“This devastating story reminds us how designating Honduras a ‘safe third country’ makes a mockery of the term”
On Wednesday, the Trump administration inked a deal with Honduras on possibly returning asylum seekers to Honduras and designating the Central American country as a “safe third country.” In so doing, the administration once again conducts an exercise in making Trump feel like he’s ‘doing something,’ by blocking vulnerable migrants who pass through Honduras from seeking asylum in the United States. In reality, what Trump is doing is doling out death sentences by sending migrants to one of the world’s most violent nations and assuring asylum claims never reach American courts.
The possible ramifications of this merciless disembowelment of the asylum process can already be seen. On Sunday, Luis Tábora, a Honduran migrant, was deported directly from the US border. Just hours after his arrival in Honduras, Tábora was shot and killed while talking to his friend in a parked car. He was still wearing shoes provided by ICE. As the policy with Honduras evolves, along with agreements previously signed with El Salvador and Guatemala, stories such as Luis Tábora’s will only become more frequent and gruesome.
Douglas Rivlin, Director of Communication for America’s Voice said:
This devastating story reminds us how designating Honduras a ‘safe third country’ makes a mockery of the term. The latest news, on the heels of similar announcements regarding El Salvador and Guatemala, is another indication of how the Trump administration is attempting to outsource its cruelty, gut the asylum process, and ignore the reality of why people are forced to migrate in the first place. The goal of the Trump administration is to make sure the asylum claims of people fleeing violence and persecution never reach U.S. courts, no matter how valid or compelling those claims may be.
