Trump administration to deny asylum

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — With a go-ahead from the U. S. Supreme Court, President Donald Trump’s administration on Thursday began enforcing a new rule that would deny asylum to nearly all migrants arriving at the southern border — a move that spread despair among those fleeing poverty and violence in their homelands.

In Mexico, officials voiced dismay at the ruling that would deny asylum to anyone at the U. S.- Mexico border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking asylum there. Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to enforce it while legal challenges move forward.

“The United States has a very hard-line immigration policy,” said Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard. “The court’s decision is astonishing in the impact that it is going to have.”

In Tijuana, Dunea Romero, a 31-year-old Honduran woman, started to tear up at the thought of not being allowed to take refuge in the U.S. She said she packed a bag and fled her homeland with her two boys, ages 7 and 11, after hearing that her ex-husband, a powerful gang leader, was going to have her killed.

“I did this so I didn’t lose my life,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave my sons without a mother.”

Also in Tijuana, Ngoh Elliot Takere of Cameroon stood only steps from the U.S. and felt overwhelmed by frustration after learning that he could be blocked from getting in. He has been waiting for two months in Mexico for his number to be called so he can submit a request for asylum in the U.S.

The 28-year-old furniture maker said he left his wartorn African homeland after being jailed by police for being part of the English-speaking minority. He was released on the condition that he leave the country or be killed, he said.

He said the military burned his family’s home, killing his mother.

As for the possibility of being turned away by the United States, Takere said: “I can’t think of that.”

“In the U.S., I know I’ll be protected,” he said.

An estimated 45,000 migrants have been turned back by the U.S. government and forced to wait out their asylum requests on the Mexican side of the border under yet another new, more stringent Trump administration policy.

Ebrard said Thursday at President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s daily news conference that Mexico has a different policy when it comes to asylum seekers and would never implement such a rule.

“Our policy of refuge, of asylum is a tradition in Mexico,” he said.

Lopez Obrador said that he spoke by phone with Trump a day before, noting the U.S. president recognized Mexico’s efforts, and relations between the two countries were very good.

He also said things were looking better for the ratification of a new free-trade agreement for the U.S., Mexico and Canada.

“There are no deep differences, there’s no discrepancy, nothing that could lead them to take measures or apply measures that affect the economy, the development of our country,” Lopez Obrador said. “On the contrary, there’s a very favorable environment for the United States Congress… unbeatable conditions to approve the free trade treaty.”

His conciliatory approach contrasts sharply with a tack taken earlier this year by Trump, who tied immigration to economic policy by threatening crippling tariffs on all Mexican imports.

After Trump’s threat, Mexico cracked down on migrants crossing the country, deployed its National Guard to the southern and northern borders, and tried to contain migrants to the southern part of the country.