Belize

On October 20, 2025, Belize and the United States signed what the U.S. government referred to as a “Safe Third Country Agreement,” under which asylum seekers who are nationals of Central American countries (except for Guatemala) or Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states could be transferred from the United States to Belize to seek protection there. No cap in the number of transfers is specified in the agreement, though it was previously reported to be ten people per year. The agreement specifies that Belize will consider the criminal history and the professional skills of each third country national the United States proposes for transfer. It also specifies that operating procedures to implement the agreement would be worked out, that the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) may evaluate the workings of the agreement, and that the United States could provide technical and financial support to the government of Belize to carry out the agreement.  

The first flight to Belize under the agreement took place on July 10, 2026, removing one Haitian asylum seeker. A second flight took place on July 30, 2026, removing seven individuals, mainly Haitians along with some Central Americans. Belize’s Ministry of Immigration oversees the process upon arrival, and the Refugees Department works with UNHCR on the reception of asylum seekers. According to EOIR data from Mobile Pathways through June 2026, 25 asylum seekers have had their claims pre-termitted by immigration judges and been ordered removed to Belize under the ACA. They are nationals of Belarus (5), El Salvador (2), Haiti (11), Nicaragua (6), and Nigeria (1).

The agreement appears to be an Asylum Cooperative Agreement (ACA). An ACA is an agreement where the United States bars asylum seekers from applying for U.S. asylum and sends them to a third country to apply for protection there. U.S. law governing “safe third country” agreements provides that asylum seekers cannot be sent to third countries for assessment of their asylum claims unless they would be safe from persecution and have access to full and fair asylum procedures. The agreement between Belize and the United States has been challenged as part of the ongoing litigation in U.S. federal court in U.T.  v. Bondi, which challenges the legality of several aspects of ACAs purportedly entered into under the safe third country provision of U.S. law. This includes a 2019 Department of Homeland Security (DHS) interim final rule (ratified by DHS in 2025) purporting to authorize the ACAs, DHS guidance implementing the ACAs, and designations finding that countries with which the United States has ACAs provide access to a “full and fair” asylum system. The current and former Trump administrations have repeatedly entered into ACAs with countries that do not meet safe third country requirements. U.T. v. Bondi began as a challenge to ACAs during the first Trump administration as U.T. v. Barr.

Belize’s economy is heavily reliant on foreign trade with the United States, its largest trading partner, but with which it also has a trade imbalance. In September 2024, the United States and Belize signed the Millenium Challenge Compact (MCC), which provides $125 million to improve technical education and modernize the power grid in Belize. During the debate over the ACA, Senators in Belize speculated that MCC money was at stake given the shutdown of the Millenium Challenge Corporation by the Department of Government Efficiency. Further, in September 2025, President Trump designated Belize a major drug transit or producing country