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USA will send asylum seekers to Central America 0:46
(CNN) - In the midst of the increase in Mexicans crossing the U.S. border, the Trump administration will begin deporting some Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala to apply for asylum there, according to officials from the Department of Homeland Security.
The US government has implemented a series of policies aimed at preventing people from applying for asylum in the United States. Many of these changes were directed at Central Americans, who were arriving in increasing numbers at the border between the United States and Mexico in search of asylum. Those policies did not apply to Mexican citizens.
The arrests of Mexican migrants increased in fiscal year 2019, compared to the previous year, according to data from the Office of Customs and Border Protection. Although they were mostly Central American families, there was also an increase in the arrests of Mexican families, from 2,200 to 6,000.
Authorities reported that 2,000 Mexican families were arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border between October and November last year.
It is not clear how many of the detainees requested asylum. But in a statement issued Monday night, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico estimated that the proposal could "affect about 900 applicants as of February."
In general, the number of people detained along the border between the United States and Mexico has declined in recent months. In December, the US Border Patrol arrested some 32,800 people on the southwest border, according to preliminary data from this unit obtained by CNN, compared to November 33,510.
2,000 Mexican families were arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border between October and November last year, according to the U.S. Border Patrol
This new measure of sending Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala is an extension of an agreement signed last year by the then Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan. The agreement meant a major change in US asylum policy, as it allowed him to send migrants who may have a legitimate request for asylum to another country to present their case.
"Certain Mexicans seeking humanitarian protection in the United States can now be transferred to Guatemala and have the opportunity to seek protection there, under the terms of the Guatemala Asylum Cooperation Agreement," a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.