The consequences of the first measures taken by the new president of the United States concerning migrants wishing to enter the US through the Mexican border are already being felt in the neighboring country following Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday, January 20. Mexican TV channels have shown migrants, attempting to enter the US legally, in tears as they were blocked at border crossings.

The end of the CBP One mobile application, created by the Biden administration to apply for asylum in the US, has already affected 30,000 people who had been granted entry into the US territory until February 15. The US Border Patrol (CBP) has also canceled 240,000 other asylum applications submitted from Mexican territory. In Mexico City, migrants who had been waiting for months for a response to their asylum applications were also left in despair.

Late Monday, Trump signed an executive order reinstating the Remain In Mexico program created during his first term. In practice, this means that these 270,000 asylum seekers will have to wait in Mexico for their applications to be examined by the American justice system. "The return of this policy is very bad news. Not only does it violate the principles of refugee law, it forces them to stay in a dangerous country. The vast majority of migrants who had to stay in Mexico during Trump's first term experienced episodes of violence, and very few were granted asylum," recalled Eunice Rendon, who coordinates the NGO Agenda Migrante in Mexico.

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