The number of people applying for asylum in Mexico has soared by more than 150 percent since Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, according to Mexican data, as more Central American migrants seek to stay rather than take their chances in the United States.
Between November 2016 and March, Mexico’s refugee agency, COMAR, received 5,421 asylum applications, up from 2,148 over the same period in 2015 and 2016.
The number of detentions along the southwestern U.S. border has fallen about 4 percent over the same five-month period, as Trump’s tough immigration proposals sent a chill through migrant communities. Just like the vast majority of Mexico’s asylum applicants, many of those detained on the U.S. border come from the violent countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.
Trump won the Nov. 8 election after vowing to crack down on illegal immigration by deporting millions and building a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, measures Central American migrants say have scared them into putting their travel plans on ice.
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