Mexican news agency Quadratín .

U.S. authorities are required to notify home country consulates when a citizen is detained abroad, but the “panic button” would notify more people immediately, widening the net of transparency.

The “Panic Button” allows users to select contacts they want to notify in the event of an emergency and preload personalized messages to each recipient. A single click would send all messages via text in seconds.

President Claudia Sheinbaum, who did this pledged to “defend” Mexican migrants facing deportationsaid the app is expected to be available on January 6th.

A similar app called Notifica was developed back in 2017 during Trump’s first presidential campaign, in which he also spoke of mass deportations. This app is owned and published by United We Dream, an immigrant-led network of young people in the United States.

The newspaper Milenio reported that Mexico’s app is being developed with the support of the newly founded Digital Transformation Agency.

It’s not yet clear whether the app has an opt-out feature that would allow someone to cancel an alert if they aren’t arrested.

The Mexican government began Preparing for possible mass deportations as a result of Trump’s victory in the presidential election in November.

The government has set up a 24-hour call center to answer migrants’ questions and increased existing consular staff in the United States, including additional staff to provide legal assistance to migrants caught up in the legal process related to deportation are, the AP reported.

With reports from Milenio, Quadratin And El Economista