UPDATE 1-U.S. sends Guatemala first Honduran migrant under asylum deal

The first Honduran asylum-seeker arrived in Guatemala on Thursday from El Paso, Texas, under a controversial U.S. agreement that establishes Guatemala as a safe third country to process people fleeing persecution in their homelands. Guatemalan Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart said the Honduran man arrived on a flight from the United States earlier in the morning.

The Honduran was among Guatemalan deportees flown into the Central American country on one of four U.S. deportation flights scheduled on Thursday, Degenhart said. The new effort began after the administration of Republican President Donald Trump brokered an agreement with the Guatemalan government in July. The deal allows U.S. immigration officials to force migrants requesting asylum at the U.S.-Mexican border to apply for asylum in Guatemala first.

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