Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales plans to travel to Washington, D.C., on Monday to discuss a deal that would require migrants from neighboring El Salvador and Honduras to seek asylum in Guatemala rather than the U.S., as the Trump administration seeks to slow migrant flows.
The goal of the visit is to consider an agreement that would designate Guatemala a safe third country for asylum seekers from the region, according to a spokeswoman for Guatemala’s foreign ministry and a Trump administration official. Guatemala has been negotiating the matter with the U.S. for more than a month.
A senior Guatemalan official said Mr. Morales isn’t planning to sign any such agreement during his visit.
Critics say Guatemala isn’t equipped to serve as a haven for the thousands of Salvadorans and Hondurans fleeing from violence in their home countries. Opponents of the deal in Guatemala are preparing legal injunctions to stop Mr. Morales from signing an agreement with the U.S.
One of them is Manfredo Marroquín, the former head of the nonprofit Transparency International in Guatemala who presented a request for an injunction to the country’s constitutional court on Thursday. He said the Central American country is in no condition to offer safe haven when it can’t even guarantee the safety of its own nationals who flee the country seeking jobs and security.
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