Mexico 'backs President Donald Trump's plan to overhaul asylum rules'

Group of migrants negotiate with Mexican policemen
REUTERS
Katy Clifton24 November 2018

Mexico's incoming government has reportedly agreed to back the Trump administration's plan to change US border policy.

The plans would require asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims move through American courts.

Citing Mexican officials and senior members of president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador's transition team, the Washington Post said the agreement would break with long-standing asylum rules and mount a new obstacle to Central American migrants attempting to escape poverty and violence.

Olga Sanchez Cordero, Mexico's incoming interior minister and the top domestic policy official for Lopez Obrador who takes office on December 1, told the newspaper the plan known as Remain in Mexico was a "short-term solution."

"The medium- and long-term solution is that people don't migrate," Mr Sanchez Cordero said.

"Mexico has open arms and everything, but imagine, one caravan after another after another, that would also be a problem for us."

Second migrant caravan arrives in Mexico

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The paper said that according to the outlines of the plan, asylum applicants at the border will have to stay in Mexico while their cases are processed, potentially ending the system President Donald Trump decries as "catch and release", that has until now generally allowed those seeking refuge to wait on safer US soil.

There was no immediate comment from the White House or Mexico on the deal that the Washington Post said took shape last week in Houston.

It is said to have been agreed during a meeting between Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's incoming foreign minister, and top US officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

Mr Trump has been seeking to block thousands of Central Americans travelling in caravans from entering the US, and has ordered that immigrants who enter the country illegally from Mexico are ineligible for asylum.

That order has been temporary suspended by a US judge.

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