Mexicans seeking asylum in the
United States could be sent to Guatemala under a bilateral agreement signed by the Central
American nation last year, according to documents sent to U.S. asylum officers in recent days and seen by Reuters.
In a Jan. 4 email, field office staff at the U.S. Citizenship and
immigration Services (USCIS) were told Mexican nationals will be included in the populations "amenable" to the agreement with Guatemala.
The agreement, brokered last July between the administration of
Republican President
Donald Trump and the outgoing Guatemalan government, allows U.S. immigration officials to force migrants requesting asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border to apply for protection there.