Confusion, fear spread on Mexico border with new US policy

7/17/19 – AP News

By María Verza

Asylum-seekers gathered in Nuevo Laredo, across the border from Texas, grappled to understand what a new U.S. policy that all but eliminates refugee claims by Central Americans and many others meant for their bids to find a better life in America amid a chaos of rumors, confusion and fear.

The policy went into effect Tuesday and represents the most forceful attempt to date by President Donald Trump to slash the number of people seeking asylum in the United States. It denies asylum to anyone who shows up on the U.S. border after traveling through another country, something Central American migrants have to do.

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The Latest: Mexico ‘does not agree’ with new US asylum rule

7/15/19 – AP News

Mexican Foreign Relations Secretary Marcelo Ebrard says his country “does not agree with any measure that limits access to asylum. That was a reference to measures announced Monday by the U.S. government to end asylum protections for most migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Ebrard said at a news conference that a “safe third country” agreement with the United States “is not going to happen,” though he later appeared to hedge on that, saying only it would need prior congressional approval.

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Facing New Asylum Curb, Nerves for Those Waiting at U.S.-Mexico Border

7/16/19 – The New York Times

By Julia Love

Number 12,026 – better known as Marcial Artigas, 33, from Holguin, Cuba – waited nervously at a migration office at the U.S.-Mexico border as a Mexican official called out numbers from a long list of hopefuls waiting to cross to the United States.

Artigas said he was praying his number would be called next, before a new U.S. policy announced on Monday enters into force that bars almost all immigrants from applying for asylum at the country’s southern border.

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U.S. begins returning asylum seekers at Laredo crossing, expanding “Remain in Mexico”

7/9/19 – CBS News

By Camila Montoya-Galvez

The federal government has started returning non-Mexican migrants who claim asylum at the Texas border city of Laredo back to Mexico, the first expansion of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy since the U.S. and Mexico brokered a deal to avert President Trump’s tariff threats.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials were slated to make the first returns on Tuesday, a Department of Homeland Security official told CBS News. Ten people had been returned so far, according to a Mexican government official.

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Migrant Flow Across U.S.-Mexico Border Falls For First Time This Year

7/9/19 – NPR

By John Burnett and Joel Rose

For the first time this year, the number of migrants taken into custody by immigration authorities after crossing the Southwest border dropped in June.

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that about 104,000 migrants were taken into custody after crossing the Southwest border — a 28% drop from May.

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Border arrests drop as Mexico’s migration crackdown appears to cut crossings

7/9/19 – Washington Post

By Nick Miroff

The number of people taken into custody along the U.S. southern border fell 28 percent in June, a drop that U.S. authorities say reflects the early impact of Mexico’s crackdown on Central American migration.

Border crossings typically rise in the spring and slump during the scorching summer months, but the drop registered from May to June was significantly larger than in previous years, according to Homeland Security statistics released Tuesday. U.S. authorities detained 104,344 people along the border last month, down from 144,278 in May.

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Mexican-made autos stream across border at record rate in first half of 2019

7/9/19 – CNBC

By Phil LeBeau

Photo by Kai Pilger on Pexels.com

Remember President Donald Trump’s threat to slap a tariff on every product the U.S. imports from Mexico? That threat in early June, which the President later dropped, had auto executives worried.

The latest numbers from Mexico shows why so many in the auto industry were so concerned.

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