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The Trump administration has secured an agreement with El Salvador to send certain asylum seekers to claim asylum there instead of the U.S. This is the culmination of a plan set in motion in 2019 to divert all Central American asylum seekers to other Central American countries. A number of flights of asylum seekers were sent to Guatemala before the pandemic began. It’s unclear if this agreement will go into effect before Biden takes office. El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele previously said that the country was not ready to accept asylum seekers. BuzzFeed News
In other local immigration news…
Biden Could Save Billions by Halting Wall Construction
The U.S. government would save $2.6 billion if Biden halts construction on Trump’s wall on the U.S.–Mexico border. The Trump administration allocated $15 billion to spend on building the wall, enough to complete 738 miles of new fencing, according to Customs and Border Protection. Most of the money came from the Department of Defense counternarcotics program. There will be about $3.3 billion in unused funds in the project’s accounts on Jan. 21, Inauguration Day. The Army Corps who are overseeing construction have held several meetings with Biden’s transition team about how to end the construction legally. The Washington Post
