The United States will soon send non-Mexican asylum seekers who cross the US southern border back to wait in Mexico while their requests are processed, the Trump administration announced on Thursday.
Immigrant advocates and human rights groups quickly denounced the policy change as illegal and violating the rights of refugees.
Mexico's government said that it would accept some of those who are waiting for humanitarian reasons, in what many will see as an early concession to US President Donald Trump's administration by Mexico's new president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on December 1.
"We want to discourage those who are claiming asylum fraudulently," US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told a congressional committee on Thursday, describing the plan.
In response to the plan, Mexico's foreign ministry underscored that it still has the right to admit or reject the entry of foreigners into its territory.
"Mexico's government has decided to take the following actions to benefit migrants, in particular, unaccompanied and accompanied minors, and to protect the rights of those who want to start an asylum process in the United States," the foreign ministry said.
The ministry said the actions taken by the Mexican and US governments do not constitute a "safe third country" scheme, where migrants would have to request US asylum while in Mexico.
Department of Homeland Security officials told reporters on condition of anonymity that the Mexican government has said asylum seekers would have access to attorneys in Mexico and that migrants would be able to enter the US for their court hearings, without giving more details about how the process would work.
Serious doubts remain over whether Mexico can keep vulnerable asylum seekers safe. Authorities are investigating the deaths of two Honduran teenagers kidnapped and killed in the border city of Tijuana last weekend.
Immigrant and human rights advocates swiftly denounced the new policy, saying it violated international law and would put migrants at further risk.
"Make no mistake - Mexico is not a safe country for all people seeking protection," said Amnesty International Executive Director Margaret Huang. "Many people seeking asylum in the United States face discrimination, exploitation, sexual assault, murder, or the possibility of being disappeared while travelling through Mexico or while forced to wait for extraordinarily long times in Mexican border towns."
"Operationally this will look a little bit different at different ports of entry simply based on what the infrastructure is like in the area," said one official. "We are not implementing this on the entire US border all at once."