The government of El Salvador has promised to receive asylum seekers in its territory after arriving at a port of entry or crossing one of the American borders.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Tuesday that El Salvador began implementing a controversial immigration agreement signed in 2019 that allows asylum seekers to be transferred to this dangerous country.
According to the Migration Cooperation Agreement (ACA), “some migrants seeking asylum or some kind of humanitarian protection similar to the United States border are being transferred to El Salvador,” US officials said.
The Donald Trump administration signed immigration agreements in 2019 with El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, as part of its policy against the arrival of undocumented immigrants at the southern border.
In the midst of a fierce battle to curb the numbers of people trapped at the border – many of them from Central America – Trump threatened Mexico with tariffs and the countries of the Northern Triangle to withhold aid and tax their exports.
Moving the deals, the Trump administration resumed suspended financial assistance for these Central American countries.
“I am grateful to the government of El Salvador and personally to President (Nayib) Bukele,” said DHS Acting Secretary Chad F. Wolf.
According to DHS, in fiscal year 2019, 71% of migrants detained at the border were people from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
According to comparative statistics from the World Bank, in 2018, the last year in which there are figures for all countries, the United States recorded 5 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants while El Salvador 52.
Violence figures have fallen since Bukele came to power, which is expected to close 2020 with a homicide rate of 23 per 100,000, a figure still high for the Latin American context.
In 2019, the country had an incidence of 35.6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, implying that it was one of the most violent war-free countries in the world.
The agreements were signed by former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kevin McAleenan. The president-elect of the United States, Democrat Joe Biden, has already selected Alejandro Mayorkas as the relevant future of Wolf, the current interim secretary. Mayorkas played a relevant role during the Barack Obama administration in the thaw negotiations with Cuba.
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