Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said Thursday he believes a plan to require the Mexican government to hold Central Americans who forego applying for asylum in Mexico and insist on instead applying in the U.S. stands a solid chance of being adopted by both nations.
Lee, who visited Mexico earlier this month to talk with leaders there about caravans of migrants traveling to the U.S., said Mexican officials conveyed to him during his recent trip south of the border they don’t want Mexico to be “just a thoroughfare for people passing through.”
The Utah lawmaker is a proponent of a “safe third country agreement,” which would give people leaving Central America a choice between applying for asylum in Mexico or the U.S.
“Given that Mexico is a safe country relative to Honduras or El Salvador, for example, then you wouldn’t be able to apply for asylum in the United States if you had first crossed through Mexico to get here,” Lee told Fox News host Shannon Bream late Thursday.
“The other option and one that I discussed with Olga Sanchez [Cordero] the incoming interior minister in Mexico, is the idea of requiring people to stay in Mexico and remain in Mexico while their U.S. asylum applications are pending. That’s something that really has potential. And that’s something I think that could end up coming to fruition,” he said.
A senior official within U.S. Border Patrol said Tuesday members of the caravan who traveled to the border with the hope of entering the U.S. are beginning to realize they were “sold a bad bill of goods” by the organizations that led them on the journey.
“We’ve heard rumors through our nongovernmental agency contacts that many of the migrants are starting to realize that this isn’t what they expected,” Border Patrol San Diego Sector Chief Patrol Agent Rodney S. Scott said, when asked what he expected next from the group. “I believe that the city of Tijuana reported about 20 asked to go home yesterday. So we’re hoping that this calms down and people realize that that they’ve basically been sold a bad bill of goods.”
Scott said nongovernmental organizations “who may or may not have good intentions” may have intentionally misled people to take the 3,000-mile trip from Northern Triangle countries to Tijuana.
The unspecified organizations “are giving these people some horrible advice and some bad advice, so we’re trying to make sure that they have proper information to make informed decisions.”
DHS has been silent this week on reports the two countries had reached an informal deal that asylum-seekers would remain south of the border while their applications are reviewed.
“Historically, less than 10% of those who claim asylum from #Guatemala, #Honduras, and #ElSalvador are found eligible by a federal judge. 90% are not eligible. Most of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in the U.S. They have all refused multiple opportunities to seek protection in Mexico or with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum under our laws, or any international obligation. There are, however, legal ways to seek a job or to be reunited in the U.S.,” DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said in a statement Monday.
