Washington, January 8 (RHC)-- Mexicans seeking asylum in the United States can now be sent to Guatemala to seek asylum there under a bilateral agreement between the Trump administration and Guatemala’s outgoing president.  

The U.S. government has already begun deporting Honduran and Salvadoran asylum seekers to Guatemala.  A local reporter in Guatemala said 15 Salvadoran asylum seekers, including eight children, and 18 Honduran asylum seekers, including 10 children, were deported to Guatemala on Monday.

The Donald Trump administration has also started sending other asylum seekers to the border town of Nogales, Sonora, as part of the controversial “Remain in Mexico” policy, which has forced tens of thousands of asylum seekers to wait in Mexico for their immigration hearings.

According to reports, those sent to Nogales, Sonora, will now have to make a dangerous 340-mile journey to their hearings in El Paso, Texas.  Human rights groups say asylum seekers in Mexico have been assaulted, robbed and kidnapped while waiting for or traveling to their immigration hearings.

And Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection have begun a pilot program to harvest the DNA of asylum seekers detained in immigration jails.  The immigration agencies said the Justice Department aided in the development of the program, which was rolled out yesterday.