Asylum seekers to remain in Mexico

Nielsen to require more asylum seekers to remain in Mexico

By TED HESSON

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday ordered an expansion of the administration’s “remain in Mexico” strategy, which forces certain non-Mexican asylum seekers to wait in Mexico pending resolution of their asylum cases in the U.S.

The secretary said her department would expand the policy — formally known as the “Migrant Protection Protocols” — “to return hundreds of additional migrants per day.” The program already has been launched at and between several ports of entry in California and Texas.

In a memo to Customs and Border Protection, Nielsen also called for the agency to accelerate a plan to reassign 750 customs officers to assist with Border Patrol efforts to process and house incoming migrants.

She added in a related announcement that CBP should explore reassigning more personnel, but should notify her if it details more than 2,000 employees to emergency border work.

“The crisis at our border is worsening, and DHS will do everything in its power to end it,” she said in a written statement. “We will not stand idly by while Congress fails to act yet again, so all options are on the table.”

The secretary’s memo, which DHS did not immediately provide to reporters, follows President Donald Trump’s threat on Friday to close legal trade and travel along the U.S.-Mexico border. The possible border shutdown aims to force Mexico to step up its own immigration enforcement efforts, but would threaten billions in cross-border trade.

Closing the border, it's been noted widely, would do nothing to prevent migrants from seeking asylum at ports of entry or from attempting to cross the border illegally.

Trump also ordered the State Department to slash aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, which he faults for allowing migrants to leave their countries. The recent moves come on top of Trump’s February declaration that illegal immigration constitutes a national emergency. He used the emergency declaration as part of an effort to access $6.7 billion in border wall funds, which is now the subject of ongoing litigation in several federal courts.

The number of family members intercepted at the southwest border soared in March, according to preliminary CBP statistics. While overall arrests remain below the higher levels of 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, the Trump administration argues families and children present unique humanitarian and security issues.

Nielsen last week urged Congress to provide additional resources to deal with the growing number of migrants. In addition, she pressed lawmakers to change immigration laws to permit children to be detained for more than 20 days — the current limit set by a federal court order — and to allow for the swift deportation of unaccompanied minors from Central America.

The administration’s demands to Congress in recent days have gone largely unanswered as Democrats have faulted Trump for exacerbating an already-fraught humanitarian situation.