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November 15, 2024
Asylum agreement between US and El Salvador prepares to go into effect
World

Asylum agreement between US and El Salvador prepares to go into effect

By Jason Diego / December 15, 2020

The agreement, signed last year, would send some migrants requesting asylum at the US border to El Salvador to seek protection. Immigrant advocate groups have criticized the agreements, arguing that they put migrants in harm’s way.

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Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, who traveled to Panama and El Salvador this week, called the implementation of the so-called Asylum Cooperative Agreement a “critical step in the establishment of a truly regional approach to migration, and, more specifically, to the offer of protection to those migrants who are victims of persecution,” according to the memo.

The agreement was scheduled to be part of the discussion between Wolf and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele this week, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In the waning days of the Trump presidency, DHS is trying to ramp up agreements to send asylum seekers to Central American countries, plans that have largely been under the radar during the coronavirus pandemic, CNN previously reported.
The Asylum Cooperative Agreements — initiated last year — marked a significant shift in US asylum policy, as migrants who may have legitimate claims for asylum are sent to other countries to make their cases. The US struck accords with Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, but only the agreement with Guatemala was ever really up and running. Last January, Wolf announced that the US had finalized the details of the asylum agreement with Honduras.

It’s unclear who will be subject to the agreement between the US and El Salvador, and whether the agreement will be implemented before the change in administrations.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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