El Salvador lacks conditions to offer safety or humanitarian support to asylum-seekers

“El Salvador cannot be an asylum country because it lacks conditions to provide security and integration for those who need protection.  I have seen first hand the instability and violence left behind in El Salvador by U.S. foreign policy. With this latest agreement, the United States is forcing the most vulnerable communities to seek safety in a country that is not equipped to protect its own citizens or provide economic opportunity. Instead of pushing forward a racist, anti-immigrant agenda – the U.S. should be making sure that not one more dollar goes into the militarization and criminalization of communities in Central America. The U.S turning its back on the very conditions it helped create is inhumane.

These so-called ‘cooperative asylum agreements’ with Central American countries are part of the Trump administration’s broader anti-immigrant strategy rooted in white supremacy.  After repeatedly failing to stop the exodus of Central Americans and other populations who are seeking protection in the United States, the administration is now using tariff threats and other extortion measures to outsource migration control to Mexico and Central America.  The administration’s attempts to block asylum-seekers from exercising their right to seek protection in the country where they feel safest run contrary to the law, the Constitution, and human rights.”

Alianza Americas is a network of 50 immigrant-led organizations representing more than 100,000 families across the United States. It is the only US-based organization rooted in Latino and Caribbean immigrant communities that works transnationally to create an inclusive, equitable, and sustainable way of life. Learn more at alianzaamericas.org.