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USSends Guatemala First Honduran Migrant Under Asylum Deal

Reuters

   GUATEMALA CITY - The first Honduranasylum-seeker arrived in Guatemala
   on Thursday from El Paso,Texas, under a controversial U.S. agreement
   that establishesGuatemala as a safe third country to process people
   fleeingpersecution in their homelands.

   Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart said the
   Honduran man arrived on a flight from the United States earlier
   in the morning.

   The Honduran was among Guatemalan deportees flown into the
   Central American country on one of four U.S. deportation
   flightsscheduled on Thursday, Degenhart said.

   The new effort began after the administration of Republican
   President Donald Trump brokered an agreement with the
   Guatemalangovernment in July. The deal allows U.S. immigration
   officialsto force migrants requesting asylum at the U.S.-Mexicoborderto
   apply for asylum in Guatemala first.

   Campaign issue

   Trump has made cracking down on immigration a central issue
   of his 2020 re-election campaign. His administration has worked
   to restrict asylum access in the United States to curb thenumber of
   mostly Central American families arriving at theU.S.-Mexico border.

   U.S. officials earlier this week said the program initiallywould be
   applied at a U.S. Border Patrol station in El Paso.

   A first phase will target adults from Honduras and ElSalvador, and the
   aim will be to process them within 72 hours,according to the officials
   and notes taken by one of theofficials during a training session of
   U.S. Citizenship andImmigration Services (USCIS) asylum officers.

   Democrats and pro-migrant groups have opposed the move and
   contend asylum-seekers will face danger in Guatemala, where the
   murder rate is five times that of the United States, accordingto 2017
   data compiled by the World Bank.

   Guatemalan President-elect AlejandroGiammattei, who takesoffice in
   January, has said he will review the agreement.

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