Blitz sparks fear crisis in Mexico

potentially hundreds of thousands of foreigners on a frontier already struggling with drug gangs and violence.

They recall the chaos in Tijuana when thousands of Haitians swarmed to the Mexican border in the closing months of the Obama administration, hoping for asylum in the US.

The Mexican government did little, leaving private Christian groups to open donation-funded shelters.

Mexico City security analyst Alejandro Hope said: “There were seven or eight thousand Haitians in Tijuana and the situation was just out of control.

“Now imagine a situation 10 or 15 times that size. There aren’t enough resources to maintain them.” He feared that the new US policy could create an “explosive situation”.

He said there is already anti-foreigner sentiment in Mexico’s northern border region — adding that Central American migrants have been recruited, sometimes by force, into drug gangs.

The Rev Patrick Murphy, who runs a Tijuana immigrant shelter, said Mexico is not prepared for an influx of refugees, which would put more strain on an overburdened system.

It is unclear whether the US has the authority to force Mexico to accept third-country nationals. Tijuana human rights leader Victor Clark insisted that Mexico can simply refuse to accept non-Mexican deportees.