Mexico will hold US-bound refugees while claims processed: Trump

Asylum seekers hoping to enter the US via its southern border will have to wait in Mexico while they are assessed, President Donald Trump has announced, appearing to confirm a report about a bilateral deal published by The Washington Post.

The move was cautiously welcomed by some refugees currently at the border, even as Mexico's incoming interior minister Olga Sanchez Cordero, who was quoted by the Post as confirming the agreement, later issued a denial.

"Migrants at the Southern Border will not be allowed into the United States until their claims are individually approved in court," Trump wrote on Twitter.

He added that the US "will allow those who come into our Country legally" and emphasised: "All will stay in Mexico."
But her office later issued a statement saying: "There is no agreement of any type between the future federal government of Mexico and that of the United States of America."
Trump has sent almost 6,000 soldiers to the Mexican border in support of Customs and Border Protection agents and National Guard troops already there, to forestall what Trump has called an "invasion" by "very bad people."
He added that he was looking forward to working with Mexico's new government, including on ways to spur job creation "to benefit the government and people of Mexico."