Incoming Mexican government now says there is no 'Remain in Mexico' deal on migrants
Incoming Mexican government now says there is no 'Remain in Mexico' deal on migrants
Several busloads of mostly Central American migrants traveling in a caravan arrived to Tijuana, Mexico.
USA TODAY
The incoming Mexican administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador now says that there is no deal with the United States that would allow asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases are decided after reports Saturday indicated such an agreement had been reached.
On Saturday, The Washington Post reported that a deal between the Trump and Obrador administrations would begin a "Remain in Mexico" policy to replace the existing system – ofter derisively called "catch and release" – of permitting migrants to remain in the United States while their cases move through the courts, a process that can take years.
"For now, we have agreed to this policy of Remain in Mexico," Mexico’s incoming interior minister, Olga Sánchez Cordero, told the Post. She described the policy as a short-term solution, while the "medium- and long-term solution is that people don’t migrate."
But later , Sánchez said, "There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government." Sánchez, who will serve as Obrador's top domestic policy official when he takes office on Dec. 1, did not explain the reason for the conflicting statements.
President Donald Trump had appeared to tout the agreement in tweets, declaring, "Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United States until their claims are individually approved in court."
"We only will allow those who come into our Country legally. Other than that our very strong policy is Catch and Detain. No 'Releasing' into the U.S," the president tweeted Saturday. He repeated his threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border if "necessary."
"There is no way that the United States will, after decades of abuse, put up with this costly and dangerous situation anymore!" he added.
Sánchez said the migrants also pose a major headache for Mexico.
"Mexico has open arms and everything, but imagine one caravan after another after another. That would also be a problem for us," she told the Post.
Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said Sunday that he does not support a "Remain in Mexico" agreement "because that's not the law."
"They should be allowed to come in, seek asylum, that's the law," Cummings, who is expected to chair the Oversight Committee when his party takes control of the House of Representatives in January, told "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd.
"I think we have a system that has worked for a long time. This president's come in, wants to change it, that's up to him. But now the Congress has got to stand up and hopefully they will," Cummings said.
Stephanie Leutert, director of the Mexico Security Initiative at the University of Texas at Austin, said on Twitter that officials from the U.S. and Mexico hope that a "Remain in Mexico" policy could deter Central American migrants fleeing gang violence and poverty from seeking asylum in the U.S.
"This is the most recent move by the Trump admin to deter asylum seekers from coming to the border," Leutert said. "The idea is to take away the ability to live & work in the US while cases are processed. The hope is that asylum seekers will not want to live in MX for months/years and won't come."
She said the policy, if enacted, would likely cut the number of asylum seekers, but cautioned that it could persuade others to try and illegally cross the border "undetected."
About 5,000 Central American migrants have come to Tijuana, a city of 1.6 million people just across the border from California, as part of a caravan that traveled from Honduras then through Guatemala and Mexico. Many of the migrants fleeing poverty, corruption and violence in their home countries.
Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum on Friday declared a humanitarian crisis and many of his city's residents have protested the migrants' presence as Tijuana struggles to handle their arrival. Most of them are camped in a local sports complex where local churches and charities have been helping them with assistance from Mexican government agencies.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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