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More Than 600 Asylum Seekers Have Been Sent to Guatemala Under Trump Policy

A plane waits on the runway at Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport.
Reynaldo Lea脙卤os Jr. | Texas Public Radio
A plane waits on the runway at Brownsville South Padre Island International Airport.

Thomas Cartwright ran along a chain link fence outside the runway at the . He was trying to catch a glimpse of buses loading migrants onto a plane.

Cartwright says he and other protestors are there to show border officials 鈥渢hat there are watchers, so that nothing is done in the darkness.鈥 

But as Cartwright leaned against the fence to record and take photos, an empty white airport shuttle pulled up and parked in front of him, obscuring his view of the plane. It's not the first time this has happened.

鈥淥ne day, I think I counted roughly 10 large vehicles, fuel trucks, tugs, that they place strategically around to block out view,鈥 Cartwright said.

He and dozens of other members of an advocacy group called gathered at the airport to protest out of Brownsville in recent months. 

Deportation flights   out of Brownsville, but migrants have also started being sent from the border city to Guatemala under a new policy.

Protesters at the Brownsville airport in the early morning.
Credit Courtesy of Thomas Cartwright
Protesters at the Brownsville airport in the early morning.

The Trump administration announced last July that Guatemala would sign what it calls a safe third country agreement. The agreement, called the , requires some asylum seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to either seek asylum in Guatemala or return to their home countries. 

The agreement went into effect in November, beginning with the removal of migrants in El Paso, and has expanded to the Rio Grande Valley.

According to the 634 asylum seekers, most of them women and children, have been sent to Guatemala so far under the new policy.

Between Feb. 1 and Feb. 13, 98 asylum seekers were flown to Guatemala City from Brownsville, approximately half of them Salvadoran and the remainder Honduran.

The agreement with Guatemala represents a departure from previous U.S. policy, which allowed migrants seeking asylum from violence or persecution in their home countries to remain in the U.S. while a judge hears their case. 

In addition to the third country rule, the Trump administration has strictly enforced its , which requires asylum seekers who reach the U.S.-Mexico border to wait in Mexico while they navigate U.S. immigration courts. 

The Trump administration says Guatemala is a safe place for migrants to seek asylum. Immigrant rights activists say it is not only unsafe, but also one of the main countries asylum seekers are fleeing.

Joshua Rubin, another member of Witness at the Border, has been in Brownsville for more than a month. He said what he鈥檚 seen on the border and at the airport breaks his heart.

鈥淭hese people fled a situation, most likely that threatened their lives, and we鈥檙e flying them back into those places where their lives are in danger,鈥 Rubin said. 鈥淲hat it must feel like to come all this distance, for a lot of them to pay a lot of money to get here, to be captured and to be fast tracked, to have asylum claims denied.鈥

The Trump Administration has not disclosed the total number of migrants sent to Guatemala under the new agreement. Information about the flights has become public through nonprofit workers in Guatemala and the Guatemalan government.

Charanya Krishnaswami, Americas Advocacy Director for USA, is currently in Guatemala documenting the implementation of the new deportation agreement. Ariana Sawyer, a researcher for , is also in Guatemala.

 

Krishnaswami said Hondurans and Salvadorans who are sent to Guatemala under the agreement are transported to the country alongside Guatemalan returnees, and all of the migrants arrive at a commercial airport, in Guatemala City.

鈥淚CE says that because of security concerns they鈥檙e supposed to be handcuffed, so they end up coming off of the plane in handcuffs,鈥 Krishnaswami said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 important to remember that these are folks who were woken up at one in the morning for processing. They usually arrive at the airport at around 10 or 11 in the morning.鈥 

鈥淭hey鈥檙e told they have 72 hours to decide whether they want to seek asylum in Guatemala or whether they want to accept voluntary return,鈥 Krishnaswami said. 

She said migrants are first taken to a legal orientation, then to a migrant shelter where they can sleep.

鈥淚 think about 25 people have opted for voluntary return, according to  [International Organization For Migration],鈥 said Krishnaswami.

She said officials with Guatemalan migration told her only 14 people have sought asylum there, meaning the vast majority of people are unaccounted for. 

Even if these programs are stopped, how do we locate the hundreds already subject to them? How do we ever make them whole? 鈥 Charanya Krishnaswami (@charanya_k)

She said there isn鈥檛 enough shelter capacity to house the migrants while they decide whether to seek asylum. She also said the journey has likely been traumatic for some migrants. 

鈥淣ot even understanding that that鈥檚 where you鈥檙e going and only realizing it upon landing and that complete lack of orientation, that complete lack of counseling, I think exacerbates existing traumas and creates new ones,鈥 Krishnaswami said.

Ramiro Gonzalez is the director of government and community affairs with the city of Brownsville. He said he doesn鈥檛 know how many migrants are deported on flights coming out of the airport.

鈥淲e really don鈥檛 know, we just know that whatever policy they鈥檙e using, they鈥檙e using our airport to fly people in, or to fly people out,鈥 Gonzalez said. 鈥淲e really have no idea where they鈥檙e coming from, if they鈥檙e being bused in from Laredo or El Paso. We just know that these flights go out.鈥

Protesters projected signs outside of Brownsville airport.
Credit Courtesy of Thomas Cartwright
Protesters projected signs outside of Brownsville airport.

Diane Sonde, an activist from Brooklyn, NY, said she was distressed to see that young people coming into the airport on a bus were wearing handcuffs.

鈥淲hen the police came to remove us from the area I asked them how they could sleep at night and how would they feel if this was their children and their families being torn apart,鈥 said Sonde. 鈥淭hey wouldn鈥檛 even look us in the eye.鈥

The protestors said they will continue to be on the border for as long as they can.

The Department of Homeland Security has not responded to multiple requests for comment and has provided no data on how many people have been sent to Guatemala under the agreement.

Similar asylum cooperative agreements are expected to go into effect in El Salvador and Honduras. 

Reynaldo Lea帽os Jr. can be reached at Reynaldo@TPR.org and on Twitter at

Copyright 2020 Texas Public Radio. To see more, visit .

Reynaldo Leanos Jr. covers immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border for Texas Public Radio.