Overview

• On June 26, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Guatemala and Honduras had signed agreements to receive migrants seeking refuge instead of allowing them to apply for U.S. asylum.
• Guatemala’s presidential communications office and Honduras’s immigration director both publicly denied any safe third-country pacts with the United States.
• The proposed agreements were meant to expand the Trump administration’s ability to return migrants to third nations as part of ramped-up deportation efforts.
• Observers warn that both Central American countries have under-resourced asylum systems and may lack capacity to process additional refugee claims.
• The U.S. already holds a safe third-country agreement with Canada and maintains similar, though limited, arrangements with Panama and Costa Rica.