U.S. and Mexico seek to control the migration crisis at their borders 2:17

(CNN) -- Several groups that defend the rights of migrants condemned on Monday the new agreement between the United States and Mexico, by which the latter country agrees to "depressurize" its border cities by deporting people seeking to cross the border to their countries of origin.

"The announcement of the agreement is nothing new in U.S.-Mexico relations, it is simply an instance where governments finally say the silent part out loud. For years, the U.S. government has spent billions of dollars forcing Mexico to do its dirty work to prevent asylum seekers, who are fleeing for their lives, from setting foot on U.S. soil, including Mexican families fleeing persecution from which the Mexican government refuses to protect them. said Nicole Elizabeth Ramos, director of Al Otro Lado's border rights project.

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Some of the groups are calling for the U.S. government to restore the right to seek asylum at ports of entry, increase capacity to screen asylum seekers, and adequately fund local governments and community-based organizations to continue providing services to asylum seekers.

"People flee out of necessity, not choice," said Melina Roche, director of the #WelcomeWithDignity campaign. "Policies that prevent or deter people from seeking safety, freedom and a better life will not work."

"The U.S. government's outsourcing of its protection responsibilities to Mexico goes directly against the commitments made in the Los Angeles Declaration of the Summit of the Americas to provide humanitarian approaches to immigration," said Vicki Gass, executive director of the Latin America Task Force. "The US government must restore the legal right to asylum and address the root causes that force people to flee, including poverty, climate change, exclusive economic development, and corruption and impunity. Deterrence policies don't and won't work."

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Texas: El Paso expects more migrants to arrive 4:30

"All efforts must prioritize increasing processing and humanitarian capacity on both sides of the border, not deporting people back to the same danger they fled," said Kimiko Hirota, policy advisor for the Migrants' Rights and Justice program at the Women's Refugee Commission.

U.S.-Mexico Border