US signs agreements with Guatemala and Honduras to take asylum-seekers,
Noem says
[June 27, 2025]
By REBECCA SANTANA and CHRISTOPHER SHERMAN
GUATEMALA CITY (AP) — Guatemala and Honduras have signed agreements with
the United States to potentially offer refuge to people from other
countries who otherwise would seek asylum in the United States, U.S.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday at the conclusion
of her Central America trip.
The agreements expand the Trump administration’s efforts to provide the
U.S. government flexibility in returning migrants not only to their own
countries, but also to third countries as it attempts to ramp up
deportations.
Noem described it as a way to offer asylum-seekers options other than
coming to the United States. She said the agreements had been in the
works for months. with the U.S. government applying pressure on Honduras
and Guatemala to get them done.
“Honduras and now Guatemala after today will be countries that will take
those individuals and give them refugee status as well,” Noem said.
“We’ve never believed that the United States should be the only option,
that the guarantee for a refugee is that they go somewhere to be safe
and to be protected from whatever threat they face in their country. It
doesn’t necessarily have to be the United States.”
Both governments denied having signed safe third-country agreements when
asked following Noem's comments.
Guatemala's presidential communications office said the government did
not sign a safe third-country agreement nor any immigration related
agreement during Noem's visit.
They reaffirmed that Guatemala would receive Central Americans sent by
the United States as a temporary stop on the return to their countries.
Noem had said Thursday that “politically, this is a difficult agreement
for their governments to do.”
Both countries have limited resources and many needs making support for
asylum-seekers from other countries a tougher sell domestically. There
are also the optics of two left-of-center governments appearing to help
the Trump administration limit access to U.S. asylum.
Noem said that during her Guatemala meeting, she was given the already
signed agreement. While later there was a public signing ceremony for a
memorandum of understanding that establishes a Joint Security Program
that will put U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in the
Guatemalan capital's international airport to help train local agents to
screen for terrorist suspects.
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U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, shakes hands
with Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, at a signing
ceremony at the National Palace in Guatemala City, Thursday, June
26, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)
Honduras' immigration director Wilson Paz denied such an agreement
was signed and its Foreign Affairs Ministry did not immediately
respond to a request for comment.
During U.S. President Donald Trump’s first term, the U.S. signed
such accords called safe third-country agreements with Honduras, El
Salvador and Guatemala. They effectively allowed the U.S. to declare
some asylum seekers ineligible to apply for U.S. protection and
permitted the U.S. government to send them to those countries deemed
“safe.”
The U.S. has had such an agreement with Canada since 2002.
The practical challenge was that all three Central American
countries at the time were seeing large numbers of their own
citizens head to the U.S. to escape violence and a lack of economic
opportunity. They also had extremely under-resourced asylum systems.
In February, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio signed deals with
El Salvador and Guatemala that allowed the U.S. to send migrants
from other nations there. But in Guatemala’s case it was to only be
a point of transit for migrants who would then return to their
homelands, not to apply for asylum there. And in El Salvador, it was
broader, allowing the U.S. to send migrants to be imprisoned there.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum said Tuesday that Mexico would
not sign a safe third-country agreement, but at the same time Mexico
has accepted more than 5,000 migrants from other countries deported
from the U.S. since Trump took office. She said Mexico accepted them
for humanitarian reasons and helped them return to their home
countries.
The U.S. also has agreements with Panama and Costa Rica to take
migrants from other countries though so far the numbers sent have
been relatively small. The Trump administration sent 299 to Panama
in February and fewer than 200 to Costa Rica.
The agreements give U.S. authorities options, especially for
migrants from countries where it is not easy for the U.S. to return
them directly.
___
Sherman reported from Mexico City.
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