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United States to Sign Asylum Agreement With El Salvador, Official Says U.S. Agreement With El Salvador Seeks to Divert Asylum Seekers
(about 8 hours later)
WASHINGTON — The United States is expected Friday to sign an asylum agreement with the government of El Salvador to prevent certain migrants who pass through the violent and dangerous country from seeking refuge in the United States, according to an administration official. WASHINGTON — The Trump administration signed an agreement with the government of El Salvador on Friday that could force Central American migrants traveling through El Salvador to seek refuge in that violent and dangerous country instead of in the United States.
The agreement is similar to one that President Trump’s administration negotiated with Guatemala in an ongoing effort to prevent migrants from crossing the border with Mexico and seeking asylum in the United States. The agreement is a win for President Trump and his hard-line immigration policies, and it gives him another ally in Central America as he tries to block migrants from seeking asylum at the southwestern border. Washington has signed a similar agreement with Guatemala.
Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of homeland security, will announce the agreement at a news conference on Friday afternoon, according to the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the agreement before it is formally announced. But details on the agreement with El Salvador remain vague, including what steps need to be taken to carry it out.
Mr. McAleenan has said that such agreements will help to slow the flow into the United States of migrants fleeing corruption and persecution in their home countries because it will force them to seek protection elsewhere. After signing the accord with Alexandra Hill, El Salvador’s foreign minister, the acting secretary of homeland security, Kevin K. McAleenan, promoted the deal as a broader collaboration that included United States investment into El Salvador’s asylum system. He provided few details.
But critics have said it makes no sense to ask the migrants to seek protection in those countries, because they are among the most dangerous, gang-ridden places in the world. The agreement with Guatemala requires migrants who pass through there to apply for asylum — and be rejected — before they are eligible to apply for asylum in the United States. “Individuals crossing through El Salvador should be able to seek protections there, and we want to enforce the integrity of that process throughout the region but with the broader part of our partnership for addressing migration flows,” Mr. McAleenan said.
Immigrant advocacy organizations, who say the policies are orchestrated by Stephen Miller, the president’s top immigration architect, and are driven by ill will toward immigrants, have taken legal action to stop them. Mr. McAleenan has prioritized such agreements to slow the flow of migrants fleeing corruption and persecution in their home countries by forcing them to seek protection elsewhere. Fewer migrants cross through El Salvador, however, compared with Guatemala.
Even without the buy-in of other nations, the Trump administration has taken perhaps the most significant step to curb asylum seeking at the United States border by forbidding applications from would-be asylum seekers who have traveled through another country on their way to America. Under that action, only those already denied asylum in a third country can appeal for it from the United States.
The Supreme Court allowed the administration to enforce policy, but it is still being challenged.
And while Mr. McAleenan and Mr. Trump have discussed the accords with Central American countries as crucial factors in the reduction of apprehensions at the border, they have yet to actually be put in place.
When the United States signed its “safe-third country” agreement with Guatemala, Trump administration officials said migrants would start being returned to that country in August under the agreement. Officials from both countries have walked that label back because it carries a stigma, calling the label a “cooperative agreement” instead.
Guatemala’s Constitutional Court ruled that lawmakers in the capital, Guatemala City, needed to approve the policy before it could be carried out, and that has yet to happen. The administration has also failed to get Mexico to sign such an agreement.
Human rights advocates say it makes no sense to ask migrants to seek protection in countries like El Salvador and Guatemala, which are among the most dangerous, gang-ridden places in the world.
Tens of thousands of Salvadorans have been displaced from their homes, and the number of disappearances suggests that the official homicide rate may be considerably higher than the numbers reported by the police.
In 2018, about 46,800 Salvadorans sought asylum worldwide, ranking the country sixth in the world for new asylum seekers. In addition, according to a government study supported by the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, at least 71,500 Salvadorans have been internally displaced by violence. Overall, about 150,000 Salvadorans have become refugees or sought asylum in recent years.
“All these rules, agreements and procedural hurdles are creating a paper wall on the southern border, one that is just as inhumane, immoral, and illegal as one made of metal or bricks,” said Eric Schwartz, the president of Refugees International, an advocacy organization. “When history looks back on this period in the United States, the judgment will be harsh and unsparing.”
Since taking office in June, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador has moved quickly to try to bring down the country’s homicide rate, sending the military into its most violent areas.
Although it had already begun to fall since 2017, when it was the highest in the world, according to the United Nations office on drugs and crime, the first three months of Mr. Bukele’s presidency showed a continued drop. According to Roberto Valencia, a Salvadoran reporter who analyzes homicide statistics released by the National Civil Police, the homicide rate in August was the lowest since 2013.
In 2017, there were 10.8 homicide a day in El Salvador, which has a population of about 6.5 million. In July, there were five homicides each day, and 4.2 in August, according to Mr. Valencia.
Still, Ms. Hill acknowledged the dire conditions.
“This is El Salvador’s responsibility because El Salvador has not been able to give our people enough security or opportunities so that they can stay and thrive in El Salvador,” Ms. Hill said.
She also emphasized that the Bukele administration sought to prevent Salvadorans from making the dangerous trip to the United States, referring to a photograph of a father and daughter from El Salvador who drowned in June in the Rio Grande.
“That hit El Salvador in the heart,” Ms. Hill said. “And it hit the United States in the heart. And that’s what we’re trying to avoid.”
Mr. McAleenan committed to helping El Salvador build its system with the United Nations high commissioner for refugees.
The commissioner was not consulted on this latest agreement, and Giovanni Bassu, the regional representative for Central America and Cuba, said he had not seen the agreement.
He also said El Salvador’s “very small” asylum office does not have any dedicated staff. Only 30 people applied for asylum in the country last year; 18 of those applications are still pending.
“My main message is that they have other priorities that the state should be investing in,” Mr. Bassu said. “I think rightfully the Salvadoran government is investing its resources where there is a need,” including managing internal displacement and addressing the root causes of migration.
It also remains unclear what El Salvador will receive from the United States. For the agreement with Guatemala, the United States agreed to invest $40 million in aid through commissioner to help build the country’s asylum system. Ms. Hill said the El Salvador government would need help combating gangs, as well as more economic opportunities.
Mr. Bukele has previously lobbied the United States to provide the 200,000 Salvadorans living in the United States with temporary protected status for 20 years. The Trump administration’s attempts to remove those protections have been blocked in court, but that status will expire in January.
On Friday, Ms. Hill again said those Salvadorans needed help, but neither her nor Mr. McAleenan said it was part of the agreement.
“The T.P.S. is temporary,” she said. “But there are also other measures that we are working on to find a permanent solution to this issue.”