The Homeland Security Department is expanding its program to send asylum seekers back to their country of origin while they wait out immigration court proceedings.
The current policy was first implemented in the San Ysidro port of entry near San Diego in southern California and is being expanded to Calexico, also in the California portion of the U.S.-Mexico border.
A spokesman for Mexico’s foreign ministry confirmed the program’s expansion in a statement issued on Tuesday.
The move signals a further attempt by the Trump administration to block the large influx of migrants from Central America appearing at the border and asking for asylum. The administration has been highly critical of the current asylum seeking process where migrants are allowed to live in the U.S. for years without proper vetting while their immigration status is resolved in the courts.
Administration officials have remained in constant communication with their Mexican counterparts, sharing details of the policy’s rollout and plans for implementation. One DHS official said the Mexican border authorities need to be equipped to handle the migrant flow back to Mexico if the policy is to succeed.
“We’re not going to open a location if the Mexicans aren’t ready and able to process and provide the humanitarian protections that they agreed to,” one DHS official told Reuters on Tuesday.
Some U.S. lawmakers argue a key problem fueling the crisis at the southern border is the backlog in immigration court proceedings. They would like to see the opening and funding of more immigration courts as an integral part of a larger immigration reform legislative package.
Last Congress, House Republicans put together a comprehensive immigration reform package, addressing the expansion of immigration courts and reforming various other components, including e-verify, an extension for recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and ending the diversity visa lottery.
The bill, known as the “Goodlatte Bill,” named after it’s chief architect then-Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., ultimately failed to get to get past the House floor.
