Trump’s new immigration plan

The most recent news in terms of migration between the United States and Mexico, Guatemala could become the soil of many Mexicans who wait for an answer about their asylum status.

With this strategy, the United States intends that the applicants do not remain in the US territory while they wait for their response, but wait in the Central American country until the United States Secretariat gives them an answer. The plan was confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security last Tuesday, January 7.

The initiative aims to start operating from February of the current year and, according to BBC, could affect 900 Mexican asylum seekers.

For its part, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico communicated its disagreement regarding this news. They affirmed that "the Government of Mexico, together with authorities at the state and local level, will work to offer better options to Mexicans that could be affected by this provision." And likewise, although the decision is part of the US jurisdiction only, it announced that it will be aware of the cases to ensure compliance with the human rights contemplated in treaties that both Mexico and the United States have ratified.

On the other hand, the president of Guatemala, Jimmy Morales and who is preparing to leave office soon, said that the agreement that has been made with the United States had not included the possibility of receiving applicants from Mexico. Although he had done so with those from Honduras and El Salvador, Morales denied that there had been a discussion about this.

“It is more than clear: within the agreement, only Salvadorans and Hondurans are raised. The United States has talked about the possibility of including people of Mexican nationality, but that the next government has to discuss. We on the last visit we made to White House with President Trump were clear in telling them that this negotiation must be done with the new government, ”said the president in a public act. Given the same, he said that any further discussion to what is already understood, such as receiving Mexicans, should be discussed with the government that will come soon.

Read also: Iran's response to the United States

Third safe country

In recent months, President Donald Trump has already made known different of his strategies regarding the migration of the Central American countries. Its main proposal was that of the "safe third country", where third countries were offered to the United States to receive those who requested asylum there.

That is, the United States could refuse to provide asylum and a third country (which would be those of the Central American bloc) would receive the applicant. In that sense, it was sought that among those countries, be it Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador, they would receive citizens from one of the other countries that had first arrived in the United States.

Trump told these countries that they should accept being a "safe third country" if they didn't want to face economic sanctions. This idea was highly rejected by the countries that were offered because they are experiencing a migratory crisis and their conditions do not give to accept citizens of other countries.

Within the framework of this proposal, Guatemala agreed to a negotiation that included receiving Hondurans and Salvadorans in this condition.