The Trump administration on Wednesday expanded a policy to keep Central American migrants in Mexico while they wait for their asylum cases to be processed in the US at the El Paso port of entry, officials said.



The expansion of the policy — called Migration Protection Protocols — represents the administration’s latest move to dissuade asylum-seekers by instituting sweeping policy changes. Already, the administration has rolled out the policy along other portions of the southwestern border, including in the San Diego region and the Calexico port of entry.

The rollout comes just two days before a federal court judge in San Francisco is set to hear an ACLU request to block the policy from continuing to be enforced. Returns of migrants back to Mexico are expected to begin later this week at the El Paso port of entry, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.

US Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents the El Paso, Texas, region, denounced the administration’s expansion of the policy and said she would introduce legislation to ensure there would be no funding for the plan.