Biden to end Central American asylum agreements in latest reversal of Trump's immigration policies

U.S.-Mexico border fence.
(Image credit: GUILLERMO ARIAS/AFP via Getty Images)

In what is seen as the latest example of President Biden's efforts to roll back former President Donald Trump's restrictive immigration policiues, Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday said the Biden administration has notified El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras that the United States has suspended, with immediate effect, the Asylum Cooperative Agreements and will begin the process of terminating them.

Under the pacts, which were struck by the Trump administration in 2019, the U.S. could send people seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border to the three Central American countries to "share the distribution of asylum claims." Critics argued the policy put asylum-seekers at risk, since the three countries could not credibly provide refuge, meaning the U.S. was not meeting its obligations under international law to help people fleeing persecution.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.