Reason #6405 that Trump was Elected

By The Way, Trump Administration Just Scored Another Safe-Third-Country Agreement In Central America Today (Yesterday)

No biggie, just the last link in a fence that might end up mooting much of the asylum debate in Congress. While most of the attention today has focused on Ukraine, the White House announced a new agreement with Honduras to take any refugees seeking asylum first rather than the US. That makes three nations with safe-third-country agreements in Central America that effectively blocks the land route for asylum seekers from south of Mexico:

The Trump administration reached a deal with the government of Honduras to enhance the Central American nation’s asylum capacity.
The agreement, signed Wednesday, is similar to agreements previously reached with the governments of El Salvador and Guatemala, a senior Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official told reporters on a phone call.
The official said migrants who had an opportunity to seek protection in Honduras, El Salvador or Guatemala will be returned from the U.S. border to seek asylum or protection in one of those countries under the recent agreements, including the new Honduras accord.
The U.S. and international organizations will work to help build upon Honduras’s current systems and processes to expand its asylum capacity, the official said.

The Trump administration has attempted to get around the gridlock in Congress by using its diplomatic authority to deal with waves of asylum seekers. Most of these cases turn out not to qualify, with the request dealing with economic issues rather than oppression. In 2017, the most recent year for which DHS has statistics, the US received 139,801 affirmative asylum cases, where the person applies on arrival, and processed an additional 119,303 defensive asylum cases (filed when the DoJ attempts to deport a person). Only 26,568 were approved combined for both categories, for an approval rate of 10.3%.