WASHINGTON _ U.S. border officials finalized plans Thursday to require asylum-seekers to remain in Mexico while their cases are considered in the United States, a dramatic escalation of the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Border officers will start pushing asylum applicants back across the border as soon as the implementation becomes operational on Friday, beginning at the San Ysidro port of entry in California, a Homeland Security official said on condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning.
Until now, most migrants seeking asylum were released from detention into the United States while awaiting a court hearing, a process that can take years due to backlogs.
Migrant advocates say implementing the plan will put asylum-seekers at risk by requiring them to wait in Mexican border cities with some of the deadliest homicide rates in the world.
On Dec. 20, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen announced the policy shift to force asylum seekers to wait in Mexico, hailing the measure as "historic." Operations on the border did not change over the last month, however.
On Wednesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials briefed asylum workers on how to interview individuals affected under the new policy, saying it would be rolled out imminently, according to a federal employee who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the internal planning.
Arturo Rocha, a spokesman for Mexico's foreign ministry, said Thursday that U.S. officials had not informed the Mexican government that they were beginning to implement the policy.
"We have not been officially notified by the U.S. government of their intention to implement today," Rocha told the Los Angeles Times.
Mexican officials said in December, when Nielsen announced the plan, that they would cooperate on a temporary basis, allowing non-Mexican migrants to remain in Mexico for humanitarian reasons.
It wasn't clear Thursday how Mexico would respond to U.S. officials pushing asylum-seekers back, however.
The crackdown comes as President Donald Trump continues to clash with Congress over his demands for $5.7 billion for a border wall, a dispute that led to a partial government shutdown on Dec. 22.
On Saturday, Trump said he would consider a deal to end the impasse that would include temporary deportation relief for some immigrants already in the United States. Democrats have said they will negotiate after Trump agrees to reopen the government.
The new asylum policy could directly affect thousands of migrants from Central America who are stuck on the Mexican side of the border, or are now approaching it in hopes of seeking asylum.
In Tapachula, on Mexico's southern border with Guatemala, more than 10,000 migrants have applied for humanitarian visas to head north, and the group continues to grow.
"I actually think they encourage the caravans because they want to get rid of the people from their country," Trump said of Central American countries Wednesday at a White House meeting with conservatives to discuss his immigration proposal.
"We have a lot of very dangerous people that want to come into our country," he added. "And we're not letting them in."
Since December, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services personnel have been stationed at the San Ysidro crossing and other Border Patrol stations in California, and a recent recruitment effort added to their ranks.
They will be charged with carrying out the new policy and conducting interviews to determine whether asylum-seekers will be returned to Mexico.
A Homeland Security official said Customs and Border Protection personnel will take applicants who they determine must wait in Mexico to a gate at San Ysidro typically used for deportations.
In her Dec. 20 announcement, Nielsen said the Trump administration had decided on its own to change longstanding immigration policy that enabled most asylum-seekers to be released in the U.S while awaiting a hearing.
U.S. officials have provided few details about the new plan or how it will be implemented.
On Wednesday, a reminder went out to Citizenship and Immigration Services employees not to leak documents or information, saying it would "risk harm to our operations, create confusion, threaten the safety of the American public and law enforcement, and may even provide an opening to individuals to exploit those seeking to access our immigration system and programs," according to a BuzzFeed News report.
Before the asylum applicants are released from U.S. custody and returned to Mexico, they will get a date for their hearing on a "notice to appear."
There will be a hotline they can call for updates on the status of their cases, and the policy of returning applicants to Mexico will not be applied to unaccompanied minors or other vulnerable groups, such as pregnant women or migrants who are ill, the Homeland Security official said.
Asylum processing at the San Ysidro port of entry, between San Diego and Tijuana, appeared normal early Thursday.
U.S. officials accepted 39 asylum-seekers, fewer than on a typical day. Families from Mexico, a family from Russia and a man from Eritrea were among those taken in vans by Mexican officials to make their claims for asylum in the U.S.
Violence is on the rise in all of the Mexican border states and a record number of people were victims of homicide last year in Tijuana _ more than any city in Mexico.
With 133 killings for every 100,000 people, the sprawling border metropolis now ranks as more violent than the capitals of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, the countries that most migrants who arrive at the southern border are fleeing.
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