US begins forcing asylum applicants to remain in Mexico

Arafat Hasan of DOT
In a new measure to deter illegal immigration through the southern border, US President Donald Trump’s administration has begun forcing asylum applicants to remain in Mexico while their cases are considered.
The new policy, originally announced in December, will be launched initially at the busy Tijuana-San Ysidro border crossing south of San Diego, according to a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official.
Over the past year, tens of thousands of Central Americans have flocked to that port of entry for asylum – which the administration wants to stop. The administration also wants to prevent migrants to remain inside the United States after their asylum applications have been accepted. DHS officials claim that nearly all of them disappear into the folds of US society as illegal immigrants and never show up for their hearings. They also say at least 80% of the asylum claims – mostly by poor refugees from violence-wracked Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador – are without merit.
With a backlog of 800,000 asylum requests yet to be processed, new applications by applicants pushed back into Mexico to wait could take months if not years to process. The Trump administration hopes that this will be a deterrent for anyone making the long trek from their home countries.
According to a DHS fact sheet, the new “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP) will apply to anyone crossing the border from Mexico by land without immigration documents.
Unaccompanied children, however, will not be subject to MPP.
The move comes as Trump and Democrats in Congress are locked in a fight over Trump’s demand for billions of dollars to build a wall on the long US-Mexico frontier to block migrants illegally crossing the borders.
The standoff has prevented Congress from passing a federal budget bill and forced the shutdown of much of the government for five weeks.
-Source: AFP