‘I’m About to Have My Baby’: Migrants Stuck in Mexico Face More Uncertainty

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Scenes like these playing out in US border courtrooms in recent weeks would become even more common under a deal that led Donald Trump to suspend his threat of tariffs on all Mexican exports to the US. A centerpiece of the agreement calls for rapid expansion of a policy that makes Central American asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through US immigration courts.

{snip} The Mexican government said last week that 10,393 Central Americans had been returned to Mexico since the end of January to await court proceedings.

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Asylum seekers – and the Mexican border cities that host them – face a large and growing backlog of cases in US immigration courts. For some, it could take years for their court cases to be resolved. During that time, migrants need to work and send children to school.

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The “remain-in-Mexico” policy was first applied to single adults but quickly expanded to include families, who account for more than half of border patrol arrests. Guidelines for agents in San Diego say the policy should target Spanish speakers and migrants from Latin America, but exempt Mexicans and children traveling alone.

The Department of Homeland Security said on Monday that Mexico had for the first time agreed to “full and immediate expansion” of the policy but it has not said when and where that will happen.

As the policy is applied to more remote areas, asylum seekers will have to travel longer distances for hearings. In Mexicali, a large Mexican border city, they must travel 120 miles to Tijuana by bus or – if they are lucky, in an immigrant rights activist’s car – to report at the Tijuana border crossing by 9am. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement buses then take them to the San Diego courtroom.

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