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Forcing Guatemala into a 'safe third country' agreement is jaw-droppingly insane
The agreement forces Central American migrants to apply for asylum in Guatemala instead of the US.
I certainly hope US lawyers petition a federal court to order an immediate injunction. It shouldn't be too difficult to prove that the Trump administration used coercion - threatening to raise tariffs and imposing a tax on remittances sent back to Guatemala by migrants in the United States. Quite simply, this is Trump and Stephen Miller attempting to outsource the US asylum process. Under international and US law, a "safe third country" must be exactly that, a safe and stable country. Guatemala is anything but, with gang/cartel violence and a horrific murder rate (26.1 per 100,000 people). Guatemala’s immigration laws and infrastructure are woefully inadequate and unable to meet the needs of migrants coming from other countries in Central America. In addition, any such agreement must also be approved by the Guatemala Constitutional Court which is looking unlikely. Guatemala president Jimmy Morales is a lame duck and the two candidates running to replace him are adamantly against Guatemala bending to Trumps blackmail.
The agreement forces Central American migrants to apply for asylum in Guatemala instead of the US.
7/29/19
On July 25, Trump announced that the U.S. and Guatemala had signed a deal for Guatemala to receive asylum seekers from other Central American countries. Forcing Guatemala into this agreement will jeopardize the lives of tens of thousands of asylum seekers, destabilize Guatemala and the Central American region and drive migration rates even higher. Details of the plan to declare Guatemala a "safe third country" for U.S.-bound asylum seekers surfaced in mid-July. According to a draft of the original agreement, asylum seekers who present their petitions in the United States could be sent to seek asylum in Guatemala instead; this potentially includes not just Central Americans but asylum seekers from any country, even those who did not pass through Guatemala on their way to the United States. Trump officials tried initially to pressure Mexico to sign a safe third country agreement, but the Mexican government balked, even as it capitulated to Trump's tariff threats and stepped up efforts to interdict Central American migrants. So, the Trump administration turned to strong-arming Guatemala.
Why would the president of Guatemala back a deal that could turn Guatemala into a vast concentration camp for deported asylum seekers? Over the past two years, Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales has been currying favor with Trump to shore up his own embattled administration, which has been under investigation by Guatemalan prosecutors and a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission for illicit campaign financing. Last year, Morales defied a Guatemalan court order and expelled the head of the anti-corruption commission — and the Trump administration looked the other way. Guatemala over the past decade has been a hemispheric model for its anti-impunity and anti-corruption campaigns and its inch-by-inch arduous efforts to build judicial integrity and the rule of law. But the U.S. — under Trump — is enabling a sickening unraveling of those efforts, which will not go unnoticed by other countries in the region. Forcing Guatemala into a "safe third country" agreement undermines Guatemalan sovereignty, erodes citizen security and threatens political stability in Guatemala and the region. And this, of course, is why Central American families will continue their exodus.
I certainly hope US lawyers petition a federal court to order an immediate injunction. It shouldn't be too difficult to prove that the Trump administration used coercion - threatening to raise tariffs and imposing a tax on remittances sent back to Guatemala by migrants in the United States. Quite simply, this is Trump and Stephen Miller attempting to outsource the US asylum process. Under international and US law, a "safe third country" must be exactly that, a safe and stable country. Guatemala is anything but, with gang/cartel violence and a horrific murder rate (26.1 per 100,000 people). Guatemala’s immigration laws and infrastructure are woefully inadequate and unable to meet the needs of migrants coming from other countries in Central America. In addition, any such agreement must also be approved by the Guatemala Constitutional Court which is looking unlikely. Guatemala president Jimmy Morales is a lame duck and the two candidates running to replace him are adamantly against Guatemala bending to Trumps blackmail.