Biden suspends Trump’s controversial asylum deals

The Biden administration said on Saturday it was immediately suspending Trump-era asylum agreements with El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, part of a bid to undo his Republican predecessor's hardline immigration policies. The so-called "safe third country" agreements, inked in 2019 by the Trump administration and the Central American nations, force asylum seekers from the region to first seek refuge in those countries before applying in the United States. The moves announced Saturday came after Biden unveiled a host of measures last week aimed at revamping the US immigration system, including a task force to reunite families separated at the United States-Mexico border and another to increase an annual cap on refugees. Biden plans to raise the refugee cap for the current fiscal year to 62,500. The allocations will create spots for 22,000 refugees from Africa, 6,000 from East Asia, 4,000 from Europe and Central Asia, 5,000 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 13,000 from South Asia.