Shawdesh Desk: Several Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States were allowed to return there on Thursday after being forced to wait in one of Mexico’s most violent cities, supported by faith leaders who oppose the controversial US migration policy.

A couple with three young children who fled violence in Honduras and a Salvadoran young man with cognitive disabilities crossed into El Paso from Ciudad Juarez, said Bishop of El Paso Mark Seitz, who helped plead their case with officials at the border.

Their return came on the same afternoon that the US House of Representatives passed a $4.6 billion aid package to address a migrant surge at the US-Mexico border, galvanized in recent days by a photo of drowned migrants and reports of horrendous conditions for detained children.

The attention also put renewed concern on the policy that sends asylum seekers to Mexico border cities while waiting for US courts to process their applications, known as Remain in Mexico or Migrant Protection Protocols.

The programme started in January under the Trump administration and has drawn outrage from US faith leaders, rights groups and others. It has now affected more than 15,000 asylum seekers, mainly from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Under a deal struck with Mexico on July 7 to stave off tariffs threatened by Trump, MPP is being expanded to more cities and applied to new nationalities including Cubans.

Although migration officials in El Paso initially said that the Honduran family and Salvadoran man had to continue to wait out the asylum process in Ciudad Juarez just opposite the border, Seitz said that he countered that the migrants had special circumstances and deserved to remain in the United States.

‘Some calls were made higher up, and the word came down that they would be allowed to pass,’ he said. ‘They’re going to have to prove their cases, but they’ll be able to do it in the loving arms of relatives.’

The Honduran family, with children ages 3, 5 and 9, had spent three months waiting in Ciudad Juarez, Seitz added.

‘They are a family that has suffered beyond what most of us can imagine, the torture of children, and so on… they’re definitely qualified,’ he said.

In an open letter to US president Donald Trump and other political leaders, a coalition of evangelical churches said it was ‘deeply troubled’ by a policy it said left children vulnerable to violence and trafficking, as well as by reports of ‘inhumane’ conditions in US federal immigration facilities.

The Catholic diocese of El Paso, Texas separately denounced a critical lack of shelter, food, legal aid and basic services for asylum seekers returned to Mexico under the program and ‘distressing detention conditions’ in the United States before they are returned.