US Finds New 'Safe' Country for Migrants, But Not for Its Own Poor
The Al Jazeera headline heralds a 'safe third country' agreement between the US and Belize, framed as another Trump-era move to deport migrants. Conveniently missing from this framing, as always, is a critical examination of economic disparities between nations. Belize, a nation whose GDP per capita is approximately one-seventh of the United States', is now deemed 'safe' enough to absorb asylum
seekers without adequate infrastructure, resources, or economic stability to support them. One might wonder if the US considers itself a 'safe country' for its own 650,000 homeless citizens (HUD, 2023 data). It appears easier to outsource humanitarian obligations than to fulfill them at home, or to address the root causes of migration fueled, in part, by US foreign policy. The hypocrisy is so
thick, it could be a border wall itself.