Trump demand that asylum seekers wait in Mexico may turn on legal clause

A migrant girl, part of a caravan of thousands from Central America trying to reach the United States, waits for the delivery of food to a temporary shelter in Tijuana, Mexico, November 22, 2018. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

(Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's unprecedented proposal to keep migrants waiting in Mexico while seeking U.S. asylum will likely face challenges that it endangers refugees and denies them due process, and may be decided by an obscure provision of U.S. immigration law.

Last week, Trump said that migrants who seek asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border would stay in Mexico until their claims were individually approved in U.S. courts, although Mexico's incoming government denied they had struck any deal.