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There is already, however, a legal challenge in Guatemala. The Constitutional Court ruled earlier this month that Morales would have to get congressional approval before being able to declare his country is a safe third country. That ruling and the intense political pressure back home forced him to cancel a visit to Washington on July 15, where he and Trump were expected to sign a similar deal.

After the cancellation, Trump took to Twitter to threaten Guatemala with tariffs, restrictions on remittances from Guatemalans in the U.S. to their families back home, or some sort of travel ban if they did not sign.

\"PHOTO:
Gerald Herbert/AP, FILE
PHOTO: Mary Nguyen, a Vietnamese community activist, chants at a rally protesting President Trump's deportation policy to deport Vietnamese refugees, at the Mary Queen of Vietnam Church in New Orleans, Dec. 20, 2018.
>

It's unclear if and how the legal challenge has been avoided. Guatemalan Interior Minister Degenhart denied Friday that the court said Morales and his administration could not move ahead.

\"What the court said, which is a provisional injunction, was basically define the process that had to be followed... define how to do that procedure, and we are going to implement it,\" Degenhart said.

While the White House celebrated the deal as a victory for Trump's tactics, it's also not clear if the deal does exactly what the administration says it does. McAleenan declined to call it a \"safe third country agreement,\" and in Guatemala's own statement, the country makes no mention of any binding deal.

Instead, Guatemala says the two sides agreed to cooperate on the execution of an implementation plan that would affect Salvadorans and Hondurans -- those Central American migrants who would have to travel through Guatemala en route to the U.S.

The deal is also expected to face legal challenges in the U.S., especially because Guatemala is a dangerous country in its own right and does not have a strong asylum system.

\"President Trump's decision to sign this agreement with Guatemala is cruel and immoral. It is also illegal. Simply put, Guatemala is not a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers, as the law requires,\" said Rep. Eliot Engel, D-NY, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

McAleenan dismissed those concerns, saying it was \"risky\" to paint Guatemala and Central America in general with a \"broad brush... There are places that are dangerous, but that doesn't mean there isn't a process for people to seek protection.\"

In five trips to the country in the last year, he said that he saw refugee and international organizations working to increase the government's capacity and that the U.S. was committed to helping them improve it.

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