Mexico stops accepting Central American migrant families expelled at the U.S. Border
EL PASO, Texas -- U.S. officials told the Washington Post that the Mexican government is no longer taking back Central American families expelled at the U.S.-Mexico border, the newspaper reported Wednesday night.
The move by Mexico seemingly undoes a deal it had made with the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic. The reason for the change? Many Mexico border shelters are full - and a new law there doesn't allow for families with children to be kept in immigration detention facilities.
As a result, the Post quoted a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson as acknowledging that CBP is now releasing those migrant parents and children into the U.S. since they can't be sent back to Mexico.
The Mexican policy change, which has not been publicly disclosed, is causing serious worries among officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security that the situation could trigger another surge of immigrants coming across the border, similar to what was experienced in El Paso and elsewhere in 2019.
Local leaders in the Rio Grande Valley told the Post that they also fear CBP will be releasing migrant families without testing and quarantining for the coronavirus, which could lead to another spike in Covid-19 cases in an area that has already been hard hit by infections and seen hospitals filled to the brink with patients.
