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US Finds Ally in Mexico as Asylum Policy Marks First Year

Associated Press

   TIJUANA, MEXICO - The Perla family of El Salvador has slipped into a
   daily rhythm in Mexico while they wait for the U.S. to decide whether
   to grant them asylum.

   A modest home has replaced the tent they lived in at a migrant shelter.
   Their 7- and 5-year-old boys are in their second year of public school,
   and their third son is about to celebrate his second birthday in
   Tijuana.

   They were among the first migrants sent back to Mexico under a Trump
   administration policy that dramatically reshaped the scene at the
   U.S.-Mexico border by returning migrants to Mexico to wait out their
   U.S. asylum process.

   The practice initially targeted Central Americans but has expanded to
   other nationalities, excluding Mexicans, who are exempt. The Homeland
   Security Department said Wednesday that it started making Brazilians
   wait in Mexico.

   Today, a year after the policy began, many other migrants have given up
   and gone back to the home countries they fled.

   Others, like the Perlas, became entrenched in Mexican life.

   The system known as the Migrant Protection Protocols helped change
   Washington's relationship with Mexico and made the neighbor a key ally
   in President Donald Trump's efforts to turn away a surge of asylum
   seekers.

   The Perlas are faring better than most of the roughly 60,000
   asylum-seekers, many of whom live in fear of being robbed, assaulted,
   raped or killed. Human Rights First, a group critical of the policy,
   has documented 816 public reports of violent crimes against those who
   were returned to Mexico.

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