Trump threatens Guatemala over asylum deal

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened retribution against Guatemala over immigration after the country’s high court blocked its government from signing an asylum deal with the United States.

Trump tweeted that Guatemala has decided against signing a “safe-third agreement” requiring Central American migrants seeking asylum in the U.S. to instead apply for those protections in Guatemala, even though the country’s government never said it had agreed to the arrangement.

Guatemala “has decided to break the deal they had with us on signing a necessary Safe Third Agreement. We were ready to go,” Trump complained. “Now we are looking at the ‘BAN,’” he wrote, along with tariffs, fees on remittance money Guatemalans working in the U.S. send back to their country, “or all of the above.”

Trump later painted the court ruling as a convenient excuse for the country, saying: “In other words, they didn’t want to sign it.”

Trump has been trying to get countries including Guatemala to do more to stop the flood of Central American migrants who have been overwhelming the U.S. southern border, jeopardizing his campaign promise to end illegal immigration.