TIJUANA, Mexico – A new Trump Administrative Guideline, which forces certain asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are processed in the United States, came into effect on Tuesday when American officials intercepted the first such migrants through a Southern California border gate to the north led Mexico.
The migrant, a 55-year-old man from Honduras, applied for asylum after crossing the border from Mexico in the United States. Under the new policy, he will temporarily live in Mexico and return only for court hearings relating to his case.
He wore a brown jacket and a black cap and looked dizzy when he reached the Mexicans late Tuesday morning side of the border in Tijuana and was swarmed by numerous journalists, photographers and television comrades.
American officials said many asylum seekers would never show up under this policy If the policy is applied to a majority of asylum seekers on the Mexico-US border, it could cause thousands of migrants to cross the Mexican border each year
Mexican officials said they did not agree with the new policies of the Trump administration, but agreed to accept certain asylum seekers and vowed to uphold and allow the rights of migrants to be respected during their cases in Mexico to work in the United States.
Rodulfo Figueroa, an official at the Mexican National Migration Institute, said the man in the brown jacket whose name was not reveal d would be the only migrant who returned to Mexico on Tuesday under the new policy, but it will soon more expected.
"We are only responding to a unilateral decision," said Figueroa, a high-ranking Federal Migration official of the Mexican state of Baja California.
Since the Trump administration announced the new asylum policy, Mexican officials are negotiating with their counterparts in Washington to determine the conditions under which they will accept the migrants.
On Monday evening According to Tonatiuh Guillén López, the commissioner of the National Migration Institute in Mexico, Mexico would only accept migrants from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras aged between 18 and 60 years. He also said that Mexico would only receive asylum seekers returned through the border crossing Tijuana with San Diego, California.
Returned asylum seekers receive special four-month multi-entry visas that allow them to travel to the United States for their court appointments and then return to Mexico, Mexican officials said. Some of the returnees have already one year a humanitarian visa allowing them to work and travel freely in the country. The resolution of asylum cases in the United States may take years, but it is still unclear whether and under what conditions Mexican visas will be extended.
The change in American policy applies to some asylum seekers attempting to enter the US at official crossings on the country's southern border or arrested on American soil after attempting to illegally cross. However, this does not apply to Mexican asylum seekers, who could risk harm on their return to Mexico, right where they claim fear of persecution as grounds for their asylum application.
Migrants' advocates and human rights groups have vociferously criticized the Americans for policy changes saying that Mexico, which suffers from a historical level of violence, is not a safe place to send people who are already feared for their lives. In addition, Tijuana and other border towns are already overwhelmed with migrants from the United States and migrants from Central America and other countries seeking to enter the country.
American immigration officials have insisted in the last few days that they are immigrants, pleading that the return be conducted in close coordination with Mexican officials who will prepare all returnees. For now, according to the officials, only a few adult men in good health would be sent back to Mexico.
While the Mexican government claims that the implementation of the policy is a unilateral American move, US immigration officials, customs and the UK Border Protection Agency assured its proponents that it worked with its Mexican counterparts for months at all levels and stay in daily contact for at least 30 days while the program was gaining momentum.
American stakeholders are expected to submit legal challenges to the new policy in the coming days after gathering evidence from its introduction.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he wanted to welcome migrants and promote employment opportunities for them, has kept his promises by encouraging immigrants to stay in Mexico and work by obtaining visas facilitating and creating employment creation strategies. [19659] 002] Some asylum seekers who had just arrived in Tijuana were surprised on Tuesday when they learned of the new American asylum policy.
Anabel España, 39, a Honduran immigrant seeking asylum in the United States, said she would stay there Mexico was never her plan for many months.
"We do not know what can happen to you here if you are kidnapped," she said. "Tijuana is not the safest place, you know?"
But Ms España, who said she had fled blackmail threats in Honduras, said she could at least work and not be jailed in a United States prison.
"At least we are free here," she said.
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