“Highlights ways the United States can restore and advance protections for migrants and refugees and use principled diplomacy to stand with civil society forces for change.”
Based on fieldwork in Guatemala, researchers piece together what happened to 939 Salvadoran and Honduran asylum-seekers whom U.S. authorities sent to Guatemala between November 2019 and March 2020 under a “safe third country agreement.”
Refugees International releases a report on the lack of protections under the U.S.-Guatemala Asylum Cooperative Agreement (ACA) both in general and in the context of the coronavirus pandemic. The report asserts that Guatemala does not meet the standard required in U.S. law for a “safe third country.”
Gilmer Barrios, a citizen of Guatemala with an open case in U.S. immigration court and no prior deportation order, was stopped at a CBP checkpoint near San Diego, California, and rapidly deported to Tijuana on March 23. On April 17, Barrios has finally secured passage back to the United States after intervention from the Guatemalan consul general in Los Angeles, California.
Coverage of what happens to migrants subject to the so-called “Asylum Cooperation Agreement,” which sends some Salvadoran and Honduran asylum-seekers directly to Guatemala.
The Guatemalan government reports that, as of January 31, the U.S. government has sent to Guatemala 368 Salvadoran and Honduran asylum-seekers, with the expectation that they petition for asylum in Guatemala’s system. This is a result of the “Asylum Cooperative Agreement” the Trump administration signed with Guatemala in July 2019.
