The first round of migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. have crossed the border under the new Trump administration proposal announced last week.
The new Homeland Security Department program, known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, sends asylum seekers back to Mexico with the expectation that they will return to their country of origin while they wait out immigration court proceedings rather than allowing them to held in the U.S. throughout their immigration status process. Once their status has been granted, they are brought back to the U.S.
DHS confirmed that some 240 people, including families from Central America, were returned to Mexico as they awaited asylum processing, U.S. officials told Reuters.
A primary focus of the administration has been curbing the large influx of migrants from Central America appearing at the border and asking for asylum. The administration has been highly critical of the 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.
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.
Immigration advocacy groups, however, are pushing back against the administration’s policy, saying that it violates the rights of asylum-seekers, noting that it is perfectly legal for them to declare themselves at the border for asylum purposes. The American Civil Liberties Union is at the forefront of the battle against the new program. Last week, the ACLU, in conjunction with other pro-immigration and human rights advocacy groups, sued the federal government in an attempt to halt the implementation of the program.
White House officials argued most asylum cases from Central American nations are rejected no matter what policy is in place. Instead, the White House has been working to unclog the pipelines of immigration court hearings and facilitating the status-granting process.
