A secret tunnel discovered last week on the U.S.-Mexico border will be sealed by Mexican authorities, an army official in Ciudad Juarez said Saturday.

Some residents and business leaders in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez have reacted to threats by U.S. President Donald Trump of tariffs on Mexican imports. (AP/ Martín Silva Rey)

The Mexican government plans to establish nine reception areas for deportees in Mexico's six northern border states over the coming weeks.

General Jose Lemus, commander of Ciudad Juarez's military garrison, said the tunnel "must have taken a long time" to build, suggesting "it could have been one or two years".

Mexico is preparing for the mass deportations President Donald Trump has promised with a program called "Mexico Embraces You."

Mexico erected sprawling tents on the US border as it braced for the effects of Donald Trump’s mass deportation drive...

Workers in Mexico have started building large tents near the U.S.-Mexico border to prepare for a possible increase in deported migrants.

The Mexican government is building nine shelters in border cities to receive deportees. It has said that it would also use the existing facilities in Tijuana, Ciudad Juarez and Matamoros to take in migrants whose appointments to request asylum in the US were cancelled on Trump's inauguration day.

The US-Mexico border is effectively closed off to migrants seeking asylum in the United States within hours of President Donald Trump taking office, an extraordinary departure from previous protocols that has left many concerned migrants in limbo.

Migrants in Mexico who were hoping to come to the U.S. are adjusting to a new and uncertain reality after President Donald Trump began cracking down on border security.

The temporary shelters in Ciudad Juarez will have the capacity to house thousands of people and should be ready in a matter of days, said municipal official Enrique Licon.