Central American countries have long returned their own citizens deported from the United States. But now Trump’s administration has invited them to take people from other countries around the world.
Exceptional measures involved in these deportations – hundreds of migrants who broke through the plane without knowing their destinations and paid in isolated shelters – they diverted attention to Panama and Costa Rica and that Trump plays the immigration activity far above the US borders.
So far, the number of migrants has been deported to Central America still small, and it remains unclear whether to grow. Regional leaders largely say that they are actively cooperating with the United States or diminishing the significance of deportations. However, analysts warn that these leaders were drawn into an angle with a threat of tariff and that any increase in flights for deportation could eventually push Central America to its borders.
“They are powerless to do anything,” said Christopher Sabatini, a senior researcher for Latin America at the Chatham House, a research institute in London. “And with President Petro from Colombia, we have seen the consequences if you resist: sanctions against diplomatic staff, loss of visa rights, as well as tariffs.”
This month, Trump’s administration sent three military aircraft transporting approximately 300 migrants – mostly from Asia and the Middle East – in Panama. Days later, a flight transported by 135 people, almost half of children and including dozens of people from China, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, landed in Costa Rica.
Migrants, which US authorities say have illegally crossed the southern border, remain in the custody of local authorities until they return to their countries or provide asylum somewhere else.
Sending to other countries removes many obstacles that Mr Trump faced during his first term in an attempt to suppress illegal immigration, analysts claim.
It helps to alleviate overcrowding in US detention facilities by removing people from countries like China, Afghanistan and Iran, where the lack of diplomatic relations with the United States makes deportations particularly challenging.
In addition, the current removal of migrants allows the United States to lag the international legal obligations to offer people who can face life in dangerous conditions in their home countries the opportunity to request asylum.
Fast deportations also allow the administration to avoid another particular obstacle that Mr. Trump ran during his first term: under US law, the authorities were not allowed to keep children in custody for Over 20 dayswhether they are with their parents. Of the migrants who have been deported to Central America so far are a big share of families with children.
Publicly, leaders across Central America – obviously concerned about the possibility of retaliation if defiantly defied by the United States – reject the idea that they are forced to accept these migrants.
In Panama, officials characterize themselves as fully engaged partners in migration. This commitment is followed by a rush that has destabilized the region in recent years, while hundreds of thousands of people have crossed in Panama through Darién Gap, a dangerous hallway of the jungle between Colombia and Panama.
Costa Rica, for its part, sought to reduce its decision to transfer people from distant countries. Officials say this as a one -off US government request that includes a negligible number of people. They passed the flight deported at a press conference last week, overthrowing arrivals with other migrants who began to bang to the south, while the United States and Mexico harden the border.
Still, President Rodrigo Chaves of Costa Rica was honest because of his government’s motivation in receiving migrants: “We help the economically powerful brother from the north,” he told the crowd last week: “Who, if he puts taxes on free trading zones, will destroy us.”
Analysts say that more countries in the region are likely to get deported from other countries. El Salvador and Guatemala officials have already said they are willing.
“The biggest problem facing regional governments that are willing to do Trump’s deportation work is that they have to walk through the wire,” said John Feeley, a former US Ambassador to Panama. They must be presented as “humanitarian, law rules,” he said, even as they look like the “cruel Hunchmen” Trump administration.
Costa Rica and Panama said that, with food, clean water and medical care, migrants are given the opportunity to apply for asylum with the help of the United Nations agencies. Local officials were unwavering not to send migrants back to countries they say they face serious danger.
Panama officials also said they did not behave under threat.
“There is no quid pro quo, there are no threats,” Carlos Ruiz-Hernández, Vice President Panama, said in an interview. He added that negotiating with the administration around the Panama Channel – which Mr. Trump claimed was “divided” from an agreement under Chinese control that would take over migrants who were deported by the United States.
Acceptance of migrant flights is an extension of an agreement concluded last summer between Panama and the United States to work together to combat migration, starting with Darién Gapa, said Mr. Ruiz-Hernández.
Panaman officials also opposed a lawyer lawsuit that under the Panaman law, it was illegal for the government to delay people for more than 24 hours without a court order. In the context of immigration, the Government legally has a “wider power” to delay people while settling their migration status, said Mr. Ruiz-Hernández.
But the government is likely to face a return.
Pictures like Those who appeared in the New York TimesThe Iranian migrant pressed against the hotel in Panama City, writing “help” on the glass, she reduced Panama to the center of attention.
Days later, Costa Rica came under similar supervision when the Ombudsman office in the country Published a report Saying that migrants deported from the United States arrived in a state of “visible trouble”.
Many did not even know what country they were in, the report said.
Analysts say it is not clear whether these Central America countries will get much in return for cooperation with a new US deportation approach.
“The truth is, Trump offers them nothing,” said Mr. Sabatini, an expert in Latin America. “Not helping in development, not international investments.”
Instead, it seems that the incentive to cooperate, said Mr. Sabatini, protecting his economy from repression by Mr. Trump, who showed that he was willing to throw out high tariffs, even on close allies.
In the climate of fear around Mr. Trump, it seems that domination and attempt to maintain access to Latin America for the time being, Mr. Satatini added.
S. Fitzgerald Haney, a former US Ambassador of Costa Rica, said that the Trump administration strategy for the resolution of leaders in the region was shaped as unpredictable.
“Sometimes there will be sticks and sometimes it will be carrots,” he said. “But they really want to deal with certainty on our southern border.”
David Bolaños contribute to reporting from San José, Costa Rica and Julie Turkewitz From Bogot, Colombia.
