Migrants seeking asylum in the United States were returned to Mexico on Monday (January 11), as part of the U.S.’s hardline stance on immigration into the country.
Tens of thousands of migrants, mostly from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, have been returned to Mexico under a Trump administration policy known as the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) to await their U.S. immigration court hearings.
As the high-stakes immigration debate rages on in the United States and the wider region, these migrant that have been returned to Mexico hope that 2021 can bring them some respite with the end of the Trump government.
The return of these migrants comes as parts of an existing border structure between Mexico and the United States get upgraded with new fencing. In the border state of Texas, officials report that just 15 miles (24 km) of new border fencing has gone up during the Trump administration’s four years.
(Production: Jose Luis Gonzalez, Manuel Carrillo, Paul Vieira)