Trump Signs Deal With Guatemala to Limit Asylum Claims in U.S.

Trump Signs Deal With Guatemala to Limit Asylum Claims in U.S.

(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. reached a deal with Guatemala to stop migrants from other parts of Central America from claiming asylum in the U.S., President Donald Trump said, and will instead force them to file a claim in Guatemala, a nation that one refugee advocacy group said is neither safe nor able to handle the task.

Trump told reporters Friday during a surprise event at the White House that Guatemala would sign a “safe-third-country” agreement requiring migrants from nearby nations, such as Honduras and El Salvador, to claim asylum in Guatemala instead of continuing to the U.S. border. Trump had earlier accused Guatemala of backing out of a deal.

“We are doing a very important signing, it’s a historic asylum or safe-third-country agreement between our two countries,” Trump said. “This landmark agreement will put the coyotes and the smugglers out of business.”

The agreement comes as the Trump administration is seeking to crack down on migrants crossing into the U.S. along the border with Mexico, one of the president’s 2020 campaign themes. Apprehensions by authorities at the U.S. southern border dropped from more than 130,000 -- the highest monthly figure since at least 2011 -- in May to less than 95,000 in June as the administration ramped up efforts to stem flows of migrants to the U.S.

Advocacy group Refugees International called the agreement “very alarming.”

‘No Way Safe’

“Guatemala is in no way safe for refugees and asylum seekers, and all the strong-arming in the world won’t make it so,” said Eric Schwartz, president of the advocacy group. “This agreement also violates U.S. law and will put some of the most vulnerable people in Central America in grave danger.”

Acting U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said that the deal means that asylum claimants from Honduras and El Salvador, who have to pass through Guatemala to reach Mexico and then the U.S., now must file a claim in Guatemala -- essentially, saying the U.S. considers Guatemala a safe country, even as thousands flee its borders as well.

"This is a return to the appropriate approach under international law to protecting asylum seekers at the earliest possible point in their journey,” he said in the Oval Office. "They can make a protection claim if they would like in Guatemala. If they arrive in the U.S. not having availed themselves of that opportunity, they’ll be returned to Guatemala.”

For 2017, the U.S. received 331,700 new asylum claims, the most worldwide and nearly double the number from 2015, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, of whom 35,300 were Guatemalans.

Guatemala, one of the region’s poorest countries with a murder rate four times that of the U.S., received just 262 applications for asylum between January and November of 2018, a 75% increase from the same period of 2017.

The U.S. State Department said in a 2018 report that “migration and police authorities lacked adequate training concerning the rules for establishing refugee status” in Guatemala, and that the UNHCR has reported that “identification and referral mechanisms for potential asylum seekers were inadequate” in the country.

Human rights concerns in the country included life-threatening prison conditions, widespread corruption, use of child labor, human trafficking and mistreatment of LGBT persons. the State Department report said.

Trump continues to thank Mexico for curbing migration flows, and McAleenan said Friday that the number of people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border is on pace to drop 22% in July from the previous month, the second consecutive monthly drop.

Numbers typically fall in the summer, due to warm weather. It’s unclear what impact Trump’s deal in June -- which avoided a round of tariffs imposed by the U.S. -- is so far having.

Schwartz said it’s not clear exactly what the agreement does because of a provisional ruling by Guatemala’s constitutional court against a third-country deal, but the nation’s Minister of Government, Enrique Degenhart, downplayed the significance of that ruling during the Oval Office event.

“What the court said, which is provisional injunction, was basically define the process that has to be followed,” the minister said, after signing the agreement. The U.S. has yet to release details of the accord. “I would say that Guatemala is definitely clear on the responsibility it has. We are clear that we have to make changes, and the way to do it is working together with our best ally.”

On Wednesday, Trump had accused Guatemala of backing out of a safe-third-country agreement and said he was considering “very severe” consequences, which could include tariffs.

Guatemala’s dollar bonds slumped the most in 14 months on Tuesday after Trump said in tweets that his administration was examining measures that could include tariffs, fees on remittances from Guatemalans in the U.S. or other sanctions. The president noted he had already ended much U.S. foreign aid to the country because of large numbers of Guatemalans who have migrated to the U.S. during his presidency.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.

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