Trump deportation plan prompts fears of refugee camps on US/Mexico border

Immigration and human rights specialists have warned of an "explosive" situation on the US southern border if Donald Trump's plan to deport undocumented immigrants to Mexico comes to pass.

Immigration enforcement policies announced by the Department of Homeland Security this week propose sending all undocumented immigrants who entered the US from Mexico back into Mexico – regardless of their country of origin.

It is a break from current US policy, which only departs undocumented Mexicans to Mexico, while other undocumented people are sent back to their country of origin.

And the new deportation policy announcement has prompted fears refugee camps could spring up along the US border with Mexico if people are deported there and left without any support or social structure to aid them.

Indeed, there are already a number of people from Haiti stranded in the Mexican border town of Tijuana, who arrived towards the end of former president Barack Obama's second term in the hope of being granted asylum.

Alejandro Hope, a security analyst based in Mexico City, told The Guardian: "Just look at the case of the Haitians in Tijuana – what were they, seven or eight thousand? And the situation was just out of control," said Alejandro Hope, a Mexico City-based security analyst. "Now imagine a situation 10 or 15 times that size. There aren't enough resources to maintain them.

He added for Mexico to accept the US sending non-Mexican undocumented immigrants to the country, there would have to be some kind of monetary provision from the US.

"For this to be politically acceptable in Mexico, it would have to be paid," Hope added. "No Mexican administration could accept this kind of thing unless it were accompanied by billions of dollars."

The US administration has not made any comment as to what it expected Mexico to do with the people it deports there, and the Mexican government is yet to speak out on the subject.