Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Thursday that a Texas law that gives state authorities the power to arrest and deport immigrants who enter the country illegally is unconstitutional.
“As a legal matter, we feel strongly that SB4 [the Texas law] … is unconstitutional and we hope and believe that the courts will eventually overturn it,” Mayorkas told a joint news conference in the Guatemalan capital with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo.
A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments Wednesday about the Texas law but did not render a ruling. The law is currently on hold.
Mayorkas traveled to Guatemala to develop a U.S.-led regional immigration strategy. He described it as seeking to “establish legal, safe and orderly pathways to get people from places of persecution to safety, while at the same time deporting people back to their countries when they do not take advantage of these legal pathways.”
Among these safe pathways is the U.S. effort to streamline the process for people seeking U.S. asylum in the region through so-called Offices of Safe Mobility. They allow migrants to begin the immigration process locally rather than make the dangerous and expensive journey to the U.S. border.
Guatemala’s Safe Mobility Office, unlike other countries such as Colombia, is only open to Guatemalans seeking U.S. protection. One of the demands made by Mayorkas’ delegation was for Guatemala to allow the Office of Safe Mobility to process migrants from other countries, according to a Guatemalan official who requested anonymity because the issue is still being discussed.
Mayorkas did not answer directly when asked at a joint news conference whether the U.S. government would require Guatemala to sign a safe third country agreement, which the former president of Guatemala agreed to during the Trump administration. Such an agreement would require migrants from other countries to seek protection from the Guatemalan government when passing through Guatemala, rather than seeking protection at the U.S. border.
Asked again in an interview with The Associated Press, Mayorkas said Guatemala could be a safe destination for some migrants but that he was deferring to Arevalo’s administration on that front.
The United States has sought to improve cooperation with countries along migration routes, including Guatemala, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Ecuador, but Mayorkas acknowledged greater challenges in Nicaragua and Venezuela, countries with which the United States has strained relations. governments.
Arevalo explained the meeting in similar terms.
“We operate on the principle that migration is a regional phenomenon and therefore the answers must be found in the joint efforts of different countries,” he said.
Mayorkas also expressed support for the Guatemalan leader, whose electoral victory last year has been challenged and whose party still faces prosecution by Guatemala’s attorney general.
“We know that the forces of corruption continue to threaten democracy and the well-being of the people in Guatemala and beyond,” Mayorkas said. “The United States supports President Arevalo and his fight for democracy, against the forces of corruption, and for the Guatemalan people. .”
Follow us on Google news ,Twitter , and Join Whatsapp Group of thelocalreport.in
