Central American offered asylum in Guatemala opts for home

The first Central American asylum seeker sent to Guatemala under that country’s “safe third country” agreement with the U.S. has opted to instead return to his home in Honduras

The first Central American asylum seeker sent to Guatemala under that country’s “safe third country” agreement with the U.S. has opted to instead return to his home in Honduras.

A tearful Erwin José Ardón Montoya arrived Saturday at his parent’s small adobe house in the village of Colón in the poverty- and drought-stricken municipality of Trujillo. He’d refused an offer of asylum in Guatemala.

Twenty-three-year-old Ardón Montoya said he hopes to perhaps set out again next year for the U.S., where his daughter was born seven months ago.

He was detained by the Border Patrol in El Paso, Texas, and sought asylum in the U.S. But the Trump administration deal with Guatemala led to him being sent there because he’d passed through the country en route to the U.S.