Migrants from Arizona will no longer be bused to El Paso

TUCSON, Arizona -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents for the first time Thursday began turning around migrants seeking asylum in Arizona, sending about 40 of them to a Nogales shelter in Mexico to await immigration court proceedings.

The move means asylum-seekers crossing the border through Arizona will no longer be bused to El Paso, as they had been in recent months, before being sent back to Mexico.

The reason for the change comes as the controversial Migrant Protection Protocols or “Remain in Mexico” program is expanded to now cover a total of seven ports of entry which includes the Tucson sector in Arizona, as well as San Diego and Calexico in California, and El Paso, Laredo, Brownsville and Eagle Pass in Texas.

The “Remain in Mexico” policy was adopted a year ago by the Trump Administration to deal with a surge of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border from both Mexico and other Central American countries.

Immigration and human-rights advocates have repeatedly criticized the policy, which has sent back more than 56,000 asylum-seekers so far. The critics claim it puts migrants who fled their home countries back into dangerous Mexican border towns where they are often kidnapped, robbed or extorted.

(The AP and CNN contributed to this report.)