The slow and long process has begun.
The first asylum seekers in the United States are being returned and Honduran Carlos Gómez Perdomo is the first to cross into Mexico after arriving with the most recent migrant caravan.
The Trump administration launched the new policy, called "Migration Protection Protocols" in order to send asylum seekers from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador back to Mexico to wait for immigration court dates in the United States.
Mexican officials emphasized that the decision to return asylum seekers to Mexico was made “unilaterally” by the U.S. and that they are responding to that decision based on humanitarian concerns, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports.
Mexican officials said they were told to expect up to 20 returnees per day but on the first day of the program, Perdomo was the only one returned.
The migrant protection unit in Mexico, Grupo Beta, escorted Perdomo to a shelter that officials use to house returnees.
The pilot program will operate only at the San Ysidro Port of Entry and will involve Central American migrants between the ages of 18 and 60. Only single adults applying for asylum will initially be in the program, but eventually it would expand to include families as well.
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