The United States began flying Mexican deportees to the interior of Mexico on Thursday and a senior U.S. official said Mexicans seeking U.S. asylum could be sent to Guatemala, as the Trump administration seeks to further limit border crossings, Trend reports citing Reuters.
The flight carrying Mexican deportees from Tucson, Arizona, landed in Guadalajara around midday. One immigration shelter in the city said it had been informed of a likely influx of deportees.
U.S. President Donald Trump has made clamping down on unlawful migration a top priority of his three-year-old term in office and his 2020 re-election campaign.
Numbers of Central American migrants apprehended at the border fell sharply in the second part of 2019 after Mexico deployed National Guard troops to stem the flow, under pressure from Trump.
With fewer Central Americans at the border, U.S. attention has turned to Mexicans crossing illegally or asking for asylum. Around 150,000 Mexican single adults were apprehended at the border in fiscal 2019, sharply down from previous decades but still enough to bother U.S. immigration hawks.
In another sign of the new focus on Mexicans, Acting Deputy U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli said an agreement that sends U.S. asylum seekers to Guatemala to request U.S. refuge could also apply to Mexicans and other nationalities.
“As we fully implement the agreement, all populations are being considered, including Mexican nationals,” Cuccinelli said on Twitter.
Mexico’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.