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  • A year ago, this woman says she was paying $500 a month

  • to the MS-13 gang in El Salvador, extortion money

  • to keep her restaurant up and running.

  • Then gang members murdered her son-in-law,

  • and she and her daughter testified against them.

  • In the past, her story might have been grounds for asylum

  • in the United States — or at least an asylum hearing

  • but not anymore.

  • That’s because the Trump administration is upending

  • the U.S. asylum system.

  • So that’s a very big thing.

  • It’s a very important signature.”

  • And one way theyre doing it is

  • through a deal with Guatemala, called the

  • Asylum Cooperation Agreement, or ACA.

  • This landmark agreement will put

  • the coyotes and the smugglers out of business,

  • and stop asylum fraud and abuses.”

  • What this means in practice is that hundreds

  • of asylum seekers from Honduras and El Salvador

  • have been deported, and told to seek refuge

  • in Guatemala instead.

  • But Guatemala is plagued by many of the same problems

  • that people are fleeing in the first place:

  • violence, poverty and corruption.

  • So I came to see what asylum in Guatemala looks like.

  • Once deported under the ACA, asylum seekers

  • arrive at this shelter.

  • Everyone I speak with is confused.

  • They’d made the long journey north only

  • to end up back nearly where they started.

  • The woman I met earlier, the one threatened by MS-13,

  • is also staying at the shelter.

  • She and her daughter are applying for asylum here,

  • but a friend warns her that the gang is tracking them.

  • She’s one of the very few people

  • to pursue an asylum claim here.

  • In fact, only about 16

  • of more than 900 people have done so.

  • So why does this deal exist?

  • Even Guatemala’s newly elected president,

  • Alejandro Giammattei,

  • acknowledges the deal is political.

  • And he’s right.

  • They don’t want to stay here.

  • It’s too close to home, and asylum here

  • offers little protection or support.

  • The U.S. had pledged to pump $47 million

  • into Guatemala’s asylum system,

  • but it’s unclear how much of that money has been received

  • or how it’s been spent.

  • Nevertheless, more of these deals are in the pipeline.

  • We entered into historic cooperation agreements with …”

  • Soon, the Trump administration plans

  • to implement asylum deals with Honduras and El Salvador.

  • Those countries are even less prepared.

  • Two days later, I meet up again

  • with the woman who’s running from MS-13.

  • Her situation has already gotten worse.

  • She and her daughter can’t stay at the shelter anymore.

  • Theyve been there a month, and yet their asylum claims

  • could take a few months to a year to process.

  • And that, in the end, may be the point of these deals.

  • For the Trump administration, the goal

  • is to stem the flow of migrants to the U.S.,

  • perhaps by convincing them not to come at all.

A year ago, this woman says she was paying $500 a month

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