Mexican officials on Saturday closed a section of their border with Guatemala following a push by thousands of migrants to make their way across a bridge over the Suchiate River between the two countries.
About 2,500 migrants of all ages were held up and prevented from crossing or entering the bridge at Mexico’s southern border by Mexican National Guardsmen, Guatemalan authorities estimated, according to The Associated Press.
Mexican authorities reportedly allowed several dozen migrants to enter into Mexico in groups of 20 but warned them against trying to slip away to avoid immigration processing.
Mexico’s National Migration Institute said on Twitter that it had shored up points along the southern border to assure “safe, orderly and regular immigration.”
Migrants charge on the Mexican National Guardsmen at the border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico in Tecun Uman, Guatemala, Saturday, Jan. 18, 2020. More than a thousand Central American migrants surged onto the bridge spanning the Suchiate River, that marks the border between both countries, as Mexican security forces attempted to impede their journey north. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)
The Trump administration announced in November that it had started sending migrants from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala as part of its “safe third country” agreement. President Trump claimed the deal would help ease the immigration crisis at the southern U.S. border.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) mounted a legal challenge to the agreement, claiming that it violated federal law. It said safe countries must meet the standard of providing a “full and fair” procedure for asylum, and Guatemala does not. – READ MORE