U.S. sends first families to Mexico to await asylum, rights groups sue

Five families with a total of 16 people, including children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, arrived in the Mexican border city of Tijuana on Wednesday, according to a person who works in migration for the Mexican government, who asked not to be named. In late January, the United States began sending non-Mexican migrants who had crossed at the U.S. border with Mexico back to Mexico to wait as their asylum requests are processed, a program called Migrant Protection Protocols. Rights groups say the program endangers asylum seekers by forcing them to remain in regions of Mexico experiencing record levels of violence.