The Mexican government has begun pushing back on a controversial Trump administration program forcing asylum-seekers to return to the country after more than 35,000 people were sent back to Mexico, BuzzFeed News has learned.



Under the Trump administration’s Migration Protection Protocols policy, asylum-seekers are forced to wait in Mexico as their cases are processed in the US, a system that can take months or years to complete. Advocates have criticized the program as cruel and illegal, and in recent months, US asylum officers have told a federal appeals court the program was “fundamentally contrary to the moral fabric of our nation.” The Trump administration has continued implementing the policy despite a legal challenge in courts, and plans to expand the program across the entire border as part of a deal with the Mexican government, which was desperate to stave off tariffs.

It appears in recent weeks, however, Mexican immigration officials have scuttled some of those plans by implementing caps on the number of people that can be returned to the country, limiting the hours when they can be sent back, and refusing to take asylum-seekers on Sundays, according to a Department of Homeland Security briefing document obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The move comes after more than 35,000 people were returned under the program since its inception at the beginning of the year, according to the document. The figure — the highest to date — has not been previously reported.

“These numbers show that DHS is running full speed towards a growing humanitarian catastrophe. With over 35,000 people forced back to Mexico already, the strain on border communities is growing every day and will not improve until DHS ends this dangerous program,” said Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a policy analyst at the American Immigration Council. “DHS has put tens of thousands of people at risk through this unsustainable and indefensible program and taken away everything but the facade of due process.”

In El Paso, Texas, Mexican officials are no longer accepting asylum-seekers after 1 p.m. The decision has forced US Customs and Border Protection to detain immigrants who come from Mexico for their US court hearings in its custody overnight in more than half of all cases this month.

In some instances, the Mexican government has outright refused to take those who have been given final deportation orders but can appeal their cases, much to the chagrin of DHS officials.

