SAN DIEGO — Ending a weeklong diplomatic stalemate, Mexican government officials reversed themselves Wednesday and agreed to accept and repatriate 658 Chinese immigrants being held at sea by the U.S. Coast Guard off the Baja California coast.
The decision to allow three smuggling vessels to dock is a humanitarian gesture in response to grave conditions aboard the crowded, dirty ships, a top Mexican diplomat said at a midday news conference in Mexico City.
Mexico's subsecretary for foreign affairs, Andres Rozental, cited the "critical state . . . of more than 600 human beings abandoned practically to their fate on the high seas, whose physical integrity and health conditions are seriously threatened."
The Coast Guard has been holding the Chinese, who were ultimately bound for the United States, for eight days. Last week, Coast Guard personnel intercepted and boarded the ships about 70 miles west of the Baja California peninsula, the smugglers' reported destination.
The breakthrough came after several days in which Mexican officials had insisted that they would not accept a request by the Clinton Administration to take the immigrants into custody and send them back to China at U.S. expense.
As part of a tough new policy against a wave of seagoing illegal immigration from China, the Administration requested Mexico's help in preventing the Chinese from reaching U.S. shores and asking for political asylum, which would enable the immigrants to remain in the country pending lengthy legal proceedings.
Rozental reiterated Mexico's rejection of the original proposal, which he said would have required U.S. immigration officials or representatives of the United Nations to screen the immigrants.
"None of the undocumented immigrants will remain in Mexico, and it will not be permitted that they pass into a third country seeking asylum," Rozental said in an official statement. "At the moment that the boats enter national territory, they will be confiscated and the crews will be arrested. . . . At the same time, the immediate repatriation of the Chinese to their country of origin will begin."
The decision is meant to deter international smugglers from using Mexico as a clandestine corridor for illegal Chinese immigrants headed to the United States. Mexican officials also intend to send a message that they will not allow the immigration laws of other countries to be applied in their nation, Rozental said.
