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Nick Miroff
Journalist responsible for the fight against fraud, drug trafficking and national security
Joshua Partlow
Correspondent focused on Mexico, Central America and other regions of Latin America
Central Americans arriving in the United States to seek asylum in the United States will have to wait in Mexico while their claims are being processed under radical new measures that the Trump administration is preparing to implement. according to internal planning documents and three Department of Homeland Security officials known with the initiative.
According to the DHS memos obtained Wednesday by the Washington Post, asylum seekers from Central America who can not establish a "reasonable fear" of persecution in Mexico will not be allowed to enter the United States and would be bypassed at the border.
The plan, titled "Stay in Mexico," is a major break with the current filtering procedures, which generally allow those who fear to return to their home country to avoid immediate deportation and stay in the United States until they can be heard. with an immigration judge. Trump despises this system, which he calls "catch and release" and is committed to ending it.
Of the thousands of Central American migrants traveling by caravan across Mexico, many are hoping to seek asylum because of threats of gang – related violence or other persecutions in their homeland. origin. They expected to be able to stay in the United States while their applications are being reviewed by an immigration court. The new rules would disrupt these projects and the hopes of other Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States each year.
[Trump lashes out at judge after order to allow illegal border crossers to seek asylum]
Trump remains furious about the caravan and the legal setbacks his administration has had in federal court, demanding tough ideas from his aides. Senior advisor Stephen Miller insisted that the Rest in Mexico plan be implemented immediately, although other senior officials have expressed concern over its implementation in delicate negotiations with the Mexican government, according to two officials. DHS and a White House advisor know the plan. was discussed in the White House on Tuesday, said people familiar with the subject.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the new plan of the administration, if a migrant does not fear specifically the persecution in Mexico, that's where he will stay. US citizenship and immigration services send teams of asylum officers from field offices in San Francisco, Washington and Los Angeles to San Diego area ports of entry to apply new screening procedures, according to a report. responsible for the USCIS.
To enter the United States, asylum seekers would have to face a relatively higher bar in the screening process in order to establish that their fears of being in Mexico were sufficient to require their immediate admission. , indicate the documents.
"If you are determined to have a reasonable fear of staying in Mexico, you will be allowed to stay in the United States while waiting for your hearing before an immigration judge," will now say the asylum officers to those who arrive in search of a humanitarian refuge. to the DHS memos. "If you are not determined to have a reasonable fear of staying in Mexico, you will stay in Mexico."
Mexico's border cities are among the most violent in the country, while drug cartels are competing for smuggling routes to the United States. In the State of Baja California, which includes Tijuana, the State Department warns that "criminal activity and violence, including homicides, remain a major state-wide concern".
The new rules will come into effect on Friday, according to two DHS officials aware of the plans.
Katie Waldman, a spokeswoman for DHS, issued a statement Wednesday stating that there was no immediate plan to implement these new measures.
"The president has made it clear that every legal option is on the table to secure our country and deal with the flow of illegal immigrants to our borders," the statement said. "DHS is not implementing such a new enforcement program this week. Reports of non-existent policies create uncertainty and confusion along our borders and have a negative impact on the real world. We will, as always, ensure that any new program or policy respects humanitarian obligations, respects our national security and sovereignty, and is implemented with public notice and in coordination with our partners. "
A Mexican official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Mexican immigration laws do not allow asylum seekers in another country. to stay in Mexico.
On December 1, a new Mexican president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, will be sworn in. It is also unclear whether his transitional team was consulted on the new asylum screening procedures.
The possibility that thousands of US-bound asylum seekers wait in Mexico for months or even years could be a significant financial burden for the government, especially if migrants stay in camps and long-term shelters. term.
[At the U.S. border, migrant caravan will slow to a crawl]
There are currently 6,000 migrants in the Tijuana area, many of whom camp on a baseball field along the border, seeking entry into the United States. According to Homeland Security estimates, several thousand other people are en route to the city.
US border authorities have allowed about 60 to 100 asylum seekers to go to the San Ysidro entry point every day for treatment.
Last week, BuzzFeed News announced that US and Mexican officials were discussing such a plan.
Mexico also seems to be adopting a less permissive attitude toward the new caravans of migrants now entering the country.
The authorities arrested more than 200 people, or almost all the last caravan, which had just crossed the southern border of Mexico to go to the United States. This is at least the fourth largest group of migrants to enter Mexico and try to walk to the US border. They were picked up shortly after crossing. According to the National Institute of Immigration of Mexico, the vast majority of migrants came from El Salvador.
After the first caravan entered this fall in Mexico, the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto offered migrants the opportunity to live and work in Mexico if they stayed in the states of Chiapas and Oaxaca, in the south of the country. . Most chose not to accept this agreement because they wanted to travel to the United States.
Partlow reported in Mexico. Dawsey reported from West Palm Beach, Fla.
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