Agreement with Guatemala: USA ends controversial asylum regime

Agreement with Guatemala
USA end controversial asylum regime

Tens of thousands of people flee abject poverty and crime from Central America towards the USA every year. Donald Trump tried to keep migrants away from the US border through asylum agreements with other states. Joe Biden is now taking a different path.

The US government has terminated a controversial migration agreement with Guatemala. The State Department of the Central American country announced that it had received a corresponding letter from the USA. Under former President Donald Trump, the US had signed similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador. Accordingly, migrants who enter one of these countries on the way to the USA must apply for asylum there.

The new US President Joe Biden had pushed ahead with the change of course he was aiming for in migration policy by signing three orders on Tuesday. The US State Department also announced that it would end the agreements with the three Central American countries.

Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador – the predominantly poor and dangerous countries of the so-called Northern Triangle of Central America – are the origin of the vast majority of the tens of thousands of people who try to enter the USA illegally across the border with Mexico every month. Trump had taken a tough course in migration policy and tried in various ways to seal off the country. According to its own statements, the Biden government wants to tackle migration from Central America more in the long term by combating the causes of flight and humane regulations.

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