AFP, Tijuana :
The United States began sending migrants who have applied for asylum back to Mexico on Tuesday to await their court dates under a controversial new policy from President Donald Trump.
Carlos Gomez of Honduras, who arrived at the border in a caravan of thousands of Central American migrants last year, was the first to be sent back, Mexican authorities said.
Mexican immigration officials ushered Gomez, 55, who was carrying a blue backpack, into a waiting van and took him to an undisclosed migrant shelter in Tijuana, across the border from San Diego, California.
The US embassy in Mexico City confirmed in a statement that Washington had begun implementing the new policy, Trump’s latest bid to curb illegal immigration. Critics say the policy is xenophobic and could put vulnerable refugees at risk.
“The United States has begun implementing the Migrant Protection Protocols,” the embassy said, using the US Department of Homeland Security’s name for the plan – which the administration initially called the “Remain in Mexico” policy.
“This action is a response to the illegal migration crisis the United States is facing on its southern border.”
It said asylum claims in the US had increased by 2,000 percent in the past five years, “since many migrants know that applying for asylum gives them an opportunity to remain in the United States, even if they do not have a valid asylum claim.”
