Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic staff comment on ACAs

On January 18, 2021, two days before President-elect Joe Biden took office, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democratic staff released a report denouncing Trump’s Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs) and urge the Biden administration to remove these policies to protect the human rights of the most vulnerable immigrant communities.

The Trump administration, in a relentless attempt to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the US, signed ACAs with the governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador (also known as the Northern Triangle of Central America) to send asylum seekers to these countries to request international protection there.

On the one hand, the report reveals that ACAs’ effectiveness is almost null and put at risk the integrity of individuals or entire families, who need international protection while trying to flee from persecution, danger, violence and other precarious situations. In fact, Democratic staff state that these agreements “distort U.S. asylum law and accompany a series of pernicious policies to exclude asylum seekers and refugees from protection in the United States.”

On the other hand, the report recommends that the incoming government immediately put an end to the ACAs with Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, explaining that, if the US adopts more welcoming immigration policies, especially those related to humanitarian processes, other countries normally also take the necessary steps to increase international cooperation and establish agreements that protect vulnerable communities in need of humanitarian assistance.

Main findings of the report:

• Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador do not have the appropriate conditions to offer international protection to asylum seekers. In fact, most asylum seekers who reach the US’ borders come from Central American territory.
• Since ACAs were implemented in the Northern Triangle of Central America, Guatemala has received 945 asylum seekers and “not one has been granted asylum”.
• ACAs appear to contradict international obligations and the US law because they endanger the integrity of asylum seekers. In fact, the report reveals that “These countries are among the most dangerous countries in the world. High levels of violence, especially gang violence and gender-based violence, pose grave risks for many refugees and migrants.”
• By declaring that Guatemala offers “full and fair” access to political asylum, the Trump administration used partially true information and did not mention the risk present in this territory.

The main recommendation is for the Biden government to immediately remove ACAs with Central American countries to avoid greater harm to the most vulnerable immigrant communities and implement different international cooperation strategies. Also, the report recommends for the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and the Office for Civil Rights to conduct a comprehensive investigation to rule out abusive conduct with asylum seekers transferred under ACAs between 2019 and 2020.

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