Washington (CNN) The Trump administration, amid a spike in Mexican nationals crossing the US border, says it will start deporting some Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala to claim asylum there, according to Homeland Security officials.

The administration has rolled out a series of policies intended to curtail people from claiming asylum in the United States. Many of those changes targeted Central Americans who were increasingly coming to the US-Mexico border to claim asylum. Those policies did not apply to Mexican nationals.

Arrests of Mexican migrants increased in fiscal year 2019, compared to the prior year, according to Customs and Border Protection data . While Central American families made up the majority of arrests, there was an uptick in the apprehension of Mexican families at the southern border from around 2,200 to 6,000.

Between October and November of last year, 2,000 Mexican families have been arrested at the US-Mexico border.

It's unclear how many of those apprehended claimed asylum. But in a statement Monday night, Mexico's Foreign Ministry estimated that the proposal could "affect around 900 applicants as of February."

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