MEXICO CITY, July 21 (NNN-Prensa Latina) — Nuevo Laredo, the most important border city in the state of Tamaulipas, in northeastern Mexico, registers this Saturday the presence of thousands of Central Americans returned by the United States waiting for visas.
The U.S. government announced on Friday that it will extend a measure that forces asylum seekers to stay out of the country and await their hearings in Nuevo Laredo, located on the southern bank of the Rio Bravo, where dozens of improvised camps have been set up.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it will also apply its migrant protection protocols in Brownsville, Texas, bordering Matamoros, Mexico.
It also plans to begin sending asylum seekers back to Mexico next Friday. According to the protocols, foreigners receive an order to appear on a certain date for a hearing before a migration court and then return to Mexican territory.
Since January, that rule has applied in San Diego, California, and El Paso, Texas, among other border cities. Washington is trying to reduce the large influx of Central Americans who cross Mexico to seek asylum.
Many people have been sleeping for months in a makeshift camp near one of the international bridges, including families with very young children.
There are thousands more in hotels, shelters or pensions in Nuevo Laredo and Matamoros. Very few migrants have been eligible for asylum because other rules of Donald Trump’s government limit the number of daily applications. — NNN-PRENSA LATINA
