A landmark legal ruling has delivered a severe blow to a key Trump-era immigration policy, with a US federal judge permanently blocking a controversial agreement that forced asylum seekers to pursue their claims in Guatemala rather than the United States.
US District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee, issued a scathing assessment of the so-called 'Asylum Cooperative Agreement'. In his ruling, he declared the policy was fatally flawed due to the US government's failure to adequately assess whether Guatemala could provide a safe haven for vulnerable migrants.
The judge's decision marks a significant victory for human rights advocates who argued the policy exposed asylum seekers to extreme danger. The court found that officials did not sufficiently consider Guatemala's capacity to protect migrants from persecution, a fundamental requirement of US law.
This policy, a cornerstone of former President Donald Trump's hardline immigration agenda, sought to redirect thousands of migrants and asylum seekers from the US southern border to Guatemala. The judge's ruling prevents any future administration from attempting to revive the agreement without first conducting a proper and lawful evaluation of safety conditions in the Central American nation.
The case was brought by the advocacy group Human Rights First, who argued the policy was both unlawful and inhumane. The organisation presented evidence that migrants sent to Guatemala under the agreement faced grave risks, including kidnapping, violence, and deportation back to the very countries they had fled.
This definitive ruling closes a contentious chapter in US immigration history and sets a crucial legal precedent for evaluating the safety of third-country asylum agreements in the future.
