Mexico to probe reported US expulsions of child migrants

Mexico City: Mexico said Friday that it would investigate reports that unaccompanied foreign migrant children were being expelled across the border from the United States in violation of a diplomatic agreement.

The New York Times reported that Central American children are being deported by the United States to Mexico where they have no family to look after them.

The expulsions, which appear to amount to more than 200 over the past eight months, were exposed in a “sharply critical” internal email from a senior Border Patrol official, the newspaper said.

“The government of Mexico will follow up on specific cases in which unaccompanied foreign minors have entered Mexico irregularly from the United States,” the foreign ministry said.

Under an agreement between the neighboring countries, children who are not Mexican can only be sent back across the border with adult supervision, the New York Times said.

The border is currently closed to non-essential travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.