MEXICO CITY: Nuevo Laredo, a Mexican border city known for high rates of violence, received its first foreign migrants from the United States on Tuesday as part of a program begun in January. The group of 10 people – including Central Americans, Venezuelans and Cubans – crossed into the northeastern Mexican state of Tamaulipas via Nuevo Laredo’s border bridge, said a source from the National Institute of Migration.

They will wait in Tamaulipas while their claims to enter the United States are assessed. The move is part of a U.S. plan, in coordination with Mexico, to expand the Migrant Protection Protocol (MPP) program, which started in the Laredo sector of the U.S. Southwest, U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials said. However, shelter director Julio Lopez, who received one of the returning migrants, told that Tamaulipas has “no action plan to attend to these people as promised.”

Faced with tariff threats from U.S. President Donald Trump, Mexico agreed in June to increase the number of ports of entry under the MPP program. The program, also known as ‘Remain in Mexico’, returns foreign asylum seekers to Mexican border localities while their claims are processed in the United States. It has included 18,503 migrants since it was launched early this year.

The MPP program is part of an effort by Trump to curb the number of migrants entering the United States illegally, especially those from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. (Agencies)