Though Mexico's president has agreed temporarily to take in asylum seekers from around the world who ask the U.S. for help at the countries' shared border, Mexico does not appear to have a plan in place to implement the new policy.
For Tijuana, having to care for asylum seekers while they wait potentially years for court hearings in the U.S. will be a significant challenge.
Even before helping the recently arrived Central American migrant caravan, the city has hosted several thousand asylum seekers for months because of a backlog in processing at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
The "remain in Mexico" policy would only add to the number of migrants that city, state and federal officials would be responsible for supporting until they get decisions on asylum from the U.S.
The Trump administration announced last week that under a new policy, asylum seekers will be returned to Mexico after they are processed and given papers with court hearing dates. The administration hopes the effort will stop people that it believes are using the asylum system to enter the U.S. without needing protection.
Though the administration said the change would be effective immediately, there were no signs on Friday that it had been implemented. The 35 people taken into the San Ysidro Port of Entry Thursday morning for asylum processing had not come back out, according to Mexican officials. Fifty-one others went in Friday morning.
The announcement came without details for many of those charged with implementing the plan.
Tijuana Mayor Juan Manuel Gastelum said recently that elected federal officials didn't take residents of his city into account when they agreed to cooperate with the U.S. on the new policy.
"Why didn't they consult us? Why didn't they ask us, 'What do you think'?" Gastelum said at a news conference. "We're seeing that this is the way the new government works unfortunately."
Even among high-ranking Mexican officials, the agreement brought disagreement on whether the country would or even could implement the policy.
Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico's secretary of foreign relations, said in a statement Thursday that the decision had come from the U.S. but that Mexico was prepared to act "to protect the right of those who wish to begin and continue the process of applying for asylum in United States territory."
He outlined several high-level actions that Mexico would take, including allowing asylum seekers with court dates in the U.S. to enter and leave the country multiple times as well as authorizing them to work while they wait.
"Mexico reaffirms its sovereign right to implement its immigration policy and admit or deny entry into its territory to foreign citizens," Ebrard said.
Meanwhile, Tonatiuh Guillen, head of the National Institute of Migration in Mexico, said Mexican immigration officials have neither the capacity nor the jurisdiction to carry out the agreement. He said Mexico would have to change its laws to comply with such a policy.
Immigration officials in Tijuana said they have not been given any instructions about how to handle returnees and that if they were asked to take people back, they would simply say, "No."
When asked about how the change will go into effect, the Department of Homeland Security deferred to the State Department, which then deferred the question to Homeland Security.
While Mexico plans to give asylum seekers returned from the U.S. work permits, obtaining those permits and finding jobs will take time. In the meantime, someone will have to be responsible for providing the basics, said Kurt Honold, head of the business council in Tijuana.
The most important needs for a group of displaced people are food, water and shelter, said Chris Boian, spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the branch of the United Nations dedicated to supporting people around the world who have been forced to flee their countries. Also important are medical care and education.
He called those traveling from Central America a "mixed flow." Some are economic migrants in search of opportunity, and others are genuine asylum seekers in need of international protection.
"It's a subset of people, but those individuals whose lives are hanging by a thread must be identified _ 'singled out' from the larger population _ and must be permitted to reach safe ground and access asylum procedures that are humane, efficient and secure, without obstruction," Boian said.
