Trump administration to start sending asylum seekers to wait in Mexico

U.S. officials at the southern border will begin sending some asylum applicants back to Mexico on Friday as the Trump administration implements new measures preventing migrants from waiting in the United States while their cases are processed.

The initiative, announced by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday night, follows high-level talks between the two governments late last year as U.S. border officials struggled to contend with waves of Central American migrants fleeing violence and poverty. It will be introduced in California, at the San Ysidro port of entry south of San Diego, and eventually expanded throughout the nearly 2,000-mile border, a DHS official said earlier Thursday, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the plan had not yet been finalized.

The Trump administration has struggled to devise effective deterrents, and its other attempts — including the forced separation of migrant children from their families — have incited enormous public backlash. This latest effort comes as parts of the federal government are shut down over the president’s demand for border wall funding and Democrats’ refusal to provide it.

According to a fact sheet distributed by DHS, these new measures will apply to “certain aliens attempting to enter the U.S. illegally or without documentation, including those who claim asylum.” It says they will no longer be released into the country, “where they often fail to file an asylum application or disappear before an immigration judge can determine the merits of any claim to prevent removal.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-to-start-sending-asylum-seekers-back-to-mexico/2019/01/24/53961fb0-2022-11e9-8e21-59a09ff1e2a1_story.html?utm_term=.b38bd6968f4d&wpisrc=al_news__alert-politics--alert-national&wpmk=1