Mexico supports Trump’s plan to block migrants while claims are processed: report

WASHINGTON, Nov. 24 (Reuters) — Mexico‘s incoming government has agreed to back the Trump administration’s plan to change U.S. border policy by requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their claims move through U.S. courts, the Washington Post reported on Saturday.Citing Mexican officials and senior members of president-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s transition team, the newspaper said the agreement would break with long-standing asylum rules and mount a new obstacle to Central American migrants attempting to reach the United States and escape poverty and violence.READ MORE: Tijuana, Mexico declares ‘humanitarian crisis’ as tensions flare over migrantsOlga Sanchez Cordero, Mexico’s incoming interior minister and the top domestic policy official for Lopez Obrador, who takes office Dec. 1, told the Washington Post the plan known as Remain in Mexico was a “short-term solution.”“The medium- and long-term solution is that people don’t migrate,” Sanchez Cordero said. “Mexico has open arms and everything, but imagine, one caravan after another after another, that would also be a problem for us.”WATCH: Trump to shut border, halt trade if Mexico loses ‘control’ of migrant situation The paper said that according to the outlines of the plan, asylum applicants at the border will have to stay in Mexico while their cases are processed, potentially ending the system U.S. President Donald Trump decries as “catch and release,” which has, until now, generally allowed those seeking refuge to wait on safer U.S. soil.There was no immediate comment from the White House or Mexico on the deal, which the Washington Post said took shape last week in Houston during a meeting between Marcelo Ebrard, Mexico’s incoming foreign minister, and top U.S. officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.READ MORE: Trump administration gives U.S. military the OK to use lethal force along the Mexican borderTrump has been seeking to block thousands of Central Americans travelling in caravans from entering the United States and has ordered that immigrants who enter the country illegally from Mexico are ineligible for asylum.That order has been temporarily suspended by a U.S. judge.WATCH: California doctors cross border into Mexico to provide treatment for some in migrant caravan