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Tell Congress: End the Asylum Cooperation Agreements and stop deportations and expulsions during the pandemic!

Even amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration has not ceased the attacks against migrants that characterized his campaign and his presidency. One of the Trump Administration's priorities has been to destroy our asylum system, intended to protect those fleeing deadly persecution in their home country.

One of the more recent attacks is known as the Asylum Cooperative Agreements, also known as “safe third country agreements,” which the governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador signed in 2019 under intense pressure from the Trump Administration.

These agreements - the first of which with Guatemala is already being challenged in U.S. courts by the ACLU, the Center for Gender and Refugee Studies and others - permit the U.S. to redirect asylum-seekers to these countries to seek protection instead of allowing them to exercise their internationally-recognized right to seek asylum in the U.S.

The agreement with Guatemala was temporarily paused in March due to the pandemic. Still, from the time it was signed in 2019 until March 2020, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador were transferred to Guatemala under this agreement. After journeying to the U.S. to seek refuge from deadly conditions in their home countries, they are forced to choose between seeking refugee status in Guatemala or returning to the very situation from which they fled.

On December 15, 2020, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf announced that El Salvador was ready to implement the previously-signed agreement.

It is outrageous to characterize Honduras, Guatemala or El Salvador as "safe" given the current conditions of violence to which the U.S. has contributed through decades of support for right-wing repression, militarization and economic exploitation.

We demand that Members of Congress do everything in their power to bring an end to these illegal, inhumane, and too-often deadly "safe third country" agreements and to immediately halt all deportations and expulsions, especially in light of the dangers of COVID-19.

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Tell Congress: Stop the Asylum Cooperation Agreements in Central America!

Send a message to your Representative in the House

Subject: Constituent concerned about inhumane and illegal U.S. asylum agreements with Central America

Message:

As you may know, DHS announced on December 15 that El Salvador is ready to implement an Asylum Cooperation Agreement signed in 2019. As your constituent, I call on you to take action against this and other inhumane migration policies. Under the ACAs, the U.S. designated El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as “safe third countries” to which to send asylum-seekers, rather than allowing them to pursue an asylum claim here, as is their right under international law. These policies are immoral and, according to a U.S. lawsuit filed November 2019, illegal. None of these countries provide a full and fair asylum application procedure and are themselves so unsafe that their citizens flee en masse to the U.S. The Guatemala agreement was paused in March due to COVID-19. Prior to that, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers, the majority women and children from Honduras and El Salvador, were transferred to Guatemala but only twenty of the those transferred requested protection in Guatemala, where they're vulnerable to the same sources of violence as in their home countries. The rest made the life-threatening decision to return to the dangers from which they'd fled. These agreements are a gross violation of the internationally recognized right to seek asylum and of the core principle of non-refoulement; even U.S. asylum officers filed an amicus brief denouncing their illegality. Additionally, thousands of people, including unaccompanied minors, have been expelled from the U.S. under the CDC Title 42 rule under the pretext of COVID-19. People impacted by this rule are denied due process and many end up in unsafe conditions outside of our borders. I call on you to: 1) Publicly declare your opposition to the ACAs and call on the incoming Biden Administration to end them immediately, as well as to rescind the CDC Title 42 border order 2) Support the Immigration Enforcement Moratorium Act (H.R. 7569) which would halt deportations and immigration enforcement during the pandemic 3) As needed, prohibit DHS from using future funding to implement any ACA Now more than ever, amid the continued threat of COVID-19, the assaults on immigrants and asylum seekers must be stopped. If your office has already issued statements or taken other action in regard to these issues, please let me know.

Remaining:

Send a message to members of the Senate Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Committee

Subject: DHS Appropriations: Constituent concerned about inhumane asylum agreements with Central America and deportations and expulsions during pandemic

Message:

As you may know, DHS announced on December 15 that El Salvador is ready to implement an Asylum Cooperation Agreement signed in 2019. As your constituent, I call on you to take action against this and other inhumane migration policies. Under the ACAs, the U.S. designated El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as “safe third countries” to which to send asylum-seekers, rather than allowing them to pursue an asylum claim here, as is their right under international law. These policies are immoral and, according to a U.S. lawsuit filed November 2019, illegal. None of these countries provide a full and fair asylum application procedure and are themselves so unsafe that their citizens flee en masse to the U.S. The Guatemala agreement was paused in March due to COVID-19. Prior to that, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers, the majority women and children from Honduras and El Salvador, were transferred to Guatemala but only twenty of the those transferred requested protection in Guatemala, where they're vulnerable to the same sources of violence as in their home countries. The rest made the life-threatening decision to return to the dangers from which they'd fled. These agreements are a gross violation of the internationally recognized right to seek asylum and of the core principle of non-refoulement; even U.S. asylum officers filed an amicus brief denouncing their illegality. Additionally, thousands of people, including unaccompanied minors, have been expelled from the U.S. under the CDC Title 42 rule under the pretext of COVID-19. People impacted by this rule are denied due process and many end up in unsafe conditions outside of our borders. I call on you to: 1) Publicly declare your opposition to the ACAs and call on the incoming Biden Administration to end them immediately, as well as to rescind the CDC Title 42 border order 2) Support the Immigration Enforcement Moratorium Act (S. 4011) which would halt deportations and immigration enforcement during the pandemic 3) Through the Appropriations Committee, prohibit DHS from using funding to implement the ACAs Now more than ever, amid the continued threat of COVID-19, the assaults on immigrants and asylum seekers must be stopped. If your office has already issued statements or taken other action in regard to these issues, please let me know.

