Los Angeles Times - 21.09.2019

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THE WORLD

WASHINGTON — The
U.S. signed an asylum agree-
ment Friday with El Sal-
vador, one of the world’s
most violent countries.
American and Salvadoran
officials described the deal
as shoring up El Salvador’s
own asylum system and its
capacity to provide for its
citizens, in turn discourag-
ing them from migrating.
While the specifics of the
agreement remain un-
known, acting Homeland
Security Secretary Kevin
McAleenan said at a news
conference Friday that “one
potential use” is to limit asy-
lum seekers passing through
El Salvador from claiming
asylum in the United States.
He offered no timeline.
But with most asylum
seekers traveling north to
the U.S. border going
around El Salvador — seek-
ing to avoid the small coun-
try where gang violence,
poverty and corruption are
pervasive — any asylum deal
could have a limited effect on
reducing overall migration
to the United States.
In the last five years, El
Salvador’s homicide rate
has ranked among the high-
est in the world, though it
has recently trended down.
U.S. officials and experts, as
well as newly elected Salva-
doran President Nayib
Bukele, have credited the re-
duction in violence for con-
tributing to a drop in the
numbers of Salvadoran mi-
grants stopped at the U.S.-
Mexico border or claiming
asylum in the U.S. In recent
years, more migrants have
come from Honduras and
Guatemala, El Salvador’s

Northern Triangle neigh- bors. As of August, U.S. border officials this year have ap- prehended 86,312 Salvador- ans at the U.S. southern border, compared with 258, Guatemalans and 244, Hondurans. McAleenan praised Bukele’s administration Fri- day, saying the number of Salvadoran migrants reach- ing the U.S. southern border has dropped more than 62% since Bukele took office in June. “Bukele has stated he in- tends to end forced migration his term,” McAleenan said. “El Salvador has stepped forward and made good on those efforts.” Salvadoran official Al- exandra Hill Tinoco, who signed the agreement sitting next to McAleenan and behind the flags of El Salvador and the U.S., stressed that El Salvador is responsible for outward migration. An official statement from the Sal- vadoran government re-

mained vague on what the deal would do. “El Salvador has not been able to give our people enough security or opportu- nity so they can stay and thrive in El Salvador,” Hill Tinoco said. Later, seeming to indi- rectly address the heated rhetoric that President Trump has used toward migrants, she added: “Some- times we lose the concept that there are human beings behind this.” The agreement is the lat- est in a long-running effort by the Trump administration to restrict migrants’ ac- cess to asylum in the United States and force Central Americans in particular to seek refuge elsewhere. The deal is likely to be modeled on others either signed or sought with Gua- temala, Honduras, Panama and other countries in Cen- tral or South America that serve as the primary countries of origin or transit for migrants from around the

world seeking asylum in the U.S. Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, one of the world’s largest humanitari- an organizations, with a huge presence in Venezuela, Colombia and Central America, said Thursday ahead of a trip to El Salvador and Honduras that the Trump administration’s ap- proach “defies logic.” The council plans to set up a se- ries of shelters along the primary migration routes north to the U.S. “If the United States de- clares safe havens in [Cen- tral American] countries, it will be the end of the ancient symbol of civilization: the rule of asylum,” Egeland said, emphasizing that Gua- temala, Honduras and El Salvador are not safe. “This will encourage a new wave of boat refugees. People who take a boat to get to Califor- nia or Texas. Imagine it.” Bukele, a millennial mil- lionaire elected as an alter-

native to the two main politi- cal parties that have domi- nated El Salvador in the dec- ades since its civil war ended, largely has been re- luctant to criticize Trump. In recent months, Bukele has said El Salvador should do more to create economic opportunities and keep Sal- vadorans from leaving, and indicated he would be open to working with Washington on migration. El Salvador’s economy relies heavily on re- mittances from the United States, where more than 2. million Salvadorans live — many in Los Angeles. “We can send all the blame to any government we like,” Bukele said in July. “We can say President Trump’s policies are wrong. We can say Mexico’s policies are wrong. But what about our blame?” In late July, McAleenan and a Guatemalan counter- part signed a similar agreement in the Oval Of- fice, with Trump looking on. That agreement has yet to be formally authorized by Guatemala or implemented by the U.S. Guatemala’s highest court previously ruled that the country’s president could not sign such an agreement. Eric Schwartz, president of Refugees International, criticized the agreements Friday, calling them “cynical and absurd.” “Where will they declare a haven for asylum seekers next? Syria? North Korea?” Schwartz said. “El Salvador is in no way safe for asylum seekers. Neither is Guate- mala nor Honduras.” Despite threats from Trump, Mexican officials have been adamant that they will not enter into a “safe third country”-type agreement with the U.S., which would require that any migrant that passes through Mexico without claiming asylum there first

be rendered ineligible to seek asylum in the United States. Mexican officials argue it is unnecessary. They say they have stepped up en- forcement, including the de- ployment of National Guard units to stop migrants at its southern border with Gua- temala and its northern border with the U.S. In addition, Mexico has cooperated with the Trump administration’s “Remain in Mexico” policy, which has forced more than 40,000 asylum seekers to wait in dangerous Mexican border cities as their cases proceed in the U.S. Such asylum agreements with individual countries may not matter because of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last week allowing the Trump administration to move forward on imple- menting a policy that would effectively end asylum at the U.S. southern border. Though it’s not a final ruling, Trump officials can now bar almost any migrant who does not seek asylum in an- other country first before seeking asylum at the U.S.- Mexico border. The president trum- peted the ruling shortly after, tweeting, “BIG United States Supreme Court WIN for the Border on Asylum!” Egeland, of the Norwe- gian Refugee Council, ar- gued that Trump’s policies would not stop outward migration from Central Ameri- ca, but fuel it. “The one nation on Earth who should be invested in this is the United States. ... This is your neighborhood,” Egeland said. “If hope leaves the region, the young people will run after it.”

Times staff writers Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and Patrick J. McDonnell in Mexico City and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

U.S. and El Salvador sign asylum pact

Nations say the deal

will help Salvadorans,

in turn discouraging

them from migrating.

By Molly O’Toole

A BORDER PATROLagent, left, drops off the Flores family, from El Salvador, at a bus station in McAllen, Texas. They were preparing to head to Houston.

Genaro MolinaLos Angeles Times

Los Angeles Times - 21.09.2019

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