No deal struck over holding migrants, Mexico says
MEXICO CITY: United States President Donald Trump tweeted yesterday migrants at the USMexico border would stay in Mexico until their asylum claims were individually approved in US courts, but Mexico’s incoming government denied they had struck any deal.
Mexico’s incoming interior minister said there was ‘‘no agreement of any type between the future government of Mexico and the United States’’.
Olga Sanchez Cordero, also the top domestic policy official for presidentelect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador who takes office on December 1, told Reuters the incoming government was in talks with the US but emphasised they could not make any agreement since they were not yet in government.
Sanchez ruled out that Mexico would be declared a ‘‘safe third country’’ for asylum claimants, following a Washington Post report of a deal with the Trump Administration known as ‘‘Remain in Mexico’’.
The plan, according to the newspaper, foresees migrants staying in Mexico while their asylum claims in the US are being processed, potentially ending a system Trump decries as ‘‘catch and release’’ that has until now often allowed those seeking refuge to wait on safer US soil.
‘‘Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United States until their claims are individually approved in court. We only will allow those who come into our Country legally. Other than that our very strong policy is Catch and Detain. No ‘‘Releasing’’ into the US,’’ Trump said in a tweet.
‘‘All will stay in Mexico.’’
In a second tweet, Trump threatened to close the US southern border if necessary.
A The mayor of Tijuana has declared a ‘‘humanitarian emergency’’ after thousands of migrants arrived in the Mexican city that borders the US.
Juan Manuel Gastelum said the city could not handle the expense of harbouring more than 4700 migrants from Central America in a football stadium.
‘‘I will not spend the money of the inhabitants of Tijuana,’’ Gastelum said yesterday.
Meals for migrants cost 550,000 pesos per day ($NZ39,740) and more than 700 civil servants had been deployed to help, according to the city government.
The migrants, who come primarily from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, have travelled mostly on foot across Mexico, hoping to claim political asylum in the US. — Reuters