Guatemala has just signed an agreement with the United States to become a “safe third country” in regard to asylum claims. Given the current state of the immigration debate within the United States, this has the potential to be a huge deal.

The “safe third country” agreement is the same type that we have with Canada (and in a very limited fashion, Mexico, which came about after the tariff standoff). The premise is that Guatemala agrees that any migrants who come into their country – say, from Honduras or of El Salvador – would file their asylum claims in Guatemala instead of crossing through to Mexico (and then inevitably ending up at the United States border).

President Trump, obviously, is thrilled with the deal.

President Donald Trump on Friday heralded the concession as a win as he struggles to live up to his campaign promises on immigration.”

“This is a very big day,” he said. “We have long been working with Guatemala and now we can do it the right way.”

He claimed that “this landmark agreement will put the coyotes and smugglers out of business.”

Today, President Trump announced a safe third country agreement with Guatemala that will put human smugglers out of business and provide safety for legitimate asylum seekers. pic.twitter.com/ENAifXfvRz

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) July 26, 2019

The two countries had been negotiating such an agreement for months, and Trump threatened Wednesday to place tariffs or other consequences on Guatemala if it didn’t reach a deal.”

“We’ll either do tariffs or we’ll do something. We’re looking at something very severe with respect to Guatemala,” Trump had said.”

But on Friday, Trump praised the Guatemalan government, saying now it has “a friend in the United States, instead of an enemy in the United States.”

Between this deal with Guatemala and the SCOTUS ruling on wall funding, this has certainly been a good 24 hours for the Trump administration as far as optics go on immigration. The problem is putting this all into practice. Guatemala isn’t especially sanguine about this deal because their high court had ruled that the deal count not go forward without the approval of their congress – which leads one to ask, who exactly gave the thumbs up for that White House signing ceremony? But it’s obvious that they need to concede the deal to the United States, especially if Trump was going to pull the tariff card on them the same way he did on Mexico.

The polls certainly are indicating that the Democrats are dead wrong in their “open borders, free healthcare” approach, but President Trump needs to have more than just optics to counter the current narrative. Especially when the press has no problem practicing lies of omission in order to support their narrative.

Reuters photo captures Guatemalan mother begging soldier to let her enter U.S https://t.co/E088sJjSsG pic.twitter.com/EDfzluASe0

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 26, 2019

Yeah, that’s a Mexican National Guard soldier in Mexico – which you would only know if you actually went BEYOND the clickbait headline. Thanks for playing, Reuters – and then trying again, and again omitting that tiny detail in the lede.

A Guatemalan mother begged and pleaded with the National Guard to let them cross the U.S. border after traveling with her son some 1,500 miles from Guatemala https://t.co/7ztgromqbd pic.twitter.com/BCfxJ4VMtG

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) July 27, 2019

Apparently no one gave this Guatemalan mother the memo that she is begging to be let into a “concentration camp.” And this wouldn’t be the first time that the media tried to let a picture be the story without giving any proper context when it comes to border security.

So while the Trump administration can take a quick victory lap here, it had better be a quick one. No new wall has been built, and Border Patrol is still dealing with a massive crisis. Even with Guatemala signing the “safe third country” deal, that is no promise that the people of Central America are going to not just keep on walking north. More has to be done to get the border under control.

Featured image: Guatemala’s flag, cropped, via Pixabay (Pixabay license free for commercial use)