Trump Signs ‘Safe Third Country’ Agreement With Guatemala to Ease Border Crisis

This content leverages data from USAFacts, a non-profit that visualizes governmental data. You can learn more on its website, Facebook, and Twitter.

President Donald Trump announced from the Oval Office on Friday that the U.S. reached a “safe third country” agreement with Guatemala that would require migrants traveling through Guatemala from countries like Honduras & El Salvador to apply for asylum there instead of the U.S.

The announcement comes days after Guatemala’s supreme court blocked, and it’s unclear how the agreement would be implemented. Trump previously warned Guatemala to find a way to reach a deal to limit asylum claims or face potential tariffs, taxes on remittances, or a potential travel ban.

According to data compiled by USAFacts, 41% of all asylum claims in fiscal year 2017 were made by migrants from the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala (13%), Honduras (10%), and El Salvador (18%). The crime and economic hardship that drove those asylum-seekers have continued, and many have been apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years. 

Apprehensions have spiked in 2019, with May’s 132,880 apprehensions marking the highest monthly total seen since 2006. While monthly apprehensions declined to 94,897 in June, the March-June 2019 period has the highest four-month apprehension total since 2006 as this chart from USAFacts shows:

When a person seeks asylum in the U.S., they undergo what’s known as a “credible fear screening” in which Customs & Immigration Services interviews the applicant to assess whether the applicant can establish a “significant possibility” of persecution or torture if they’re returned to their country of origin. This chart from USAFacts shows the increase in credible fear assessments conducted by CIS in recent years:

The proportion of asylum-seekers found to have a credible fear as a result of the screening has fluctuated over time between 10% and 35% according to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.

— Eric Revell

(Photo Credit: U.S. Customs & Border Protection - Kris Grogan via Flickr / Public Domain)