Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that Honduras and Guatemala have signed deals that would allow people applying for asylum in the United States to seek refuge in those nations instead.
“Honduras and now Guatemala, after today, will be countries that will take those individuals and give them refuge status as well,” Noem told reporters after concluding her three-day trip to Central America.
Noem stated that the agreements are part of the Trump administration’s efforts to expand options for transferring refugees, allowing their deportation to third countries, rather than just to their own countries.
“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,” she said….