Biden administration takes steps to dismantle Trump asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras

Yesterday, continuing to reverse Trump administration asylum initiatives, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that

“The United States has suspended and initiated the process to terminate the Asylum Cooperative Agreements with the Governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras as the first concrete steps on the path to greater partnership and collaboration in the region laid out by President Biden.  The termination of these Agreements is effective after the notice period stipulated in each of the Agreements, but their suspension is immediate.”

As explained by Sabrina Rodrigues for Politico,

“The announcement means the termination of three asylum cooperative agreements that the U.S. signed in 2019 with each of the Central American countries to require migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to first apply for protections in those  countries.   

The deals — effectively known as safe third country agreements — were part of former President Donald Trump and his administration’s efforts to curb the number of migrants able to seek asylum in the United States. They allowed the U.S. to deport migrants seeking asylum back to those countries, where hundreds of thousands have fled.”

KJV