Mexico overhauls handling of migrants to release pressure

By EDGAR H. CLEMENTE, FÉLIX MÁRQUEZ and MARÍA VERZA
Associated Press

TAPACHULA, Mexico (AP) — Benjamín Villalta, a 39-year-old Nicaraguan, couldn’t believe that a Mexican immigration office would open in the middle of the night to give him and some 40 other migrants humanitarian visas that would allow them to move about Mexico and work. Such an option would have been a fantasy before and is now part of a major overhaul of how Mexico is handling migrants at its southern and northern borders. It came just days before the United States and Mexico announced Thursday a deal to re-implement under court order a Trump-era policy known as “Remain in Mexico” that forced asylum seekers to wait out their cases in Mexico.