April 21, 2026 – 17:16
For this Thursday, the arrival of migrants rejected by the United States is expected within the framework of the immigration cooperation agreement between the governments of Donald Trump and Santiago Peña. According to the Paraguayan authorities, the first group of 25 people will be received and each case will be studied to deport them to their countries or to settle them in Paraguay.
A group of 25 people will be the first to arrive in Paraguay this Thursday at frame of agreement with the United States that establishes our country as a destination for those migrants whose entry was rejected for the North American country.
On February 19, the Peña Government expanded the immigration agreement signed with the United States that allows the North American country redirect rejected migrants to their countries with the help of Paraguay.
The announcement was made on Minister of the National Commission for Border Refugees (Conare), Carlos Verathe United States chargé d’affaires in Paraguay, Robert Alterand the national director of Migrations, Jorge Kronawetter at a press conference.
“Paraguay, in the exercise of its sovereignty, retains at all times the power to accept or reject each case individually after reviewing the corresponding information. Each transfer will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, guaranteeing that only those people who meet the established criteria can be admitted to our territory,” Vera emphasized.
Read more: The United States explains the scope of the migration agreement with Paraguay
First group of 25 people
Regarding the volume, It is initially planned to receive up to 25 people per month and prior to each transfer, the US authorities will send Conare a manifest with the data of the proposed people and our country will have a period of 72 hours to review and rule on the matter, Vera detailed.
“Once entry is authorized, Paraguay will receive these people in accordance with its immigration procedures. The IOM, The international migration organization will accompany this process by providing immediate humanitarian assistance. in areas such as accommodation, food and emergency medical care without this representing any cost to the Paraguayan State”he added.
After this procedure, the conditions for your trip to your final destination will be authorizedas established in the agreement and in the event that they request asylum, verification will be carried out through the Conare Refugee Law, whether they are really persecuted due to race, religion or sex. They added that the identities and nationalities of the migrants who will arrive in Paraguay were reserved for security reasons.
For his part, Rober Alter highlighted that this collaboration in the field of migration is another element of the strategic alliance that has been built in recent times between Paraguay and the United States.
Read more: Lobby in the Foreign Ministry: US seeks to speed up security cooperation
“President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have clearly said that Bringing order to America’s borders is a high priority for our government and that is why we are extremely grateful for the collaboration of the Paraguayan government in this collaboration, and not only the government, because we know that we have the support of many actors in Paraguayan public institutions and also in civil society,” he said.
United States and illegal immigration
He detailed that Migrants arriving in Paraguay do not have pending asylum applications in the United States and the intention is not for them to arrive to make an asylum request, but rather to facilitate the return of these people to their countries of origin in a safe and orderly manner.
“Again all this within the framework of our alliance and in support of the high priority that the United States government has of ending illegal immigration mass in our region and bring order to our borders,” he concluded.
For his part, Jorge Kronawetter explained that Checks are made with the Interpol database in order to verify that there is no type of alert or code of any color related to these people.
Read more: US Court studies asylum request policy, of interest to Paraguay
“We are going to continue acting directly adhering to what is our immigration law, precisely article 40, paragraph 5 provides that for special cases “Our management is regulating the temporary stay of these people,” he said.
