Mexico said it will block Honduran migrants from trying to reach the United States, following pressure from the Trump administration, according to multiple reports.
As reported by Fox News, Mexico officials will be checking the status of each of the migrants wishing to gain entry into Mexico, and will not issue tourist visas to those who only wish to gain access to the country to reach the U.S. border. However, Mexican officials will welcome anyone wishing to stay in the country.
“Mexico is not only a transit country … In no way we have transit visas or safe passage,” Olga Sánchez Cordero, Mexico’s Interior Minister, said, according to BBC. Cordero also said that immigration agents would be there to aid Mexico officials. Reuters reported that Mexico refused to act as a safe third country and provide asylum for migrants, with Marcelo Ebrard, the Mexican Foreign Minister, telling Guatemala’s new president that Mexico will not let the migrants pass.
According to Fox News, ICE officials and officials from the Department of Homeland Security sent a number of agents to cities in Guatemala to act as advisers to the city officials during document checking.
Cordero estimated that around 600 migrants left Honduras on Wednesday, Jan. 15, Fox News reported.
Trump made border security one of his priorities of focus following the crisis in 2018 when multiple caravans were created to overwhelm border officials.
According to the news outlet, many migrants who left for Mexico were from San Pedro Sula in Honduras, which is considered one of Central American’s most violent cities. These individuals hope to recreate a caravan to overwhelm the American border officials similarly to the incidents of 2018.
The Trump administration has enlisted the help of other countries to help prevent the migrants from reaching the U.S.-Mexico border. Mexico responded to Trump’s pressure by expanding the U.S. Migrant Protection Protocol program, which stated that migrants who want to seek asylum in the United States will need to wait for their court dates in Mexico. This has led to more than 50,000 asylum seekers waiting out in Mexico, according to the news outlet.
Should these asylum seekers not want to wait out in Mexico for their court date, there’s an option for them to wait out in another country to apply for asylum there.
