Trump will deport Mexican asylum seekers to Guatemala: he was not in the original agreement

WASHINGTON.— The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed on Monday that it will begin deporting Guatemala to certain Mexicans who apply for asylum on the southern border, in the framework of a bilateral agreement initially implemented to deter illegal emigration from Central America .

The immigration agreement, signed between the United States and Guatemala in July and implemented last November, aims to encourage Central American migrants, particularly from El Salvador and Honduras, to apply for asylum in a closer country and thus avoid the dangerous journey to the North.

According to the Buzzfeed News information website, officials responsible for processing asylum applications received instructions from DHS in recent days on the inclusion of Mexicans in the agreement signed by Guatemala. The plan would allegedly apply only in El Paso, Texas, but was extended to the entire Rio Grande Valley, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed.

On December 19, the now 'number two' of the DHS, Ken Cuccinelli, had already advanced in a message on Twitter that the Trump Administration would extend the agreement of Guatemala with the inclusion of migrants of Mexican origin.

https://twitter.com/HomelandKen/status/1207743535480483840

"By fully implementing the agreement, we will consider (the inclusion of) all populations, including Mexican nationals," said Cuccinelli, explaining that the objective was to eliminate the need to "make the dangerous journey northward" and deprive the transnational criminal organizations.

The agreement states that "certain Mexicans seeking humanitarian protections in the United States may be eligible for transfer to Guatemala and have the opportunity to seek protection there," a DHS spokesman who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak was told Telemundo News. .

The official did not give more details or offer an estimate of how many Mexicans will be affected by this plan, which was not included in the original text of the agreement.

Apparently, DHS authorities decided to include Mexican migrants by the time the implementation of the agreement was detailed last November.

In this way, Mexicans requesting asylum somewhere along the southern border of the United States. they could be deported to Guatemala , far from their homes in Mexican territory.

The Mexican government has not said publicly if it will ask the Trump Administration for a modification of the agreement.

A source close to the government, however, told Noticias Telemundo that the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador protested against the controversial inclusion of Mexican nationals, but the matter apparently did not go further.

Mexico last June signed its own agreement with the United States through which it deployed some 26,000 members of the National Guard to its northern and southern borders, and extended the Stay in Mexico program, which forces Central American migrants to wait in that country the resolution of their asylum cases.

The United States has returned more than 55,000 migrants to Mexico under that program.

The AMLO government signed the agreement to prevent the launch of punitive tariffs on its exports to the United States. Since then, the Trump Administration has praised Mexico's cooperation , to which it has attributed much of the drastic reduction of illegal crossings at the southern border in the second half of 2019.

The Trump Administration also signed similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador last year, which has raised criticism from civic groups and human rights defenders, who point out that the Northern Triangle countries are not in a position to offer asylum or other protections. to migrants fleeing violence in their countries.

By the end of last month, the Trump Administration had deported 43 asylum seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala, according to Buzzfeed News.