1、CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress Legal SidebarLegal Sidebari i Safe Third Country Agreements with Northern Triangle Countries: Background and Legal Issues January 30, 2020 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently began implementing an agreement with the gov
2、ernment of Guatemala that allows DHS to transfer some asylum seekers to that country instead of evaluating their claims for protection in the United States. According to a report, DHS had transferred at least 230 Honduran and Salvadoran asylum seekers to Guatemala under the agreement as of late Janu
3、ary 2020. Reports suggest that DHS has contemplated plans to apply the agreement to Mexican asylum seekers as well, but thus far it appears that only nationals of Honduras and El Salvador have been transferred to Guatemala under it. The agreement does not apply to Guatemalan nationals, unaccompanied
4、 alien children, and some other categories of aliens. Agreements of this nature are typically known as “safe third country” agreements (STCAs), from the heading of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) provision that authorizes them. DHS and the government of Guatemala have opted to call their a
