Paraguay

Transfers have not yet occurred under a 2025 U.S.-Paraguay Memorandum of Understanding. On August 14, 2025, Paraguay signed a supposed “Safe Third Country Agreement” with the United States through a MOU, under which asylum seekers in the United States would be transferred to Paraguay and permitted to seek protection through Paraguay’s National Commission for the Stateless Persons and Refugees (CONARE). The MOU was made public through the U.S. Federal Register in December 2025. 

The agreement is being challenged as part of the U.T. v. Bondi litigation on Asylum Cooperative Agreements (ACAs). 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 current and former Trump administrations have repeatedly entered into ACAs – purportedly under the safe third country provision – with countries that do not meet these requirements. U.T. v. Bondi challenges the legality of several aspects of the ACAs, including a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) 2019 interim final rule purporting to authorize the ACAs (ratified by DHS in 2025), DHS guidance implementing them, and designations finding that countries with which the United States has ACAs provide access to a “full and fair” asylum system. U.T. v. Bondi began as a challenge to ACAs during the first Trump administration as U.T. v. Barr.

It remains unclear whether the Paraguayan government is receiving direct financial support for its participation and the MOU between the two countries states that “nothing should be interpreted in such a way that commits the disbursement or allocation of funds by the parties”.  However, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated that the two countries were “deepening cooperation across security, diplomatic, and economic fronts.” This cooperation includes an agreement signed on December 15, 2025 providing a framework for U.S. military presence in Paraguay. 

Paraguay’s asylum system is still developing and has limited capacity due to a decline in funding along with staffing changes that have affected the frequency with which the commission that approves refugee claims can meet. There are few non-governmental organizations in Paraguay that can provide asylum seekers with legal assistance or humanitarian support. By the end of 2024, approximately 6,031 people were registered as refugees in the country, most of them from Venezuela and Cuba. Following the U.S. strikes in Venezuela, Paraguay repealed the decree allowing Venezuelans visa free entry into the country, citing “security reasons” as a justification for the change. Border areas remain affected by organized criminal groups linked to drug trafficking, raising concerns about the protection environment for transferred asylum seekers.