Mexican officials deny deal to keep caravan asylum-seekers out of U.S.

President Donald Trump on Sunday continued his call to shut down the country's southern border, putting pressure on Mexico after a top official publicly denied a plan for asylum-seekers to wait in that country until their claims are processed for entry into the United States.

Trump said in a morning tweet: “Would be very SMART if Mexico would stop the Caravans long before they get to our Southern Border, or if originating countries would not let them form (it is a way they get certain people out of their country and dump in U.S. No longer). Dems created this problem. No crossings!”

The comment comes as a caravan of thousands of migrants from Central America is moving closer to the U.S.-Mexico border and nearly 6,000 American troops are stationed there, awaiting its arrival.

Later Sunday, according to various news reports, federal agents and migrants clashed after the U.S. government shut down a popular border crossing between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego. Hundreds of migrants had  forcibly attempted to breach a fence along the border, the Trump administration said. 

Trump, who returned to the White House Sunday evening from a long Thanksgiving weekend at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, has threatened for days to shut down the southern border, suggesting at one point the military could use lethal force against the migrants.

Confusion heightened over the weekend about negotiations between the Trump administration and the incoming leaders of Mexico over holding the migrants at the border until their claims for asylum status are processed by American immigration courts.

U.S. officials have said for months they were working with Mexico to find solutions for what they have called a border crisis. But Mexico’s incoming government denied a report that the two countries had struck a deal.

The Associated Press reported that future Interior Minister Olga Sánchez said in a statement: “There is no agreement of any sort between the incoming Mexican government and the U.S. government.”

Hours earlier, The Washington Post quoted her as saying the incoming administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador had agreed to allow migrants to stay in Mexico as a “short-term solution” while the United States considered their applications for asylum. López Obrador takes office on Saturday.

The statement shared with The Associated Press said the future government’s principal concern relating  to the migrants is their well-being while in Mexico.

The Washington Post reported Saturday the Trump administration had won support from the Mexican president-elect’s team for a plan dubbed “Remain in Mexico.” The newspaper also quoted Sánchez as saying: “For now, we have agreed to this policy of Remain in Mexico.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said the Trump administration should have been working with Central American countries “a long time ago to try to – to try to get to a point where we didn’t see this extraordinary amount of people coming through.”

Appearing Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” Klobuchar shifted blame back on Trump and the Republicans for inaction on comprehensive immigration reform that would include increased border security, as well as a path to citizenship.

“He controls the White House," Klobuchar said of Trump. "His party controls the House and the Senate — it is on them."

By Candice Ferrette

candice.ferrette@newsday.comcandiceferrette

Candice Ferrette covers Nassau County government and politics on Long Island. She has been a reporter at Newsday since 2011.