Remaining:

Send a message to members of the Senate Appropriations Committee

Subject: DHS Appropriations: Constituent concerned about inhumane and illegal U.S. asylum agreements with Central America, Deportations and Expulsions During Pandemic

Message:

As you may know, DHS announced on December 15 that El Salvador is ready to implement an Asylum Cooperation Agreement signed in 2019. As your constituent, I call on you to take action against this and other inhumane migration policies. Under the ACAs, the U.S. designated El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as “safe third countries” to which to send asylum-seekers, rather than allowing them to pursue an asylum claim here, as is their right under international law. These policies are immoral and, according to a U.S. lawsuit filed November 2019, illegal. None of these countries provide a full and fair asylum application procedure and are themselves so unsafe that their citizens flee en masse to the U.S. The Guatemala agreement was paused in March due to COVID-19. Prior to that, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers, the majority women and children from Honduras and El Salvador, were transferred to Guatemala but only twenty of the those transferred requested protection in Guatemala, where they're vulnerable to the same sources of violence as in their home countries. The rest made the life-threatening decision to return to the dangers from which they'd fled. These agreements are a gross violation of the internationally recognized right to seek asylum and of the core principle of non-refoulement; even U.S. asylum officers filed an amicus brief denouncing their illegality. Additionally, thousands of people, including unaccompanied minors, have been expelled from the U.S. under the CDC Title 42 rule under the pretext of COVID-19. People impacted by this rule are denied due process and many end up in unsafe conditions outside of our borders. I call on you to: 1) Publicly declare your opposition to the ACAs and call on the incoming Biden Administration to end them immediately, as well as to rescind the CDC Title 42 border order 2) Support the Immigration Enforcement Moratorium Act (S. 4011) which would halt deportations and immigration enforcement during the pandemic 3) Through the Appropriations Committee, prohibit DHS from using funding to implement the ACAs Now more than ever, amid the continued threat of COVID-19, the assaults on immigrants and asylum seekers must be stopped. If your office has already issued statements or taken other action in regard to these issues, please let me know.

Remaining:

Send a message to your Senators

Subject: Constituent concerned about inhumane asylum agreements with Central America, and deportations and expulsions during Pandemic

Message:

As you may know, DHS announced on December 15 that El Salvador is ready to implement an Asylum Cooperation Agreement signed in 2019. As your constituent, I call on youto take action against this and other inhumane migration policies. Under the ACAs, the U.S. designated El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as “safe third countries” to which to send asylum-seekers, rather than allowing them to pursue an asylum claim here, as is their right under international law. These policies are immoral and, according to a U.S. lawsuit filed November 2019, illegal. None of these countries provide a full and fair asylum application procedure and are themselves so unsafe that their citizens flee en masse to the U.S. The Guatemala agreement was paused in March due to COVID-19. Prior to that, nearly 1,000 asylum-seekers, the majority women and children from Honduras and El Salvador, were transferred to Guatemala but only twenty of the those transferred requested protection in Guatemala, where they're vulnerable to the same sources of violence as in their home countries. The rest made the life-threatening decision to return to the dangers from which they'd fled. These agreements are a gross violation of the internationally recognized right to seek asylum and of the core principle of non-refoulement; even U.S. asylum officers filed an amicus brief denouncing their illegality. Additionally, thousands of people, including unaccompanied minors, have been expelled from the U.S. under the CDC Title 42 rule under the pretext of COVID-19. People impacted by this rule are denied due process and many end up in unsafe conditions outside of our borders. I call on you to: 1) Publicly declare your opposition to the ACAs and call on the incoming Biden Administration to end them immediately, as well as to rescind the CDC Title 42 border order 2) Support the Immigration Enforcement Moratorium Act (S. 4011) which would halt deportations and immigration enforcement during the pandemic 3) Prohibit DHS from using funding to implement the ACAs in the next budget Now more than ever, amid the continued threat of COVID-19, the assaults on immigrants and asylum seekers must be stopped. If your office has already issued statements or taken other action in regard to these issues, please let me know.

Remaining:

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