In 2019, in response to overwhelming numbers of migrants attempting to cross our southern border, President Trump negotiated a series of agreements with the three countries of the Central American “Northern Triangle”: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. These agreements made use of an existing principle of international law stipulating that an alien fleeing his home country and seeking asylum or refugee status elsewhere should apply in the first “safe third” country he enters, not in some more distant country that might be his real goal.
As part of President Biden’s ongoing effort to undo completely the immigration policies of the previous administration, Biden’s new State Department Secretary Antony Blinken announced on Saturday that the United States is withdrawing from those agreements, thus discarding one of the important tools Trump had devised to deal with the immigration crisis.
As usual, the announcement was accompanied by insistence that the move is not what it very much appears. Blinken added:
To be clear, these actions do not mean that the U.S. border is open. While we are committed to expanding legal pathways for protection and opportunity here and in the region, the United States is a country with borders and laws that must be enforced.
Yeah, right.
For more see, The Hill.