An agreement the Trump administration signed with Guatemala last week to restrict asylum-seekers from coming to the US is illegal, Rep. Jerrold Nadler said on Monday.
The “safe third country” agreement would require migrants who cross into Guatemala on their way to the US to seek protection there – drastically cutting the number Hondurans and Salvadorans arriving on the US southern border.
“Once again the president is attempting to illegally circumvent our immigration laws in his all-out effort to stop asylum seekers from coming to the United States, going so far as to bully a foreign country with threats of tariffs and visa bans to force the agreement,” Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.
The New York Democrat claimed the agreement, signed last Friday, violates the Immigration and Nationality Act, which sets conditions for such measures.
Nadler said it would require Guatemala to have access to a “full and fair procedure” for determining an asylum claim and have protections that “the life or freedom” of people passing through the country “would not be threatened on account of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.”
“With 26.1 homicides per 100,000 people, Guatemala does not meet either of those requirements,” said the statement that was also signed by Reps. Zoe Lofgren and Pramila Jayapal, the chair and vice-chair of the Immigration and Citizenship Subcommittee.
“It is clear to anyone looking at what is happening in Guatemala that it cannot reasonably be classified as a ‘safe third country,'” they said. “Instead of taking these illegal and divisive actions, President Trump should be working with Congress to pass bipartisan solutions that address the root causes of migration.”
Last Wednesday, Trump threatened to impose tariffs or taxes on money sent back to Guatemala by migrants if the Central American country backed out of the deal.
