New Deal Would Force Asylum Seekers to Return to El Salvador Despite Obvious Dangers

The U.S. and El Salvador signed a new deal Friday that would force migrants passing through El Salvador to seek asylum there rather than in the U.S. — and could also return asylum seekers back to El Salvador once they reach the U.S. Amnesty International said in a statement, “El Salvador has one of the highest rates of violence in the world, including gender-based violence so rampant that Amnesty International declared it one of the most dangerous countries in the world to be a woman. It is not safe for its own citizens, much less for asylum-seekers.”