The first migrants sent from the US to Mexico by Reuters to relaunch the Trump-era scheme

By Jose Luis Gonzalez

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – The United States has returned the first two migrants to Mexico since the Trump administration resumed its program to remove asylum seekers from the United States, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Wednesday.

The United States and Mexico agreed last week to relaunch a controversial scheme known as the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP), which forces asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for U.S. immigration days, in accordance with a federal court order.

Mexico’s resumption conditioned Washington’s compliance with a number of criteria, including the provision of vaccines to asylum seekers.

The first two migrants to return under the renewed scheme entered Mexico at a border crossing in Ciudad Juarez, opposite El Paso, Texas, in Mexico City, according to an IOM spokesman.

One of the two men, identified as Nicaraguan Enrique Manzanares, said he felt a little sad, but thanked God that he was still alive.

“In the end, nothing was lost,” Manzanares told Reuters. “Some we get, some we don’t.”

A spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the Department of Homeland Security had ordered the court to reinstate the MPP in one place today.

“For reasons of operational security, DHS does not share details, such as the location of initial returns or the number of people enrolled,” a CBP spokesman said.

When fully operational, MPP will return to Mexico at seven ports in San Diego, Calexico, Nogales, El Paso, Eagle Pass, Laredo and Brownsville, CBP said.

President Joe Biden, a Democrat, has tried hard to change many of the harsh immigration policies imposed by his former Republican, Donald Trump, and is facing a record number of migrant arrests on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Biden left the MPP shortly after taking office in January, trying to pursue what he called a more humane approach to immigration. But a federal judge ruled that Biden’s move did not follow proper procedure, and ordered the MPP to be reinstated in August.