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US-MEXICO-MIGRANTS-ASYLUM-TRUMP LEAD
Trump signals deal with Mexico on asylum seekers
WASHINGTON, Nov 25, 2018 (BSS/XINHUA) – U.S. President Donald Trump said
Saturday that migrants seeking asylum in the United States via the southern
border will wait in Mexico while their claims are moving through legal
procedures.
“Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United
States until their claims are individually approved in court,” he tweeted
Saturday evening. “All will stay in Mexico.”
The president also renewed a threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border “if
for any reason it becomes necessary.”
The tweets came after The Washington Post reported earlier in the day that
Mexico’s incoming government has agreed to support the U.S. government’s plan
to remake U.S. asylum policy.
The newspaper said the plan, known as “Remain in Mexico”, would require
those seeking refuge at the border to stay in Mexico while their cases are
processed, potentially terminating the system, which Trump has decried as
“Catch and Release” that has generally allowed asylum applicants to wait on
U.S. soil.
“For now, we have agreed to this policy of Remain in Mexico,” said Olga
Sanchez Cordero, Mexico’s incoming interior minister, who will take office
next month, while calling it a “short-term solution” in an interview with the
U.S. newspaper.
But her office later issued a statement saying: “There is no agreement of
any type between the future federal government of Mexico and that of the
United States of America.”
A group of migrants, many of whom say they are fleeing from persecution,
poverty and violence in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador, were making
their way through Central America towards the U.S. border for weeks. Many of
them want to claim asylum.
Several thousands of migrants, including women and children, are
reportedly in the Mexican border city of Tijuana living in a makeshift
shelter.
Thousands of U.S. troops have been deployed along the country’s southern
border with Mexico to help strengthen border security while offering only
engineering, logistic and medical support.
However, Trump said earlier this week that he has given the troops the
“OK” to use lethal force against migrants “if they have to.”
BSS/XINHUA/ARS/1414 hrs